This week, a 30 for 30 documentary on Ric Flair aired on ESPN. I’m not sure why, but a superstar who doesn’t understand why he’s misunderstood really spoke to me.

Sure, my hair doesn’t flow quite as handsomely as Ric Flair, but as you can see, the difference is negligible.

It just happens that in the picture above, I’m the one holding the microphone. The Mean Gene Okerlund to the penguin’s Ric Flair, if you will.

In that 30 for 30, Ric Flair ​talks about giving his life to wrestling. He says he wasn’t playing a character when he showed his ego, “The Nature Boy was me.”

​I have family members who are very much fans of professional wrestling. I followed wrestling when I was a kid but then phased out of it. At one point, though, I believe I had a foam “Hacksaw Jim Duggan” 2×4. I’m sure my dad had plenty of non-foam 2x4s my brothers and I could have hit each other with. I’m not sure why he insisted we use a foam one.

Maybe now that I’m starting a new job, I’ll come up with some larger than life personality. At another station, we had been told we needed to build “personal brands.” My personal brand had always been excellent journalism. Maybe now, I’ll start walking into my new newsroom wearing a fancy robe and declaring, “Bow down when Alan Scaia comes to your town.”

“Listen, KRLD, the stratosphere is reservedfor you and me,” I’ll explain to my co-workers.

That’s a Dusty Rhodes quote, but he and Ric Flair have worked together quite a bit.

“I’ve got a big house on the big side of town,” I’d continue, adding, “And my property tax valuation is through the roof. I mean, wooo!, it’s great that home values in this area have skyrocketed in the past three years, but it’s thousands of dollars! Thanks a lot for crowding the market, people from California.”

I’d be adding that second part for copyright purposes. I am absolutely not looking at an enormous property tax bill right now.

My last stretch with professional wrestling came in college. I don’t recall taking a strong position on any matches, but I was concerned not enough wrestlers trying to eat turnbuckles anymore. Where is the showmanship?! The building of personal brands?!

While I was watching 30 for 30, I started texting an associate from Ball State who would host pay-per-view parties.

​I asked who was Ric Flair’s robe guy. He responded that it was an outfit in North Carolina. I may send them some specs. I may also end my last newscast each day by saying, “I’ve got a limousine out there a mile long with 25 women just dying for me to go, ‘Wooo!'”

I’ll need to find another signature catchphrase besides, “Wooo!” though. And I’d probably have to find another job.