Second Nature

by Ric Flair

  I was so honored to be back with WWE for WrestleMania. I didn’t expect to be an integral part of a story line one year removed from my retirement. I certainly wasn’t complaining, but since people talked about the previous year’s send-off everywhere I went, it felt like it was just yesterday.

  It was like déjà vu being backstage at the Hall of Fame. This time, I watched the incredible career retrospective video for my dear friend and greatest opponent, Ricky “the Dragon” Steamboat. And to think that the next day, I’d be walking to the ring with him, to be in his corner for a match at WrestleMania.

  I knew Ricky trained with Verne in Minnesota. I heard that there was a talent trade between Jimmy Crockett, who had the enormous, four-hundred-pound One Man Gang, and Jim Barnett in Atlanta, who had Steamboat. Talent trades were a part of doing business in the territory days—promoters wheeling and dealing, almost like general managers do for professional sports franchises.

  When I saw Ricky walk into Crockett’s office, I saw this handsome guy with an incredible body and a heck of a friendly personality. I knew we could tear it down. I asked him if he’d mind if I suggested something to George Scott for us to do together, and he said he’d love to.

  I knew Steamboat could wrestle. Since he was new and I had about a year and a half more experience around a tough group of guys like Wahoo, Johnny Valentine, Gene and Ole Anderson, and others, I was confident I could work with Ricky, and I jumped at the opportunity.

  I wish people could see the thousand or so matches that we had from 1977 to 1984.2 I wrestled Ricky practically every night throughout the Mid-Atlantic territory. We’d go at it for one hour, almost every time. The only people who will carry those moments with them are the live audiences we performed for, ourselves, and the referee. We also had a great one in Japan for All Japan Pro Wrestling. We must have worked together more than three thousand times in total.

  I was so fortunate to have Ricky in my life. There is only one Ricky Steamboat. The only reason I can’t say he’s the greatest performer of all time is because he was never a villain, and he couldn’t have been. Steamboat had one of the best physiques in the history of our industry. He was so handsome that the girls wanted to spend the night with him. He was such an incredible competitor in the ring that the guys wanted to work out with him in the gym. And the kids loved him too. Ricky’s appeal spanned every demographic. The fans fell in love with him from the moment they laid eyes on him.

  I’m proud to say that there’s a time and a place for Steamboat and me in every generation. Whatever we did back then would be as good as it was then … now … anywhere. Ricky was that good. His level of performance was second to none. We had a great time working with each other and had unbelievable chemistry. Even though we’ve lived very different lifestyles, we’ve been great friends who will always share an abundance of mutual admiration and respect. And you’ll never meet a nicer, more humbler guy than Ricky Steamboat.

  Walking to the ring in Houston, it reminded me of how much history I have with each of these guys. At one point, we were all in Mid-Atlantic territory together. Piper and Steamboat were in my wedding party when I married Beth, and the three of us were part of the first Starrcade together. Then they went to WWE and appeared, along with Jimmy Snuka, at the first WrestleMania.

  I always said that if Vince gave Hot Rod the ball for a run as WWE Champion, Roddy would’ve been just as successful as Hogan. Roddy, and we talked about this many times, always had his guard up, and sometimes it was tough for Vince to feel comfortable working with him and make him the WWE Champion. Roddy’s appearance at WrestleMania xxv marked his thirteenth time on WWE’s grand stage. And talk about taking resilience to another level, Roddy battled cancer and won. He was ready for this match.

  As for Superfly, you’re talking about one of the most athletic and exciting performers to step through the ropes. Jimmy had an incredible career in North America and Japan. During our days in the Mid-Atlantic territory, Snuka must’ve landed on me more than three hundred times in four years with his splash from the top rope.

  When the bell rang, the fans saw Roddy insist that he start the match. That happened backstage too. Roddy was so fired up. I didn’t realize just how fired up he was until I saw him take Chris over the top rope out to the arena floor, come off the ropes with a sunset flip over Chris, and (I don’t think I ever saw Roddy do this) throw a dropkick.

