By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast with Ric Flair
Host: JP John Poz
Twitter: @TwoManPowerTrip
Website: www.tmptempire.com
Interview available at Tmptow.podomatic.com
On his last match: Yeah, the last match, actually. James and Kelly been doing a lot more of the comic than I have because I’ve had to travel a little bit and have some family stuff wedding and then my granddaughter’s graduation. So they’ve been holding the fort down. But we’re all back together now, and then I’m training for that match I have in Nashville on July 31. So basically, we’re hoping to really kick this thing to a whole new level before putting the components together now. Well, we’re sold out without opponents yet. I have opponents in mind but I can’t say yet.”
On training for his last match and what the doctors told him: “I just had to get over the anxiety of taking my first bumps with the pacemaker and blood thinners. But I embellished when I said four. I have talked to four. I just took opinion. I like your best. In 2018, I had four operations in seven weeks, right? Four different doctors. So what do you believe? Everybody’s got a different theory of what I can do, what I can’t do. The first guy says I can’t go skiing, told me I’ll never be able to go above 10,000 feet, I went to Veil 20,000 feet, I went skiing. I fell down skiing. I fell down on the ice, ice skating. So if I can do that, I can wrestle. And I’m breaking again, which I’m never supposed to do. It’s easy to blame any aspect of what I’ve been through and what could happen, but I’m not worried about it. Does that make sense? And I’m just having fun and I’m enjoying the competition it creates within myself and just want to show off. If I can do it at 73 and I’ll be better fundamentally than 85 percent of the roster in either company. I’m not talking about flying off the top rope yet, but punching, kicking, psychology, wrestling, I’ll be better than 85 percent. I got another month and a half to train. I won’t go in there not ready.”
On his legacy: “My legacy is going to be entirely different after the 31st. Right now, if it’s just I was a great wrestler. Hard to ever say I was going to be the greatest. I put the asses in the seats. I was that person in my time, but that’s late ’70s-’80s. And now we’re talking 2022. So it’s not the money anymore. I’ve got that. It was a challenge. And having people believe me and I… it’s a big deal.”
On his top opponents: Well, he (Dusty Rhodes) was the most charismatic without even thinking about the most charismatic wrestler in the history of our business. And he was a genius. He came up with The Great American Bash. He came up with Starrcade. Those are all things that he thought of, the Bunkhouse Stampede. I mean, he came up with all these themes and theories, and he gave me my music, Elvis music and Frank Sinatra music. I was coming out to A Sharp Dressed Man by Whitney Houston or by the Pointer Sisters, I can’t remember. Anyway. And then he said same stuff as Elvis. How many guys draw money against each other for 25 years?
“We never went to a building that wasn’t sold out. We both cut ourselves every night. And then we sacrificed a lot more than we had to, regardless of what people want to say about what they thought his condition was, I must have wrestled him 500 hour Broadways, hour draws. So if a town called for it, or an opponent called for it, he could go. Make no mistake, we had a lot of fun drinking, too. […] Nothing could touch me and (Ricky) Steamboat. I’m very confident saying that he’s the best babyface of all time, better than anybody. Shawn (Michaels) is a great babyface, and Shawn is a better worker because he can go both ways. But as far as babyfaces, Steamboat was the epitome. He’s a great guy. Yeah. Handful of guys. He, Dusty, Sting. I love working with (Hulk) Hogan and Harley Race. Some guys are just special. And certainly Dusty and Steamboat were real special in my life because we’re all in our prime at that time.”
Other topics include his legacy, his last match, Starrcast, the roast, today’s crop of stars, Roman Reigns, his daughter Charlotte, his top opponents of all time, Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Hulk Hogan, Sting, Ron Garvin, and more.
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