Book Review
To Be The Man : Ric Flair
He is a Kiss Stealing, Wheeling Dealing,Jet Flyin, Limousine Ridin
Son of a Gun. He kissed all the girls and made them
cry. He took all the girls to Space Mountain, it may be the oldest
ride in the park, but it still has the longest line, Woooo.
Ric Flair is arguably the greatest wrestler in the world. Back in the
70's and 80's Ric Flair was wrestling guys almost
every night of the week for 60 minutes. Back when the name on the
marquee was Wrestling and not Sports Entertainment.
Flair could make any opponent look good and keep the crowd in an hour
long match. It was said Ric could wrestle a broom
and make it look good.
Back when I was a kid, All I saw on TV was WWWF, now the WWE. It was
through magazines I first heard of the
Nature Boy, Ric Flair. The NWA Heavyweight Champion. It wasn't until
cable and TBS Saturday Night Wrestling
that I got to see the Nature Boy. Knowing what I know now about
Wrestling, Flair was a great entertainer. He could
talk just as could as he could wrestle. He brought the fans to the
arena. Back in the day when wrestlers got paid based
on attendance, Flair was money.
Flair was born Richard Fliehr. Like many children adopted from the
Tennessee Children's Home Society, it is believed
he was stolen at birth. Doctor's would tell young mothers that there
babies were still born and sell them. None the less,
Fliehr considers his adopted parents his real family.
Ric talks about meeting Olympian and wrestler Ken Patera. From there
training with Verne Gagne and after arriving in
Mid South, a NWA territory, he redefined wrestling.
Flair never had the great body, but he was well conditioned. His ring
persona was a ladies man and outside the ring
he tried to live up to that rep. It cost him one marriage and almost
cost him another. Back in the day when the NWA
champion was decided by an 8 man committee from the various regions,
Ric was voted to be the champ, Unlike a Hulk
Hogan who had the belt put on him by one man.
On October 4 1975, Ric Flair, a couple other wrestlers and a promoter
boarded a plane to head to another town. The
plane had engine problems and crashed, Flair had a broken back. He
overcame that and returned a year later to win
the belt.
You would think a broken back would be the most a man would have to overcome, it wasn't.
In the 80s Flair formed one of the greatest groups in pro wrestling.
An Anderson, Ole Anderson, Tully Blanched and
Ric Flair, The Four Horsemen. The Horsemen dressed in the best suits,
rode in the longest limbos, and could wrestle.
Flair talks lot about his time in WCW/NWA and a stint in the WWF. A
lot of behind the scenes stuff and bad
management in WCW.
Flair, considered the greatest of all time, started to have
confidence issues. He wasn't being used or treated well in WCW.
He was losing all the time. It wasn't so much the losing as it was
management degrading him and pretty much spitting
on his legacy.
The person Flair hates the most is Eric Bischoff, former head of WCW.
Flair's youngest son won a wrestling
tournament and Flair went to see the finals. Flair was called into
work, we need you, keep in mind they hadn't used
him for weeks. The were going to send a plane for him, he would have
to pay for half of it. Flair remained with his
family.
He was sued by Bischoff, not a wrestling angle, although it was made
into one. Bischoff wanted to bankrupt him. With
Flair out the fans all chanted , we want Flair. Flair was known for a
knife edge chop. Anytime a wrestler delivers a
knife edge the fans let out the patented Woooo!
After WWE bought WCW, Flair was hired by WWE. Flair confided in the
Mcmahon family that he was having some
Confidence issues, he broke down. All the shit that went on WCW left
him unsure of himself and his ability to still
wrestle. The Mcmahon's had all the confidence in the world for Ric.
On May 19,2003, WWE had a show in Greensboro. The old Mid South area,
Four Horsemen Country. Flair was surprised
to see he was going to wrestle the man he was teaming with, Heavy
weight Champion, Triple H. The Angle was one
last chance for Flair to win the belt. according to Flair, Triple H
carried him and made the match good. After Triple H won,
Flair turned to the ref and asked if the match was good. The ref said yes.
As the cameras went off, Flair saw a bunch of wrestlers on the
entrance stage. They were there to pay homage to the
greatest, Ric Flair. The locker room emptied as guys came down to
shake Flair's hand or give him a hug. Steve Austin
came down with a beer for a toast, The McMahon's came to the ring,
even Triple H came back. Triple H tried to stare
flair down, but Ric couldn't play along because of the tears in his
eye's. Triple H put the belt on Flair's shoulder and
he and Bubba Ray Duddley lifted Flair on their shoulders. It was a
night to remember.
Today at 55. Ric Flair is still doing what he loves. He has been
married for 21 years and has been making up for lost
time with his family. The younger guys in the WWE locker room, have a
great mentor to follow. I'm sure if I was a
wrestler, when Ric Flair talked, I would listen .
Starsky and Hutch
Overview: Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson team up in this remake of
Starsky and Hutch. The detectives are working to
solve a murder that involves a new kind of Cocaine, a kind that can
not be detected by police tests and dogs.
My Rating: Funny movie. worth the rent, check out the outtakes on DVD.
More Detail: Stiller is Starsky and Wilson is Hutch. Hutch is the
laid back detective who dabbles in crime. He gets
picked up for robbing a booker but claims he was undercover. Starsky
is all out cop. He chased a criminal over buildings
jumped from a fire escape and fell through a car roof and shot at him
in a crowd, all for a stolen purse with 7 dollars
in it.
