Published: September 23, 2008 05:25 pm            

Larry Penkava – Sept. 17, 2008

Ric Flair may have been a great wrestler but he’s not much of a boxer. Especially when his opponent is 37 years younger.

The Nature Boy got into it with his daughter’s 22-year-old boyfriend over an undisclosed disagreement last Friday in a Chapel Hill apartment complex. When neighbors called police about 2:30 a.m., officers tracked the pugilists by following a trail of blood.

They found the recently retired pro wrestler in a back bedroom nursing a doozy of a black eye and various bruises.

Apparently, he was able to get in a few blows of his own as his opponent was described as slightly injured and in another part of the apartment.

Flair’s daughter, Ashley Elizabeth Fliehr, seemed to be the only one with any fight left in her, kicking a police officer.

Her belligerence is understandable, I suppose, since police pursued the case after she told them the combat was over and everything was just dandy.

Ric, himself, lying on a bed nursing his wounds, told officers everything was fine and he just wanted to forget it ever happened.

No “wooooo!” from Ric, just a subdued “no problemo.”

Nature Boy, uncharacteristically meek after receiving his comeuppance from a no-name fighter (police didn’t release the boyfriend’s identity), admitted to the tussle but didn’t reveal who won two out of three falls.

Nor did he say if his shiner was the result of a fist or having his face driven into the pavement.

Ashley, ever her father’s daughter, faced off with Chapel Hill police, incurring a good tasing and charges of assault and resisting arrest.

The two combatants, on the other hand, weren’t arrested, possibly because their rage was transformed by pain into timidity.

Flair, after all, retired from professional fighting earlier this year and, apparently, the concept of brawling without benefit of a howling audience or a paycheck left him depleted.

Not enough to keep him down, however. Pictures on the Internet were said to have been taken later that night at a nightclub. Ric, accompanied by his son, is sporting his shiny black eye and two equally impressive blondes.

The man who claims to be The Man has been in other trouble the past few months. In November, he was accused by a Charlotte man of road rage. Ric, according to the story, got out of his car, grabbed the man by the neck and kicked his car.

Not surprisingly, Nature Boy’s wife, Beth, has filed for divorce, claiming he slapped, kicked, choked and bit her during the course of their marriage. Sounds a lot like a match with Hulk Hogan, but then Hulk is probably better able to defend himself from Ric’s attempts at body slams and choke holds.

To be fair, a man is innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, I have to assume Ric never engaged in road rage or abused his wife, not to mention using drugs and steroids.

Yeah, right.



Larry Penkava, who has written Now and Then since 1994, still thinks Johnny Weaver and George Becker are the best.

        

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