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Wrestler Is Giving Financing A Tumble

Posted: Sep 25th 2007 By: CMBurnham

Six percent fixed? Wooooo!

Ric Flair, the 16-time professional wrestling champ known in sports arenas as the "Nature Boy," is strutting around the financial arena as a voice of responsible lending.

The 58-year-old Charlotte personality is known for body slams, big belts and bare-chested howls of "Wooooo!" -- the one Carolina Hurricanes fans know from post-goal Jumbotron celebrations. Now he is offering consumers auto loans, home mortgages and refinancing through Ric Flair Finance, a firm he introduced this month.

"Anyone can get the financing they need -- even the most financially challenged," his Web site, ricflairfinance.com, says. "Ric will provide you with a solution to purchase the car or home of your dreams or provide you with the cash you need to start living like the 'Nature Boy.' "

Flair can empathize with the financially challenged. Within the past two years, he has paid the Internal Revenue Service $1 million in back taxes and been mired in an expensive divorce. "To live the way I was living, I needed to make a few extra bucks," Flair, whose real name is Richard Fliehr, said Monday.

His company acts as an intermediary between borrowers and lenders, using the "Figure-4 Process," a phrase for the steps of clicking on a loan, filling fields with personal information, submitting the application and waiting for loan approval.

There's typically a two-day wait for a car loan and about 15 days for mortgages, Flair said. He declined to name his lending partners.

"With the 'Nature Boy' in your corner, you no longer have to deal with the big banks," the Web site boasts, with a pensive, black-and-white image of the bleached-blond wrestler in a sweater.

It's unlikely Flair will steal much market share from Charlotte lenders such as Bank of America or Wachovia, which are already in a bout for borrowers.

But analyst Jefferson Harralson of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in Atlanta thinks that Flair could attract plenty of borrowers looking to refinance subprime loans.

"I don't know if it matters if it has Ric Flair's face on it or not," he said. "People are looking for decent refinancing alternatives in a tighter-credit world."

As for a no-holds-barred title fight with Charlotte bankers: "I'd take Ric Flair," Harralson said.

Flair, up for that challenge, called out Bank of America's former CEO: "Is Hugh McColl still retired?"

Tags: Ric Flair