<< <i>Just awesome!!! Beyond expectations by a mile! >>
Happy to hear you had a great time Dave.
STAY HEALTHY!
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Just saw this, wow, what an awesome experience. I'm with a couple of former HS wrestlers (NJ Wrestling is strong) who, like me, are degenerate WWF fans. I only collect Baseball, but am actually considering dipping the toe into Wrestling. Is unopened wrestling tough to acquire? Sorry for the amateur question, I'm certain that it has been covered.
Conundrum - Loving my unopened baseball card collection....but really like ripping too
Just saw this, wow, what an awesome experience. I'm with a couple of former HS wrestlers (NJ Wrestling is strong) who, like me, are degenerate WWF fans. I only collect Baseball, but am actually considering dipping the toe into Wrestling. Is unopened wrestling tough to acquire? Sorry for the amateur question, I'm certain that it has been covered. >>
Any great wrestling items that are unopened are really tough to acquire. I have not heard too much on collectors on the wrestling side who have significant pieces of unopened material. Some of the best is obviously the 1982 all stars that are still in the cello packs although those appear to be drying up as people have went and busted many of them to get graded. There are two card packs from the 1986 Carnation set from bags of cocoa mix here and there. Sumo has some nice unopened from Japan, but those are never seen. You can collect the popy figures from 1981 and there is a small pack of cards on the right of the figure. Of course you are competing with the figure collectors and those are not cheap.....they pretty much run $250 to $500 and the Hogan figure can reach up to $1000. I hope you join the wrestling card market. It is not as overwhelming as other sports and there has been huge growth in the market over the last five years.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Thanks! NCAA wrestling is fast becoming my favorite sport outside of MLB. The past two years were epic. And that Gable quote is sick. And so so true.
I just put in a pool for my little kids. That was my legitimate card budget for the year. But I do have a modest allocation to do some damage. Appreciate the guidance in this area. But am only looking for unopened.
Conundrum - Loving my unopened baseball card collection....but really like ripping too
NCAAs are a great spectator event....I watched Brock Lesnar lose to Stephen Neal (lineman for the Patriots and never played college football) for the heavyweight title. Brock won his title the next year at heavys. I submitted a few David Taylor cards to PSA. I am looking forward to having a few key amateur wrestling cards added to my collection. I put in a few Ed Ruths too. Thanks for chiming in here as we wait for the Flair news from D Peck!
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Rumor has it when Ric walked into the lobby and saw Dave ... THIS was Ric's reaction:
And I think drink #6 went something like THIS:
And when Dave told Ric he had to leave, well, Ric was a bit upset. See for yourself: >>
Wake up Dave, Wake up! To drink with the man, you have to DRINK with the man!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I had planned to add some pics last night but after a few minutes of being home some neighbors came over to see how it went and we kept partying until after midnight and I had to call it a night. Here we go.
I really had no idea how this visit would go. Literally none. My approach was I didn't come with a game plan or specific questions to ask and was just of the mind set let Ric take the ball and where ever it goes it goes.
We were set to meet Ric in the hotel lobby and Michelle and I got there a little early. Traffic in Orlando can be really unpredictable and it was raining when we left so I wanted to make sure we had no chance of being late.
When we pulled up and told the valet we were there to meet Ric Flair he said awesome and parked my car right up front. I had gotten it washed earlier in the day so it would be looking good. Here is Michelle waiting in the lobby.
We were about fifteen minutes early and the nerves were building. Michelle said here he comes Dave. I could hear Ric say there is a guy with white shorts it must be him but it was just a guy walking by and I said Hey Ric it is Dave and he immediately came right up to us with his girlfriend Wendy. I had been told Ric wasn't drinking much and asked his agent if that was the case and she said he might want to have a glass of wine but let him make the call. I said cool. The first thing out of his mouth was you guys want to get a drink I am buying. I said hell yeah.
We walked over and sat on a multi seat couch and got acquainted. Ric is a super personable guy and it didn't take long for me to lose the nerves and just get comfortable. I was promised an hour and couldn't believe he hung out with us for 2 hours and 22 minutes. It was a little nerve wracking about forty minutes in when his daughter Ashley called and said she had gotten into a fender bender and Ric had to console her. She was supposed to be coming to have dinner with them so this may have worked out in my favor in reality.
We talked about anything and everything. He kept saying Dave you can ask me anything I just tried to keep it normal and not all wrestling.
Ric really liked my watch and said let me see that. I then asked him what the 24 was on his watch and he said it is the watch that Shawn Michaels gave him after their match at Wrestlemania 24. I told him we went and it was such a great match. He asked Michelle what she thought and was thrilled to hear her say she had a great time. He took off the watch and said check it out. I asked if I could take a pic and he said hell yeah anything you want Dave.
