This past weekend, I attended WrestleMania 24 in Orlando, Florida. I was one of the 74,635 people in attendance at the Citrus Bowl (which has no parking lot...just a heads-up should you decide to visit it yourself someday), ready for the WWE’s biggest show of the year. It had been three years since my last Mania, and man, was it worth the wait. I witnessed history that night, as Ric Flair put his 36-year career on the line against Shawn Michaels, the wrestler Flair handpicked to bring out the best in himself. On any other night, Michaels is my favorite wrestler. That was not the case on Sunday night, March 30.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, wrestling’s scripted, I know. Scripted does not exactly mean fake, though. And as far as Flair/Michaels, the handpicked part of the story blurs the line between script and reality. There is a respect level unmatched by any other sport in pro wrestling. Fans and wrestlers alike remember what sacrifices these performers make day in and day out, making their own travel arrangements to get to their matches around the world on a capped salary with a cut of merchandise sales. They make an absurdly smaller amount of money than other pro sports players, and don’t really care. Their passion lies in their work...getting paid for their passion is merely a bonus.

Flair was the first ever active wrestler to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, which occurred the night before. I was there in person for it all, watching the man burst into tears multiple times as he thanked each and every person that has helped him in some way throughout his career. Ninety minutes later, he had to go, only because they needed to edit the footage down for a TV broadcast that evening. I think he would still be there thanking people and would have missed his match at Mania. He was that genuine in his appreciation for those that took the 36-year ride with him. Not once did he brag about his accomplishments. Not once. He recognized that they all required at least one other person, namely, an in-ring opponent, in order to become a reality.

Everyone that watches wrestling pretty much knew that Flair was building up for a send-off. He is just shy of his 60th birthday. He wanted to lose in a match in an area that gave him one of his first chances to shine all those years ago in local Florida territories. Wrestling brands used to be separated by territory until Vince McMahon of the WWE had a global vision, which is good and bad in its own ways. That’s not what I’m here to talk about. He wanted to bow out gracefully and put on a performance that people half his age could be blown away by. So he picked Shawn Michaels. No good guy/bad guy storyline, no grudge match, none of that. One of Michaels’ monikers is "Mr. WrestleMania." Flair wanted him to prove it, and wanted to prove to himself that he could still put up the fight of his life after all these years. The Citrus Bowl was not disappointed in the efforts of these men.

The match of almost 30 minutes included Michaels missing a moonsault off the center ring rope to the outside announce table. These tables are kind of designed to collapse beneath wrestlers as they go thorough them in high spots of matches. Well, this table didn’t cooperate, and Michaels folded like an accordion on the arena floor after only five minutes of action. He toughed it out as he always does. Michaels and Flair both have a history of bad back injuries. Flair broke his back in a plane crash in 1975 that supposedly ended his career. Sixteen world titles and 33 years later, Flair seems to disagree. Michaels was out of in-ring action for almost four years after major back surgery but still gave Steve Austin, and wrestling fans, one of the best efforts of his career at WrestleMania 14. Watch the match, you can see the pain he is fighting through. Flair kept up with Michaels every step of the way, even executing a top rope high cross-body of his own. They locked each other in lengthy submission holds, both regular and inverted figure-four leglocks. In the end, it was Michaels’ superkick...well, three superkicks, that got the job done. I’ll never forget that last kick. You can see Michaels say, "I’m sorry. I love you," before delivering the blow. That was not scripted, I can tell you that. Neither were the tears in both men’s eyes after Flair’s final three-count. Michaels grabbed Flair’s head on the mat and told him something that only the two of them will ever know. They wept, then Michaels left, allowing Flair to bask in his farewell. I choked back tears of my own as the man kissed his family at ringside and took his final walk down that aisle as an active wrestler. Everyone in that building was chanting. "Thank you, Ric! Thank you, Ric!" Believe me, it was everyone. I was looking around me as it was happening. The rest of the card was extraordinary as well, but this match had so much history and emotion and reality tied into it, making it that much more special. I feel lucky to have been in the building for that, I truly do.

