You impacted so many people's lives with your career.
I know at the time, you probably couldn't grasp it.
But all these years later, I hope that you do.
I hope you understand how much you meant
and how many people you shaped.
RIC FLAIR: Thank you.
Many of us, when we started, had no idea
that if you were able to find all this different memorabilia
and be able to get it in a central location,
that people would find that fascinating
and want to walk through and see all of that.
Obviously, you're one of the guys at the top of the list.
Yeah.
Well, that's because I'm the oldest.
Yeah.
[laughs]
Because--
No.
OK, that's true.
Well, no, but I was going to say, look,
he just has some of the most iconic memorabilia of all time.
When you think of the Nature Boy Ric Flair,
you think about the long streaming robes.
Put that camera on this.
Can you get something to show them
what's happening right here?
You know, a lot of guys wore robes.
A lot of guys wore fancy robes.
They didn't kind of do it the way that Ric did.
If you close your eyes and say "woo,"
you can literally envision Ric Flair strutting around
in one of those shiny robes.
Of the dozens of robes that he's worn in his career,
we actually only have one at the warehouse.
ANNOUNCER: Here's Flair in another one
of those multi-thousand-dollar robes.
BEN BROWN: The WWE actually purchased this robe off
of Ric several years ago, and it's
been a prize jewel and possession of the WWE archives
for several years.
There's obviously so many of them to choose from,
but we're going to do what we can to boil this
down to maybe just a couple.
Starrcade 1983, that was in the time.
RIC FLAIR: Yeah.
SHAWN MICHAELS: You know.
This was 18,000 people going out of their mind.
To be the world champion was a big deal back then, really big.
ANNOUNCER: The one match that everybody has been eyeing,
Harley Race going up against Ric Flair.
Who you think's gonna win this thing, darling?
Ric Flair!
We all know that the biggest show in WWE is WrestleMania,
and it always has been.
But back in the day, before Ric was in WWE, he was in NWA,
and their version of WrestleMania was Starrcade.
ANNOUNCER: For the world heavyweight championship.
[cheering]
AJ FRANCIS: And in the first ever Starrcade in 1983,
an up-and-coming Ric Flair shocked the world
and dethroned the king, Harley Race,
and became the NWA World Heavyweight Champion.
ANNOUNCER: He's got him down.
1, 2, 3.
He did it.
AJ FRANCIS: That title made Ric Flair the man,
and that's why that robe is what we're looking for.
I am so proud of him being my father.
Yeah.
But, like, the pressure to live
up to that name, what it does do is it makes me work harder.
This up here, I think, is West Potter's house.
Conrad said he has a bunch of cool memorabilia,
some related to Ric, so maybe he has the butterfly robe?
My mom has it hiding.
AJ FRANCIS: [laughs]
I'm just kidding.
We're coming.
Oh.
Yeah, you hide there.
[knocking]
West. - Hey.
AJ.
What's up, man?
Nice to meet you. I have a surprise.
Nice to meet you.
OK. Whoa!
Hi.
That is a surprise.
It's the queen.
- Nice to meet you, sir. - Yeah.
How are you? - Hi.
Wow.
Good, how are you?
So I hear you got a hell of a collection.
Yeah, come on.
I first became a wrestling fan during the height
of the Monday night wars.
There was a lot of great matches and characters on television,
and the first one that really caught
my eye during that period was Ric Flair.
Whether he's performing or not, there's something that draws
you to him, that charisma.
And that's when I really was hooked and really
became a wrestling collector.
So this is it.
Wow.
Steamboat's jacket.
Yeah, that's from his old gym in Charlotte.
That's a Jerry "The King" Lawler autographed crown.
AJ FRANCIS: Nice.
WEST POTTER: And the boots with the crown on top of them
are actually Harley Race's from WrestleMania III against JYD.
That's history right there.
I've never seen it in person.
Yep, that's it.
There's a lot of history there.
He actually wore it in '81 in his first world title match,
and notably at Starrcade '83.
AJ FRANCIS: There it is.
WEST POTTER: Against Harley Race.
ANNOUNCER: From Charlotte, North Carolina, ladies and gentlemen,
the Nature Boy Ric Flair!
Our next event of the evening is a cage match.
One wall with a 60-minute time limit.
RIC FLAIR: Harley Race was the toughest guy in our business,
and everybody knew it.
You could not socialize with him in a bar
without him letting everybody in the bar
know that he was the world champion.
Harley was the guy, and he was the poster
child for the legitimacy of this thing as a sport.
ANNOUNCER: Here it is, Starrcade '83.
Flair for the goal.
He was the real world champion.
ANNOUNCER: Harley Race knew that this was going to be the match
of his life right here.
Winning the title meant everything.
