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Ric Flair Enjoys New Place In Life

Posted: Mar 8th 2009 By: CMBurnham

Since officially retiring from active competition following his memorable match with Shawn Michaels at last year's Wrestlemania, Ric Flair has said on numerous occasions that he has no plans of returning to the squared circle. While very few wrestlers have ever stuck to their retirement promises, Flair felt it would be a betrayal to step back into a WWE ring.

Last week the 16-time world heavyweight champion reiterated that he has no intention of returning to the ring -- at least for an actual match -- at this year's Wrestlemania.

Flair, who has three grandchildren and recently celebrated his 60th birthday, said Tuesday night on the Orlando-based Between The Ropes radio show that he won't be wrestling Chris Jericho, who in recent weeks on Raw has mowed down one legend after another in angle that will play out at Wrestlemania and will include actor Mickey Rourke of "The Wrestler" fame.

Flair did bend a little, however, on his pledge to stay out of the ring permanently.

"Never," said Flair when asked if he would be donning the tights again. "I would be very open to it if Shawn Michaels said, 'Don't give me the Rolex back, do it'... That would be the only way. Shawn would have to say, 'Go for it because you miss it that much, which I don't. I miss the boys."

Flair was alluding to the diamond Rolex watch HBK gave him following their match at Wrestlemania 24. Flair's watch, with a diamond-faced "24" for Wrestlemania 24, was inscribed, "Richard Fliehr (his real name) vs. Shawn Michaels. To be the man ..." Michaels' matching watch was inscribed, &"Richard Fliehr vs. Shawn Michaels ... You gotta beat the man."

Flair also has said that he wouldn't ever want to taint the memory of that special weekend which saw him inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and participate in his farewell match.

"I miss being in the ring. I don't miss the 12-hour days, and I don't miss airports every day. I do miss the guys, I do miss the ring, but I'm in such a good place with myself personally and it was so rewarding for that three-day ceremony"

Flair recently stated that while he thoroughly enjoyed his appearance on Raw several weeks ago, he had no desire to ever go back full-time.

It's not because he couldn't. He stays in fighting shape. He weighs 230 pounds, works out four days a week and bench-presses 300 pounds.

"The last year has been phenomenal," said Flair. "My retirement gave me more notoriety than I've ever had in my entire life. So I can't lie and say I'm not enjoying that, but I miss the guys ... I feel so blessed that I am in the same condition I am right now as the day I retired. I weigh 232 pounds and I don't hurt."

Flair said he's now in a different place -- in his business life and his personal life.

"At the end of the day, I'm the happiest man alive," Flair recently told Tom Sorenson of The Charlotte Observer.

Sorenson brought up an interesting tidbit in his column on the Nature Boy. The year Flair was born, Harry Truman was president, 31-year-old Billy Graham completed a hugely successful tent campaign and Sam Snead won his first Masters.

Baltimore Sun columnist Kevin Eck gave his take last week on Flair's massive popularity.

With the Carolina Hurricanes in D.C. for last Tuesday night's hockey game with the Washington Capitals, a poll question was posed on the video screen asking what North Carolina was most known for, with the choices being NASCAR, college basketball or Ric Flair. Voting, says Eck, was done by text messaging.

According to a talk show host who attended the game, 10,000 people in the arena yelled, "Wooo!" when Flair's image appeared on the screen. Flair easily won the contest with 82 percent of the vote.

"Take that Dale Earnhardt Jr., Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski," wrote Eck.

Flair, who will be inducting classic rival Ricky Steamboat at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony the night before Wrestlemania, stays busier now than he has in recent years on the road. He recently signed a five-date deal with Ring of Honor and will make his first appearance for the company Friday night in Collinsville, Ill.

Between his many special appearances, training with son Reid, working on a reality show project and his new video game, Flair will find time to return to Raw. The big question is whether the lure of the ring, and Vince McMahon, can bring him closer to walking the aisle one more time.

- The John Cena-Edge world title match at Wrestlemania most likely will include Big Show in a three-way dance.

Cena, by the way, is getting married to his high school sweetheart in Boston in July.

"July's coming up pretty quick," Cena told the Boston Herald last week.

- Look for Triple H to make the jump back to Raw when WWE conducts this year's draft in April. Batista, who is expected to return to the ring in June or July, most likely will end up back on the Smackdown brand.

- Last week's Raw drew a disappointing 3.8. Not a bad number, but coming off two consecutive weeks of breaking 4.0 and presenting a loaded show Monday night, officials had to be less than pleased with the pre-Wrestlemania rating.

Raw was still Monday night's most-watched program on cable with 5.5 million total viewers.

