by Ric Flair
7 Coach Kevin Brubaker: “It was heartbreaking to see Ashley leave Charlotte Allstars. She was a wonderful cheerleader and teammate. She always had the drive to be the best. Ashley was also an amazing volleyball player, and I knew that was best for her. In twenty-seven years of our program, Ashley’s one of the toughest, hardest-working athletes we ever had, and a top-ten all-time cheerleader.”
8 Coach Zoe Bell: “I knew of Ashley’s athletic background and her level of play at Providence Day. This was a different environment. At that time, Providence Day had a total of about 1,500 students from kindergarten to twelfth grade. Providence High School had more than 3,500 students from ninth to twelfth grade. We’d have more than fifty girls try out for the volleyball team ever year. We carried a roster of fifteen players.”
9 Coach Zoe Bell: “Ashley was late the first day of practice. The team’s expectation was to be on top every year. If we lost a match, it was a big deal, and in the newspapers. Practice at 8:00 p.m. means I want you there by 7:50, not 8:01. Ashley always worked hard and was always respectful. She was raised right. But she tested me a little bit in the beginning with small things like that.”
10 Ric: “I was very involved with Ashley’s and Reid’s schooling and sports. I admit, sometimes a little too involved. I was so happy that I got to be there with them. It upset me so much to miss Megan’s basketball games and David’s baseball games when they lived in Minnesota. I didn’t want to miss out on this second chance. [Laughs] I know I went overboard by delivering meals to school, but I wanted to look out for their diet. I just wanted them to be healthy.”
11 Coach Zoe Bell: “In the beginning, it was tough for Ashley to fit in. Every day, Ric brought her lunch from Dean & DeLuca to school. During practices and games, people asked Ric for autographs and pictures. This was the first time someone on the team had a famous parent. I never saw anything like it. He was so kind to everyone. Ashley wanted to be recognized for contributing to a successful team and for her talent as an athlete. Some schools, like Riverside, had home fans taunt her. She never let it bother her. She just used it as motivation to be better. She adjusted perfectly.”
12 Ric: “I wanted to take Ashley on a trip as a congratulations for picking a college. I remember the kids taking Ashley out. She was so happy. I also remember later seeing pictures they took of her jumping on the beds and walking around the hotel with the Hurricane’s superhero mask on. If this was the kind of fun she was having, I was all for it. Ashley’s always been the epitome of what a father wants his daughter to be.”
13 Brittany Zahn Arnold: “It was hard for Ashley, because so many of her close friends were always older than she was. There were times I’d come home from school and she’d have her friends over from her grade, and maybe people who were a year younger than she was. They were fine, but there’s not much you can do with that crowd when you’re in college. I’d go upstairs and play Rummy Cube with Beth and Aunt Francine. Ashley and I hung out later.”
11. WHERE DO I GO NOW?
1 Beth and I grew apart as the years went on, and the differences that we had continued to build. When I returned to WWE in 2001, the company offered me a contract that included a downside guarantee of $500,000. That meant if nothing else, I would earn $500,000 a year. That didn’t include royalties from the sale of consumer products and merchandise. I was fifty-one years old and not contracted to be an in-ring performer.
I was grateful to WWE for the offer. Especially given the stage I was at in my career. When I told Beth about the contract I thought she’d be happy. But she had a different opinion on the matter.
Beth became hostile toward me. She raised her voice and said I should’ve received “[Steve] Austin money.” She added that I was an “old, insecure motherf*cker,” and that I never fought for what I was worth. Beth continued by saying I cost my family millions of dollars by conducting my business in this way.
A part of me appreciated that Beth felt I should have a larger contract. I don’t think she understood that given where I was in my career, and not an in-ring performer, this was an amazing contract. I was also disappointed in the way she communicated with me. Especially since throughout our marriage I helped support her father by giving him a job to manage one of my gyms, even though he did not have management experience or any knowledge of physical fitness. My mother-in-law lived with us for nine years and all they did was fight. I provided for our family well, and that included members of her immediate family.
I also felt it became increasingly difficult over time to ensure Beth was present for the kids. I didn’t sleep in our bedroom for three years. When I was home, I slept in a guest suite.
I tried to keep as much as I could away from the kids. By 2005, I felt it was time to end the marriage. I walked out the door and left all of my belongings there except for two custom suits and two pairs of alligator shoes. I didn’t set foot in the house for a year.
2 Brittany Zahn Arnold: “Ashley called me at school and let me know what was going on. I think something else that made her parents’ breakup harder was that the relationship with Tiffany took place in Charlotte. She felt like this was being played out in public, because the family was so well known in the community. Things at home were really tough for them.”
3 Brittany Zahn Arnold: “I’d tease Ashley a little bit, especially when it came to cooking, but she did well with it. The fact of the matter was that she came from a different world. Everything was done for her at home. She just needed to learn how to be independent around the house.”
