{"id":16539,"date":"2017-11-02T18:22:24","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T23:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=16539"},"modified":"2017-11-02T18:22:24","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T23:22:24","slug":"wooooooooooo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2017\/11\/02\/wooooooooooo\/","title":{"rendered":"WOOOOOOOOOOO!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professional wrestling legend Ric Flair is the subject of a new ESPN \u201c30 for 30\u201d film, coming out on Nov. 7. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c30 for 30: Nature Boy\u201d is the first professional wrestling themed \u201c30 for 30\u201d film from the network. <\/span><\/p>\n

The recurring theme of the documentary will be the balance between Richard Morgan Fliehr, the man and \u201cNature Boy\u201d Ric Flair the professional wrestling character. <\/span><\/p>\n

Fliehr, the man has gone through four marriages, faced several accusations of assault, domestic violence and sexual misconduct, has had many private breakdowns and is in a constant state of debt to various people, businesses and organizations. <\/span><\/p>\n

Examples of these cases are alimony payments to his ex-wives, lawyer fees, IRS debts, mortgages and a litany of failed business ventures. From 2005 on, most of his earnings from wrestling were being used to pay these debts. <\/span><\/p>\n

At one point Flair was $1.7 million in debt according to a 2011 Grantland article chronicling his financial and personal woes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flair, the charismatic wrestler, is one of the greatest performers in the genre, delivering engaging rapid fire promos and interviews on the mic. He also captivates audiences with his technical prowess in the ring and his ability to make his opponent look like a huge star. He\u2019s won 16 world championships, is the only two-time WWE Hall of Famer and is seen by his peers as one of the best workers in his profession.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film will not look past the dark side of Flair\u2019s life, and includes \u201cthe good, the bad and the ugly,\u201d according to it\u2019s director, Rory Karpf.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something I was really good at,\u201d Flair states in the trailer for the film. \u201cThen it became a disease.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWrestling was my love,\u201d Flair says in the film. \u201cThe Nature Boy was my wrestling character. The Nature Boy wasn\u2019t fake. The Nature Boy was me. I have sacrificed everything for wrestling. I always wanted to be The Man. I could never live just being a man. I gave my entire life to the wrestling business. I paid the price. I am the Nature Boy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The film will cover his life and career and include comments from several of his peers including Triple H, The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Figures from his personal life such as his first wife Leslie Jacobs and his three living children will be interviewed as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Karpf is known for directing other ESPN documentaries such as \u201cI Hate Christian Laettner\u201d and \u201cThe Book Of Manning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of Karpf\u2019s filmmaking goals was to make a documentary on Flair, as he is a fan of the Nature Boy. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up a huge wrestling fan in the 1980\u2019s and I was captivated by Ric Flair,\u201d Karpf said in an ESPN press release for the film. \u201cIt\u2019s been a personally rewarding experience to tell the story of arguably the greatest wrestler of all time. Ric\u2019s story transcends the wrestling business, and my hope is that it will appeal to wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Flair was interviewed for the Laettner film, and the social media response to his interview convinced ESPN Films executive John Dahl to greenlight \u201c30 for 30: Nature Boy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Karpf\u2019s goal in making the film is to pay respect to the institution of professional wrestling, and give a complete story on one of its most prolific performers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c…As for Ric, I leave that up to viewers,\u201d Karpf said in an interview with Sports Illustrated. \u201cI don\u2019t want to tell someone what to think of someone. A lot of it is open for interpretation. Two people can watch the same thing and think someone is a villain or hero.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Flair was in the news over the summer after having a major health scare. Flair underwent a procedure to remove part of his bowel that caused significant complications that left him ill. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c30 for 30: Nature Boy\u201d is the story of the \u201cstylin’ and profilin’, limousine ridin’, jet flyin’, kiss-stealin’, wheelin’ n’ dealin’ son of a gun!\u201d that premiers Nov. 7 at 10:00 p.m. ET on ESPN. <\/span><\/p>\n

Henry Wolski<\/strong>
\nExecutive Editor<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professional wrestling legend Ric Flair is the subject of a new ESPN \u201c30 for 30\u201d film, coming out on Nov. 7. \u201c30 for 30: Nature Boy\u201d is the first professional wrestling themed \u201c30 for 30\u201d film from the network. The recurring theme of the documentary will be the balance between Richard Morgan Fliehr, the man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":16543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2104,3,2138],"tags":[2000,2242,1383,772],"class_list":["post-16539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-tartan-news","category-wrestling","tag-henry-wolski","tag-ric-flair","tag-sports","tag-wrestling"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-4iL","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Screen-Shot-2017-11-02-at-7.21.39-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16539"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16542,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16539\/revisions\/16542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}