Diamonds Are Forever: The Man Behind The Man

The Nature Boy's Profile

Real Name: Richard Morgan Fliehr
Birth Date: February 25, 1949 in Memphis, TN.
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Height/Weight: 6'1'' 243 lbs.
Trained By: Verne Gagne
Pro Debut: 1972 (AWA)
Nicknames: The Nature Boy, The REAL World's Champion, Slick Ric, The Greatest Wrestler Of All Time, The Dirtiest Player in the Game, Naitch, "Slick" Ric
Finishing Move: Figure Four Leglock
Signature Moves: Flair Chops, Low Blows, Chop Block, Knee Drop, Thumb to the Eye, Shinbreaker, Nosedive, Turnbuckle Flip
Trademarks: Bleach Blonde Hair, Ornate Sequined Robes, Custom Made Suits, Shouts WOOOO!!!!, The Nature Boy "Strut," The Four Horsemen, Also Sprach Zarathustra (his theme song and the theme to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey), Limosuines, Jet Airplanes, Big Houses, Donzis, and Fine Women
Championships: 7 NWA World Heavyweight Titles; 10 WCW Heavyweight Titles; 2 WWF Heavyweight Titles; 6 NWA/WCW US Titles; 3 NWA World Tag Team Titles; 3 Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Titles; 3 Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles; 2 Mid-Atlantic Television Titles; 1 Missisouri State Heavyweight Title; 1 WWE Intercontinental Title; 3 WWE World Tag Team Titles

Friday, February 22, 2008

The Man Behind The Man

To start things off, I'd like to give a little background information to Ric Flair the person, instead of Ric Flair the wrestler. Here's a mini-biography I've compiled from various Internet sources:
Richard Morgan Fliehr (born February 25, 1949 in Memphis, Tennessee), does not know his full birth name. In the opening chapter of his autobiography "To Be the Man," titled "Black Market Baby," he notes that his birth name is given on different documents as Fred Phillips, Fred Demaree, and Fred Stewart. The chapter title is a reference to the fact that the Tennessee Children's Home Society, the agency with which he was placed for adoption, was revealed in 1950 to have fraudulently induced thousands of mothers to give up their children for adoption. The future Ric Flair was adopted when he was six weeks old by a physician (father), Richard Reid Fliehr, and a theater writer (mother), Kathleen Virginia Kinsmiller. At the time of his adoption, his father was completing a residency in gynecology in Detroit. Shortly afterwards, the family settled in Edina, Minnesota, where the young Richard Fliehr lived throughout his childhood. He later attended Wayland Academy, a coeducational boarding school in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

Ric Flair played football at the University of Minnesota while in a pre-medical academic program. In 1966 and 1967 he was Minnesota state high school wrestling champion. He then worked as a bouncer before meeting Ken Patera, a former Olympic weightlifter who had established himself in professional wrestling. Patera encouraged Flair to pursue a pro wrestling career, and Flair soon joined the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association (AWA), working his first match for that promotion on December 10, 1972.

He has four children from two marriages. His daughter Megan and son David Fliehr are children from his first marriage, his daughter Ashley and son Reid Fliehr are children from his second marriage to Elizabeth Fliehr. His oldest daughter Megan is married and has her own young daughter. His younger daughter Ashley is attending Appalachian St. on a volleyball scholarship.

Flair's son David is a semi-retired professional wrestler. Flair's younger son

Reid, who signed a developmental contract with WWE near the end of 2007, is an accomplished high school wrestler and made several appearances on WCW television along with his sister Ashley and half-sister Megan. Flair is not related to the Andersons, though he was billed as their cousin in the various NWA territories and WCW.

Flair became a grandfather in 2004 when his eldest daughter, Megan Fliehr-Ketzner, gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Morgan Lee Ketzner on May 9. On May 27, 2006, Ric married his third wife, fitness competitor Tiffany VanDemark.