There are many legends in wrestling, but a few of them stand far above the rest. One of these guys is Ric Flair. He just turned 70 years old this year, and out of those 70, he dedicated 40 to his professional wrestling career. Yes, Ric Flair was a professional wrestler for 40 years. It is impossible for someone to attain that kind of longevity in the sport unless they are a fan favorite and a great example for the next generation.

Ric Flair was an exemplary wrestler. He was flashy, he was athletic, he was skilled, and he knew how to work a crowd as few others could. But that was not the only thing Flair was good at. The man also had a knack for creating mayhem backstage and in real life. That’s why we put together a list of 10 insane real-life Ric Flair stories that prove how awesome he is.

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9 Zeus Likes Him

We are not quite sure if Ric Flair has had a convo with the Greek God or not, but one thing we know for sure is that, supposedly, Flair has been hit by lightning twice. No, we are not kidding. This is WWE Canon, as the stories of how Flair got hit by lightning are quite known throughout the industry.

Both of the times it happened a plane was involved. In the first one, his flight was delayed by a storm, Flair and the other passengers were allowed to go outside of the aircraft and given some umbrellas. In that one, the lightning hit his umbrella. It also killed a guy who was close to Ric. The second time, he was inside a plane going to celebrate Fourth of July somewhere, and the plane got struck by lightning.

8 Image Enhancement Problems

If we were to give young wrestlers advice after researching these stories, the big one would be, don’t try to keep up with Ric Flair when it comes to his lifestyle. Lex Luger found that out the hard way.

Apparently, Flair had a tendency to always check into very fancy hotels whenever they got into a new town. He did that on a trip to Sacramento while Luger was with him. They each got a room but had to leave immediately to go to the night’s show and went out partying after.

By the time they got back to the hotel, it was almost time for them to catch their flight back. So, Luger only got a few seconds on the bed before going down to check out and finding out that the room cost a whopping $500. He got mad at Flair, who only said that it was all “part of the image enhancement.”

7 Fun and Dedication

Bret Hart and Ric Flair have an interesting relationship, to say the least. Nevertheless, they were two of the biggest wrestlers of their generation, so they interacted with each other a lot. And one thing that stuck out to Bret Hart was the kind of dedication Flair put in both to his partying and to his training. The man was always out partying, but according to Hart, there was one specific night in which he realized how great the guy actually was.

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First, Hart tried to keep up with Flair during the night’s partying but failed and checked out as the sun was coming up. Hart got up a few hours later and made his way to the gym to get his workout done. To his surprise, he found an invigorated Ric Flair running on the treadmill, not even phased by the lack of sleep or suffering any side effects from the alcohol.

6 Making Terry Taylor Beg to be pinned

Some people just function well under the effect of alcohol. We don’t know why that is, but there are folks who can do that. Ric Flair was one of those people according to a story Terry Taylor told about the first time he wrestled the legend.

According to Taylor, Flair rolled into the arena after quite a bit of partying, reeking of alcohol and looking like a classic town drunk. Security actually had to help him in. But, it was no problem, as he only needed an hour-long nap before they walked onto the ring and he put on such a show that an out of breath Taylor was begging for the match to stop while Flair just kept saying “let’s go, let’s go!”

5 Flashing People

Being comfortable in your skin is one thing, being as comfortable in your skin is Ric Flair is, is a whole other business. The man loved his own body and you need to go no further than seeing how much he loved displaying it for the world to see. Nevertheless, there were a few times when he went overboard.

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For example, the passengers in a flight going to Portland, Oregon, got to see a little more of the Nature Boy that most of them probably wanted to see. The stories that Flair went into the plane’s bathroom and moments later came out wearing only a pair of alligator shoes, his robe, some dress socks and went on to flash the entire plane.

4 The crew created a new word just for him

When you live life like Ric Flair did during his career, it is impossible to go without spending a ridiculous amount of money. Limousines, women, alcohol, hotel rooms, anything you can imagine that would involve partying, Ric Flair probably already spent more money on that than you would believe. For this specific “trait” of his, other wrestlers actually created a term in his honor.

Triple H said it in an interview that the term is called “Naitching.” It is used by them to describe when someone is spending a ridiculous amount of money for no reason. Truly, a fitting homage to The Nature Boy.

3 He survived a plane crash

Not many people in the world can say they survived a plane crash. To add to the mythology around his person, Ric Flair is one of those few people. Not only that, he survived the plane crash and three months later he was already recovered and wrestling. The man had suffered a broken neck from a plane crash, and it only took him three months to recover.

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That speaks not only to his luck for being alive but also for his durability in how he was able to so quickly recovered from something so terrible. One of the other wrestlers who were on the plane got paralyzed and never wrestled again.

2 The fur coats

We told you that other wrestlers created a term that means spending money on stuff you don’t have to in order to honor Ric Flair. This story is a perfect example of why they did that. Back in 1985, Flair was at the top of his game both on the wrestling ring while performing on the Great American Bash tour, and outside of it on his partying.

He tells the story of how they had a private jet and got to stay at amazing hotels for long periods of times. Apparently, while they were staying at the Tropicana, he got so drunk that he ended up buying a pair of $40,000 fur coats. A pair that he never wore. Talk about wasting money. And the impressive thing is that he doesn’t regret it a single bit.

1 Giving the right first impression

Giving a first impression is very important in interpersonal relations. You want to give a good first impression when you're meeting your girlfriend’s parents for the first time. You want to do that when you’re interviewing for a job and all other kinds of interactions. When meeting a woman you may end up marrying, you probably want to give a better impression than leading her to believe you are a pimp.

Still, that was exactly the impression Beth, Ric Flair’s second wife had when she first met him. Apparently, The Nature Boy was surrounded by seven women and was wearing one of his wrestling robes, which makes her assumption a solid one if you are considering looks alone. Thankfully, the first impression was not a deal breaker and we got one of the best female wrestlers of our time out of that union, as Beth is Charlotte’s mother.

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