True Story, Bro #2- The Ric Flair Conflict

This story happened many years ago. I was a young boy, about 6 years old to be exact. Now at that age, I was a huge professional wrestling fan. Nothing brought me greater joy than to watch two grown men slap, clothesline and dropkick one another until there was only one man standing. And you better believe that in my day wrestling was real…er than it is today.

My brother and I loved to watch wrestling on Tv. We watched every match and spent countless hours perfecting moves such as the Pile Driver, the elbow drop, and the Figure Four Leg Lock. Each move was a science. An art, if you will.

Who would mess with this?

There was, however, a tension in the family. At that time, my favorite wrestlers were Sting and Hulk Hogan. They were the good guys that always came back to win the big matches in the end. My dad, on the other hand, was a Ric Flair fan. I personally couldn’t stand Ric Flair, aka The Nature Boy.

Now that you have some background story, let me get to what I really want to cover.

My parents found out that the WCW was putting on an event near where we lived. We got tickets and I was beyond psyched. I couldn’t wait to see all of my favorite wrestlers in person.

The night before the big event, we decided to make posters to hold up during the matches. Since my favorite wrestler was Sting, and I knew he was going to be there, I drew a picture of him on a huge posterboard.

In my defense, I was very young. My artistic abilities hadn’t fully developed yet, I knew nothing of shading and…okay, who am I kidding, I still suck at drawing. However, that’s not the point.

The point is that I was so proud of my picture. I couldn’t wait to hold it up and show my support for Sting. I was so excited!

The big day came. I was ready. I had my posters and I was good to go.

We got to the arena and had floor seats, which meant we could see all the action. We were right there at ringside with all of my heroes.

That night I shook hands with a few legends, like “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan.

If this doesn't make you proud to be an American, then nothing will.

He seemed like a really nice guy. He shook hands with all the kids and took time to say hey. It was awesome! 

That night we watched some really great matches. Even the nobodies that wrestled were pretty exciting. In fact, I’m pretty sure Triple H was one of the wrestlers. He was a like a french guy or something back then and he got beat up a few times that night. But that’s neither here nor there.

Eventually, the crowd grew tired of the nobodies. We were there to see  two of the biggest names in wrestling entertainment.

The big event finally came. Sting Vs. Ric Flair. My heart was racing, my palms were sweating and I was filled with joy!

Ric Flair came out and everyone booed him! It was glorious! And then Sting came out and everyone went crazy. We were all ready to watch him put an end to The Nature Boy, Ric Flair.

Both wrestlers got in the ring, and moved around to warm up. At this point, I knew this was my big moment. I was going to hold up my poster so Sting could see it.

It all happened in slow motion. I removed the rubber band, unfolded the poster and held it up and Sting saw it. I couldn’t believe it. My dream had come true.

However, the moment was quickly ruined by the laughter of Ric Flair. He was laughing his ass off at my poster. He pointed at my amazingly accurate portrait of Sting, then pointed at Sting and laughed just like this…

During his uncontrollable laughter, I heard him say, “Sting! That’s suppose to be you! Bahahaha!”

My poor little six-year old heart was broken. It was quite embarrassing to say the least. I hid my poster and refused to hold it up again. That was the day that I learned to hate Ric Flair. He just kept laughing and laughing, and it still haunts my dreams to this day.

This is what I see when I close my eyes.

True story, bro.