Ric Flair:To Be The Man

“To Be the Man” chronicles the life and times of Ric Flair, multi-time heavyweight champion and legend of the squared circle. The book also gives a brief glimpse into the private life of man that is Richard Fliehr. It is a fast read, with writing on a par with the best of the wrestling biographies.

For the uninitiated or casual fan, this book covers a wide range of topics adequately. For the hardcore wrestling fan though, there really is nothing new or earth shattering. But don’t let that stop you from getting this book. It’s still fun to reminisce about the good old days if you were a fan way back when.

But herein lies the only weakness of the book. Ric Flair has had too vast a career and too interesting a life to be covered in a book that is a little over 300 pages. There definitely needed to be J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy approach. The man is literally a ‘Lord’ of the ring, and a book needed to be devoted to each era of his career from the 70s-80, 80s-90, and 1991 thru his current run in WWE. There is even a period from 1989-1992 that is very interesting- with the disastrous booking, lame creative direction, and incredible amount of mismanagement that was going on in WCW at the time. I also would have liked it if he talked about some of the more memorable stuff he did on TBS like kissing the ‘Precious’ mannequin, and if he had supplied more dirt on his wild partying days.

Overall, this is an interesting read for all fans of Ric Flair.