In pro wrestling, there is only one “The Man”

To quote my friend Clayton King who wrote “The Wrestling Song”… but I feel I must tell you, the truth I must share, the greatest ‘rastler of all time is the ‘Nature Boy’ Rick Flair. whoooo hoooooo whoooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

My wife and I were both working last night and took a break around 10pm to watch some tv. Well, by pure chance we stumbled upon the WWE Hall of Fame induction broadcast. Neither of us watch or care about wrestling.

However, for a few years, probably between 10 and 13 years old or so, I was very much into the Rock n Roll Express, Four Horsemen, Sting, Ron Garvin, hating the Midnight Express, Nikita Koloff, and that freakish looking Lex Lugar. Then I realized it was fake and quickly lost interest.

Back to the show, The Rock was emceeing the event and made it more like a roast of everyone in the audience. Even though I hardly knew most of the folks it was very entertaining, he has exceptional delivery. So, we stayed on the channel.
Skipping to the point of this post, the highlight of the evening was the induction of the Nature Boy into the WWE HoF. I had always been an admirer of Rick, knew all the taglines: “All the ladies wanna ride Space Mountain”, “To be the man, you gotta beat the man”, “Bright lights, big cities and pretty ladies”, “Mean Gene, I’m a jet flyin, limousine riding, kiss stealing, mean son of a gun, and if you don’t like it… you better learn to love it!” I can only imagine if he would have been a preacher or politician instead of a wrestler. Hmmm, Flair for NC Governor anyone? lol

When Flair took the stage, there was a 10 minute standing ovation (Not on tv, but I’ve read other blogs of people who were there). He said it’s an honor to be inducted in Orlando, which he called “The second home of Space Mountain.” From then on out came perhaps the most heartfelt speech I’ve heard since Jimmy V at the Espy’s.

He started by saying how grateful he is to the sport/business for giving him everything he has today. He made no mention of his accomplishments, but went on to praise and thank everyone from the camera crew to Shawn Michaels (who he wrestles tonight in possibly his last career bout). “I hope fans realize I gave them the best I could give them,” he said. “Whether there were 100 of you or 10,000 of you, I hope none of you ever went home disappointed.”

This is where it got rough to watch. My wife had tears, I was even fighting them back myself. The Big Show, Edge, and several others in the crowd were bawling like babies. He thanked his wife Tiffany and called her his best friend. He said he’s tested her, but she’s tough. “No more Naitching,” Flair said. He also thanked his first two wives. The crowd thought he was joking, but he told them he’s being very serious. To his first wife he said, and I paraphrase as best I can from memory, “I was out of control, and you were right in leaving me, I thank you so much for bringing up my children who mean everything to me.”

I think the on air version went about 15 minutes, but the actual speech was over an hour! I hope I can get my hands on that video and watch the whole thing. There was no bravado, no feathers, no entourage, no pounding music, there was only Flair standing as a broken and remorseful man owning up to his past, putting his demons in a Figure Four for the last time. This is the Rick Flair I respect the most and want to remember. I’d like to think of the Nature Boy as a character he played on tv, but this guy is someone I admire.

If you catch a rerun of this or it pops up on YouTube, take time to watch it. Learn from his example, be thankful for everything you have, don’t take those who love you for granted.

When hate overrides logic

We are NC State fans, Wolfpack Nation, the good ol’ boys, and we HATE CAROLINA.

I think more than that though, we hate Carolina fans. Those ungrateful, arrogant pricks take any and every opportunity to open their face holes and vomit some line their parents taught them or they overheard at Wal-Mart while picking up some gear on clearance.
If we take an objective look at the recent state of, well, State, I think we should reevaluate our enemies. When it comes to loathing a team and fan base the past 5 years, it is a toss up between Duke and Maryland. Between Duke’s dumb luck and Maryland’s inmates fans, no one has caused us more misery on the hardwood or football field respectively.

This isn’t really even my point though, my point is this: Even though we hate them, we should quietly cheer UNC success in the NCAA Tournament. They are the ONLY remaining ACC team, do we really want the conference to have NO TEAMS in the Elite Eight? Final Four? After the dismal season we had as a conference, it would almost surely knock us down a rung on the dominance ladder of recent history. Carolina losing does not benefit us in any way right now. For the greater good, it makes no sense to wish UNC to fail at this point.

Down time baseball banter

The Wolfpack Baseball team is currently 13-7. Just a little behind pace of my 37-19 regular season prediction. A mid week sweep of Marshall will put us back on track at 15-7.

Despite a 4-5 conference record, State is practically tied for 2nd place (with Clemson and WF) in the Atlantic Division behind 9-0 FSU. FSU is a beast of an offensive team this year. Scary good. SCARY.

For NCSU:
Clayton Shunick leads the ACC in strikeouts with 22 K in 20 innings.
Matt Payne leads the ACC in BA with 13 hits for a .520 avg.
The Pack pitching staff boasts the #2 team ERA in the ACC.

FOR ACC: FSU, Miami, and UNC are all in the top 8 nationally according to Baseball America. Oh, and in case you forgot, we host UNC in Cary this weekend for a 3 game series. Go support the PACK!!!!!!!!

I’m still pretty busy with work (am starting a new company), and haven’t seen a whole lot worth writing about anyways. This isn’t a site, like some others, that will just post items for the sake of posting ANYTHING. I respect your time too much to make this my diary of State related musings.

Hope each of you are having a good week! I am looking forward to moving back to Raleigh this summer (for good please God!), catching some baseball games, and hopefully meeting some of you in the fall for some tailgating. Go Pack!

Oh yeah, what exactly have I been doing

Don’t want to take up too much real estate here. Just thought I’d reveal the project that took a lot of my time the past 4-5 days. See what I’m talking about. Please go and vote!

Picture worth, well, a few words

I know future Wolfpack start QB Mike Glennon is tall, but just take a look of him standing with other QBs Russell Wilson, Daniel Evans, Harrison Beck and assistant coach Dana Bible.

He is in the black long sleeve shirt. I thought it was quite spectacular. And thanks to the N&O for the photo, I suppose as a courtesy I should ask you to go to their story which this picture accompanies.

The N&O reports: Mike Glennon, who was in street clothes, won’t enroll until the summer, so he was an interested, 6-foot-6 bystander, watching, listening to the coaches, staying close to the other quarterbacks.

This last paragraph, to me, was the best, the most uplifting. It went:

“I don’t think there’s any question we’re better than we were last year,” O’Brien said of the first practice. “Everybody knew where to go, they understood what the drills and periods were. It was very fundamental-oriented today.”

TV tonight

Nothing else to do? Catch UNC-Asheville take on Ohio State in the NIT.

7pm on ESPN2. It would be pretty funny if ASU beat Michigan in football and then UNCA beats the Buckeyes in basketball in the same season. Anyways, a good chacne to see UNCA big man Kenny George (I think that’s his name) in action. I think he only plays about 15 mis a game, but he is 7′7″?!?!? He can dunk without leaving the ground, we’ll just leave it at that.