Back at my hotel room, I told my friends how sweet it would be if Flair appeared the next night on Raw to delievr a farewell speech. The next night, my wish was granted, and it was just as magical as the night before, if not moreso. After Flair thanked his fans and was ready to depart, HHH’s music hits and Flair receives a 20 minute good-bye from his peers that was organized by the locker room, unbeknownst to Flair. A friend of mine said he heard a Flair interview on the radio earlier in the day. Flair said he knew they had something planned for him but was told to stay away from the Amway Arena for most of the day so they could surprise him. Did they ever accomplish that mission. It was not only one of the most touching moments on a wrestling broadcast, it was one of the most touching moments of life that I’ve ever been privileged to witness. If you saw it, then you absolutely understand what I’m speaking of. Go to WWE’s website and watch the footage, wrestling fan or not. It will change your life.

While I’m sure that players on baseball and football teams love and respect each other, they would never go out of their way on live TV to do something like this. Well, not for less than $20 million, anyway. I bought a copy of the Orlando Sentinel newspaper before boarding my flight on Monday and was appalled by just about every "journalist’s" coverage of WrestleMania. The coverage was not backed up by any research whatsoever. One guy went out of his way to assure readers that he doesn’t buy into it throughout his entire article. Another called the wrestlers juiceballs, even going as far as to say that the steroid scandal in baseball is more acceptable because it’s a legitimate sport. He interviewed fans in the arena, quoting them all as saying they don’t care if the wrestlers are on ’roids as long as they’re entertained. What they were really saying is that they respect what these men and women do and do not care if their personal lives are a mess or drug-addled. They still show up and do their job because they love their job and their fans. This reporter obviously doesn’t know what happened to Jeff Hardy this past month, or how eleven or so wrestlers were suspended last year for failing drug tests. He’d rather just write down what the media already tells society about wrestling. He was a carbon copy critic that did no research to back up his argument. He also went out of his way to make us wrestling fans look moronic. I apologize for wanting more out of a sport that watching guys with sticks scratch themselves, spit snuff and occasionally hit a ball that’s thrown at them over a far away fence for a ludicrous sum of money. I like to be entertained, and that is in no way, shape or form entertaining. And that’s coming from a person who hit an inside the park homerun at a baseball game when he was nine years old. I do research, even hands-on sometimes, before I criticize things.

The best article was written by a gentleman who ordered the event on PPV. He was entertained, regardless of the underlying stories of steroids and scripts that most media forums exploit when covering wrestling. He got the point and respected the product for what it was without embarrassment. This event brought the town of Orlando an insane amount of revenue but these reporters are too proud to be wrestling fans. The way I see it, they’re too afraid to admit that, as a whole, wrestling is more "real" to its fans, or in general, than any other sport. One of these idiots even called the Big Show the Big House. Some research of the product, huh? How he got on the front page is anyone’s guess.

I hope each and every one of these journalists that performed absolutely no journalistic duties and, therefore, do not merit an ounce of respect for their recycled and unoriginal wording, happened to watch Raw when Flair said good-bye. And I hope that, whle they would never admit it in print, that they were affected by the genuine nature of the Nature Boy. They should be ashamed to collect paychecks for writing lies. They should go back to every movie theater they’ve ever watched a film at and ask for their money back, being that movies are, in essence, more fake than pro wrestling. Wrestlers are being themselves when the bell rings. I cannot say that about Tom Cruise or Katie Holmes when the camera is rolling. I’d be a liar, and I can’t be one of those. I don’t work at the Orlando Sentinel.

Thank you, Ric Flair. As a fan and as a person, thank you for the years of smiles you brought to my face and for the tears you brought to my eyes as you bid farewell to the sport of kings. It was an honor sharing it with you.

Shawn Corby
Cliffside Park, New Jersey