Could you imagine pulling up to the plane crash expecting the absolute worst, and ric flair stands up out of the debris with crazy burnt hair going Woooooooooo! 😂
Crashed my cessna 185 I'd rate it as bad as a motorbike crash at the same speed. If you nose dive into the ground though you'd be toast at about 35-40mph no joke
Believe it or not you can walk about with a broken back and neck after a few days. I did. It depends what ones you break/fracture and how bad you do it. I had fractured the worst bits but they hadn't lost their shape so didn't collapse. If mine collapsed and could not keep their overall length then I would be dead now as it was the ones that shut your lungs and heart down when they get badly blown out or broken
@@bigduphusaj162 I had a bad accident in 2020 and it never stopped me from walking but every couple months after that it would act up bad until it slowly started getting better took about 2 years before it started feeling normal. Honestly if it was any worse I probably would have considered surgery
That plane crash completely changed Ric Flair as a wrestler. Before it happened, he was a really burly grappler and was at his heaviest in weight. After the crash, he couldn't carry all that weight anymore due to his broken back and had to slim down and rely more on his personality instead of sheer strength.
Rick Flair will always have a special place in my heart. When I was a kid me and a friend were hanging out with my Dad and some of his friends in the garage playing darts. They were hammered and this one guy out of nowhere starts going "Wooooooooo!" and does Rick's signature strut then jumps up and elbow drops the floor breaking his elbow. It was a beautiful moment.
Repent. Believe in Jesus Christ and become a new person in this life. John 3:16 KJV For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Matthew 4:17 KJV From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV - Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
The most incredible part of this story is that it took place when kayfabe was considered sacred to the business. Kayfabe means that behind the scenes they can be friends but for the show and the crowd some guys were sworn enemies and it was not an option to break character. One of the other surviors, can't recall right now, but after the plane crashed and he was taking it all in his first thought was "omg if news gets out that i was on a plane with Ric Flair, my career is over." Because Flair was the villian and this other guy was the babyface, it was forbidden for them to be seen in public together. Imagine surviving something like that and coming to that realization. Crazy world we live in!
The stories about how seriously keeping the fact that wrestling was scripted back in the day are fucking wild to think about in todays age where it’s been a known fact for decades. The big fire storm when Dugan and Iron Sheik got arrested together for possession because they were in a feud on TV at the time. One of my favorite stories of those days is that one of the old territory owners had a rule that if a wrestler got in a fight in public and lost the fight then he was fired because it exposed the wrestlers as not being legitimately tough.
Having broken my back in a motorcycle accident(hit by a car) interesting enough in October as well just 2019 it blows my mind and motivates the hell out of me that Ric not only came back from it walking but carried on kicking ass for almost four decades.
I can never understand why people want to ride motorcycles with other cars around, knowing just how dumb people are driving, on top of tht, in this day and age with tards on their phone
Grew up watching this guy in a country Ric might not actually know. Zimbabwe. Happy memories. Thank you Ric for the entertainment. One of the greats for sure. Peace and blessings to you, your family and fans.
I remember him always landing on his side and thinking why is he taking the bump? This answers so many questions. As a 40 yr old who remembers the iron sheik and ultimate warrior, yokozuna, the undertaker. God this hits my nostalgia respect old man.
@@indigomontoya8376 I have a confession. Tugboat was and still is my favorite he was like 1989-92 or something. Loved him. And the 2 chunky guys in red with the spikes on thier football pads .... Ohhhh bushwhackers? Noo nasty boys? Noo doom? Ohh it's been too long my friend.
I’m from Wilmington and met Ric at the Azalea Festival when I was 13 back in like 2009. Great guy! Saw him wrestle years earlier with my dad when he did his run with Shawn Michaels. Legend
One of the most resilient, tough, determined men ever to live. Born in another century, Ric would've been some kind of warrior or gladiator that just can't be killed.