Ric you can tell is a generous guy. Some fans approached and Ric said hey I am with some private fans and the guy quickly piped in he was in the military for 30 years and his wife was dying to get a pic. As soon as he heard that he yelled over to the bartender these guys drinks are on me. They were losing their minds. The same couple came back about an hour and half later and I took pics for them on their phones. She had already posted the first one on Facebook and said that everyone on her friends list back home were dying.
I told him I grew up watching Championship Wrestling from Florida and asked him about working in the Eddie Graham Sports Stadium and if it was a dump since there are no pictures online of the exterior. He said it was the hottest wrestling arena he had ever worked in because it was essentially a barn with a tin roof. He said he lost over 11 pounds in a match there and Eddie always wanted them to work long matches so it was tough. He thought it was cool that my dad had gone to the matches there. I asked him how he could keep up the pace in the heat and he said you just went out there and did it. We talked about some of his key bumps and said if you thought about it you were done. I told him his face plant was amazing and that only Greg Valentine had potentially as good of one. He said have you seen my daughters with a huge smile.
One of my favorite moments was talking about the Slick Ric Youtube video and the words I have spent more money on spilt liquor in bars from one side of this word to the other then you have ever made. We laughed and Wendy piped in its true. I told him my favorite part of the interview is the end when he says what is causes all this...intensified beef products all man. He turned to Wendy and said I would like to give you some intensified beef product. Haha I then went on to tell him how I had been in Puerto Rico on vacation a few weeks earlier and spent about 75% of the time I was awake drinking and said that is all right and I was driving Michelle crazy with the Flair lines and I must have said intensified beef products 25 times. He thought it was great.
We talked about the current wrestling product and Ric agrees it is really confusing what they are doing. He said Vince is being weird and he and Hunter are at odds. The biggest difference is that Vince apparently changes his mind all the time and didn't used to. I said I thought it was a huge mistake to keep making the fans smart to the business and he said it is nuts that they keep filling them in even more. I said when you took the pile driver on the table from Terry Funk it was great because even smart fans back then were like OMG that looked real. He said Funk almost broke his neck.
Ric was pounding down the red wine on ice and literally every time I set my drink down another one appeared. I had six vodka on the rocks and was getting really buzzed and just couldn't believe what was happening. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought one day I would get to party with the Nature Boy. He never treated us like fans who were paying to see him. He said it blows his mind how many events he gets paid to do. He said did you see me at the finals? I said yeah. He said he was the guest of Lebron James and Wendy showed us a pic of her and Kevin Love. He said he couldn't get the guy to stop talking about wrestling. He said people just love the old stuff and I said no doubt. Dusty Rhodes name came up so we pulled up the clip of Hard Times. He said Dusty was jealous he was getting to go to the finals and was dead two days later. Apparently he had been sick for 10 months and dropped 80 pounds but wouldn't check himself in to see a Dr.
When I get drinking I start flexing my muscles and so does Ric. He has guns. The pictures do not do them justice.
When Wendy stepped away to use the rest room I told him about the first time I had met him and showed him the Carnation card and the story behind the signing backstage. My neighbor got us backstage and I had pounded a few Coors light tall boys in the parking lot. Bill and I were waiting in the production building and the wrestlers were walking by. Out of no where I felt a churn in my stomach and said oh no. I raced to the bathroom and blew it up. As I am walking out beyond embarrassed in walks Ric Flair. I waited for him for about 10 minutes outside and then asked if he would sign the card and did. He was laughing about the story. Here is a pic of the Carnation card he signed last night. He wrote Woooo on it and I said Ric I have never seen that on a card before. He said I only do that for friends. He said he hated working for TNA and the money was great for what he did but quit because he couldn't take it anymore. The tapings were fine but the house shows drove him nuts.
I waited until about an hour and a half in and said hey Ric will you sign these items and he said for sure. He signed the Carnation card first. The next item I showed him was the program with the photo used for his card. I asked him how long he knew he had a card and he just said he had seen them for a while. He thought the pic wasn't as old as it is because he said he had bought that robe to wear at Starcade 83 to face Harley. He saw the date on the program and seemed confused but acknowledged it was obviously older then he thought.
Next I had him sign the Mid Atlantic Magazine and you could tell he loved seeing an old pic from the time when he won his first title. We both agreed silver would look best.
Next I had him sign the disk from Japan. He said he didn't recall ever seeing one and loved the pic and said man look at all of that hair. He said lets do that one in blue. It will look good.
