The wrestling thread below got me thinking about the awesomeness of Ric Flair, arguably the greatest super-villain of my childhood. Yep he's got Magneto and the Hobgoblin beat--only North and Pulaski comes close. Some choice Youtubes of "The Man." Seriously though, can't you see the line between these dudes and like the cats in your neighborhood who talked trash? Who is Jay-Z but a Ric Flair remix? Listen to this kid. He's sick with the word-play.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
I see your cobra clutch and raise you two atomic knee drops. Whoo!
There's a reason Vandy AND South Carolina bring their teams out to "2001," and it ain't Elvis.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Come on Coates. Those vids were LAME! Ric Flair had some of the best lines EVER and you use THOSE videos? How about one with "whether you like it, or don't like it, sit back and watch it, because its the best....going...today...WOOOOOO"??? A shout out to the 4 horsmen?? Or at least a clip of him talking about SPACE MOUNTAIN! Let me help you out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jsaPZRiMM0
I generally think of wrestling as beneath me. What's happening to the elite media?
Your forgetting the greatest villain ever, The Million Dollar Man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwoQ2b3k8Uo
Those weren't Flair at his best but yeah, the guy just oozed charisma.
but let's be real here, The Rock gave the greatest promos of all time, closely followed by the Ultimate Warrior and Hogan.
I never heard of Ric Flair until I went away to college. Where I lived, the WCW didn't get much exposure so it was all WWF.
One of my college roommates was from Buffalo(I guess WCW was big there) and he prefered the WCW over the WWF. He thought the WCW was more pure wrestling as opposed to the slickness of the WWF. WWF, with Hulkamania and Cindy Lauper was a bit too Hollywood for him, though his favorite was Rowdy Roddy Piper.
"I took her up to the top of Space Mountain and... WOOOOOO...what a ride!"
The Nature Boy was a wild dude.
Mohammed Ali and James Brown both acknowledged that they were influenced by Gorgeous George, the original flamboyant villian wrestler.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wagner
The Rock took the torch and ran, but Flair was 100% the man.
The beauty of Flair was that in the territory days he was the super heel promoters used to bring in from outside to give their top babyface a push. I remember him coming down to Texas and having wars with the Von Eriks and the Ice Man. He would cheat, beg borrow and steal. Victory would be denied to the local hero until the inevitable loser leaves town match. Flair would lose and your babyface would be elevated by the rub. That's why he is beloved in wrestling. He made more careers than Vince.
He earned his chops going in front of some of the toughest crowds in the pre-irony days of rasslin' and telling them that their women were ugly, their men were pathetic and their local sports teams sucked. Andy Kaufman once said that the thing he loved about pro wrestling was that it is the only form of live entertainment where one performer's job is to make the audience absolutely fucking hate him on every level. Flair was a master of the art. He was a heel before being a heel was cool. And he was the best. You may not like it, but learn to love it. WHOOOO!
BTW, much like having Don Rickles cut you down, there is nothing like listening to Flair cut a promo on your hometown in person. Magical.
Flair is still half of the heel gold standard. The other half is Rowdy Roddy Piper. And that has to do with them being the gold standard on promos. Hulk Hogan, the Rock, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, and Mick Foley are all great, too, but they can't compare to the first two.
As for extending the meme, this weekend's news proved that Obama and Biden are the Road Warriors of fundraising. McCain and Palin are the Mulkey Brothers.
And how could I have forgotten the Macho Man? Randy Savage was great, too. Shame on me.
Piper and Flair are the top heel promo cutters, but I do think the Rock rounds out the trinity. He loses some points because he was a heel when being a heel was cool. Flair and Piper did it when being a heel could get you a beer bottle to the head on the way to your car.
Let's give Macho Man his due when it comes to heel promos. I remember one in particular where he kept referring to himself as the "Cream of the Crop." Every time he said cream in that Macho Man way he would produce one of those little coffee creamers. He must have had 20 of them. Cracks me up to this day.
And no one mentions that he came back in WWF and won the Royal Rumble after being the first fucking pick.
I still have that on video somewheres
I love how his nickname, The Nature Boy, can mean anything you want it to.
"Shove the mic in you mouth like Ted Dibiase"
Also, I think the Ted Dibiase shoving hundred dollar bills in the loser's mouth after the Million Dollar Dream is the heel move to end all heel move.