  Chris showed what kind of performer he was and took the offense from his legendary adversaries. The crowd roared when Superfly tagged in the Dragon.

  Not even twenty-four hours from his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, Steamboat flew from the top rope to land his signature chop on Jericho. Ricky followed that with his trademark arm drags—the best in the history of business. In front of more than seventy-two thousand fans, my friend turned back the hands of time. And lucky me, I had the best seat in the house.

  The match stipulated that to win the match, Chris had to beat all three legends individually. After Snuka tapped out to Chris’s Walls of Jericho submission, Roddy kept the fight going. Chris pinned Roddy, and the match’s designed showdown took place. It was Chris versus one of his childhood heroes, the Dragon.

  Ricky looked so good, and as usual, his cardiovascular conditioning was superb. Our challenge was which guy would make the other breathe hard first. Here, Ricky didn’t even break a sweat. After Ricky’s flying crossbody off the top rope, I knew the crowd was ready to see Jericho humiliated in defeat.

  Chris attacked me, giving Ricky the opportunity to send Chris over the top rope. Ricky shocked everyone when he launched himself over the top rope onto Chris. This was another “good versus evil” Steamboat battle that continued to go back and forth. You could hear the gasp from the crowd after a near fall on Chris. They wanted to see their hero the Dragon leave Houston victorious. Even more so after Ricky reversed the Walls of Jericho and went into a small package pin, the move that beat Randy Savage in their incredible match at WrestleMania III. Chris’s youth and endurance won out. But the story was not over yet …

  Jericho and I mixed it up until it was time for the stand-off that had been months in the making. Chris grabbed the microphone and demanded that Mickey Rourke apologize to him. Chris continued to insult Mickey, and then it happened.

  Mickey took off his jacket off and climbed in the ring. All eyes were on the ring to see what was going to happen. Mickey was more than comfortable between the ropes. He showed that he still had his quick hands and jabs. Chris took a swing at Mickey and the Oscar nominee landed a left hook.

  Just like that, Jericho was on the canvas, and Mickey and I celebrated in the ring.

  I know Mickey wanted to do more, but it was great having him part of WrestleMania and the Hall of Fame ceremonies the night before.

  And talk about amazing performances. From our opening scene to the curtain, Chris Jericho did a phenomenal job. He is someone who dedicated his life to the business. As a performer, he can do anything well, and personally, he’s a great guy. The two years Chris was gone from WWE were a huge loss for the company. He was sorely missed. His latest incarnation of a Nick Bockwinkel–inspired, arrogant, self-righteous villain might be Chris at his best.

  As for the Dragon, Ricky’s work was so well received in the match that he returned to the ring for a comeback. This included a bout with Chris at the Backlash pay-per-view, Ricky’s first singles match in roughly fifteen years. I also made some appearances for the company in May and June and worked with Batista and Randy Orton during their matches together.

  WrestleMania weekend also marked something new for me. I started seeing a woman, Jackie, I met years ago at the grand opening of the new Morton’s Steakhouse in Charlotte. She was in Houston with me for the week. After WrestleMania, there was a reception for the talent and employees. My ex-wife Beth’s sister lived in Houston, so Beth went there to visit. They all came to WrestleMania. So Vince, Linda, Stephanie, and Paul were greeting people as they entered the event. They said hello to Bet
h, whom they knew as my ex-wife, and her sister. They knew Tiffany too. Paul was the best man at our wedding.

  They met Jackie for the first time that weekend. Vince looked at me like I was crazy. The only other time he gave me that look was when I pitched a story-line concept that involved having both of us in a match together. I asked him what he thought about the story line of him discovering that his wife, Linda, and I had an affair. There was no verbal response, just that look. Sometimes I drove Vince nuts.

