Ric Flair, Roman Reigns and the leglocks that tie college football and pro wrestling

— -- Ric Flair, the self-proclaimed kiss-stealing, limousine-riding, jet-flying son of a gun, "walked that aisle" night after night, town after town on his way to professional wrestling immortality.

It's an aisle that began for the "Nature Boy" on the football field as an offensive guard on the University of Minnesota's freshmen team in 1968 and quickly led to the wrestling ring. It's the same aisle countless other wrestling stars have taken during the years dating back to Bronko Nagurski, who started wrestling in 1933 to supplement what was modest football pay at that time. He'd wrestle from January to July and then play football from September to December.

"There was no Nike, no endorsement deals or any of that other stuff back in those days," explained WWE Hall of Fame wrestling announcer Jim Ross. "Nagurski was a football star, a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he was also a wrestling star. He took sabbaticals from the NFL just to wrestle because he was making more money from wrestling."

In a lot of ways, he was also a pioneer.

When WrestleMania 32, pro wrestling's largest annual spectacle, is staged Sunday night before 80,000-plus fans at AT&T Stadium, many of the grapplers appearing, including some of the headliners, were once college football players. A few even dipped their toes into the professional football ranks.