To be the Man...
The day that wrestling fans wait for all year long has once again come
and gone. Football fans have the Super bowl, Baseball fans have
the World Series, and for most wrestling fans it’s World Wrestling
Entertainment’s (WWE) Wrestlemania. I’m not a huge WWE fan but one
match on the card was the only one I wanted to see, it was not the
triple threat match for the championship between Randy Orton, Triple H,
and John Cena, It’s was not the boxer Floyd “Money” Mayweather vs. the
wrestler The Big Show; nor was is it the Undertaker putting his
Wrestlemania undefeated streak on the line in his attempt to regain the
championship against Edge, the one match that I wanted to see more than
any of those was is Ric Flair’s Career Threatening Match with Shawn
Michaels. The match was a classic match that had all of the
emotions and drama of any great Ric Flair match, and in the end the
legendary career of the Nature Boy was over.
Growing up I watched WWE/WWF sporadically, but I followed The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Where I had a brief idea I what the story line was going on in the WWE/WWF, I knew exactly what was going on in the NWA. Where the WWE/WWF had a muscle bound over the top superhero type as their champion fight supervillians, where as NWA champion was a more realistic type villain. He was the type of arrogant, SOB, though he was better than everyone personality that everyone knew and hated at one point in there life. This man, this Champion was Ric Flair.
Growing up I watched WWE/WWF sporadically, but I followed The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Where I had a brief idea I what the story line was going on in the WWE/WWF, I knew exactly what was going on in the NWA. Where the WWE/WWF had a muscle bound over the top superhero type as their champion fight supervillians, where as NWA champion was a more realistic type villain. He was the type of arrogant, SOB, though he was better than everyone personality that everyone knew and hated at one point in there life. This man, this Champion was Ric Flair.
Without even getting in the ring Flair was able to incited and riel the
crowed to frenzy portions with his promos on the mic with quotes like
"and whether you like it or not, learn to love it, ‘cause it’s the best
thing going today!”, and “Limousine ridin', jet flying, kiss stealin',
wheelin' dealing, son of a gun,” he made people want him to be
destroyed by the good guys. I remember growing up watch NWA on TBS at
3:05 every weekend yelling at my television cheering for who ever was
wrestling Flair to beat him up, regard less of who it was. This is
what made Flair great, it really did not matter who was wrestling him
all I every wanted was for them to take away the thing that meant the
most to him the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. But the self
proclaimed ” “The Dirtiest Player in the Game” would use some under
handed tactic like having his partners in the Four Horsemen interferes
in the match, or using an legal weapon to get the upper hand. Which
made me hate him all that much more. Little did I know at the time,
but that’s exactly what he was supposed to do. It was his job to make
us hate him, boo him and to root for the good guy to beat him.
Flairs been performing in the ring for over thirty five years and whether you hated him or loved him, there was one thing that everyone should have in common for when concerning him; Respect.
“To be the man, you have to beat the man” Flair use to say often, in my eyes Ric will always be the man
Flairs been performing in the ring for over thirty five years and whether you hated him or loved him, there was one thing that everyone should have in common for when concerning him; Respect.
“To be the man, you have to beat the man” Flair use to say often, in my eyes Ric will always be the man
About Slam Jam
Shane Michael Kidder, creator of a Web site of his photos that receives nearly 2 million hits a month from around the world, has learned many lessons in his time photographing wrestling, the most important one being “watch where the wrestlers are going.” This comes after almost being knocked out by a wrestler diving out of the ring at his first show in 2003 at a Golden State Championship Wrestling event in Newhall, Calif. Born in Northridge and still living in the San Fernando Valley, he spends most of his time working on his Web site in preparation for the next wrestling event.
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