The final item I had him sign was the article. We flipped through it and he looked at the pics. He said hey Andre is only an 8. Then on the next page he said oh good Dusty is a 10 too. He loved seeing the collection in the pics.
Some of the other wrestling related questions I asked him was if Kerry Von Erich and Fritz knew he would only hold the belt for 18 days. His answer wasn't entirely clear but he said they were so disorganized and that the kids were messed up at all times. He said the match in Texas Stadium was horrible and that Kerry was completely messed up. He did say Kerry was a terrible worker and that he had wrestled him for an hour when he had done a lot of drugs. I asked him if he had ever seen Harley Race really kick someone's a++ and he said oh yeah. He said Ming was the toughest hands down and mentioned the nose biting incident and poking guys eyes out.
Ric was super cool about taking the pics near the end.
This visit couldn't have gone any better. He made us feel like we were friends and said several times Dave thank you for being so respectful. It means a lot to me. He loved my shoes and said had he known he would have worn some better ones. He loved my necklace and I said I wore it because I thought he would like it. He said oh yeah and had bought the same one for his deceased son. Some people from the hotel had come and sat down and they were ready for dinner so we were getting close to being wrapped up. I asked him if he had seen the Poodle Face Youtube videos and he said no. We watched both and you could see it in his eyes that he loved seeing the old clips. I asked him if he liked them and he said no, I didn't get paid for them with a grin. We stood up and he gave me a hug and said he wanted to hang out with us next time they were in Orlando. He said let me give you my number. I said seriously. He said type it in and call me. It was his number. I am so glad this worked out and I am thrilled I went through with it. On the drive home we text him thanks and he wrote back right away. Ric Flair is the man. Plain and simple. I am now a bigger fan than ever! This is just a synopsis and naturally I am leaving some out but these were most of the high points. On the drive home Michelle and I were losing our minds. It was that cool!
I told him this was the promo I first saw of his time in the Mid Atlantic region and one of my favorites. I can recite this basically word for word but there is one word I don't know what he is saying and I wanted to see if he knew. I pulled it up on my phone and he couldn't figure it out either. At the one minute mark from the Alligators to the?
I asked him if these were one shot deals and he said oh yeah. The studio work in Atlanta was done at 9 AM and he said many times he had been out partying all night and just let it fly when he cut his promos.
Dave ... thanks for sharing. Glad you had a fantastic time.
STAY HEALTHY!
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Wow David!! That was amazing. I loved reading that. Especially all the details you included. I am so happy for you. Its like a dream come true!! Glad you got to experience this. You should invite him over the house next time he comes to town for a barbq and some drinks. Whats the worse that can happen right? Again, amazing story. Thanks for sharing and great photos too!!
Fun read and I'm glad he turned out to be a good guy. I'll bet it was fun for him to talk shop with a super-knowledgable wrestling fan. He probably doesn't get to do that too often.
'Sir, I realize it's been difficult for you to sleep at night without your EX/MT 1977 Topps Tom Seaver, but I swear to you that you'll get it safe and sound.' -CDs Nuts, 1/20/14
Extremely fantastic experience! Thanks for sharing I really enjoyed reading the experience and I used to watch wrestling a lot so I reminisced a bit. Ric Flair is the man!
Wow. Thanks for sharing. I couldn't be happier for you and your wife. I love to hear when celebrities and athletes are this good to their fans. I'm not the biggest wrestling fan, but reading this makes me a fan of Ric Flair.
Really awesome experience! And you just made a celebrity friend! He surely must have liked you a whole lot to give you his phone number and wants to hang out when he is in Orlando again. Not many people get an opportunity to become an every day type friend to someone you idolized growing up and watching on tv. Real happy for you!
WOW WOW and WOW!!! What an experience. I feel like I met him just by reading your re-cap! Fantastic, so glad you had a great time & thanks for taking the time to share your experience.
That is really great, David. What an experience--thanks for sharing. You look pretty buzzed in a few of the pictures--everyone is smiling so it's all good.
Awesome read and thanks for sharing and the pics. Funny when you mentioned a Championship Wrestling from Florida - that was a huge part of my childhood growing up in Florida in the 70's. Flair and Georgia wrestling along with Mid Atlantic were early 80's when cable TV came along, and most of my early youth was watching Jack Briscoe, Dusty Rhodes, Harley, Race, Jos LeDuc, Gary Hart's army (Pak Song, Mongolian Stomper...) Super Destroyer, Spoiler 1&2, Rocky Johnson, Superstar Billy Graham, Hollywood Blondes, Andre... We used to go live matches at the Miami Beach Convention Center on Wednesday nights, and they taped in Tampa on Saturday mornings.
