CHARLESTON — Ric Flair is a legend in professional wrestling.

He's a 16-time world heavyweight wrestling champion.

During the 1980s, he was the leader of the infamous Four Horsemen that wreaked havoc across the NWA and WCW wrestling territories.

He is recognized by World Wrestling Entertainment as an eight-time National Wrestling Alliance champ, a six-time World Championship Wrestling champion and a two-time World Heavyweight champion for the WWE. And his actual tally of world championship reigns is as high as 22, due to other title reigns that are not recognized by the WWE.

His many battles with Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Sting, Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan and other wrestling superstars are the stuff of DVD collections based on his greatness.

He made many pro wrestlers cringe and beg for matches to end with his figure-four leglock and bruised many men's chests with his big chops.

He coined and made famous the mantra "To be the man, you've got to beat the man" and wrestling fans still shout "Wooooooo!" when they're in an arena where he is competing or making an appearance.

He's called "The Nature Boy" and "Slick Ric" and he thrilled thousands of West Virginia wrestling fans with his matches in Charleston and Huntington — and even in Williamson.

Flair, now enjoying retirement but still active with the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, the former World Wrestling Federation), made a stop in Charleston on Saturday at the Town Center Mall, where he was given the key to the city of Charleston and it was declared "Ric Flair Day" by Mayor Danny Jones.

Flair held a meet and greet with fans before and after the presentation by Mayor Jones and he talked about the great memories he has of wrestling in West Virginia.

"I can't pick out one memory that would override the other, but I know that this is one of the greatest wrestling towns we wrestled in over the 30 years that I was in the southeast," Flair said. "The Charleston Civic Center is a great place to work in. I have great memories of the Ramada Inn and the Marriott and, of course, Joey's, all those times. They were great crowds to work in front of and the people were very friendly. The people here love wrestling. This market and Huntington were a lot of fun for us. We had a great time here. I love coming here."

Hundreds of eager fans lined Collectibles, Etc., to meet Flair and get their photo taken with The Nature Boy and to get an autograph. Flair said he was pleased with the turnout.

"I think this is great. I'd hoped (there would be a lot of fans), but you never know. I know everywhere I've been since I've retired, the receptions have been really nice. It's a great chance for me to interact with the fans and there are a lot of places I'm not crazy about going to, but Charleston is a place I can tell you I was looking forward to coming to. A lot of great memories here. We had the Great American Bash here for about four years in a row and this was always a great town for us to be in."

Flair said he is retired from active wrestling, but he said he will still make appearances for the WWE.

"I just did Wrestlemania and I'll always go back when they want me," Flair said. "But, I'm not wrestling fulltime. I don't wrestle at all, but I do do stuff with my youngest son (Reid), who is just starting out. He's going to start wrestling more with a guy named Michael Bryant and a company called Ring of Honor. But, as far as me wrestling, I'm done wrestling. I could wrestle tomorrow, but I'm not going to.

"I've had too good a career to go back and ruin it. Like the thing with Brett Favre. I like Brett Favre and respect him, but him retirement from the Green Bay Packers was just awesome and I think, right now, he wishes he hadn't gone back. I know he made 12 million bucks, but he left a mere shadow of what he really represented. He went out on top and then went back. I wouldn't want to push that moment again. Wrestlemania was too cool for me."

Chad Rogers, the owner of Collectibles, Etc., which sponsored the visit, said he was excited to have Ric Flair appear at his Town Center Mall store.

"This has been one of the biggest events we have ever done here at our store," Rogers said. "We've gotten a great response. This is the biggest, fan-friendly thing we have ever done here. We're glad we could provide this opportunity for the fans. It cost a little bit of money, but it was definitely worth it. Hopefully, the fans think it's worth it. We're excited to have The Nature Boy in house. It's very exciting."

Following Flair's meet-and-greet with fans in the Collectibles, Etc., store, he went downstairs to the Charleston Town Center Mall's center court, where he signed autographs and posed for photos with hundreds of fans, who started lining up around noon for his 2 p.m. appearance.

Flair entered the center court to the "Dawn" section of Richard Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra", which is the music used in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is the longtime entrance music he used during his wrestling career. Flair received a loud ovation from the crowd lining the walls of center court and along the rails of the second and third floors.

Flair then accepted the key to the city of Charleston from Mayor Jones and addressed the crowd.

"This is one of the greatest sports cities in the world," Flair told the crowd to loud cheers. "I know that you are great for wrestling and you've got a pretty fair football team called West Virginia up here somewhere. I'm very proud to be here. I've had so much fun entertaining you here at the Civic Center and eating at Joey's. I have a lot of great memories. Charleston is a great city. I'm honored to be here."