4 Paul Levesque: “It was an honor to stand as best man for Ric. Grand Cayman was beautiful. In May, it felt like seven hundred degrees. Steph was about eight months’ pregnant with our first child. She was exhausted from the day, the heat, and the pregnancy. I wanted to make an early exit to bring her to our room. On our way out, we saw Ashley passed out on the side of a walkway at the hotel. Steph took care of her. We knew her seeing her dad get remarried was not easy.”
12. LOST
1 Brittany Zahn Arnold: “I told her, ‘You’re here on scholarship to play Division I volleyball. You’re away at college. Enjoy it.’ We just signed a lease for a new house. Beth and Ric called me separately. They thought I could talk her into staying. She made up her mind. We were all so worried about her.”
2 Ric: “I went into shock. ‘You’re doing what?’ I was boarding a flight to the other side of the world, and this is what I was told right before takeoff? She wouldn’t listen to anything I said. I was deeply concerned. I called Brittany, and she told me the same thing. Ashley said she was leaving. That was it.”
3 Brittany Zahn Arnold: “Riki appeared fine on the surface. He seemed polite and could carry a conversation. To me, once you got deeper, it was easy to see his true colors. You could also see he had nothing going on and wasn’t interested in making anything of himself. He was in a frat. I didn’t see why Ashley was so attracted to him. I was never a fan of his.”
4 Brittany Zahn Anderson: “The more I told her that she needed to get out of her relationship with Riki, the more she ignored me. I was so worried about her, but it was a simple thing: she chose to be with Riki over everything else in her life. I felt like I didn’t know who she was at this point in time.”
5 Paul Levesque: “I just kept asking myself, How do I induct the greatest professional wrestler of all time? I was so honored that Ric asked me. And it’s true, Ric deserved to be in the Hall of Fame and should have his own wing. He’s one of the great pioneers in our industry.”
6 Ric: “This was the first time I had any indication that something was seriously wrong with my daughter’s relationship with her boyfriend. I never liked Riki. He had no drive, no initiative, and my daughter did everything. I learned to accept that this was who she wanted to be with. After that night, I was deeply troubled, but I believed her when she said that something like this had never happened before. I wish I hadn’t.”
13. I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST DINNER
1 Ric: “This wa
s a difficult time for me as a parent. I took one day at a time with Reid. With Ashley, I didn’t want her dating Riki, let alone marrying him. A part of me hoped she would’ve ended things while they were engaged. She didn’t need to be with someone, but I thought maybe she’d meet someone at school. But from what I saw, whether I liked it or not, my daughter was happy. I wasn’t going to disown her or not be involved in her wedding.”
2 Ric: “Our family became educated on addiction. This was a culture I still didn’t fully understand. When Reid was in rehab, he would do very well. When he’d relapse, it would be worse than before. He was determined to get better, and you could see the progress he made when he’d get himself back on track. We were all behind him. Ashley wanted to help her brother any way she could. I didn’t know about the range of problems in her marriage. I just knew that Reid relapsed and he needed to return to treatment.”
3 Ric: “I never doubted that Ashley could do this from an athletic point of view. Are you kidding? I wanted to make sure she understood the unrelenting commitment, singular focus, and sacrifice this business requires in order to be a success. And that it would be even harder because of her last name, which I knew she was aware of, but as her father, I wanted to reiterate that.”
4 Paul Levesque: “I was shocked when Ashley called me and said she wanted to get into the business. I wondered where this was coming from, because she’d never shown an interest in it. She needed to know that she’d be starting at the very bottom. You’re away from your family. Marriages don’t last. And if she thought being compared to her dad was bad, that would only be the beginning. I told her if she made it through the Performance Center, any success she’d achieve would be attributed to her dad. After all that, she still wanted a shot.”
14. A WHOLE NEW WORLD
1 Ric: “When I started out, Verne asked if I wanted to go to Japan for three weeks. I said, ‘Yeah, who am I going with?’ He said Rhodes, Murdoch, Buddy Wolfe, Skandor Akbar, and Nelson Royal. I was so excited. We flew to Dallas and spent a week with Dusty’s family. All the guys had short haircuts and told me I had to get my hair cut. We went to the barbershop in the airport, and they cut off all my hair! In Japan, I carried their bags for three weeks—every train station, every hotel—every day. No one spoke to me that first week. We’d ride the trains, and Dusty just sat across from me. Nothing.”
2 Ric: “On that same trip to Japan, we were eating lunch together. The guys just started making small talk with me. We were eating hamburgers and french fries. Murdoch had a tray full of fries. I saw Dusty reach and get one, and then Nelson Royal did the same. I reached over to grab a french fry from Dick’s plate. He took his fork and stabbed it all the way through my hand—into the table—like in the movies. He said to me, ‘Rookie mistake, kid.’ And then he pulled the fork out of my hand. I was shocked. I went to Nelson’s room and had tears in my eyes. Nelson was the only guy who had any compassion for me.”
3 Norman Smiley: “I worked with Ashley’s brother David. I could tell right away that Ashley was an excellent athlete who was very well coordinated. She was very coachable. She learned things quickly and then applied it to whatever we were doing. I thought sometimes she was a little too hard on herself. In those early days, I told her to relax and to be patient, that learning a new art takes time. She was so determined.”
