Wooooo!

ESPN do this fantastic sports history documentary series called 30 for 30 – I might have blogged about it before, and I highly recommend watching any of them if you get the chance.  Although they feature predominantly American sports and American athletes, most of which are quite interesting because I’ve never heard of them or their stories, they also occasionally go international – they recently did one about George Best.  The one that aired last night covered a “sport” and a sporting icon that I remember fondly from my teenage years.  I say “sport” because we are really talking about “sports entertainment” – yes, wrestling.  They did a feature on The Nature Boy – the Rolex-wearing, diamond ring-wearing, kiss stealing (WOOOOO!), wheelin’ dealin’, limousine riding, jet flying son of a gun Ric Flair.  A larger than life character, this was a must-see documentary for me – I might not watch wrestling as much as I used to, but I still follow it and Ric Flair is a legend.  It’s an interesting look at how a fictitious character can take over a real person – he claims to have lived the life that he bragged about in all his promos – hard partying, hard drinking (15 drinks a day for 20 years!), supposedly having slept with 10,000 women (!!!).  It’s difficult to know what is truth and what is not, but it made for a fascinating look at his life and how he lived it through his wrestling character to the detriment of his family, his wealth and ultimately his health.  The more you find out about these famous wrestlers from the 80s, the more you appreciate how alarmingly real the film “The Wrestler” was.