I actually trained for Florida promotions back in early 90's after I was done playing ball in college with Duke "the Dumpster" Droese along with Anthony Adonis, and Anthony and I had guys backing us financially to wrestle. Even if you had the skills to do matches they still required 6 months of training... Anthony and I(his real name was Paul Gabano from Miami and we grew up playing together) went to a few places to work out/tryout - Rusty Brooks had a place in Ft Lauderdale and Tyree Pride(the Haitian Sensation) trained a lot of guys for CWF and WWF. I had just finished my senior year playing ball in college in the SEC, and had one year to finish up my degree - Paul was done with school. I was getting my final year paid for so I put it on hold since that was saving me about $15k a year. Paul ended up doing matches in Florida for 20 years and some "dark" matches for the WWF in the 90's.
One of the interesting things was we could do any move in the book - toughest at the time was the Frankensteiner move by Scott and Ric, and it really relied on the partner catching you while you were inverted or you busted your head and neck. Flair's move when he would go into the buckle and flip over and run down the apron was 1b to the Frankensteiner move. You had to really be aware where you were and hook the left arm on the rope or you went over and on to the floor which was not good. Amazing that Flair did it for so many years with all of he the travel, injuries, and so many guys do so much in terms of drugs( roids and painkillers) which causes so many early deaths.
While those rings look like they are sponges and soft most of the time training rings where 4-5 layers of plywood cover two steel support cables crisscrossed underneath with a 1/2" pad on top - your back and kidneys would feel it the next day after a training session.I wanted to get back in during the mid 90's but after a major knee surgery it would have only been a matter of time where injuries would have made it where I would have had to stop after only a short time. Ric is an icon and a legend, and so glad to hear you guys had a memorable time with him, I am sure he appreciated it just as much as you did. Thanks again for sharing.
Wow, such a tremendous event for you guys. That's just so awesome to have one of your childhood idols turn out to be so generous with his time and access. Sounds as if you couldn't have scripted a better meeting yourself. Thanks for sharing the details.
John
Conundrum - Loving my unopened baseball card collection....but really like ripping too
I told him this was the promo I first saw of his time in the Mid Atlantic region and one of my favorites. I can recite this basically word for word but there is one word I don't know what he is saying and I wanted to see if he knew. I pulled it up on my phone and he couldn't figure it out either. At the one minute mark from the Alligators to the? >>
David, the one word you couldnt decipher is actually two: Oleg Cassini. Google him. He was a big clothing designer from the 40's through the 80's and whenever that promo was shot--i'm guessing it was sometime in the early 80's or maybe even the late 70's?????---he was obviously still a big name in fashion for Flair to throw his name out like that and would've been that day's equivalent of Armani or Gucci
<< <i>NCAAs are a great spectator event....I watched Brock Lesnar lose to Stephen Neal (lineman for the Patriots and never played college football) for the heavyweight title. Brock won his title the next year at heavys. I submitted a few David Taylor cards to PSA. I am looking forward to having a few key amateur wrestling cards added to my collection. I put in a few Ed Ruths too. Thanks for chiming in here as we wait for the Flair news from D Peck! >>
Great story. I am a Rutgers alum, but watching those epic Penn State teams with Taylor, Ruth etc was really special. Until he ran into Dake, I always thought Taylor was the best wrestler of his era.
Conundrum - Loving my unopened baseball card collection....but really like ripping too
I told him this was the promo I first saw of his time in the Mid Atlantic region and one of my favorites. I can recite this basically word for word but there is one word I don't know what he is saying and I wanted to see if he knew. I pulled it up on my phone and he couldn't figure it out either. At the one minute mark from the Alligators to the? >>
David, the one word you couldnt decipher is actually two: Oleg Cassini. Google him. He was a big clothing designer from the 40's through the 80's and whenever that promo was shot--i'm guessing it was sometime in the early 80's or maybe even the late 70's?????---he was obviously still a big name in fashion for Flair to throw his name out like that and would've been that day's equivalent of Armani or Gucci >>
Awesome!!! It has taken me 12 years to figure this out.
Thanks for sharing. Your probably still on a high from yesterday! >>
Or having a major hangover.
Amazing stuff, Dpeck. I couldn't imagine how surreal it must have felt hanging with such a HUGE wrestling icon. >>
I woke up early feeling a little off but went to the gym and hit the pool for some more drinks! Haha
Surreal is the accurate word. >>
LOL! You're a beast, brother! >>
After two drinks Ric said are you going to be cool and I said don't worry just like you said Barry Windham could go drink for drink with you I will be just fine. After thinking about it this must be why drinks kept appearing. LOL
<< <i>After two drinks Ric said are you going to be cool and I said don't worry just like you said Barry Windham could go drink for drink with you I will be just fine. After thinking about it this must be why drinks kept appearing. LOL >>
Amazing, just amazing. I grew up in southern Virginia. Watched Mid Atlantic in the late 70's all thru the 80's. Flair was the man. Thanks for sharing, that was awesome.