4 Mike Johnson, PWInsider.com: “WWE made a huge statement when they hired Sara Amato. She was an extremely talented pro wrestler during her career. That experience enabled her to step inside the ropes with the girls and help guide and direct them with a woman’s perspective. Sara also knows how to make talent stand out, and because of her experience, she could prepare trainees physically and mentally for what was ahead. She’s one of the most important hires for WWE in recent history.”
15. SWEET CHILD OF MINE
1 Ashley: “When I saw the text message from my dad, I knew what it meant. My heart broke instantly. This was our family’s worst nightmare. I called my mom. I told her what no parent should have to hear, that her child passed away. I heard my mom’s heart break over the phone. I just wanted to get home to Charlotte to be with my family. Tom drove me there straight from Tampa.”
2 Ashley: “I called Aunt Erin and my mom’s best friend, Susan Beck, and asked them to go to my mom’s house. I didn’t say one word during the drive to Charlotte. I broke down when we got to Megan’s house. I couldn’t hold in my pain anymore. It was like all my years of worry and fear just came out. Reider had finally turned the corner. And now, somehow, my best friend was gone. It wasn’t fair. I was numb at the funeral. Seeing so many people from different times of my life was like seeing the pages of a photo album turn. I spoke at the funeral. I didn’t know what I was going to say before I went up to the microphone. I wanted people to know about how wonderful of a person my brother was, how sweet, funny, loyal, and protective of his family he was. I wanted to let everyone know how much he loved being in Japan and how happy he was there. I wanted to let people know there was no better friend someone could have than Reider. And then it just came out of me. I recited the words from his favorite wrestling interview from Dusty Rhodes: ‘I have wined and dined with kings and queens, and I’ve slept in alleys and dined on pork and beans.’”
16. BUILDING THE FUTURE: WE ARE NXT
1 Paul Levesque: “Historically, our business was very difficult to even try to get into. The previous development systems were not impressive for recruiting. They could’ve been any independent promotion. When I came on full-time in the office, I wanted to build a new way for WWE to recruit and develop talent. I wanted to create a world-class facility in a great city that would appeal to people who are looking to pursue this as a profession. I tell every recruit the same thing: the expectations of you are higher, because you have so many more tools to start out with than any other generation of performer.”
2 Ric: “The WWE Performance Center is incredible, and from the moment I saw NXT, I knew it was going to be different from Raw and SmackDown. I told Ashley what Blackjack Mulligan told me, as a principle, and what he told Reid when they met in Orlando in 2008: in this industry, a performer has four to six minutes every time they’re on TV to show what makes them special. Here, she needed to show Paul, everyone at the Performance Center, and everyone in NXT what made her stand out. It was that simple when Jack told me in the ’70s, and it’s that simple today.”
3 Ric: “I didn’t like this guy either [laughs] … Tom was a nice guy. He needed to get his future in order before he and Ashley got married. I would’ve liked them to know one another longer before they got married. But with my marriage to Jackie, it seemed like I cornered the market in that area and couldn’t say much. I just hoped the best for them and wanted Ashley to stay focused on what she was doing in NXT.”
4 Natalya: “I could relate to where Ashley came from. When I started my career, I wanted to prove myself. I didn’t want people to think I was doing this because of my family name and that I expected an easy ride. For the match at TakeOver, Triple H believed in us. He told me to do what I wanted to do, that I was in charge. Then he said, ‘You don’t have a time limit.’”
5 Sara Amato: “I noticed right away that Ashley was a standout athlete. What stood out to me was her heart. She was the hardest-working person at the Performance Center, and she was a showtime player. When the cameras were on and she was in front of an audience, she took it to another level. She was very special from the beginning. The NXT Women’s Championship was an important milestone for her.”
6 Ric: “People don’t understand when I say Ashley did this all on her own. I was not involved. John Laurinaitis asked her why wasn’t she doing this at a dinner after my Hall of Fame induction with the Horsemen. I asked Paul to call her about it, and that was it. She did this by herself. I thought it was a great match and so important for Ashley’s confidence. That’s the only way you get better is to keep working in the ring. Ashley had an incredible partner to dance with in Natalya. Nattie is so talented a
s a performer. I’ll always remember what she did for my daughter. I couldn’t have been prouder of Ashley that night. Seeing my daughter perform in that match was the biggest moment of my wrestling career.
There was a period where I wasn’t able to be there with Ashley. In the fall of 2013, I entered a rehabilitation facility for alcohol. I also needed to process the suffering I was going through after Reid’s death. The day I had to go in I called Melinda and completely cracked. I realized immediately that the lifestyle to which I had become accustomed was definitely not my new reality. I was living in a group facility with no air-conditioning. I shared a room with someone. I looked around my room and said, “This sure isn’t a suite at the Ritz-Carlton.” That wasn’t the worst of it. I didn’t know how anyone ate the food. A rule of the program was no phone calls but I snuck my phone and called Melinda every single day. She never missed one of my calls. I asked her to overnight me food and clothes. I wouldn’t have made it through that time if I didn’t have Melinda to speak to every day.
