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The Tigers and the Nature Boy...Chandler Wooten ‘starstruck’ by chance to meet WWE legend Ric Flair

The Tigers and the Nature Boy...Chandler Wooten ‘starstruck’ by chance to meet WWE legend Ric Flair

Posted: Sep 17th 2019 By: AL.com

Chandler Wooten could hardly contain his excitement in Auburn’s team hotel in Opelika this weekend.

It wasn’t because it was the Tigers’ homecoming weekend or anything like that. It was because he got a chance to meet one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time — the stylin’, profilin’, limousine-ridin’, jet-flyin’, kiss-stealin’, wheelin’ and dealin’ son of a gun himself: Ric Flair.

“He pulled up — he was at the team hotel, and it was so cool to meet him,” Wooten said. “I was starstruck.”

That’s right, the Tigers met the Nature Boy.

Flair, a 16-time world heavyweight champion wrestler, is no stranger to Auburn. His stepson is a freshman on the Plains, and Flair was spotted around town this summer when his stepson attended orientation at Camp War Eagle.

Still, it was quite a moment for some of Auburn’s players and coaches to see one of the Four Horsemen in their hotel ahead of the team’s 55-16 win against Kent State this weekend. Linebackers coach Travis Williams — along with Wooten and linebackers K.J. Britt and Josh Marsh — made sure to get a photo with the Hall of Famer, posting it to Twitter after the game Saturday night.

“Wooooooo!!!!!” Williams wrote in the tweet, echoing Flair’s signature howl.

There were plenty of those to go around, according to Wooten.

"We ‘woo’d’ too many times,” Wooten said. “He probably got tired of us, for real, for real. It was cool to meet him, though. It was cool. For sure.”

The junior linebacker in particular savored the chance to meet Flair after growing up a big-time WWE fan. His favorite wrestler growing up was Triple H —the former co-founder of the D-Generation X stable (though the Attitude Era was before Wooten’s time) and current executive vice president of the WWE who is widely considered as one of the all-time greatest wrestlers. He was also a big fan of the Undertaker (a “classic,” he says) as well as Batista, but only before his heel-turn at the Bragging Rights pay-per-view event in 2009, when he brutally attacked Rey Mysterio — another one of Wooten’s all-time favorites.

“He used to beat all the big dudes, like he used to fight The Great Khali, Mark Henry — all them boys,” Wooten said of Mysterio, whom he noted was a great technical wrestler. “He had to be. He was small.”


Wooten maintained his wrestling fandom until about five years ago, but the junior linebacker—who has six tackles, with one for a loss through three games—still knows his stuff when it comes to the squared circle.

“Y’all think I’m playing,” Wooten boasted. “I used to watch wrestling for real. Monday Night Raw. Friday Night Smackdown. Then they started moving them to different days of the week.”

Meeting Flair at the team hotel rekindled his love for professional wrestling, if only for the moment. He at least got a photo out of it and a cool memory, and while pictures may be worth 1,000 words, the photo with Flair was worth one in particular: Woo!

 

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  • 04-30 2004 Shadow of Death def. Terry Montana for the TPW Hardcore Title
  • 04-30 2011 Ryan Reed def. Rolling Thunder for the UWE United States Title
  • 04-30 2011 Ray Martinez def. Ryan Reed for the UWE United States Title
  • 04-30 2016 Ray Martinez became the SRPW Heavyweight Champion
  • 04-30 2022 Clayton Bloodstone def. Ky-Ote for the NCWO Choctaw Nation Title
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