Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Gateway

The Nature of the Nature Boy

by Greg Davidson

Greg Davidson is a social studies teacher and the head wrestling coach at Independence High School in Charlotte NC.

He is helping promote the Anderson Brothers Classic Tag Team Tournament (ABC3) on May 5th at Independence High School.

I have no doubt that over the next few days you will read articles in mainstream newspapers and fanboy websites about the career of Ric Flair. In fact I am one of those fanboys and I will be reading the volumes and volumes of press his retirement will generate. I however, feel it necessary now to take time to write about Ric Flair the man, my hero. Whether he was a heel or a face, the Champ or the challenger, the leader of the 4 Horsemen or going it alone I always cheered for Ric.

I began pulling for The Nature Boy because that’s who my grandmother cheered for when I would sit on her lap to watch Mid-Atlantic Wrestling on Saturday mornings. My uncle would always say that if Flair says he is going to do it, he does it. I honestly believe they both went to the graves believing in the authenticity of the sport. In 1989 when I was 13 years old my hero-worship of Flair was solidified. The matches he had that year with Ricky Steamboat, Terry Funk, and Sting were classics, it was in fact a matche he had with Steamboat on my 13^th birthday, full of holds and counter-holds and reversals and near-falls that got me interested in amateur wrestling. All these things made me his fan, it was meeting him, however, that made him my hero.

My mother is friends with the wife of the late Klondike Bill, another of my Mid-Atlantic heroes. In 1994 as a high school graduation present Bill got me into the locker room to meet Ric Flair. I “marked out”, I shook his hand and thought wow, I just shook The Nature Boys hand. It doesn’t sound like much but to me that brief meeting marked the first of several times that our paths would cross.

In August of 1994 as I was getting ready to begin college my father had a massive heart attack. On August 9 my 18^th birthday my dad was taken down to have 5 bypasses. Right after our family prayed together and they started to roll dad to the O.R. my sister passed out. The first action I took as an adult was signing my little sister into the emergency room while my dad was being cut open. Not exactly a fun 18^th birthday. My mom was worried and told me to go downstairs and eat something so that I wouldn’t pass out, too. For some reason instead of going to the cafeteria I went to the little food court across the street under the Orthopedic Clinic. As I waited in line I looked up and there in front of me was Natch. I of course marked out and grabbed the first thing I saw, a copy of the Charlotte Observer and asked for an autograph. When Bill snuck me into the locker room just 3 months earlier it was just a few seconds to say hello and get a handshake. To my surprise, not only did he oblige with an autograph but he remembered meeting me and took time to speak with me. It was a brief conversation but it was enough to lift my spirits, his presence and kindness was enough to turn one of the worst days in my life to the best birthday I ever had.

It seems sometimes that I can mark my life by the encounters I’ve had with Ric Flair. He was eating at the same restaurant we took my parents for their 25^th wedding anniversary. On another one of my birthdays we just both happened to be eating at the bar in P.F. Changs and had a short conversation. This one time I bumped into him in Matthews and got embarrassed when he looked at me and said, “Nice hat.” (I was wearing a Stone Cold hat that day and was angry at myself for not putting on the 4 horseman hat I had in my car). Each of these serendipitous encounters and others hold a special place in my heart. I was fascinated by The Nature Boy in the ring, I was awestruck by Ric Flair the man, but, I have been most impressed with Richard Fliehr the father.

Inspired by the matches of Flair and Steamboat I became a high school wrestler. A lot of my identity and self worth is wrapped up in wrestling. I’m not ashamed of that at all. In college and during my first years teaching I volunteered as a wrestling coach and in time worked as an assistant coach. My first match as head wrestling coach at Garinger High School was against Providence, the school where his son Reid wrestled. When I saw Natch walk into the Gym I ran down to the Coaching office and called my dad. I had him rush up to the school with a copy of the Ric Flair DVD I had just bought. Once again I marked out, and had to get my DVD autographed. Ric got up in the bleachers and like any other father coached and rooted for his son. Over the years I’ve coached a lot of kids. In that time I can sadly say that many of the kids I’ve coached never once had a parent show up to see them wrestle. Ric, however, always made time for Reid and his daughter Ashley. I can not recall a single wrestling match with Providence, volleyball game, or wrestling tournament that Ric did not show up to. Seeing the way he interacted with his children led me to realize that while Ric Flair the wrestler inspired me, Ric Fliehr the man inspired me even more. He is a good man and a good father.

I by no means want to leave the impression that I am a long time personal friend of Ric Flair. I am simply a fan of both the legend, and the man behind the legend. So many times people meet their idols and role models and are disappointed by what they see. I can honestly say that Ric Flair has never disappointed me. I believe in God, and I believe that God puts people where they need to be. Ric Flair might not know it but every major event in my life is marked by his presence. God put him there when I needed to see my hero, in times of self doubt, and family tragedy when I just needed a smile and a glimmer of hope, he was there.

This weekend watching the Hall of Fame induction Ric’s speech brought me to tears. The next day, watching Wrestlemania XXIV I knew what was coming. Hearing the WHOOOOOOO and watching him walk down that aisle and style and profile like only he can to the thundering sound of Thus Spake Zarasuthra. In a robe that would make kings and emperors of the past jealous he entered the arena. There he was, The Nature Boy, The Champ, The Man about to take his final bow and with all the flash and flare that we have come to expect, he delivered. Ric Flair the wrestler may retire but the legend of The Nature Boy will never die, he will always be The Man and my hero.

……and so I end the only appropriate way I know how…with a great big WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Greg Davidson
March 31, 2008