Shane Douglas Continues To Lobby For Match With Ric Flair
Shane Douglas continues to apparently lobby for a match with Ric Flair. In a recent interview with Fanhouse.com, Douglas noted that he had been offered a spot to appear at this Sunday's Hardcore Justice PPV, but would only appear if he could wrestle Flair. Here are some excerpts from the interview:
On wanting Ric Flair: "I was offered to be on the show. I would love to be on the show. I put one stipulation forward — that I get Ric Flair. It's come to my understanding that Ric, rather than talk about his illustrious career or the Four Horsemen or his infamous run-ins with Dusty Rhodes and Hulk Hogan, he decided to talk about me and say some things that my lawyers consider to be bordering on slanderous and libelous. This is no work, this is no joke. I want to get this guy in the ring so I can knock him around a little bit for my own satisfaction and I'm sure the fans would like to see it as well.
"Ric Flair is Ric Flair — you can't take that away from him, except he's taken that away from him. He's made a caricature of his career on camera and I say that because behind the camera, the stories I could tell and will tell at some point about this jackass making a total mockery of our sport, of himself as a man which I say that with very small letters. You want to go out and talk about me, that's fine. Say what you want about me. Back them up. Otherwise, don't say them. I've been as gracious as I can be to him over the last five years since I left the ring. I've had differences with him but he's the icon of our sport and so forth. But if he wants to make statements about me, I would suggest you start backing them up or stop saying them, because I would say he has a better chance of fighting his wife or one of the prostitutes that rolled him for his Rolexes than he has of getting in the ring and making a statement with me. Ric has made these statements — back them up. If not, shut up. It's one or the other.
"That's my one and only demand of TNA: give me Ric Flair and I would think that Dixie Carter, after paying a 61-year-old piece of garbage a half-million dollars a year in the financial shape that they're in, that she would order this piece of garbage into the match but apparently not. Apparently she must be buddies with him. I haven't seen that Ric Flair has been anything positive for TNA that would warrant her taking any preferential treatment for Dic Flair, any more than anyone else. Ric has made these statements — back them up. If not, shut up. It's one or the other. It's a very simple demand that I have of TNA. As much as I love and respect and value and cherish working with Raven and Al Snow and Taz and all of the rest of the classic talents from ECW that I have, I honestly, truthfully in my heart believe the fans of ECW that want to give a final sendoff to this company as Tommy Dreamer has said this show is supposed to be, that they would rather see me versus Ric Flair than me versus anybody fill-in-the-blank. I may be wrong on that but let's let the fans decide. Like I said in my statement on FranchiseFansite.com, what do the fans think? If the fans think they'd rather see me against Chris Chetti or some other ECW talent, I'll take that into consideration. But I think the true ECW fan would buy a TNA pay-per-view to see me versus Dic Flair more so than anything else that they could offer up. So, the ball's in their court. If they give a 61-year-old man a half-million dollars a year, 60-year-old man $750,000 a year or whatever the hell it was for (Hulk) Hogan, whatever it was for (Eric) Bischoff and (Vince) Russo and Sting and all the rest of them over the years."
On TNA's response to his demands: "The first two people — and I'll keep their names to myself because, hey, we love to keep secrets in this business — the first two people I spoke to were marks for the idea, loved the idea, thought it would be great for the pay-per-view. Somebody since then — and you can only guess who — has pulled the strings and said it's not going to happen. It can't happen. Even after I suggested a storyline that would be incredibly entertaining for the fans, incredibly telegenic for the fans and incredibly positive, bottom line, for TNA. This to me is a no-brainer. I can't figure it out. If I say to you, you can sell your car for $1,000 right now or with a little bit of showmanship and a little bit of finagling we could sell it for $100,000, you would be a blithering idiot to sell it for $1,000 right now rather than take the $100,000 option. And I think with the scenario we are presenting here with the amount, I think it's $29.95 or $39.95 of whatever the number may be, this could equal out to many, many more thousands for TNA in their pocket."
For the full interview, click here.