Woo! with Flair

Big and tanned and bad and blond, grandpa and wrestling superdude Ric Flair rips one off.

"Woo!"

Just to get the blood moving.

Flair, 56, is in an upstairs hallway of the RBC Center, psyching himself up to videotape "Woo!"s for the Carolina Hurricanes scoreboard. If you've ever been to a game, you know that video of Flair's trademark exclamation helps celebrate Canes goals and a "Woo!" singalong works to pump the crowd when the Canes go on the power play.

"When we first played it, so many people hated it," says Pete Soto, the guy in charge of video for the Hurricanes. There was nasty e-mail.

Then fans bonded with the "Woo!" These days after a Canes goal, eyes in the crowd reflexively look toward the scoreboard, awaiting Flair's arrival.

"Now we just show the blond hair and people go 'Woo!' "

Flair knows that fans love it, so he volunteered to tape some new "Woo!"s on Tuesday. He was in town this week for a televised wrestling show, and the tables, ladders and chairs match left him with cuts across his forehead. Soto says he can smooth them out during editing.

So Flair, who lives in Charlotte, slides on a No. 1 Canes jersey with his nickname, "Nature Boy," stitched across the back. His fiancee, Tiffany VanDemark, straightens his hair.

And then he gets to it: "That's a stylin' and profilin' Hurricanes goal. Woo!"

He tapes a couple of others, including one to be used during a hoped-for Hurricanes playoff run.

The whole deal takes about five minutes.

Flair, who cribbed the declaration from Jerry Lee Lewis, says he joins the "Woo!" chorus when he's in the crowd. It's flattering, he says, that so many people have connected with him.

So what do Canes fans need to perfect their "Woo!"s?

"Years of practice," he says with a sly half-smile. "They need to think about it all day long. I've seen a lot of pitiful 'Woo!'s out there."

Then Flair winks and heads toward the elevator, promising to return for the playoffs.

To woo!

Another day.