Sports Feles: Ric Flair's Long Steady Decline

Mug Shot

Grantland.com, a sports and pop culture affiliated with ESPN.com, has published a major expose on Ric Flair comparing him to a real life version of The Wrestler. In the 2008 film, Mickey Rourke plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson, an aging professional wrestler who continues to compete in spite of his failing health in an attempt to cling on to his glory days.

In tremendous detail, the article examines the wrestling legend's personal struggles, financial issues and allegations of physical abuse by his ex-wives. The story states that Flair continues to perform for TNA Wrestling despite suffering from alcoholic cardiomyopathy (a heart problem) and that almost everything he earns from the "second-tier outfit" goes toward paying off old debts: lawyers, ex-wives, the IRS, former business partners and "anyone who made the mistake of lending him money."
In April, a judge evicted Flair from his home in Charlotte, NC because he couldn't afford to pay rent.

The story of Ric Flair was once about a college dropout who rose through the ranks of professional wrestling to become a legend. It was about his nickname, "The Nature Boy," and his signature figure four leglock, both lifted from an older wrestler named Buddy Rogers. It was about his multiple championships, his bleach-blond hair, his fast-talking patter (by his own reckoning, Flair was a "stylin', profilin', limousine-riding, jet-flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin'-n'-dealin' son of a gun!"), and his signature, trademarked cry: "WOOO!"

Trish Stratus

Today the story is about a man known in the court system as Richard Morgan Fliehr, 62, born in 1949 and adopted by parents who raised him in Minnesota. That's what he was called this past April, when a judge ejected Fliehr from his Charlotte home because he couldn't pay his rent. That's what he was called in May, when he faced an arrest order for an unpaid $35,000 loan. That's what he's called on the paychecks from Total Nonstop Action, a second-tier outfit where he's still compelled to perform despite suffering from alcoholic cardiomyopathy, and where almost everything he earns goes toward old debts: lawyers, ex-wives, the IRS, former business partners, and anyone who made the mistake of lending him money.

The Mecklenburg County courthouse in Charlotte contains thousands of pages documenting Fliehr's legal adventures. There, it's possible to unearth the gory specifics of a lifetime: how he passed out after attacking his son Reid in a fit of anger after the boy broke his drunken mother's arm by pushing her out of an elevator; how he lost a fistfight with his daughter's boyfriend; how he exposed his genitalia to airline attendants.One can also read how Fliehr allegedly flew into steroid-induced rages against his wife and children; how he suffered anxiety attacks and at least one nervous breakdown, how he broke his back in a 1974 plane crash; how he was mistreated by powerful bosses such as Eric Bischoff; how he bought millions of dollars' worth of jewelry for the women in his life; how he was cited for letting a drunk 20-year-old woman drive his car in North Carolina; how he used the same NWA title belt as collateral for two different loans.

Jacqueline Beems

Taken together, the information produces a rough timeline that illustrates Fliehr's self-destructive impulses. It includes excesses that Hollywood screenwriters wouldn't have the audacity to invent, and yet it follows its own logic — one bad decision comes after another, each magnifying the damage of the one to follow.

1991: In August, Fliehr switched from WCW to the WWF. The NWA filed a lawsuit against him, angry that he was using his NWA title belt from 1990 in televised WWF promotions. Fliehr refused to return the belt, but a judge ruled that he could not use it for any commercial purpose. Additionally, he was barred from referring to himself as the NWA champion.

Mug Shot: his wife (Jacqueline Beems) was arrested for assaulting him...

Basically Ric didn't pay his taxes in the 1980s and by the 1990s was being taken to court. He was in lawsuits with various wrestling companies as well as anyone who would loan him money or do any kind of business with him. He has been married too many times and each wife seems to be worse than the one before and takes him for more than the one before. He has spent millions on his wives and lost millions to them in his divorces. If you need to buy a girl a 1,000,000 engagement ring and then 2 years later she is divorcing you and stealing all your stuff including jewelry that your mother left you in her will, I think you picked the wrong girl to marry. Just my opinion.

I tried to find pictures of each of Ric Flairs wives. This was all I could find.

Ric Flair and one of his wives at the movie The Wrestler

In 2009, Flair filed a criminal complaint against Tiffany Vandemark — wife no. 3 — whom he accused of "hitting him in the face with a phone charger."

Triple H was his best man when Ric married Tiffany

So to recap:

* He wrestles despite suffering from alcoholic cardiomyopathy because he needs money.
* Using the NWA title belt for collateral for different loans.
* Nonpayment of taxes throughout the 1980s.
* The lawsuit filed against him for allegedly flashing his genitals to flight attendants.
* Domestic and physical issues with several of his ex-wives.

Ric Flair's Reaction To The Story...

Black-Eye & Girls lol

TMZ.com is reporting that Ric Flair is "furious" over the recent Grantland.com article that stated that Flair was suffering from cardiomyopathy, a disease caused by years of alcohol abuse.

Flair claims that the report, which is mostly based on court documents, contains falsehoods and is especially angry about the cardiomyopathy allegations.

"While the information gleaned from courthouse records may be credible, Mr. Fliehr is currently evaluating his legal options with respect to falsehoods in the story, specifically the untrue statement that he suffers from alcoholic cardiomyopathy," a representative for Flair told TMZ.com. "Our client understands that these allegations are part of the territory when you are not only famous, but a living legend."

Contrary to Zanoni's statement, Flair admitted in his 2004 autobiography, Ric Flair: To Be the Man, that he suffers from alcoholic cardiomyopathy as a result of his "many years of partying."

"Through my many years of partying, I also developed something called "alcoholic cardiomyopathy," a weakening of heart muscles," Flair stated on page 304. "I first detected that there was something wrong when my heart began skipping beats. I went to a cardiologist friend who told me that when your heart pumps, it expands to a rubber band. But mine was doing it too much. Initially, I thought that steroids might be responsible, but the doctor dismissed this theory. My heart was fluttering from thirty-five years of hitting it hard.

"It's the part of the price of being Ric Flair. In exchange for the glory and the good times, I acquired a heart condition, self-esteem issues, and cataracts from tanning beds—and very nearly wrecked my marriage to a great woman. But incredibly, I remained ageless in other ways. And in 2002, at nearly fifty-three years old, I was about to see if I could show a new generation of fans what they missed in the 1970s and 1980s."