It's crazy to hear Ric say I can't take a back drop because of what happened.. on the other hand.. the mental fortitude of this man to not only wrestle again, become of the greatest (16 time champ???) and also one of the greatest talkers on the mic, ever. Incredibly inspiring human being man. Legend of the craft. Legend human being.
articulate? He seems a cool guy with some great stories but he's a 73 year old man who gets hit in the head with chairs for a living and has done waaaaaaaay too much cocaine lmao his speech is slurred af like Rick James
Such a nice man. Met him in 79 in Houston when he was working Austin, San Antonio and Houston. My husband was 6'8" and about 340lbs but he would never have gone up against Ric. Lol.
A lot of younger fans don’t know. It was horrendous. When I was a kid (during one of his few big baby face runs I think against Vader) they brought it up on WCW. That’s why he did the face bump and landed on his side. They call it the Flair bump.
It is very important to listen to old folks. They have stories to tell. My grandpa did work in Baikonur Kazakhstan from where all the soviet sattelites and best rockets where launched. Crazy times as He did describe. He was not an engineer, just a soldier there, but the stories He could recall about the times there are jaw dropping. As of now He is goin crazy and hard to talk sense with Him. But when I was 16 and We had first beer together. He told me so much...
Just to put this in context, Flair was 26 years old when the plane crash happened, which was razor thin to ending his career forever. Fastforward to the year 1996, at 47 years old, he would go on to have 750 more matches from that age. Absolutely extraordinary and inspiring to me and it's not nearly talked about enough!
Here's the thing. When Ric started out in the business, he was more built and was a more high-impact wrestler, more intense so to speak. But after the plane crash where he broke his back, Ric had to adopt a softer style, but he was a genius for turning his matches into more psychological, slower paced matches. And he would rarely take bumps onto his bad back, a lot less than guys like Koloff or Rhodes or Steamboat, but he made those bumps he took in the ring matter more.
The Pilot, Johnny Valentine, Ric Flair, David Crockett and Mr Wrestling( Tim Woods) were all in the plane. The plane was overloaded because of the weight of the wrestlers ,so the pilot did not fill the has tanks to save weight. That's was the story that was reported at the time. Wahoo was to wrestle Flair that night and herd of the plane crash . He shows up at the hospital to check up on the guys and the nurses thought Wahoo was there to fight. That's the story I herd.
I have fond memories of playing Ric flair in SmackDown versus raw 2008. I always picked him because his finishing move was him literally grabbing someone by the nuts and squeezing them until they tapped 😂😂😂
I'm 53 and remember watching Ric Flair matches with my grandpa. Good times and great memories. My grandpa absolutely loved pro wrestling. Ric Flair is and always will be the man.👍
Nature Boy!! Anyone else remember Mid Atlantic Wrestling on Saturday TV in the 70s?? I think it came on after American Bandstand and Soul Train. Great time to be a kid.
Never missed it. We moved from New Jersey, where I was used to WWWF, IWA and the Wednesday night Lucha Libre from the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles on a UHF station. Living in Georgia, I never missed Mid Atlantic and Georgia Championship. I was blown away by the “southern style” and immediately hooked by the likes of Flair and Valentine and The Andersons. Always ringside at the shows in Anderson, Greenville, Spartanburg, over to Augusta, Atlanta, Gainesville. The audience left covered in sweat.
@@ithinkaboutthings9052 Haha that's awesome. I grew up in central Virginia. I was a little kid so I just assumed anyone on TV was world famous but these guys were just as grassroots as it gets back then like old school NASCAR.
Joe, I love every interview you do. You are very honest, thoughtful and acute! You have inspired me to start a channel that focuses on incredible things. Called Mindblown!
I grew up in Dayton Ohio as a young teenager in the '70s and my favorite matches were always Ric flair versus Tommy wildfire Rich seen him at her arena many times. My mother would drop me and my little cousin off at the arena would go in and watch get as close as we could and every time they came to town. Great fucking memories Ric Flair! THANK YOU!!
I've never been a fan of Ric Flair. Not that I don't see his greatness, just that it wasn't where my attention went while being a wrestling fan in the late 90s. With that said, just because a product isn't your taste, doesn't mean you have to be blind to what made it great. While I'm not an expert at all on Ric Flair one of the things I've noticed is he was always in his element and always in command of his persona. It's hard for me to muster up the energy to make a speech at work, let alone stand in front of that much pressure week in and week out like Flair, who never flinched. In my opinion that is at the core of what made his peers so respectful towards him. It didn't matter what, where, when, or why; Flair was on the top of his game. He would've been great at anything in life, fans are lucky he chose to entertain them.