I love that he inscribed that for friends only. I've always been a huge Flair fan, it's awesome he was such a down to Earth guy when you got to meet him too. I woulda had goosebumps. I'm gonna be sharing this story with my wrestling friends. Excellent read! Well done, sir!
Comments
Will upload some pics soon.
Beyond expectations by a mile!
<< <i>Just awesome!!! Beyond expectations by a mile! >>
Happy to hear you had a great time Dave.
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
<< <i>Just awesome!!!
Will upload some pics soon.
Beyond expectations by a mile! >>
Fantastic! I was hoping this went well. Congratulations, and I look forward to the story and pictures!
<< <i>On drink number 5 with Ric! >>
Just saw this, wow, what an awesome experience. I'm with a couple of former HS wrestlers (NJ Wrestling is strong) who, like me, are degenerate WWF fans. I only collect Baseball, but am actually considering dipping the toe into Wrestling. Is unopened wrestling tough to acquire? Sorry for the amateur question, I'm certain that it has been covered.
<< <i>
<< <i>On drink number 5 with Ric! >>
Just saw this, wow, what an awesome experience. I'm with a couple of former HS wrestlers (NJ Wrestling is strong) who, like me, are degenerate WWF fans. I only collect Baseball, but am actually considering dipping the toe into Wrestling. Is unopened wrestling tough to acquire? Sorry for the amateur question, I'm certain that it has been covered. >>
Any great wrestling items that are unopened are really tough to acquire. I have not heard too much on collectors on the wrestling side who have significant pieces of unopened material. Some of the best is obviously the 1982 all stars that are still in the cello packs although those appear to be drying up as people have went and busted many of them to get graded. There are two card packs from the 1986 Carnation set from bags of cocoa mix here and there. Sumo has some nice unopened from Japan, but those are never seen. You can collect the popy figures from 1981 and there is a small pack of cards on the right of the figure. Of course you are competing with the figure collectors and those are not cheap.....they pretty much run $250 to $500 and the Hogan figure can reach up to $1000. I hope you join the wrestling card market. It is not as overwhelming as other sports and there has been huge growth in the market over the last five years.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I just put in a pool for my little kids. That was my legitimate card budget for the year. But I do have a modest allocation to do some damage. Appreciate the guidance in this area. But am only looking for unopened.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
<< <i>
<< <i>On drink number 5 with Ric! >>
Rumor has it when Ric walked into the lobby and saw Dave ... THIS was Ric's reaction:
And I think drink #6 went something like THIS:
And when Dave told Ric he had to leave, well, Ric was a bit upset. See for yourself:
Wake up Dave, Wake up! To drink with the man, you have to DRINK with the man!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
I really had no idea how this visit would go. Literally none. My approach was I didn't come with a game plan or specific questions to ask and was just of the mind set let Ric take the ball and where ever it goes it goes.
We were set to meet Ric in the hotel lobby and Michelle and I got there a little early. Traffic in Orlando can be really unpredictable and it was raining when we left so I wanted to make sure we had no chance of being late.
When we pulled up and told the valet we were there to meet Ric Flair he said awesome and parked my car right up front. I had gotten it washed earlier in the day so it would be looking good. Here is Michelle waiting in the lobby.
We were about fifteen minutes early and the nerves were building. Michelle said here he comes Dave. I could hear Ric say there is a guy with white shorts it must be him but it was just a guy walking by and I said Hey Ric it is Dave and he immediately came right up to us with his girlfriend Wendy. I had been told Ric wasn't drinking much and asked his agent if that was the case and she said he might want to have a glass of wine but let him make the call. I said cool. The first thing out of his mouth was you guys want to get a drink I am buying. I said hell yeah.
We walked over and sat on a multi seat couch and got acquainted. Ric is a super personable guy and it didn't take long for me to lose the nerves and just get comfortable. I was promised an hour and couldn't believe he hung out with us for 2 hours and 22 minutes. It was a little nerve wracking about forty minutes in when his daughter Ashley called and said she had gotten into a fender bender and Ric had to console her. She was supposed to be coming to have dinner with them so this may have worked out in my favor in reality.
We talked about anything and everything. He kept saying Dave you can ask me anything I just tried to keep it normal and not all wrestling.
