Normally I enjoy the writing of Justin Barrasso. If you are unfamiliar, Barrasso writes the weekly wrestling column for the Sports Illustrated website. He's done a great job in giving independent wrestling a national voice through his column in the past.
However, this week's column annoys me. I get that his job is to get people to click a link so he can generate revenue for SI - and he's not alone in the mass media created for this week's story; I just expect more from a national outlet.
As many of you are aware, Conrad Thompson and Ric Flair are squeezing out every dollar they can (regardless of what Ric or Conrad say) of Flair's in-ring career with his "last match" gimmick this weekend.
In the SI column one quote that really just kind of pissed me of is: “For one more night, I get to be myself again,” Flair says. “I get to be ‘The Nature Boy.’”
Basically, brushing off the earlier mentions of being an alleged sexual predator and segueing into the torture Flair has felt since losing his son, Reid, to a drug overdose in 2013. While a tragedy for sure I simply do not and cannot look at Flair as some fucking martyr of pain.
He's a man-child who has never grown up; a car salesman with a knack of finding someone to buy his broke down act time and time again - the real tragedy being the amazing career he's whored out for pay days to keep the IRS and his 87 ex-wives quiet.
Tonight, there will be the "Ric Flair Roast," but will anyone be brave enough to say the things that should be said?
Doubtful.
There was a time when Ric Flair was my second favorite pro wrestler (Barry Windham has been #1 for as long as I can remember). Flair was the very opposite of Hulk Hogan and the WWF - he was a real wrestler, a real champion, not a cartoon.
Now he's just a broken down has been who gets to be himself one more time.