Ric Flair's ESPN 30 For 30

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That was a great documentary on Ric Flair that they aired last night, including all phases of his career and as well as his childhood. If you've ever seen the History Channel's documentary on Evel Knievel, I noticed some big similarities in the two icons. Both were the best at what they did and were groundbreaking in their sports. Both were married but were lousy husbands and weren't around for their kids much because they were too busy partying and working. Still, plenty of kids would give anything to have a good mother and a father who was able to rise them in a luxurious standard of living. So many children grow up in poverty, without either a good father or mother, that David and Megan's statements seemed kind of melodramatic.

Both Ric Flair and Evel Knievel made a ton of money yet ended up in precarious financial positions because they spent their money faster than they earned it and didn't save money for after their careers were over. Both were sex addicts who constantly cheated on their wives. Flair estimates he's had sex with 10,000 women and Knievel's number was probably in the thousands as well. Both had sons who had drug problems.

In the case of Reid Flair, he wasn't able to survive his drug problems and died very young. Both he and Robby Knievel's dreams were to do what their fathers did. Robby was quite successful in being a professional daredevil though and even broke some of his father's records. I wonder if part of Reid Flair's reason for his drug abuse was that his father's legacy was just too big to match up to. No matter how hard he tried, it's doubtful he would ever have risen to the heights his father did and I think he knew that. Even looking at him, I could tell he didn't have the genetics to build the muscular type of physique that Rc had although he did have a great amateur wrestling background. Unfortunately being great at amateur wrestling is no guarantee of success at pro wrestling because it's so different. Also, and even more important, Reid didn't seem to have his father's gift of being able to cut electrifying promos. Charisma and talking ability is so important in pro wrestling and there's no evidence that would show Reid had these attributes, at least not comparable to those of his father. Maybe knowing he would never measure up to his father was more than Reid could live with. I'm not suggesting he intentionally overdosed; I'm saying Reid apparently needed something to dull the pain of knowing he'd never achieve his dream of being like his father.
 
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It's been over 30 years since I've watched pro wrestling, but I really enjoyed this. His early days in college, his father's being a physician and how his parents disapproved of wrestling, and tortuous training under Verne Gagne was all new to me. And of course the party stories were cool to hear. But I thought it was interesting how the doc brought up his popularity in the hip-hop community. Snoop Dogg said, "He was one of us." Just about every black kid I went to school with loved Ric Flair. I think a lot of his appeal was similar to the Rat Pack's. They were cool because you knew their wild lifestyle wasn't an act and they were really living that way.
 
I’ve only seen the first ten minutes. Have it on the DVR to finish later

I don’t like the way it was directed/ put together.
 
I thought it was pretty good. Although if you’ve read his bio and seen a lot of the past dvd retrospectives on him, there wasn’t anything really new or surprising. I was surprised at how much Hogan put him over, I mean big time putting him over.

The part on Reid was tough to watch. Then the blunt and honest Triple H segment during that part
<{dayum}>
Obviously Flair is always going to live with the what if’s and I should have done something’s but Trips talking about the two drug tests has to forever eat at Ric and I feel for him.
 
tec87 said:
I thought it was pretty good. Although if you’ve read his bio and seen a lot of the past dvd retrospectives on him, there wasn’t anything really new or surprising. I was surprised at how much Hogan put him over, I mean big time putting him over.

The part on Reid was tough to watch. Then the blunt and honest Triple H segment during that part
<{dayum}>
Obviously Flair is always going to live with the what if’s and I should have done something’s but Trips talking about the two drug tests has to forever eat at Ric and I feel for him.
Click to expand...

I feel for Ric too. Although I'm sure he's going to always live with the guilt of trying to be Reid's best friend when he should have been being Reid's dad instead, Ric did try to help Reid by getting him work in Japan which I'm sure is a much more difficult place to score heroin than The United States is and Reid was probably clean while he was in Japan. If you remember, Ric said that just a day or two before Reid's overdose, Ric had picked Reid up at the airport from Japan. I have a theory that Reid hadn't done any heroin while in Japan and because of that, Reid's tolerance to heroin dropped - probably a lot further than Reid thought. So when Reid went to do what was a more or less average dose of heroin for him, it hit him much harder and he died from an overdose as a result.

One thing that was new to me is that Ric's parents only went to see him wrestle professionally three times and they didn't go to his high school or college sports games either. Rick's father even talked badly about the new house Ric was so proud of. It sounds like Ric never got positive reinforcement from his parents for any of his successes and getting so little positive attention from his mother and father could help explain why he hated so much to be alone in his hotel room after the night's wrestling card was over. I think the constant cheating on his wives, the ridiculous numbers of women he had sex with can be explained by Ric's need to bolster his self-esteem - to constantly have women praising him for his prowess in bed and simply to prove night after night that he could always get a woman, no matter what town he was in, because he was "The Man."