I never used to listen to some of the good music in the 90's. Now Im listening to some and appreciating it more than I ever would back then. Kind of how I look at a lot of things nowadays. Was never a Ric Flair fan as well but gosh damn, gotta appreciate this man and other like him for their contribution to the culture/heartbeat of America. Love seeing him with Migos doing dances and little clips of him out with fans or out in the town being candid. Love it!
Love this man! Well, I've always LOVED to HATE this man, which is a testament to his performances! Met him in Georgia at a bar downtown. One of my best memories.
The man who created an entire culture and way of life. Wish Spotify showed how many views. His 30 for 30 is great but he's had a tragic life, high cost.
What an incredible story of resilience! Ric Flair's survival of that horrific plane crash and his comeback to wrestling just a few months later shows the true fighting spirit of a legend. Hearing him share this harrowing experience and how he overcame the physical and psychological barriers to continue his wrestling career is truly inspiring. This man is a testament to never giving up, even when the odds are stacked against you. #RicFlair #Survivor #WrestlingLegend
I just noticed, I've been subscribed to this Channel on RU-vid for years and can't remember the last time a video from here was suggested. Makes ya wonder
He was a pretty heavy bruiser type worker then. After breaking his back he lost a lot of weight so he would be able to move around easier and The Nature Boy was born!
I first saw Flair after the crash and when he became The Nature Boy. Years later, I saw some photos from the time he first broke in. He was built like The Bruiser and The Crusher.
I'll never forget Ric flair my dad took me to see him fight Chief wahoo McDaniel in the late seventies sometime Charlotte coliseum there was fake blood everywhere
I'd heard this story before and it's crazy he lived. He also had a guy die standing next to him from lightning but it struck his umbrella. It's a crazy story as well.
Flair probably should have died many times. Heaven doesn’t want him and hell is afraid he’d take over. Imagine ol’ slew foot trying to hang against Space Mountain, the 60 Minute Man. WOOOOOOOO!
I went sideways from about 63mph to O mph instantaneously (the light pole didn't budge). Wrapped a Dodge Aspen station wagon around the pole at about dead center, drivers side. The bumpers were about 4 inches apart on the other side of the pole. Compression fracture T12 (almost flat) and a broken wrist, which I did in shock opening the passenger door. I refused all surgery attempts even though it hurt like hell for months. Eventually my mid back muscles built up around the area and the vertebrae actually grew back. I still had occasional pain (no fucking narcotics since I hated the feeling) until I visited an Osteopathic Doctor, a true healer. He did some very gentle playing around with my spine and I have been pain free ever since, 23 years now. The human body is incredible and will heal itself given time and the will to let it happen. That Doctor was amazing. Talked to me for an hour about my life, then smiled and said he could cure my pain in 2 or 3 visits....it only took that one. 🤗
@@navtektv That actually makes more sense, Vince is probably stuck in the past, Triple H is more in touch and probably still remembers attitude era and ruthless aggression stuff
I live in Wilmington and remember hearing that Ric Flair was in town occasionally back during the 80's. I literally live one mile from the house where Michael Jordan grew up in on Gordon Rd.
If you look up legend in the dictionary, this man should be the picture next to it. He is literally an icon that I’m lucky to have been able to witness watch growing up.
Ric passed my dad in an airport maybe 10 yrs ago. My dad is 5’9. He said Ric was was much shorter than him. I doubt he was ever 6’2 but maybe in those wrestling boots
Man, Rick, me and my brother used to love watching. You come out with that glittery robot. And 2 dime piece 80s chicks on your side. You're the man, Rick God bless you may you live a long life and prosper. Thank you for all the entertainment over the years I. Appreciate it
I used to watch Flair on Championship Wrestling from Florida with Gordon Solie, announcer. He was lots of fun but after he came back, it wasn't the same.
