Ric Flair Interview
WCW Online News
At 47, 13-time world heavyweight champion Ric Flair is a kid at heart. Which is why he may wrestle forever. Ask why The Four Horsemen are so popular despite being bad guys and he laughs and says, "Well, why do you like us? You've partied with us." I have, by the way, but that's another column. "I can take more punishment than anyone in the business..." But ask why he's still wrestling after 23 grueling years in the business, with many of those years spent on the road before pay-per-view could bring the world champion into everyone's living room, and Flair turns serious. "I've had good health. That's No. 1," Flair said. "I can take more punishment than anyone in the business. I've learned my craft. And they haven't found a lot of guys of my quality that also have my work ethic and my enduring love of the sport."
In other words, he can't be replaced. But modesty, of all things, has always prevented Ric Flair from saying that. Make no mistake about it, Flair is the best wrestler in history, On a good night, he's still the best wrestler in the world. Because he still wants to be. "When a lot of guys hear they have to wrestle 20 minutes on TV, they say, 'Oh, God.' They don't want to," Flair said. "My attitude is, I'd rather have 30 minutes. I want as much TV time as possible. I want to show my skills." Flair says he realized five years ago that if he stayed healthy, he could wrestle as long as he wanted.
He's gone into private business, opening a chain of Gold's Gyms throughout his home state, North Carolina. A variety of factors have convinced him to stay in wrestling. One of those is WCW Monday Nitro on TNT. "You have to have the persona." "I enjoy the live Nitro format," Flair said. "It's brought a huge new awareness to wrestling, a huge new visibility. More people are talking about wrestling now than any time I can remember since about 1989. I feel very fortunate to be part of Nitro." Nitro is getting the better of that bargain. The program has followed a simple formula: Need a rating? Put Ric Flair in the main event. Flair is a great in-ring performer. He may be the most selfless wrestler in history, bouncing around like a ping-pong ball to get his foe over. "But wrestling is only part of it," said Flair. "You have to be able to talk. You have to have the persona." "But you have to understand what this business is all about. In the ring, a good wrestler is just as concerned with making his opponent look good as he is with making himself look good. Maybe more so. In my interviews, I have to make sure the focus is equal. When I do interviews now, I have to make sure the fans focus not only on me but on Arn, Liz, Woman and my opponent. When you do an interview, you sell the product - which is myself and pro wrestling - and the upcoming event." Sometimes it seems preposterous when every Nitro, every Clash, every pay-per-view is heralded as the biggest event in wrestling history. But Flair buys into that. "Whenever you're on TV, you have to make the people understand that whatever is coming up next is the biggest match of your career." he said. "With the Nitro format, you have to make the people understand that every week. The guys who can't do that fall by the wayside pretty quickly." Flair won't put a clock on how much longer he'll wrestle. "...I feel like I'm one of the top 5 or 10 in my profession..." "Sometimes I think two more years, but I told you two more years two years ago, and here I am," Flair said, laughing. "As long as I feel like I'm one of the top 5 or 10 in my profession, I'll stay with it. If I don't feel that way tomorrow, I'll be gone. I'm not just talking about interviews. I'm talking about the physical part, too. I used to think I'd quit when I wasn't No. 1. But as long as my peers recognize me as being in the top 5 or 10, I can accept that."
Flair has wrestled all the greats of his time. But he'd like to give one guy one more try. "I'd like to wrestle Shawn Michaels," Flair said. "I wrestled him once in about an eight-minute match [for home video] when I was up there. But I'd love to wrestle him again, for a lot longer than eight minutes this time. "I don't know if I see it coming. He'd have to come down here. But it would draw huge money. And I'd love it. He's the only guy I consider a true peer that I haven't wrestled in a meaningful match." Flair has a long list of favorite foes. "Ricky Steamboat," he started. "Sting. Harley Race. Wahoo McDaniel. Curt Henning. I wrestled [the late] Bruiser Brody a lot. He was great. Sting is the only guy in that class that's really still around. I don't know why it works, but it does. It's almost as good as Steamboat. The people always watch it, that's for sure. The two highest-rated Saturday Night shows in the past six years both had us in the main event. We've done well on Nitro. We've done well on pay-per-view. We've done well on Clashes. Really, it's done huge every time we've wrestled with a legitimate issue. We have good chemistry. I play off his character well."
Getting back to the Four Horsemen thing... "Who wouldn't cheer limos, planes, girls and partying?" The Horsemen had been dormant since Brian Pillman's departure. The group splintered within the context of WCW shows. But the Great American Bash in Baltimore saw the newest incarnation of the horsemen come together as former Chicago Bears lineman Steve McMichael turned on tag-team partner Kevin Greene of the Carolina Panthers to join Flair, Arn Anderson and Chris Benoit. "Steve's gone from one Super Bowl to another," Flair said, chuckling. "He's a Super Bowl champion, a four-time All-Pro, an athlete with tremendous credibility. And he decided that the final step to being the biggest superstar in crossover sports was to join the Four Horsemen. We are honored. "We've had the best wrestlers in the sport. Now we have one of the best athletes in the history of the National Football League."
Flair got around to answering why fans cheer the Horsemen even though they're bad guys: "Because we've always been the best. They cheer us out of respect. And who wouldn't cheer limos, planes, girls and partying?" Who indeed? This interview ended on that note, but Flair assured me that he would be readily available to provide more insight on the WCW web site: "I think it's great for fans to have someplace to go to get responsible inside information. And it's great you're doing it. A lot of people cover this business, but you're a professional journalist. Truth is your business." We'll see if Flair compliments me when I tell the true story about my nights partying with the Horsemen. -- Mark Madden is a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and hosts the WCW Hotline (1-900-909-9900) on Wednesdays and Fridays.
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