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The world of pro wrestling is home to plenty of wild stories that could easily get the Hollywood treatment, and Ric Flair is the latest personality to get their tale brought to the silver screen with a little bit of help from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
In 2008, Mickey Rourke revived his career by starring in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, and last year, The Iron Claw was a hit with critics and viewers alike with some help from Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White, who underwent some fairly dramatic transformations to help tell the heartbreaking story of the Von Erich family.
There’s clearly an appetite for pro wrestling movies when they’re done right, and while there’s no telling if a biopic chronicling the life of the man, myth, and legend who is Ric Flair will be a smash hit, the folks behind the upcoming project (including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) are obviously hoping that will be the case.
According to The Wrap, The Nature Boy will be at the center of his very own movie tracking his rise on the various circuits he wrestled on in the 1970s before finding a home in the NWA and, ultimately. the organization that’s now known as the WWE.
WOO!
As a wild kid, who grew up in the wild world of professional wrestling, I idolized, “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. He was one of my heroes. And once I broke into the wrestling business and began to spill my own sweat and blood in arenas across America – my reverence for Ric… pic.twitter.com/gfE2vSt6S1— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) February 21, 2024
Flair rubbed shoulders and shared a ring with a number of legendary wrestlers during his ascent to superstardom, and there’s certainly no shortage of drama to draw from courtesy of the various feuds he ended up at the center of over the years.
Based on Johnson’s reaction to the news, it does seem like the biopic will err on the side of reverence, which makes you wonder how much attention will be paid to the darker side of Flair’s career. While it may not stray away from his issues with alcohol, it does seem like there’s a chance it could whitewash the racism allegations that were levied by Teddy Long as well as his role in the infamous “Plane Ride From Hell.”
With that said, Flair’s life has the potential to be a compelling film, so I guess we’ll just have to see if that ends up being the case when everything is said and done.