- Mr. T, who headlined the inaugural Wrestlemania event in 1985, claims he once turned down an offer to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

"WWE asked me to be in the Hall of Fame and I turned it down," T said in a story posted by The Daily Mirror. "You know why? They put Pete Rose in the wrestling Hall of Fame. This guy can't even get into his own Hall of Fame."

"After they put Rose in they came and asked me and I said, "You don't insult me! You don't put Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame before me! I ain't going to be part of that," said T, who teamed with Hulk Hogan against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff in the main event of that first Wrestlemania.

Rose, whose claim to fame in WWE was a pair of run-ins by Kane, which once featured Rose disguised as the Famous Chicken, was inducted in the celebrity wing in 2004.

Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis, considered by many NFL experts to be a surefire first-round pick, recently told Sporting News he would consider going to work for WWE if he was not entering the draft.

"There's nothing like the family business," said Laurinaitis, son of Road Warrior Animal (Joe Laurinaitis). "My dad was part of arguably the most famous tag-team duo of all time, and my uncle (John Laurinaitis) is a senior VP there (WWE) now."

"I'm not sure if I'd be into the tights, and I'd have to think about a great name, but I think that I possess the athleticism and personality to have some fun with it," added the 6-2, 245-pound linebacker.

- Former pro wrestler Jeff Gaylord was arrested for a Jan. 14. bank robbery in Monument, Colo., as well as a robbery and attempted robbery at a branch in Castle Rock, Colo.

Authorities arrested Gaylord at his home in Littleton, Colo., on Jan. 15 following a two-hour interrogation conducted by multiple jurisdictions, according to The Tribune News.

Gaylord has a record of previous bank robbery attempts. He committed identical robberies at the same bank in Aurora, Colo., in October 2001 and again four months later. He pled guilty to two counts of committing bank robbery and was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.

Gaylord, 50, reportedly told investigators his latest crime spree was driven by "personal economic conditions." He could face federal prosecution.

The 6-3, 250-pound Gaylord, who wrestled from 1985-97, worked for such promotions as World Class Championship Wrestling, Mid-South Wrestling and the Tennessee-based United States Wrestling Association where he held the world tag-team belts with Jeff Jarrett on two occasions. He worked under a mask as Shawn Michaels' Black Knight at WWE's Survivor Series pay-per-view in 1993.

The Columbus, Ohio, native was a defensive lineman for the University of Missouri and earned All-American honors playing for the Tigers in 1981.

- Yvon Cormier, a legend of Maritimes wrestling, passed away Tuesday night in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, at the age of 70 following a lengthy battle with cancer. Cormier also had suffered two heart attacks in recent years.

Cormier was the oldest of the famous Cormier wrestling brothers that included Leo Burke (Leonce Cormier), Terry and Bobby Kay (Romeo Cormier) and, later, Rudy Kay (Jean-Louis Cormier). Jean-Louis, who died last May. A fifth brother, Malcolm, was a referee.

The Cormier family of 13 brothers and sisters "were to New Brunswick what the Hart family was to Calgary," longtime Maritimes wrestler and promoter Emile Dupre said last year.

"I think that's a very fitting comparison," Bret Hart told The (Moncton, New Brunswick) Times & Transcript last week.

"When I really started to take notice or take interest in wrestling matches was when The Beast was wrestling for my dad," Hart told the newspaper. "He was the first sort of monster that came in. That's how I remember The Beast. He would come in with that big beard and that hair and everything, he was like a wild man. He looked mad and he looked tough."

The Canadian strongman wrestled under a number of names during his career, including Ivan The Lumberjack and Pierre LaBelle, but he was best known as The Beast.

Famed Mid-Atlantic promoter Jim Crockett Sr. gave Cormier that moniker in 1965 in the Carolinas where The Beast formed a top team with The Alaskan (Jay York). He often appeared in matches against his real brother, Jean-Louis, who wrestled as Rudy Kay and was a fan favorite.

Even former NWA world champ Dory Funk Jr. admitted he didn't know the two were brothers until after a match in Hereford, Texas, where he teamed with Kay and Ricky Romero against The Beast, Sputnik Monroe and Dick Dunn.

"On the way back home riding in Ricky's new Chevy station wagon. I told Ricky, 'Hey, those two guys really got mad at each other didn't they?" Ricky just laughed and said, "Don't you know, they are brothers.'"

"I couldn't believe it," said Funk, who with brother Terry is being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. "Rudy Kay and The Beast had been working the territory for three months, Rudy was a babyface and The Beast was a heel. They didn't look alike at all."