  Knowing that my second and fourth wives were at this reception reminded me of two things from the airplane crash I survived in 1975. The EMTs pulled us out, and I heard one of them say, “Hurry up. We might lose this one.” I thought, They’re talking about me. So I said to the guy, “Go into my shaving kit. There’s a letter in there. Take it out and get rid of it. I wrote a letter to a girl telling her how much I loved her.” If I wasn’t going to make it, I didn’t want my wife Leslie to discover the letter when she was sorting through my personal effects.

  That was the first time I learned that when something major is happening, you’d better not have any “open issues” that someone could find out about. The second time I learned that was shortly after I visited the pilot in the hospital.

  No one knew this, but the pilot was engaged to two women at the same time. One of them was from Denver, Colorado, and the other was from Charlotte. I met both his fiancées in the span of about thirty minutes. I was speechless. Talk about a close call. Sadly, Michael passed away a year later from injuries sustained during the crash, but I always wondered what happened at the funeral. Must have been some memorial service.

  When I got home, the phone rang, and I got some chilling news. Reid had been pulled over by police for driving while impaired. A month earlier, he was pulled over for a similar offense. This latest one involved something else, something I never considered or even talked about: heroin.

  I realized at that moment that I had been in denial about the severity of Reid’s problem. This was not a “boys will be boys” type of thing or having too much fun at a party. There was no more hoping for the best. As fine as he looked on good days or as functional as he was, this news sent shock waves through my body. After his two failed WWE drug tests, I felt something was wrong. Putting everything together—the partying at school, those failed tests, and the recent road incidents with police—I felt like a building fell on me.

  This was something I never understood. Yes, I was known to party and have a few drinks. I never did drugs. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but I was never around it, so it was not something I immediately understood. I never tried hallucinogens, speed, pain pills. I never pulled a drag from a joint. But none of that mattered. The fact that I didn’t understand the drug culture was irrelevant. It was immaterial that none of my other kids had a problem like this. It was time for me to speak to the right people and educate myself about my son’s problem. Reid was in serious trouble that was almost impossible for me to comprehend. I needed to find a rehab facility that could help treat a severe and life-threatening illness.

  As I was dealing with Reid’s addiction and how to help him, my divorce from Tiffany became final.

  She hired a moving company to come for her belongings. When I wasn’t home, she entered the house, and what happened next, I still can’t believe. Tiffany went into my memorabilia room and took four of my robes. She also left with my mother’s ruby necklace that I inherited after her death. She also took smaller possessions, like pieces from my firearms collection and special edition action figures from different eras of my career. What I later learned in court was that she met someone online and allegedly sold the robes on the side of the highway for about $7,500. They were easily worth an estimated $50,000. Over the course of our relationship, Tiffany took what I believe to be seven of my original robes.

  To make matters worse, I was still trying to resolve the matter of my life insurance. When we were married, I bought a new policy from Tiffany’s mother. I paid $180,000 in premiums over the course of a year, and made my kids the beneficiaries. When we split, I found out Tiffany took the policies and made her sister the beneficiary.

  Before I left town for a string of personal appearances, my phone rang. It was Hulk. He worked with a promoter in Australia to put together a four-city tour. The shows were scheduled for Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, and Sydney. He gathered a collection of former WCW, WWE, and independent talent, but he needed an opponent to work with him in the main event each night. One of the first things I said to him was that since we were both divorced, this should be called the alimony tour. I won’t discuss Hulk’s divorce, but when I got divorced from Beth, I was fifty-nine years old. The judge awarded her $900,000 in alimony.

  People will say that I came out of retirement for that, and yes, I did, but to me, these were four live events in Australia. I got to travel and work with my friends and just have some fun.

  If the press conference promoting the tour was any indication, Hulk and I were going to let loose and have fun. Members of the media left that event and thought the hostility between Hulk and me was real. I hit Hulk with my belt and left him on the floor bleeding.

  The matches were fun. It’s so easy working with Hulk because the fans love him. He’s their hero. I got to spend a week in Australia and work with guys like Hulk, the Nasty Boys, and Jimmy Hart, people I’ve been friends with for years.