Ric really liked my watch and said let me see that. I then asked him what the 24 was on his watch and he said it is the watch that Shawn Michaels gave him after their match at Wrestlemania 24. I told him we went and it was such a great match. He asked Michelle what she thought and was thrilled to hear her say she had a great time. He took off the watch and said check it out. I asked if I could take a pic and he said hell yeah anything you want Dave.
Ric you can tell is a generous guy. Some fans approached and Ric said hey I am with some private fans and the guy quickly piped in he was in the military for 30 years and his wife was dying to get a pic. As soon as he heard that he yelled over to the bartender these guys drinks are on me. They were losing their minds. The same couple came back about an hour and half later and I took pics for them on their phones. She had already posted the first one on Facebook and said that everyone on her friends list back home were dying.
I told him I grew up watching Championship Wrestling from Florida and asked him about working in the Eddie Graham Sports Stadium and if it was a dump since there are no pictures online of the exterior. He said it was the hottest wrestling arena he had ever worked in because it was essentially a barn with a tin roof. He said he lost over 11 pounds in a match there and Eddie always wanted them to work long matches so it was tough. He thought it was cool that my dad had gone to the matches there. I asked him how he could keep up the pace in the heat and he said you just went out there and did it. We talked about some of his key bumps and said if you thought about it you were done. I told him his face plant was amazing and that only Greg Valentine had potentially as good of one. He said have you seen my daughters with a huge smile.
One of my favorite moments was talking about the Slick Ric Youtube video and the words I have spent more money on spilt liquor in bars from one side of this word to the other then you have ever made. We laughed and Wendy piped in its true. I told him my favorite part of the interview is the end when he says what is causes all this...intensified beef products all man. He turned to Wendy and said I would like to give you some intensified beef product. Haha I then went on to tell him how I had been in Puerto Rico on vacation a few weeks earlier and spent about 75% of the time I was awake drinking and said that is all right and I was driving Michelle crazy with the Flair lines and I must have said intensified beef products 25 times. He thought it was great.
We talked about the current wrestling product and Ric agrees it is really confusing what they are doing. He said Vince is being weird and he and Hunter are at odds. The biggest difference is that Vince apparently changes his mind all the time and didn't used to. I said I thought it was a huge mistake to keep making the fans smart to the business and he said it is nuts that they keep filling them in even more. I said when you took the pile driver on the table from Terry Funk it was great because even smart fans back then were like OMG that looked real. He said Funk almost broke his neck.
Ric was pounding down the red wine on ice and literally every time I set my drink down another one appeared. I had six vodka on the rocks and was getting really buzzed and just couldn't believe what was happening. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought one day I would get to party with the Nature Boy. He never treated us like fans who were paying to see him. He said it blows his mind how many events he gets paid to do. He said did you see me at the finals? I said yeah. He said he was the guest of Lebron James and Wendy showed us a pic of her and Kevin Love. He said he couldn't get the guy to stop talking about wrestling. He said people just love the old stuff and I said no doubt. Dusty Rhodes name came up so we pulled up the clip of Hard Times. He said Dusty was jealous he was getting to go to the finals and was dead two days later. Apparently he had been sick for 10 months and dropped 80 pounds but wouldn't check himself in to see a Dr.
When I get drinking I start flexing my muscles and so does Ric. He has guns. The pictures do not do them justice.
When Wendy stepped away to use the rest room I told him about the first time I had met him and showed him the Carnation card and the story behind the signing backstage. My neighbor got us backstage and I had pounded a few Coors light tall boys in the parking lot. Bill and I were waiting in the production building and the wrestlers were walking by. Out of no where I felt a churn in my stomach and said oh no. I raced to the bathroom and blew it up. As I am walking out beyond embarrassed in walks Ric Flair. I waited for him for about 10 minutes outside and then asked if he would sign the card and did. He was laughing about the story. Here is a pic of the Carnation card he signed last night. He wrote Woooo on it and I said Ric I have never seen that on a card before. He said I only do that for friends. He said he hated working for TNA and the money was great for what he did but quit because he couldn't take it anymore. The tapings were fine but the house shows drove him nuts.
I waited until about an hour and a half in and said hey Ric will you sign these items and he said for sure. He signed the Carnation card first. The next item I showed him was the program with the photo used for his card. I asked him how long he knew he had a card and he just said he had seen them for a while. He thought the pic wasn't as old as it is because he said he had bought that robe to wear at Starcade 83 to face Harley. He saw the date on the program and seemed confused but acknowledged it was obviously older then he thought.
Next I had him sign the Mid Atlantic Magazine and you could tell he loved seeing an old pic from the time when he won his first title. We both agreed silver would look best.
