After watching the professional wrestling world react very kindly to almost everything in A24’s The Iron Claw, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his Seven Bucks Productions have decided to right the film’s biggest wrong and produce a right proper biopic for “The Nature Boy” himself, Ric Flair.
Announcing the production in a special story for The Wrap, the heelish Rocky decided to show off his old familiar babyface once more, celebrating his childhood love of “Natch” and thanking the universe for allowing him to share his story with the World.
“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 turned to great respect. Because I realized just how rare and almost impossible it is to truly disrupt the wrestling business, and truly change the game – and that’s exactly what Ric Flair did,” The Rock shared on social media.
“Ric Flair had a relentless passion to be the greatest of all time, but with achieving that GOAT status – he also sacrificed it all and paid a heavy price. And lived to tell the story. I’ve known Ric since I was 8 years old when he and my dad, Rocky “Soulman” Johnson, were wrestling together in the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance). This project is personal for me, and we at Seven Bucks Production & Kevin Mischer Films can’t wait to tell his unbelievable story. As always, ‘Thank you for the house, Ric’ ~ People’s Champ.”
Flair, in full-on old man on social media mode, decided to respond, thanking Rocky immensely for helping to bring his story to life via an all-caps response.
“Thank You!!” Ric Flair wrote. “This Means So Much To Me! WOOOOO!”
Is it a good idea to make a biopic about Flair? In a word, yes; in one of the weirdest twists of fate you could ever imagine, Flair has somehow become more popular since he retired from regular professional wrestling 12 years ago, with his drip becoming a fixture of rap songs and NFL locker rooms pre-game hype speeches alike. If Johnson can find the correct actor to fill the role, which, in the opinion of most fans, should be anyone but Aaron Dean Eisenberg, his production company could have another hit on its hands.
Booker T reflects on his early experiences wrestling The Rock.
Speaking of a young Rock, though not the Young Rock, which is a canceled NBA show about The Rock’s… young life, Booker T commented on his experience working with Dwayne Johnson when he first came over from WCW in 2001, which was just after “The Great One” returned from filming The Scorpion King.
While some might be intimidated by the idea of wrestling “The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment,” Booker loved the experience, as they got along together very well.
“It was awesome working with The Rock, I must say that. Coming in from WCW, I must say I was a little bit intimidated. I’m not gonna say I wasn’t, just because when you come in and you’re working with the top guy in the company? Man, it’s a pressure, pressure situation. It really is a lot of pressure. And for me to have to go out and perform at my best, at my highest level because I felt like I was auditioning at the same time. I really did. I felt like when I came into WWE, I was auditioning. Everything was a test. Everything from the beginning from the first night coming in and dropping Steve Austin,” Booker T revealed.
“So I was thinking about the work. I wasn’t thinking about the history or anything, or how I was going to be looked at many, many years later or anything like that. I was just thinking about going out there and performing, and performing at my highest level. To this day, my memory is cloudy. So cloudy as far as the time that I was working with The Rock, because I was really, really thinking about going out there and not messing up. I think that’s just the honest truth answer that I can give you to the feud that Rock and I had. But he seemed to like it. [laughs] He seemed to really appreciate my work, so I must have done well.”
While Booker T may not be widely considered one of The Rock’s signature opponents, and, to be fair, The Rock isn’t really a signature Booker T opponent either, their program together in 2001 was very entertaining and helped to establish their spots in the WWE Universe at the particular moment. In a sport where long-term, legacy-defining feuds often rule the day, that’s valuable, too.
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