Nature Boy

Real or Fake? That’s the essential question behind the long history of professional wrestling. In Nature Boy, an ESPN Films 30 for 30documentary on the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction life of Ric Flair, director Rory Karpf (I Hate Christian Laettner) bares the soul of someone whom millions of fans think they know. Propelled by two rousing yet brutally honest interviews with Flair conducted 16 months apart, the film traces his epic career-from the creation of his blond Adonis character, through the glory days of the NWA and The Four Horsemen, to his poignant last years in the ring. Serving as witnesses are a Who’s Who of wrestling: Triple H, The Undertaker, Baby Doll, Shawn Michaels, Jim Ross, Ricky Steamboat, Sting and Hulk Hogan. As a pure wrestler, he was truly beloved. His “Woooo” showmanship was imitated by athletes from other sports, as well as the hip-hop community. But as interviews with family members and Flair himself reveal, his frenzied lifestyle masked the loneliness of a man who could never please his physician father and then ran away from his own wives and children-and toward an almost unbearable tragedy. It was Ric Flair who popularized the boast, “If you want to be The Man, you gotta beat The Man.” In this film, you’ll get to meet the man.