"Ric Flair: To be the Man"- a review
"If you do not pick up a copy of this book, I'm not sure you should be allowed to continue calling yourself a wrestling fan." -Lance Storm
To say that I agree with Lance Storm's take on Ric Flair's autobiography, "Ric Flair: To be the Man", would be an understatement. This is far and away the best wrestler autobiography I have ever read. I never found the kind of enjoyment that I found with Ric's book in Mick's, Rock's, and definitely not in Chyna's, books from several years ago. Not by a long shot.
It doesn't matter if you're a Flair fan (like me) or not; if you are a wrestling fan, you need this book. It will leave you with a newfound appreciation for the wrestling business that I can't even describe in words. This book is not just a timeline on Ric's life, but has so much history of and insight into wrestling itself. Following Ric's career through his days as a rookie wrestling in southern territories, to the NWA, to WCW, to the WWF, back to WCW, and then again to WWF (at that point now the WWE), you'll see just how and how much the business has changed over the past few decades, what went on behind the scenes leading to such major changes, all the political intrigues, egos, and differing personalities- it is, simply put, fascinating. I had a hard time putting this book down. The 328 pages will fly by.
Something special about this book is the large number of excerpts contributed throughout it by many big names in wrestling of both the past and present. Ric's stories are further elaborated on by the likes of Harley Race, Ken Patera, Sgt. Slaughter, Gerald Brisco, Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Bubba Ray Dudley, the Hurricane, and members of Ric's family.
Ric doesn't hold back on any subject or person in this book. He goes into all the sordid details of his lifestyle as the "limousine ridin', jet flyin', kiss-stealin', wheelin'-dealin' son-of-a-gun"- nothing is glossed over, and much of what Ric talks about are things that he admits to not being proud of, things that hurt his family, etc. He also has plenty of blistering comments for several major names in the business, such as promoter Jim Herd, Bret Hart, Mick Foley, Scott Steiner, Hulk Hogan, and, more than any other, Eric Bischoff. I like Bischoff, but reading about the countless number of ways which he degraded and disrespected Ric left me with considerably less respect for him than I had beforehand.
The book is an emotional roller coaster ride from start to finish. You'll laugh, cry, and feel moments of both outrage and exhiliration as you progress through the book, which climaxes with the telling of the night which Ric wrestled Triple H in Greenville, South Carolina last year on Raw- an incredible, emotional story that was, in my opinion, the perfect note to end the book on.
There's really not much more that I can say about this book. If you haven't already, BUY IT. You're doing yourself an injustice as a wrestling fan if you don't.
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