Ric Flair Talks ESPN 30 For 30 Special, Hurdles With WWE, Which Other Wrestler They Were Considering
As recently noted right here on Wrestling Inc., two-time WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair will be featured on an upcoming episode of ESPN's 30 for 30 series. Flair recently took to his podcast, WOOOOO! Nation, to share some details on the upcoming project.
According to 'the Nature Boy', the special will be a full 30 for 30 episode, unlike the 30 for 30 Shorts episode detailing the Von Erichs. Flair stated that his episode of 30 for 30 will cover his whole life, including his professional wrestling championships, his personal life, and more.
"Well, it's my whole life. It [has] a little bit to do with my airplane crash, of course, and then coming back from that. And then the titles and the championships and it touches a lot on my personal life, which has been up and down. Right now, it's perfect, but I had a couple rough years there. And it talks about my son, Reid. [ESPN] wanted to talk about him, how special he was to me. And then, a lot about Ashley, Charlotte, who is now the champion in WWE, the Divas division. And about my other two children, Megan and David. So, it was very nice. And then, it talked about where I am today".
Flair stated that the project has taken over a year and a half to come together and the main hurdle was getting permission from WWE to use its video footage.
"The WWE is very, very protective of their intellectual property," Flair claimed. "[The project] is mutually beneficial for all of us, but it just took a while to get everybody on the same page and to work on it diligently for, I guess, it has been a year and a half now. And all of a sudden, it's coming to fruition."
Flair said that six hours of interview footage has already been shot and another 12 or 13 hours of interviews are left to shoot.
"We shot the first six hours and we'll shoot another six or seven hours, which [WOOOOO! Nation co-host, Conrad Thompson] will be a part of, at [WWE] Survivor Series. And then, there will be another six hour shoot. And then, of course, all of the stuff [ESPN] will pull from the library in Stamford, Connecticut with the WWE to put together the whole film. So it'll be exciting!"
For Flair, being the subject of ESPN's 30 for 30 is a point of pride both as a fan of the series and as a legendary professional wrestler.
"For me, I love watching that show. I've seen, probably, 25 or 30 of the 30 for 30 [episodes] in the last couple of years. It's a great, great format and to be the first [professional] wrestler they've ever even considered doing it with, I know they were entertaining the idea of [doing an episode on] Andre the Giant, and how they arrived at me, I don't know, but I'm very proud of that fact. And, certainly, there are a lot of guys in our business that have been successful, but, at the same time, I guess they feel like I've kind of transcended pop culture and stuff like that. And all the years of entertaining myself have paid off!"
Also, on this episode of WOOOOO! Nation, Flair talked with former professional wrestling announcer, Tony Schiavone. Click here to listen to the podcast.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the WOOOOO! Nation podcast with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: WOOOOO! Nation