I believe he badly needed this bolstering of his self-esteem because we saw how surprisingly fragile his self esteem is and who people like Jim herd and Eric Bischoff could make him seriously doubt himself and lose almost all confidence in himself. HHH worked hard to restore Ric's confidence when Ric arrived in WWE in 2003 and for that as well as him twisting Ric's arm to get Ric into an alcohol rehab facility, he's a great friend. It's too bad that Ric resumed drinking after his rehab was over. Now I really tihink he's done drinking. He has to be!
 
that was amazing.. watched it... was really well put together.... really showed the ups and downs of his career.. its a must watch
 
I felt bad for his kids.. fantastic doc ..glad I watched
 
It was good; not great. The majority of it was just a commercial for Flair's alcoholic, womanizing, partying lifestyle, while simeltaneously just brushing over major turning points in his career and life. If I wasn't already in the know, I would have no sense of the chronology of his wrestling career, the significant matches he was involved in, the significance of the territories or the Monday night wars, or his overall impact on the business. It basically just anecdotes of Flair going from one party go the next.
 
The part that got me is that he just wanted to prove to his dad he achieved something. Then when he showed him the house he bought his dad just said "who needs all this?"
 
It was meh, to me, although to the average mainstream fans or fans who stopped watching and following the product after the 90s, I can see it being quite interesting. Honestly, though, it was focused more on his lifestyle than anything else and then the story of redemption. They included a few very important and introspective pieces, including interviews from David and Charlotte speaking about how wrestling and Ric's lifestyle affected their lives.

I was surprised by two things; the inclusion of Reid's death and Ric's admission of "being his best friend rather than a father", which basically meant Ric was aware of everything and likely didn't care enough to stop it.

The second thing was HHH basically admitting the WWE's Wellness Policy is a piece of crap and a farce. HHH admits he knew when they the drug test proctors would come and allowed Reid to fail and still give him another chance and even gave Reid advanced notice of when the drug testers would be coming to collect samples. Although it's not something that would, nor should, surprise any of the WWE wrestlers nor hardcore fans, this basically tells the world the WWE only fails wrestlers they want to fail. If HHH did this for Reid, giving him two chances and advanced notice on the second chance, what would he do for someone he really liked and is a current top star? Which tells me, what I have always thought along, that when Roman Reigns failed, it was likely WWE's way of telling him to get his shit together since they pushed him to the moon and he wasn't doing his part.

To end this, the reason I don't see this as a redemption story for Ric Flair is because he has learned nothing from his 60+ years on this Earth. Numerous times, he said he would not change a thing and does not regret anything except for trying to be a better father for his kids. 3 failed marriages, kids who don't like you much, and a child literally dying under your watch and supervision yet no regret? That's telling.
 
Haven't seen it yet, but will watch, whether you like it or don't like it.
 
I haven’t seen it yet (I’d like to) but some of the comments on here remind me of when he went on Wife Swap with Roddy Piper.

Both were good friends but very different. Roddy was modest and confident whilst Ric partied all the time and was flamboyant. I got the impression that Ric tried to buy his way into everyone’s good books because of low self-esteem.
 
<20>
that is a lot of women
 
It was fine, and it was definitely made for those who either don’t follow wrestling closely, or don’t follow it at all. For someone like me who had watched him as a kid, has read his book, and had seen other specials on him, there wasn’t anything new to learn.

What stuck out to me was Hogan admitting to Flair being better than him. He was very humble in this.
 
the muntjac said:
It was fine, and it was definitely made for those who either don’t follow wrestling closely, or don’t follow it at all. For someone like me who had watched him as a kid, has read his book, and had seen other specials on him, there wasn’t anything new to learn.

What stuck out to me was Hogan admitting to Flair being better than him. He was very humble in this.
Click to expand...

Classic Hogan, he just trying to work us brother
 
Minotauro Rex said:
Classic Hogan, he just trying to work us brother
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Yeah, Hogan’s probably hoping that putting Flair over will somehow segway into him getting a job again in the WWE. He’s also probably realizing that if/when there’s ever a special made on him, he’ll have people say some nice things about him especially after he’s pretty much burned all his bridges.
 
It was good but couldve been better IMO. It didnt have one singular focus/story point so 1.5hrs wasnt nearly enough to cover Flairs career. Also wouldve liked more input from wrestling personalties, especially Cornette,JR and Arn instead of Chael and Maria Muenos
 
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