"Woooooo!" With that triumphant yell, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair surpassed his predecessors and his peers to become one of the greatest professional wrestlers in history. Throughout the years, there may have been equally charismatic performers, comparable athletes, and even better interviews, but none were blessed with the same combination of talents to manage to stay on top for over three decades. To wrestling fans, the Nature Boy is a platinum-blond deity, a sixteen-time world champion who accurately boasted that he could have a five-star match with a broom. No matter how limited the opponent, Flair had the skill and determination to bounce all over the mat, transforming his rival into a star. When the camera light went on, "Slick Ric" could convince viewers that, if they missed an upcoming match, a momentous life experience would pass them by. Flair's opponents were challenged with this simple taunt: "To be the man, you have to beat the man." Away from the arena, Richard Morgan Fliehr spent years struggling with his own concept of what it meant to be a man. He suffered periods of crushing self-doubt, marital strife and -- in a profession where there was room for only one Ric Flair -- broken friendships. "Ric Flair: To Be the Man," cowritten with Keith Elliot Greenberg, chronicles the anguish and exhilaration of Flair's life and career -- in painfully honest detail. From the moment he was born, Flair was enmeshed in controversy. Like many of the other children adopted through the Tennessee Children's Home Society, he was apparently stolen from his birth parents and placed on the adoption black market. Raised just outside Minneapolis by a gynecologist and atheater writer, Ric was a distracted student, brilliant athlete, and wild party boy. Through a chance meeting with weightlifter Ken Patera, Flair was directed to the place where his athletic proficiency and personality quirks were highly valued: the pro-wrestling circuit. After beginning h