Legends of Rasslin'

During my pre-adolescent and teenage years I followed professional wrestling religiously. I lived for the hour-long weekly programs on Saturday mornings and for those special occasions when my dad took me and my brother to the monthly live shows at the Greensboro Coliseum in the pre-Pay-Per-View era. My early career goal was to compete inside the squared circle, and I honed my skills against my brother on our trampoline as a backyard wrestling pioneer. However, the closest I ever got to making it famous in the wrestling business was appearing on television during on one of the weekly shows holding up a homemade Four Horsemen sign in the crowd when I was about 12 years old.

Somewhere along the way -- much to my chagrin and my parents' delight -- I realized I did not have the size, strength or flamboyancy to make in professional wrestling. And sometime during high school or college, I eventually lost interest in the, ahem, sport. However, I still recall with fondness the glory days of wrestling from the 1980s, and I sometimes take trips down memory lane with my collection of now-grainy and snowy VHS tapes of vintage matches from days gone by. Thankfully, some of those memories have now been preserved on DVD with the release of The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection last year.

In recent months, my slumbering interest in professional wrestling has been stirred once again. Perhaps the rekindled flame is related to reading Ric Flair's biography To Be the Man last summer and getting my copy autographed by the "Nature Boy" himself at a book signing in Charlotte. Perhaps it's because of the nostalgia factor since wrestling was so much a part of my boyhood fabric. For whatever reason, I found myself tuning into WWE's Raw last Monday night and again this week.

Tonight's main event featured the legend, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, against the legend killer, Randy Orton. (See graphic above) Flair is no doubt a legend -- The Michael Jordan of professional wrestling, if you will. But like "His Airness," the "Nature Boy" has over-extended his stay in the sport. Both icons' places in the histories of their respective sports are unquestionably secure, but watching them perform in the twilight of their careers is sometimes hard, especially when memories of them performing at the top of their games remain so strong.

Flair's career has come full circle. In 1983, Flair was the legend killer when he defeated the legendary Harley Race in a steel cage to win the NWA world heavyweight championship at Starrcade '83. Now Flair finds himself playing the role of the legend whose best days are behind him, and Orton is in the same position Flair was more than 20 years ago, representing the future of the sport. At the tender age of 24, Orton has already become the youngest person to hold the WWE world title.

A lot may have changed since I last tuned into wrestling on a regular basis, but one thing hasn't -- the buildup and ending to a televised main event. After teasing the main event for close to two hours, the Flair-Orton match finally started about 15 minutes before the show's end. That could only mean one thing -- that the show would end with the match in progress while all hell is breaking loose just to make sure you tune back in next week to see what happened after the camera faded to black.

True to form, Flair and Orton went back and forth for about 13 minutes before the referee got knocked out, allowing one of Flair's henchmen, Triple H, to interfere. Flair, going to work on Orton's knee, slapped the "Figure Four" leg lock on his opponent, but Orton rolled over and reversed the move. As Triple H tried to interfere once more, Orton caught him with a boot to the face. Orton then delivered his finishing maneuver -- "the RKO" -- and pinned Flair as a groggy referee climbed back into the ring to deliver the three count.

Granted, I was shocked to see a rare pinfall in a televised main event, but the crafty scriptwriters ended the program with a stare down between Orton and current world champ Triple H. Of course, this is setting up for the main event at this weekend's upcoming Pay-Per-View in which Orton will try to regain the championship belt. Hmmmmm......kinda makes me want to tune back in next week.