Next I had him sign the disk from Japan. He said he didn't recall ever seeing one and loved the pic and said man look at all of that hair. He said lets do that one in blue. It will look good.
The final item I had him sign was the article. We flipped through it and he looked at the pics. He said hey Andre is only an 8. Then on the next page he said oh good Dusty is a 10 too. He loved seeing the collection in the pics.
Some of the other wrestling related questions I asked him was if Kerry Von Erich and Fritz knew he would only hold the belt for 18 days. His answer wasn't entirely clear but he said they were so disorganized and that the kids were messed up at all times. He said the match in Texas Stadium was horrible and that Kerry was completely messed up. He did say Kerry was a terrible worker and that he had wrestled him for an hour when he had done a lot of drugs. I asked him if he had ever seen Harley Race really kick someone's a++ and he said oh yeah. He said Ming was the toughest hands down and mentioned the nose biting incident and poking guys eyes out.
Ric was super cool about taking the pics near the end.
This visit couldn't have gone any better. He made us feel like we were friends and said several times Dave thank you for being so respectful. It means a lot to me. He loved my shoes and said had he known he would have worn some better ones. He loved my necklace and I said I wore it because I thought he would like it. He said oh yeah and had bought the same one for his deceased son. Some people from the hotel had come and sat down and they were ready for dinner so we were getting close to being wrapped up. I asked him if he had seen the Poodle Face Youtube videos and he said no. We watched both and you could see it in his eyes that he loved seeing the old clips. I asked him if he liked them and he said no, I didn't get paid for them with a grin. We stood up and he gave me a hug and said he wanted to hang out with us next time they were in Orlando. He said let me give you my number. I said seriously. He said type it in and call me. It was his number. I am so glad this worked out and I am thrilled I went through with it. On the drive home we text him thanks and he wrote back right away. Ric Flair is the man. Plain and simple. I am now a bigger fan than ever! This is just a synopsis and naturally I am leaving some out but these were most of the high points. On the drive home Michelle and I were losing our minds. It was that cool!
I told him this was the promo I first saw of his time in the Mid Atlantic region and one of my favorites. I can recite this basically word for word but there is one word I don't know what he is saying and I wanted to see if he knew. I pulled it up on my phone and he couldn't figure it out either. At the one minute mark from the Alligators to the?
I asked him if these were one shot deals and he said oh yeah. The studio work in Atlanta was done at 9 AM and he said many times he had been out partying all night and just let it fly when he cut his promos.
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Marc
Great encounter. Glad it went well. Priceless.
Always looking to buy or trade for Andre the Giant autographs
psacard.com/psasetregistry/non-sports/famous-personage/andre-giant-master-set/alltimeset/180400
-CDs Nuts, 1/20/14
*1956 Topps baseball- 97.4% complete, 7.24 GPA
*Clemente basic set: 85.0% complete, 7.89 GPA
Jeremy
Ric Flair is the man!
Woooooooooooo!
Congrats! (That was two things)
Ok, three things. It was good for you to write out your experience in such detail right afterwards. Memory does fade but now you have it in writing.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Thanks for sharing.
Jim
I actually trained for Florida promotions back in early 90's after I was done playing ball in college with Duke "the Dumpster" Droese along with Anthony Adonis, and Anthony and I had guys backing us financially to wrestle. Even if you had the skills to do matches they still required 6 months of training... Anthony and I(his real name was Paul Gabano from Miami and we grew up playing together) went to a few places to work out/tryout - Rusty Brooks had a place in Ft Lauderdale and Tyree Pride(the Haitian Sensation) trained a lot of guys for CWF and WWF. I had just finished my senior year playing ball in college in the SEC, and had one year to finish up my degree - Paul was done with school. I was getting my final year paid for so I put it on hold since that was saving me about $15k a year. Paul ended up doing matches in Florida for 20 years and some "dark" matches for the WWF in the 90's.
One of the interesting things was we could do any move in the book - toughest at the time was the Frankensteiner move by Scott and Ric, and it really relied on the partner catching you while you were inverted or you busted your head and neck. Flair's move when he would go into the buckle and flip over and run down the apron was 1b to the Frankensteiner move. You had to really be aware where you were and hook the left arm on the rope or you went over and on to the floor which was not good. Amazing that Flair did it for so many years with all of he the travel, injuries, and so many guys do so much in terms of drugs( roids and painkillers) which causes so many early deaths.
