- Yeah, we're here at Bojangles Coliseum, Charlotte's original Coliseum.

And long before the Hornets or the Panthers showed up, before Spectrum Center or Bank of America Stadium were raised up, well this is where the Carolinas came to be entertained.

♪ Welcome back my friends ♪ To the show that never ends ♪ We're so glad you could attend ♪ ♪ Come inside, come inside - [Jeff] The Coliseum Dome has been home to pop singers and presidential candidates, lion tamers and Hall of Famers.

- [Announcer] Mike Jordan with his first rebound ever.

- [Jeff] Michael Jordan played here.

(crowd singing) - I'm proud of this city.

I love this great state of North Carolina.

- [Jeff] Billy Graham prayed here.

♪ Lord Almighty ♪ I feel my temperature rising ♪ Yeah Elvis's hips even swayed here.

But since 1974, well, you'll find this Coliseum's real king here in the ring.

- [Announcer] The heavyweight champion of the world from Charlotte, North Carolina.

222 pounds, Nature Boy, Ric Flair!

(horns blaring) - [Jeff] And now on another Saturday night, 50 years after his first Charlotte fight, - [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, the Nature Boy, Ric Flair!

- [Jeff] It's the return of Charlotte's most famous wrestler and that combination of sport and spectacle that Ric Flair made famous.

- [Announcer] But he walks back in to a heroes welcome here.

- [Announcer 2] You go back in time, you look at the history of Charlotte and of Greensboro and Atlanta and all the great cities, Ric Flair's name is at the top of the list.

Oh, what a night this is gonna be!

- [Jeff] But three hours before his triumphant return to the ring here in Charlotte, Ric Flair's on the phone with his wife, Wendy.

- [Wendy] Whatcha doing?

- There's Wendy.

- [Jeff] Hi.

- They wanted to know what it's like living with me?

(laughs) - [Jeff] That was great.

Yeah, no comment.

(Ric continues laughing) - Let me- - I said that.

- Let me call you back later, I'm doing an interview.

- Have fun.

- I hope.

Bye.

- [Jeff] Yep.

Welcome to the Ric Flair interview, a five decade flashback from the Nature Boy himself, on what wrestling here in Charlotte used to.

- [Announcer] This being Flair's very first match, it's amazing that it didn't give him a total distaste for the sport of professional wrestling.

I think I would've taken up golf or baseball or something.

I really would've.

- [Jeff] Ric Flair in the early days wasn't the Nature Boy or the world champion, at least not yet, but soon came the sunglasses, and the platinum hair.

Flair, realizing he didn't wanna be like every other wrestler, Flair wanted more.

- You got Mr. Charisma, Mr.

Excitement, Ric Flair, and you know who I got in my mind, I got the boy!

And the guys for years, just all they wore was Zumba pants and I mean, put on a wrestling outfit and that was it.

I put a lot of thought into mine.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

You brought a sense of style, a sense of presence.

- Yeah.

- I mean showmanship's the word.

- Yeah, I felt like that I owed it to the business.

- [Jeff] And Flair says that early showmanship was good for business too.

Not just making him a star, but also making Charlotte Pro Wrestling a hit.

(crowd cheering) This is Japanese TV coverage of a Charlotte Coliseum match in the 1980s, when there were big wrestling crowds, not just here in Charlotte, but all over the Southeast and the Midwest.

With Flair's fellow Charlotte-based wrestlers all following his flamboyant lead.

(bell dings) - The fans here were rabid, man, I mean, Mulligan, Steamboat, Ricky Morton, Magnum, Nikita Koloff, Ivan, my God I can't remember the guy's, Wahoo McDaniel, Paul Jones, the Andersons.

I mean, we sold out every night.

- [Jeff] And most of them lived right here in Charlotte.

- [Ric] Everybody did, yep.

There was no Panthers, there was no Bobcats, no Hornets.

We ran it.

We ran the town.

- [Jeff] In fact, back in the eighties when Flair first moved here, he actually predicted the kind of success that wrestling would bring to him and to Charlotte.

- We do as much business in terms of people and sports dollars as any other sport.

- It was a great experience to see not only the sporting events, but the concerts and the family shows and everything else.

- [Jeff] George Hite is the retired general manager of Bojangles Coliseum who started as a Coliseum usher in his teen years.

Later he oversaw the Coliseum's renovation back in 2016 and Hite says, those old Coliseum wrestling matches are part of what put Charlotte on the map.

- A lot of times Charlotte was probably that only stop between Atlanta and Washington, but because of the building's history and all the things that they brought to the market, a lot of shows made their stop here in Charlotte.

- [Jeff] And eventually so did the NBA and the NFL.

How much does Charlotte today owe to wrestling when it comes to pro sports?

- Everything.

- [Jeff] David Crockett sits surrounded by wrestling memorabilia from his family's sports promotion business.

It was the Crocketts who first brought wrestling to Charlotte and ran wrestling from Charlotte.

- Wrestling, of all the entertainment that we had, it was the one that stayed constant.

You watch TV ratings or you watch the turn stop and there was this thing about Charlotte not being a sports city, professional sports, and yes it is.

You just have to present them the right thing, present it to where they want to come.

- [Jeff] And that's why the Crocketts also brought Ric Flair to Charlotte.

- You know why?

Because I'm the champ.

I'm the world heavyweight wrestling champion!

- The camera loved him.

It's that special something that you cannot teach.

They have to have it.

- He is a real big dude!

But he's not the champ.

Ric Flair's the champ.

Understand?!

- [Producer] How'd you stay on top for so long?

- I was that good.

I'm not gonna lie about that.

(laughs) - [Announcer] Like Elvis Presley played here in this building in 1959... - [Jeff] And on this Saturday in Charlotte, everything old is new again because 50 years later for these fans, Ric Flair is still the man.

- [Jeff] Do you ever put on a ball cap, throw a hood up and just kind of sneak out and not get recognized?

- No.

- Is that impossible?

- That that wouldn't be any fun.

(laughs) Why would I wanna do that?

- [Jeff] Yeah, you've been in the spotlight this long, the spotlight kind of old.

- [Ric] I'm gonna stay in it...as long as I can.

- [Jeff] You're not slowing down, are you?

- [Ric] No, not a chance.

- [Announcer] Fans at ringside getting lifelong moments.

- [Audience Member] Whoo!

- Whoo!

- [Jeff] How often do people come up to you and say, "Just go ahead and do the whoo?"

- Every day, thank God.

- (Jeff laughs) Well, I can't let you go without asking too.

- Whoo!

- (laughs) And Ric Flair will be back in North Carolina soon this time in Greensboro, another return to the ring and another old coliseum where Flair, even though he is now in his seventies, will still be what he's always been here in the Carolinas, The nature boy.

Amy?