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Before Ric Flair was the stylin’, profilin’, limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin’ n’ dealin’ son of a gun he was a midwestern boy trying to make a name for himself in the American Wrestling Association. He would drive André René Roussimoff AKA Andre the Giant around and take him to clubs. The Nature Boy told of the unbelievable drinking exploits of Andre the Giant on the Dan Le Batard Show on ESPN.
“I was with him one night at the Downtowner in Charlotte,” Flair said. “In 1975, he drank 106 beers. And Frank Valois, his manager at that time, drank 56.”
Even with the gargantuan Andre standing at 7-ft 4-in and weighing 540 lbs that amount of beer being consumed seems incredibly difficult to fathom.
“Hey, I’ve been on a plane, on a 747 with him going to Tokyo out of Chicago, on No. 4 on Northwest,” Flair said. “We drank every bottle of vodka on the plane. 540 lbs. brother.”
Flair said Andre the Giant was the best wingman because he was such a mountain of a man.
“Big Foot’s here and I’m with him too so if you’re taking him honey, I can get me a friend,” The Nature Boy said.
Dan said women must have flocked to Andre because they were probably curious to see if the enormous wrestler was “proportional.”
“Listen, I made sure they knew he was, are you kidding?” Flair said. “I think I wore a sign around my neck, ‘Want some, come get some.’ Come on, take little Ricky with you too.”
Ric Flair also told another story of how he cheated death after surviving being struck by lightning.
“I got off the plane and was walking,” Flair said. “I didn’t go 10, 15 feet when all of a sudden I felt this pressure boom, and man, my umbrella shot 50 feet in the air.”
“I thought, ‘What the hell?’ Lightning hit the top of my umbrella, bounced off and hit the guy in the eye five feet behind me and killed him. Right there. I just stood there looking at the guy and froze, it scared me to death,” Flair said.
Le Batard asked Flair how he was still alive after being hit by lightning.
“I don’t know,” the WWE Hall of Famer said. “I’ve always wondered what kind of a lawsuit that was, because it was really a big deal, hence probably the steel tips coming off umbrellas at that point.”
I’m still stuck on the 106 beers. This may be something I may need to try to beat this weekend.