ANNOUNCER: And Flair is putting it to him.
This is before WWE.
The NWA was it.
If you were the NWA world champion,
you were in a good place.
That was the title.
ANNOUNCER: [inaudible] with a knee blow.
BEN BROWN: It's just this iconic match, and it signifies,
really, Ric reaching the mountaintop--
ANNOUNCER: Up on the top rope!
--for one of the first times.
ANNOUNCER: Ric Flair has done what many people
consider to be impossible.
BEN BROWN: After '83, there's no stopping him.
Ric is on top for the rest of his life.
So that robe signifies those first world
championship wins, on top of the fact that it's beautiful.
And it will be really, really great
to have that in the collection.
This is Olivia Walker.
WEST POTTER: Olivia Walker, yeah.
Oh, man.
CHARLOTTE FLAIR: They're so thick.
WEST POTTER: Can you imagine putting all that on by hand?
She put all that stuff on by hand--
I know. WEST POTTER: --one by one.
AJ FRANCIS: The details on this robe are incredible.
It's like it hasn't been touched since '83.
Oh, this is awesome.
Oh, long live the queen.
Oh, man.
[laughs] Got a little weight to it, doesn't it?
CHARLOTTE FLAIR: Oh, yeah.
Mine are this heavy, though.
Got some portraits.
CHARLOTTE FLAIR: Who would have ever thought?
Oh, and I like the old-school--
Yeah, the Nature Boy.
Nature Boy.
Woo.
Oh, here we go.
I actually-- now that I'm seeing his old boots,
I'm like, oh, I want boots done like that.
Those are actually the boots that
he was wearing the night that he won the Royal Rumble in '92.
AJ FRANCIS: Which is the same exact robe.
Oh, I needed some good luck for this Rumble this year.
Yeah, there you go.
AJ FRANCIS: These go along with the black butterfly robe
that Rick wore at Royal Rumble in 1992,
when he won the WWE title.
For 25 years, I have looked for it also,
and there has been no mention of any inkling of anywhere
to start.
We don't know where it's at, where it's been.
Multiple collectors in a network that's cast a pretty wide net
can't come up with what happened to this,
one of the all-time iconic pieces of his memorabilia.
I wouldn't know, unfortunately, yeah.
I wish I did.
I'd probably have it here.
So those black and red boots that Ric Flair wore
at the Royal Rumble might be the closest thing
we'll ever get to that butterfly robe,
or to capturing that moment.
So having something like those boots to represent that moment
would also be huge.
I think an exhibit that has these Ric Flair boots,
hopefully the butterfly robe, and then
with an old vintage Ric Flair robe right next to it.
That'd be a pretty cool, wouldn't it?
[chuckles] These boots and this robe.
How about $60,000?
No.
[groans]
Do you have a figure in mind?
You know, I've had everything just for so long now,
it means so much, I think I have to keep them here.
In the world of collectibles, Ric Flair robes definitely
holds a mecha position.
To own one of those robes is to own a piece of history.
It almost single-handedly catapults you
from being a civilian and a fan to now being
almost inside of this wonderful world
of professional wrestling.
I understand being attached to memorabilia.
Like, I have my dad's watch from when he retired.
I don't know if anyone could ever take this off my wrist.
But what about a loan agreement?
So what if WWE was able to display the boots and the robe
for like certain period of time, and then deliver it
right back to your front door.
AJ FRANCIS: Front door.
CHARLOTTE FLAIR: Maybe even give you a plaque that says,
owned by West Potter.
Just so, you know, we know how much these things mean to us.
We know how much it means to you, I'm sure.
AJ FRANCIS: And they're going to mean
a lot to the other fans that see these boots and this robe.
And if we can find the other butterfly
robe to go with those boots, I mean, that's everything.
Yeah.
BEN BROWN: Really the end goal of this whole thing
is to get this memorabilia in front of fans.
So at that point, it's kind of any means necessary to do so.
Obviously, it'd be great to own everything.
But being able to have a relationship with other people
who have these great items, and them
being willing to loan some of their iconic pieces,
just helps to tell the story.
And I wouldn't be able to do this
without a lot of their help.
It is important, I feel, for the fans
to be able to share their appreciation,
I'm sure just like, you know, we all have for it,
for his career.
So that would definitely be something I would be into.
Yeah, I would do that.
Thank you so much.
Definitely.
I think the deal today is a win-win
for both, in that fans can see and appreciate these items.
And I know at the end of the day,
they can arrive home back to me safely.
So I feel good about it.
Now we just have to find the butterfly robe.
[laughs]
Yeah.
Well, hopefully it won't take 15 years.
No.
Hopefully.
It's already been gone 25, so another 15 years and I
might be too old for this job.