While those rings look like they are sponges and soft most of the time training rings where 4-5 layers of plywood cover two steel support cables crisscrossed underneath with a 1/2" pad on top - your back and kidneys would feel it the next day after a training session.I wanted to get back in during the mid 90's but after a major knee surgery it would have only been a matter of time where injuries would have made it where I would have had to stop after only a short time. Ric is an icon and a legend, and so glad to hear you guys had a memorable time with him, I am sure he appreciated it just as much as you did. Thanks again for sharing.
John
<< <i>One thing I forgot to add. Slick Ric
I told him this was the promo I first saw of his time in the Mid Atlantic region and one of my favorites. I can recite this basically word for word but there is one word I don't know what he is saying and I wanted to see if he knew. I pulled it up on my phone and he couldn't figure it out either. At the one minute mark from the Alligators to the? >>
David, the one word you couldnt decipher is actually two: Oleg Cassini. Google him. He was a big clothing designer from the 40's through the 80's and whenever that promo was shot--i'm guessing it was sometime in the early 80's or maybe even the late 70's?????---he was obviously still a big name in fashion for Flair to throw his name out like that and would've been that day's equivalent of Armani or Gucci
<< <i>NCAAs are a great spectator event....I watched Brock Lesnar lose to Stephen Neal (lineman for the Patriots and never played college football) for the heavyweight title. Brock won his title the next year at heavys. I submitted a few David Taylor cards to PSA. I am looking forward to having a few key amateur wrestling cards added to my collection. I put in a few Ed Ruths too. Thanks for chiming in here as we wait for the Flair news from D Peck! >>
Great story. I am a Rutgers alum, but watching those epic Penn State teams with Taylor, Ruth etc was really special. Until he ran into Dake, I always thought Taylor was the best wrestler of his era.
Thanks so much for sharing and in such great detail. Fascinating read.
Thanks for sharing. Your probably still on a high from yesterday!
<< <i>Great stuff David
Thanks for sharing. Your probably still on a high from yesterday! >>
Or having a major hangover.
Amazing stuff, Dpeck. I couldn't imagine how surreal it must have felt hanging with such a HUGE wrestling icon.
<< <i>
<< <i>One thing I forgot to add. Slick Ric
I told him this was the promo I first saw of his time in the Mid Atlantic region and one of my favorites. I can recite this basically word for word but there is one word I don't know what he is saying and I wanted to see if he knew. I pulled it up on my phone and he couldn't figure it out either. At the one minute mark from the Alligators to the? >>
David, the one word you couldnt decipher is actually two: Oleg Cassini. Google him. He was a big clothing designer from the 40's through the 80's and whenever that promo was shot--i'm guessing it was sometime in the early 80's or maybe even the late 70's?????---he was obviously still a big name in fashion for Flair to throw his name out like that and would've been that day's equivalent of Armani or Gucci
Awesome!!! It has taken me 12 years to figure this out.
<< <i>
<< <i>Great stuff David
Thanks for sharing. Your probably still on a high from yesterday! >>
Or having a major hangover.
Amazing stuff, Dpeck. I couldn't imagine how surreal it must have felt hanging with such a HUGE wrestling icon. >>
I woke up early feeling a little off but went to the gym and hit the pool for some more drinks! Haha
Surreal is the accurate word.
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>Great stuff David
Thanks for sharing. Your probably still on a high from yesterday! >>
Or having a major hangover.
Amazing stuff, Dpeck. I couldn't imagine how surreal it must have felt hanging with such a HUGE wrestling icon. >>
I woke up early feeling a little off but went to the gym and hit the pool for some more drinks! Haha
Surreal is the accurate word. >>
LOL! You're a beast, brother!
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>Great stuff David
Thanks for sharing. Your probably still on a high from yesterday! >>
Or having a major hangover.
Amazing stuff, Dpeck. I couldn't imagine how surreal it must have felt hanging with such a HUGE wrestling icon. >>
I woke up early feeling a little off but went to the gym and hit the pool for some more drinks! Haha
Surreal is the accurate word. >>
LOL! You're a beast, brother! >>
After two drinks Ric said are you going to be cool and I said don't worry just like you said Barry Windham could go drink for drink with you I will be just fine. After thinking about it this must be why drinks kept appearing. LOL
<< <i>After two drinks Ric said are you going to be cool and I said don't worry just like you said Barry Windham could go drink for drink with you I will be just fine. After thinking about it this must be why drinks kept appearing. LOL >>
What a hoot!
I grew up in southern Virginia. Watched Mid Atlantic in the late 70's all thru the 80's. Flair was the man. Thanks for sharing, that was awesome.
I love that he inscribed that for friends only. I've always been a huge Flair fan, it's awesome he was such a down to Earth guy when you got to meet him too. I woulda had goosebumps. I'm gonna be sharing this story with my wrestling friends. Excellent read! Well done, sir!