The Nature Boy.

When one hears that name, most of the population will immediately think of Ric Flair, who truly made the moniker his own over his illustrious career. But he was not the only one to use the nickname. Originally the name belonged to Buddy Rogers, who Flair took much of the character from, including not only his finishing hold the Figure Four, but many of his mannerisms and overall style. Officially recognized as the first-ever WWWF World Heavyweight Champion, Rogers’ career was sadly cut short. This would later lead to Flair taking up the moniker as he climbed the ranks and took over the world of Southern wrestling, becoming the top draw in Jim Crockett Promotions, the company that would later become World Championship Wrestling.

But while he was stylin’ and profilin’ his way to the top, another Nature Boy was making his bid for the top spot in the form of Buddy Landel. Unfortunately, personal demons would continually cause Landel to fall off the map while routing his path to success, something that would haunt him throughout his career, leaving him as nothing more than a footnote in the long, storied history of professional wrestling.

The Early Years

Landel entered the wrestling business in a dubious fashion, a word that would come to describe much of his career. After training under the tutelage of Professor Boris Malenko, along with Bob Orton Jr. and Bob Roop, Landel began competing for International Championship Wrestling, which was considered an outlaw outfit run by Angelo Poffo, competing alongside Poffo’s two sons, Leaping Lanny Poffo and Macho Man Randy Savage, all in the earliest parts of their careers. Landel would not stay in the promotion for long, moving to Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling in 1981. He would spend many months toiling away in the mid-card and impressing so much, that later in the year he would move onto one of the two promotions that would define his career, spending a few months in late 1981 and early 1982 in Jim Crockett Promotions before returning to Mid-South and having a brief stay in Continental Wrestling Association. Landel would spend the next year bouncing around the different Southern promotions, continuing to hone his skills and prepping himself for the next step, which would seem to finally all come together in 1985.

Success and Addiction

He became a regular fixture in JCP come early 1985, engaging in a feud with Magnum TA early in the year for the United States Championship, but found that the title would elude him. He would soon link up with a pre-Horsemen J.J. Dillon as his manager. By the middle of the year, Landel was receiving sporadic shots at Ric Flair and his NWA World Heavyweight Title, drawing big houses but never successfully defeating his Nature Boy counterpart. It was also around this time that Landell was taking the Nature Boy gimmick very seriously, admittedly becoming an alcoholic and drug addict, always trying to live the life that Flair was braggadocious about. Many of his colleagues felt that Landell, despite his high ring IQ and acumen, was taking to heart many of the things that Flair would say about him in promos. Towards the end of 1985, Landell moved into a feud that was intended to set him up for a real run at the gold while Flair battled against Dusty Rhodes. At Starrcade 1985, Landel, with Dillon in his corner, defeated Terry Taylor to secure the NWA National Heavyweight Championship, which also set him up as a future Number One contender for the NWA World Title. Unfortunately, this was where things began to fall apart. 

Behind the scenes, some sort of disagreement would lead to Landel departing the company. Reports have indicated over the years that it was a disagreement, while others have said that Landel had become unreliable due to his ‘personal demons’ and was missing shows. This led to booker Dusty Rhodes firing him and stripping him of the NWA National Title. TV following this would state that Rhodes had actually defeated Landel for the strap, but from all reports it seems this match is about as real as the tournament that Pat Patterson won for the Intercontinental Championship in Rio de Janeiro. 

The longstanding rumor has always been that Buddy Landel was truthfully in line for a run with Flair and a battle of the Nature Boys, where he was supposed to win the NWA World Championship. According to Arn Anderson on an early episode of his podcast ARN, he discussed how close Buddy was to the big angle with Flair.

