Answer Man: Pro wrestler Ric Flair, bag containing rattlesnake at Asheville Civic Center?

Today’s batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:

Question: Last year, the A&E television channel ran a biography series on pro wrestling titled, "WWE Legends presents 'Biography: 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper.'" About 30-40 minutes into the episode, Ric Flair mentions a match that was held in Asheville, North Carolina. Flair claims that a man ran down the aisle to the ring with a sack containing a rattlesnake. Flair also claims that he threw the snake in the ring. The two-hour episode had a segment on the risks that the wrestlers encountered during their career. I can find no reference to any such incident, and I am certain it was just an "off the cuff" remark made by Ric Flair. Several of my family members in other parts of the country have given me a hard time about this. I should mention that they also think everyone down here talks like Andy Griffith. In any event, if you should have any interest in this, I have attached a link to the episode. You may find yourself watching the entire episode; I know I did although I will never admit it.

My answer: All I can say to this one is, "Wooooohhhh, baby! Let me see what I can find out!"

Real answer: I'm not going to lie — I watched way too much pro wrestling as a kid, although I was partial to Black Jack Mulligan and was not a fan of Flair, who also went by "The Nature Boy" and shamelessly bragged about his prowess and beautiful bleach blond hair. Sure, it was all part of the show, but I rooted for Mulligan, Wahoo McDaniel and Andre the Giant to plaster the Nature Boy.

To be fair, you had to love Flair, who was the ultimate showman and a fantastic villain. Plus, I'm still scarred by my older brother repeatedly putting Mulligan's signature move, "the claw," on my forehead. I still blame this for my freakishly narrow temples ... and limited mental capacity.

Answer Man: $480 to register a car in NC? Asheville Social Security office reopening?

At any rate, I checked with the Pack Memorial Library North Carolina Special Collections room to see if they could find anything about it, either in old Citizen Times clips or other sources. I tip my Wahoo McDaniel headdress to Kathy Hill in Special Collections, who, ahem, really went to the mat in researching this one.

She, too, checked out the A&E Biography piece on Rowdy Roddy Piper, and then conducted research to attempt to verify Flair's comments.

"I haven't been able to find any articles about that incident, but I did find an article from 1989 where the person being featured shared a memory of a snake in a bag being thrown into a ring," Hill told me via email. "I believe it was a boxing match, and the guy stated that it was 40-50 years prior to 1989. Maybe Asheville has some weird history of fans throwing snakes into fighting rings. LOL."

Folks, that would not surprise me at all.

Hill did say she found some news clippings about matches that Ric Flair and Roddy Piper were in at the former Asheville Civic Center, now called the Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville.

"We reached out to someone we know who is a wrestling enthusiast, and he is trying to find the info as well," Hill said. "There was another wrestler in some of those matches that was named Jake 'The Snake' Roberts whose gimmick was to bring a snake on stage in a sack and dump it out. He had boa constrictors, though, and our enthusiast doesn't think he was the one that is being referred to."

Answer Man: In weather forecasting, what are the 'Euro model' and 'U.S. model?'

Hill said the wrestling enthusiast "seems to recall that story as well and believes it was a fan who had a snake in a bag."

I reached out to local historian Jon Elliston, and former longtime Citizen Times entertainment editor Tony Kiss, but neither had any recollection of the snake-in-a-bag incident.

It also rang no bells for Jim Baker, who was a full-time sportswriter at the Citizen Times from 1979-1996 and a part-timer from 2012-15. But there's a caveat to that.

"The newspaper really ignored pro wrestling in terms of publishing the results or sending a columnist over there to do something," Baker said. "It's like it didn't exist, so you're just not going to find anything (in the newspaper archives)."

So, I'm going to have to turn this one over to you good readers out there and hope there's a pro wrestling enthusiast who might recall this incident. If you know anything about it, or have a good source for me to call, shoot me an email or leave me a voice mail (see contact information below).

Flair truly is an fascinating character, by the way. According to his bio on the entertainment information website IMDb, Flair, born Richard Morgan Fliehr, "isn't what you'd expect from a professional wrestler."

"A medical student at Minnesota University (his father was a doctor, his mother an actress), Flair dropped out college to train for the mat wars under legendary former AWA World champ Verne Gagne. He made his professional wrestling debut on December 10, 1972, wrestling 'Scrap Iron' George Gadaski (real name: John Kosti) to a ten minute draw in Rice Lake, Wisconsin."

Answer Man: Sewage 'stench' permeates Woodfin? Plant in compliance with regulations?

Flair wrestled for decades, often based out of Charlotte, and "is the only man in wrestling history to hold all four versions of the title," IMDb states, referring to the different sanctioning bodies for pro wrestling. Flair also was named "most hated" wrestler numerous years running, a tribute to his flamboyant, over-the-top style.

By the way, Flair is still alive and kicking, and probably still crowing, "To be the man, you got to beat the man! Woooooooh!"

This is the opinion of John Boyle. To submit a question, contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Answer Man: Ric Flair, bag with rattlesnake at Asheville Civic Center?