The captain decides to partner these two.
Vince Vaugn plays Reese Feldmen. Reese is on his yacht with two
associates. The had four planes of coke but
one plane went down. Reese shoots one of the guys. The Cocaine is a
new mix that is undetectable by drug sniffing
dogs and when tested by police looks like sweetner. He has a big
score planned and meets with many drug dealers
to plan the deal.
Starsky and Hutch discover the body on the river bank. Hutch tries to
push it back in the water to float down to
the next county, but Starsky wants the case.
Starsky doesn't like his partner much. Hutch deals with some shaddy
characters including Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg).
During a meeting with Huggy, Starsky asks for permits for all the
guns Huggy's men are carrying. When they refuse, Starsky
accidently shoot's Huggy's iguana in the tail, blowing it off. Hutch
is able to maintain the peace.
While investigating the murder, the guys come across Reese. The man
that was killed, Terrence Meyers, worked with
Reese. Reese points the guys to a couple girls that work with him
that may no more, Stacy and Holly (Carmen Electra
and Amy Smart). They get a jacket that belonged to Terrence. Huggy
tells them it looks like the work of Big Earl (Will
Ferrell). Earl is in the joint.
He tells the guys that he and Terrence were muscle for a big dealer
but he doesn't know the guy. He does give them
some of the coke, after Hutch shows him his belly button and acts
like an angry dragon.
After the coke is tested, it comes back as sweetner. The guys get
together with the girls to do some more "work" on
the case. Starsky makes some coffee, but they are out of sugar.
So he uses the sweetner. He gets wasted. He gives
Hutch a guitar and hutch plays a little song for the girls, David
Soul's Don't Give Up on Us Baby.
Jacked up Starsky wants to hit the clubs and gets into a dance off.
when declared the loser he takes out his gun and
flips. Hutch gets him back home. The girls both kiss Hutch and then
each other (I had to mention that).
The guys are on Reese and invade his daughter Bah Mitzvah. They dress
as mimes and intercept a message that the
package was delivered to the garage. The guys take him down. Starsky
shoots open the garage door and opens
it to find a pony. a gift for his daughter, now a dead pony.
The guys are suspended. Hutch finds out that Starsky wanted a
transfer. The "split up" for a bit. A bomb goes off at
Hutch's place. Hutch was not open at the time.
The guys recruit Huggy to do some undercover work. The guys find out
that the drug payout will be at a fund raiser
Reese is throwing. The go undercover and find out the raffle for the
cars is rigged. The cars have the drugs in
them.
Reese makes his getaway with the money and his girlfriend Kitty
(Juliette Lewis). Hutch tells Starsky to land his car
on the yacht. They go for it and over shoot the boat. The car is
gone. Huggy was on the boat and took care of Reese.
Huggy took some of the money and new a couple guys that were selling
a car that starsky might like. The original
Starsky and Hutch (Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul)
Kill Bill Vol 2
Overview: Uma Thurman is back as the Bride and she is still looking
to Kill Bill. To avenge her attempted murder, three
remain on the list. Budd, Elle and of course Bill.
My Rating: Great. Kill Bill Volume 2 does a great job of filling in
the holes from Vol 1. It follows the same pattern of
jumping around in the story, but it really serves to bring you up to
speed and understand things better.
More Detail: Budd is the first stop for the Bride.
Budd is now living in a trailer and is a bouncer at a bar. He gets a
visit from Bill warning him of her coming. Budd and Bill
also have had a falling out. Budd pretty much says for what they did
to her, they deserve to die, but for what she did she
deserves to die.
The Bride tries to get the drop on Budd but he shots her in the chest
with salt. Budd takes her sword and calls Elle. He
tells her about the sword and will sell it to her for million in
cash. She aggress and wants him to make sure the Bride suffers
in death. Budd arranges a Texas Funeral. He buries her alive in a
wooden casket.
In the casket we have a flash back to the Bride training with Pai
Mei. One of the exercises she went through was punching
through wood from only three feet away.
With this training she is able to break out of the coffin and crawl her way out of the grave.
Elle arrives with Budd's money. As Budd is counting the cash, he is
double crossed by Elle, who put a black mamba snake
in the suitcase. It bites him three times in the face and he dies. As
Elle as leaving the Bride meets her. They have a sword
fight. The Bride asks Elle what she said to Pai Mei too make him rip
out her eye. She says she called him an old fool but
she got him back by poising his food. In the fight the Bride removes
Elle's one remaining eye.
Elle finds out where Bill is she arrives and Bill is waiting for her,
with her daughter, B.B. We also find out that the Brides
name is Beatrix Kiddo. For a while, things are very cordial between
the three. As BB is sleeping, Bill shots Beatrix
with a dart with a truth serum. He asks her about why she left. once
she found out she was going to have a baby she
had to choose between staying with Bill and being a killer, or
choosing the baby and being a mother.
Bill was under the impression she had been killed on her last job. He
mourned her for three months and when trying
to track down the people he thought killed her, he found her, living
a new life, about to be married and pregnant. He was
upset and may have overreacted.
The fight between Bill and Beatrix is quick. Before training with Pai
Mei, Bill told beatrix about a move Pai Mei had. A
five finger palm punch, or something like that. Delivered to the
heart, you would die. Pai Mei never showed Bill this
move, he did show it to Beatrix and she hit Bill with it.
The move ends with Beatrix and BB living a life together.