"When my father, Dory Funk, Sr., brought The Beast and Rudy Kay into the territory to work one heel and the other babyface, he made them promise not to tell anyone they were in fact brothers."

"I have made many trips with The Beast. There is not a nicer person in the wrestling business. I will miss his humor and big smile from beneath his long curly mop of hair," said Funk.

- Bail was revoked last week for Edward Graziano. Graziano, who recently was charged with trying to arrange the killing of his estranged wife, paid a hit man $2,100 and a pizza gift card to have the crime committed, detectives have said.

Graziano's 24-year-old son, John, was seriously injured in a 2007 car crash blamed on Nick Bollea (aka Nick Hogan). He also is the subject of a much-publicized lawsuit against the family of Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan).

John will need medical and custodial care for the rest of his life, and the Grazianos' civil suit seeks millions of dollars for his care.

Edward's wife, Debra, has filed for numerous restraining orders against her

- With WWE no longer supplying Playboy magazine with its annual Wrestlemania Playmate, So Cal Val is pushing her company to put in a bid for the TNA Knockouts.

Vince McMahon has barred his divas from baring all in a bid to make the WWE more "family friendly" and in line with its new PG-14 rating.

"It would be a really good thing for TNA," Val recently told The UK Sun. "I know the fans love our photo shoots and what could be better than to do one for Playboy? And, hey, if we're going to get naked, then this is the classiest way. It would also be great to show the WWE up -- and have better pictures than their girls did."

Val, whose real name is Valerie Wyndham, told The Sun that she was asked to pose when she first started with TNA, and may choose to do it "later on."

&"I'm 22, so I still have a lot of time to make that decision."

- "Survivor: The Amazon" winner and Playboy cover girl Jenna Morasca is scheduled to make her TNA debut on Thursday.

&"Everyone is covered in glitter and makeup and stuff and then goes and beats the crap out of each other," Morasca told Entertainment Weekly's Web site.

The 28-year-old reality star said won't take on a ring name.

&"This is perfect for me. I'm gonna be me because it's more beneficial to know it's me from Survivor."

Morasca is expected to debut in a non-wrestling role.

- JBL is teasing that he will do "something historic" at Wrestlemania in his home state of Texas.

"I have said all along I am going to do something historic at Wrestlemania," JBL said on the WWE Web site. "Believe me when I tell you -- it will blow you away what will happen with JBL at Wrestlemania."

The Boogeyman (Marty Wright) - and his worms - has been released by WWE.
- The Boogeyman (Marty Wright) is history. WWE gave him his walking papers last week and sent him out in a squash match with Kane on E CW television Tuesday night.

He had been released previously in September 2006 before later returning to the company.

Wright first surfaced on the WWE scene in 2004 during Tough Enough 5. He was disqualified when officials discovered he was 10 years older than he portrayed himself to be. He was signed by the company less than two months later and dispatched to Ohio Valley Wrestling. He eventually was signed to a three-year deal with the company.

- Former WWE star Bobby Lashley will face another former WWE star, Ken Shamrock, in an MMA fight on a March 21 pay-per-view event promoted by boxer Roy Jones Jr. Lashley is 1-0 in MMA, while Shamrock, once known as "the world's most dangerous man," has lost eight of his last 11 fights.

"I look for Lashley to completely dominate Shamrock in this fight," WWE announcer Jim Ross posted on his blog at jrsbarbq.com. "Kenny is fighting for one more payday while Lashley is fighting to help establish what he hopes will be a long-term, lucrative MMA career."

"There was a time that I could see the veteran, 45-year-old Shamrock ... schooling the MMA rookie Lashley, but that ship has long since sailed," Ross added.

- In the real world, just as in pro wrestling, there are good guys and bad guys. Jack Henley, who recently passed away at the age of 74, was one of the best guys. Jack was a son of the Lowcountry with a zest for life and an entrepreneurial spirit that made anyone who crossed his path richer for the experience.

No undertaking was too daunting for Jack; he'd give most anything at least a shot, and never went into a project with any lack of desire or confidence.

One of my fondest memories of Jack was when he acquired a former building supply store in North Charleston back in 1991, converted it into a sprawling flea market and put on occasional pro wrestling shows there. Although the venture was short-lived, the shows were well received and everyone, including the wrestlers, had a wonderful time, in large part due to Jack.

A retired insurance official by trade, Jack was a deep thinker and a philosopher who always combined humor and wisdom. For Jack, life's questions became life's adventures.

In later years Parkinson's dementia slowly robbed him of his memory. Our memories of Jack Henley will endure.

Tags: Ric Flair, WWE, Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff, WCCW, MSW, Jeff Jarrett, Dick Dunn