Flair's Birthday Celebration With JR

In a blog entry on his website, Good Ol' JR talked about celebrating Ric Flair's birthday as well as a couple of anecdotes with the Nature Boy and Wahoo McDaniels:

I spent Sunday night in Phoenix celebrating with Ric Flair, not only his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, of which he is sincerely excited about, but also Ric’s 59th birthday. We have actually spent a few of his birthdays together over the years and this one was rather subdued compared to some of our "all nighters," but it did last a few hours on the patio of a local Phoenix establishment. As a matter of fact, we celebrated both Sunday and Monday night before Ric left for Germany to do some public relations work for the WWE and I headed back to Norman to sell some Bar-B-Q. BTW if anyone finds my glasses at the Hyatt in downtown Phoenix please turn them into lost and found. Thank you. Perhaps I am lucky that is all I lost after the birthday celebration.Ric and I got into a discussion with other WWE personnel about legit, tough guys in wrestling and someone asked who was tougher, Harley Race or Wahoo McDaniel, and the answer was an easy one for both of us and especially for Flair, Race.

Wahoo was one bad dude and an amazing athlete who played football at Oklahoma and still holds the record at OU for the longest punt. Wahoo ran with a young quarterback in New York by the name of Joe Namath while both were playing for the NY Jets, until it was discovered that Wahoo was taking the impressionable young QB out virtually every night enjoying the many saloons and lovely ladies of the Big Apple. Linebacker Wahoo would be traded and Namath would eventually lead the Jets to a Super Bowl title.

Back to Harley, Race could be nasty and was a deluxe street fighter with a deadly left hand. Ric also pointed out that Harley was prone to head butt his victims and break their noses in a tavern or two around the globe. They don’t make wrestlers like Harley or Wahoo any more.

One quick Wahoo story, the three of us, Flair, Wahoo, and I, were hurrying to catch the last flight out of Asheville, N.C. on a Sunday afternoon to get us to Atlanta after taping two TV shows for Crockett Promotions, or maybe it was WCW. Wahoo was driving his rental car from the arena to the airport and breaking every traffic law known to man, speeding, running lights, not yielding, honking his horn relentlessly, much to the delight of a hysterically laughing Nature Boy. It was a good thing I was wearing a dark suit and we will leave that matter alone. With no place to park and time running out to catch our flight, Wahoo parked the Hertz rental vehicle on the sidewalk directly in front of the airport and so close to the front doors that the automatic doors at the airport’s entrance kept opening and shutting. Wahoo left the motor running as we grabbed our bags and actually made our flight. True story.

Visit JR's blog here: http://www.jrsbarbq.com/blog/