By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Ric Flair
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
On still wanting to wrestle: “I want to wrestle again right now. Isn’t it crazy? I feel like because, Ricky Morton, the guy that I should have chosen for my last match would have been great. Ricky Morton is still wrestling. You know what the best thing for me about it was I forced myself to really get in shape. I’ve heard this from guys over the years. And when they were older, I was like, in my prime, the older guys would say a man, I’m tired of working out. And there gets a time when you just get bored working out. You don’t have a goal. I mean, they gave me a goal and I just attacked it. I didn’t stop drinking or anything, but I was training literally training three hours a day, five days a week in the ring, or I was doing the sled, the ropes. Yeah, I got my bench press up for two and a quarter. I mean, so from being dead to all that was pretty cool.”
On making it through his final match: “Oh, yeah, I was fighting like hell to get through it. But it was just fighting here. Nothing that I felt, I wasn’t hurting anywhere. I just felt bad because the guys had been all panicking and worried about my health. And we had said we had constructed such a great match. If it had come off the way we’ve practiced forever, it would have been a masterpiece, but, you know, when I walked back to the locker room Taker made me drink three Gatorades. Then I went to Kid Rock and drank all night long.”
On Charlotte Flair breaking the all-time championship record: “I certainly hope it happens. I don’t know what they’re doing right now. But who knows? It’s got to happen. It’d be the biggest thing in the business. If they’re really interested in doing something. Because I feel like the women have had more empowerment right now than they ever had, and deservedly, right. But the biggest thing that could happen, John and I talked about this, John Cena. Can you imagine us walking down and congratulating Charlotte? What kind of rating would that get on TV? To see that finally happen? I think it’s the biggest thing they could do right now.”
On who he thinks is the GOAT: “Well, I think to me, the GOAT is the guy that did the most for the business. Not necessarily, had to be the best wrestler. But the guy that did meant the most to our business, and the guy that saved [it] in my eyes, saved the WWE. Steve Austin. Yeah, I mean, what Steve did, and then to be injured and retire at 39. I mean, I keep forgetting this and until people remind me, well, I don’t see Steve as much as I used to. But he quit. He had to quit because of a broken neck at 39. Yeah, he got back in and out. But I mean, think about that. I mean. And he took a couple of swings. They put one label on him, but when he found that niche, him and Vince, The Attitude Era, but it was Stone Cold, Shawn [Michaels], Mike Tyson. And we were arguing about the NWO, who’s gonna win a match? And can we go with three minutes instead of ten? I mean, it’s just bullshit. But that’s, that’s when all of a sudden where [Eric] Bischoff didn’t know how to run a company. Then he put himself into it, which made it worse.”
1. UTMOST respect for Ric, because I think he’s the GOAT, but it will be a huge monumental moment for HIM, because it’s his daughter, and that’s understandable. But in todays wrestling climate, when the curtain is open now, its no big deal.
2. I still laugh at the people who bash Goldberg for “ending bret’s career” yet have no harsh words for Owen ending Austins career. Hypocrisy reigns supreme, both in liberal politics and the wrestling world.