“That particular day, Buddy was right in line to do an angle with Flair. They had built, they had built the angle, they had rubbed them up against each other. He was probably a week or two out from shooting the angle, wrestling Flair. Major markets around Crockett’s territory which you can imagine what money he would have made. But we went to Atlanta, JJ knew were Buddy stayed. Um, and Buddy didn’t show up to TV. JJ started calling the room, he called the first time Buddy answered and hung up, sounded like he was sound asleep. JJ called back, sounded like, and I’m paraphrasing the story the way it went down but it was something like this. Sounded like the phone got knocked off to the floor. So, JJ thought, ‘Hey I better go talk to Dusty’ so he did. The conversation went something like this, ‘JJ, I’ll give him one last chance. Go get his ass up, get him in the shower, get him here, if he’s not here in an hour and a half, he’s done.’ JJ went, was banging on the door, Buddy cracked the curtain. ‘JJ, I’m sorry baby, I’m not going.’ Shut the curtain, that was the end of Buddy Landel.”

Following the blowing of arguably the biggest opportunity he would ever have, Landel would return to his roots of bouncing around different territories, returning to the CWA. He would make sporadic appearances once again in JCP and even the AWA. He would eventually return to Mid-Atlantic/JCP and go on a brief undefeated streak, but it was always only against enhancement talent. Somehow, he managed to reignite the feud with Flair, but at this point it was seemingly one-sided with Flair only acknowledging Buddy in passing if at all. 

Jim Cornette, a close friend of Buddy’s, has frequently spoken about Buddy truly having two sides, with there being a “Good Buddy” and a “Bad Buddy.” When “Good Buddy” was around, he was on top of his game and never missed a beat. But when “Bad Buddy” was around, he would frequently tell those he was with that ‘if there ain’t snow we don’t go.’ I’m sure you can figure out what he was referring to given his history of debauchery.

The Comeback

Over the next few years, Landel would again drift around, before seemingly finding God, as many troubled stars over the years have. This would lead him to his next big break while competing in Cornette’s own Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Landel would quickly become one of the top heels in the company, aligning himself with the evil Cornette. Then he would find himself in an interesting situation due to Cornette’s affiliation with the World Wrestling Federation. A bout was set up for SMW SuperBowl Of Wrestling in August of 1995 where Landel would challenge for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. When the match was originally made, Jeff Jarrett was reigning as the IC Champ, indicating we would get a hot Southern-style main event match at the Knoxville Coliseum. Plans would change when Shawn Michaels dethroned Jeff Jarrett in one of the under-the-radar best matches of both men’s careers at In Your House 2. This would change the match at Superbowl Of Wrestling to now feature the Heartbreak Kid defending against Landel, while also laying the groundwork for a babyface turn from the Nature Boy. Landel would set this up beautifully with undoubtedly the best promo of his entire career ahead of the match.

As expected, given two talents of their caliber, the match was a good one, and with the tease from the aforementioned promo, it ended due to a miscommunication caused by Cornette, which led to Shawn retaining the title. This also led to a long-awaited face turn for Landel, which seemingly only lasted in Smoky Mountain. By the time Smoky Mountain closed its doors and Landel jumped to the WWF, it was clear that the bloom was off the rose. His reputation for unreliability prevented any bookers from giving him any kind of serious push. He seemed to settle in as a mid-card worker when he unfortunately slipped on some ice and tore his right quad at the end of 1995, putting him on the shelf for half a year.

While he would make some sporadic appearances for the “Big Two” over the next few years, it was clear that Landel would never have a true opportunity to shine on a grand stage. Landel would remain active on the independent scene until his retirement in 2010. 

Unfortunately, Landel would be involved in a car crash in June of 2015 resulting him being hospitalized for his injuries. Despite the doctor pleading that he remain in their care, Landel checked himself out to return home. The next morning, his wife would find him dead at the age of 53. Given how many talents we see having revived their careers at an accelerated age over the past decade, one has to wonder what Buddy could have done if given the chance.

More than any other talent over the years, Buddy Landel might just be the biggest example of what could have been had personal demons and bad choices at the worst possible time not overtaken him. It’s easy to imagine how big a Nature Boy feud between Ric Flair and Buddy Landel could have been in 1986, the height of JCP’s promotional awareness, but like so many other questions in the wrestling business, it is simply nothing more than conjecture at this point.