The Nature Boy Buddy Rogers was the first. Flair took his nickname, finisher and attitude. Not uncommon in rasslin'. They tried to have Flair hand down the Nature Boy gimmick to Jeff Jarrett in WCW, but no one was buying it. Least of all flair. Now that Flair is for real retired, or as for real retired as one can be in rasslin', maybe after awhile someone else can pick up the mantle. Big boots to fill.
Side note. There is also a brother out there who calls himself, "The Black Nature Boy." Never seen him work, but I'd love to see his take on the gimmick.
Ravishing Rick Rude(rip) was the best to ever do it. The other guys, including Flair, may have dissed their opponents but Triple R dissed the whole city they were in on any given night!..."All you fat, lazy, ugly people in..(fill in the blank).
Dope bit. But the mighty Flair borrowed his entire style from the pimps and Macks of the blaxploitation era, right? And they adopted that shit from the Bad Nigga archeptype. The sad thing is that those white boys did all that borrowing and would never let a black man hold the title who had twice as much swag. JYD!
What would professional wrestling be without beefed up white boys borrowing black shit? From Ric Flair to Vince's strut to Hollywood Hogan's forced swagger to John Cena?
Now that I think about, Jake "the Snake" Roberts was pretty good, too. He brought the creepy/edgy vibe to his persona (and from what I remember from "Beyond the Mat" there was some real stuff in his life he was able to draw that from). And his promo was one of the best of all time: "Jake, what does DDT stand for?", "The end, my friend, the end. heh heh heh."
@Kiese,
There's truth to what you say, BUT, Steve Austin's "Stone Cold" persona was pure Johnny Paycheck/East Texas Redneck. Gotta give ALL the influences their credit.
First of all, I'm tickled pink that I get to talk about rasslin' with an Atlantic magazine blogger.
But I can't believe we're talking about old school promos and no one has mentioned "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes. Here's Ric Flair giving him his due: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozY0SqriQnE
Jake "the Snake" Roberts was to the rasslin' promo what Rakim was to hip hop flow. While everybody else was shouting they turned down the volume and dialed up the intensity. Jakes style lived on in Foley and the Taker.
Now Flair might have had a little brother to the gimmick, but I'd say he got more from Ali than the blaxsploitation. The flashy robes and flamboyant intro are pure Gorgeous George. Buddy Rogers had a little of that too.
But you are dead on in one regard. JYD should have held the strap. No doubt.
Ditto Hill Rat. Politics, Hip Hop, Rasslin', Geek Culture, Cowboys.... This is officially the greatest blog ever.
Nice Call on Dusty too.
I always loved Andre the Giant and his french drawl.
Side note. There is also a brother out there who calls himself, "The Black Nature Boy." Never seen him work, but I'd love to see his take on the gimmick.
Matt J, were you thinking The Natural Butch Reed? with the bleached blonde hair?
Also, Hot Chip has a song called "Wrestlers" which i think equates sex and wrestling
some choice lyrics
"While you've got us on the ropes
We've planned to play the mess around
He's technically trained
You've got him buckled up and he will misbehave"
"Now what you gonna do when I come for you
With all that I've got?
I've got a roll of coins, I'm aiming for your loins
And I will never stop"
"I learned all I know from watching the wrestling
I think you think I'm about to throw the towel in"
"Watch your back, watch your back
He'll charm you with a double-axe
And then he brings the tie attacks
He's not dressed for a cage
He's robed in garments strictly for another age"
"Here we come, drop kick
Half nelson, full nelson
Willie Nelson, Willie Nelson"
"Body slam, suplex, headlock, summer-slam, elbow drop
Jelly-flop, cage match, grudge match"
"Everyone knows Monday night means wrestling"
Nope, not Butch Reed. He's a bad ass though
This is the guy, I think. Looks like an indy worker. I guess he dumped the Black Nature Boy gimmick.
http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com/profiles/s/scoot-andrews.php
As a NC native, i know i'm late but this made my day. The rick flair chest slap help me win my first fight. The dude was just shocked. then i threw the shirt over his head and slammed em.
and then
i said
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Slangdini that was great!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Flair in his prime could wrestle for an hour and pulled out all the stops and still had enough to sell the rematch. He and Steamboat had to have been the best of old school rasslin'.
Great post. I remember Flair coming out and talking junk for 20 minutes at the end of shows as the highlights of the show. Couldn't stand him at first, but the lines and lung on this guy were impressive. The Space Mountain line was classic.