  Another positive from that tour was that I got to have the daughter of an old friend of mine in my corner. Lacey Von Erich is the daughter of Kerry Von Erich and granddaughter of Fritz. She was in my corner during the tour and was the one who got to mix it up with Jimmy Hart.

  If Lacey dedicates herself to learning what we do, she can be a star. She certainly has the bloodline for it and would be a third-generation performer. Her grandfather Fritz was tough as nails, a phenomenal villain turned beloved hero in Texas, and one of the foundations of the NWA.

  I knew her dad, Kerry, very well, and I have some great memories of working with him. Kerry was a wonderful guy. He had his own challenges away from the ring, but when he was on, he was as good as anyone. The difficult part was that you didn’t know when that would be. Kerry had one of the best physiques in the history of our business, and to this day, I’ve never seen anything like the Von Erichs’ popularity in Texas. As much as I enjoyed the nightlife, business hours were business hours. You can’t fully understand it unless you’ve worked in our profession, but the trust that you put into the people you work with to keep you and them safe every night in the ring is something that is taken very seriously. Even the slightest wrong move can mean the end of a career, or worse. Professionally, I didn’t look at someone the same who was careless with himself and entered the ring impaired.

  The year was coming to an end when Hulk gave me a call. He wanted me to consider a new opportunity. I thanked him and told him I’d think about it.

  Even after WWE and I agreed to end my contract, I didn’t feel like I left WWE. The recent work for WrestleMania and that summer were great examples of how it was going to be. I wish we could’ve come to terms on a new agreement, but my work with corporate partners expanded to NASCAR, and there was talk of more on the way.

  Hulk’s new opportunity was not a four-day tour on the other side of the world that would not be broadcasted. This would be signing a contract with another organization that had a weekly television program on a national cable network. They wanted to pay me for working sixty-five dates a year. Plus, I could keep my corporate partnerships.

  I didn’t need much provocation to think of Vince, Paul, and Shawn. Now I needed to really think about this.

  My legacy would not be what it is if it weren’t for my second tenure with WWE. I’m so proud of my career and the matches that I had with so many: Wahoo, Bobo Brazil, Blackjack Mulligan, Steamboat, Dusty, Harley, Barry Windham, and Sting. But those were so long ago. You always have to evolve. The period from 2001 to 2008 was such an important time in my career not just for
my legacy but for me as a performer. How would my career have gone if the last thing people saw of me was my final match against Sting on Nitro? How would my career have gone if I went to Vince the very first time he called me about coming to WWE?

  It was late 1987, early 1988. Vince wanted me to face Randy Savage in the main event of the first SummerSlam. The more we spoke, the more serious this started to look, and the more I envisioned myself making my WWE debut. I went to Dusty, who was in charge of creative for Jim Crockett, and told him I was thinking about “going to New York,” which was the way WWE was referred to in the territory days. Dusty said, “Do what you want. You can drop the title tonight in Roanoke [Virginia].”

  I was so conflicted. What Vince laid out sounded so exciting. Plus, I had helped break Randy into the business in the Carolinas in the 1970s. We were good friends. As the deal got closer to happening, I decided to pull back at the last second. I was so loyal to the NWA and the Crockett family. When you wear those colors for so long, it’s hard to just take them off. The NWA World Championship was such a part of who I was. For so long, it was everything I strived to be. I also didn’t want to leave the Horsemen: Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham, and J. J. Dillon. None of us could’ve foreseen what would happen to Jim Crockett Promotions.

  Within the next year, Arn, Tully, and Dusty appeared in WWE. Arn and Tully performed at WrestleMania V. Both of them and Dusty were part of SummerSlam ’89, and Dusty worked with Randy at WrestleMania VI. Barry returned there, and J. J. ended up in WWE too, working behind the scenes as the head of Talent Relations. When I did eventually come to WWE in 1991, Vince was thrilled that I was part of the team. He never held it against me that I was loyal to his competition for so much of my career or that our deal didn’t come to fruition. How would he feel now?