Ric Flair Talks Hating WCW, Problems With Eric Bischoff, Charlotte Being Bigger Than Ronda Rousey
WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair was recently interviewed by The Mirror. Below are a few highlights:
During the early years of Raw you were one of the opposition, because you rejoined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) a month later and then went head-to-head with Raw on Monday Nitro. Did you used to watch both shows? Was the rivalry as fierce as people say now?
"Worse. I hated WCW. I've said it on record. Not the guys, but the way it was run. It was ridiculous. Literally, my prediction, I said they will kill themselves. And they did. You can't go out on Nitro and say openly to Vince, 'we're putting you out of business'. He's forgiven a lot of people."
Do you think that approach turned fans off?
"Yeah. They wanted me to go out there and say that. I said 's*** no' I'm not going to go out and say that. 'I'm not doing it'. It's one of the reasons me and [Eric] Bischoff didn't get along. They wanted me to go out and put WWE down like Hulk [Hogan], Scott Hall and [Kevin] Nash and those guys were. Not a chance."
[Vince McMahon] even hired Eric Bischoff as the general manager of Raw in July 2002 after WCW went out of business.
"I was really shocked. I wouldn't badmouth WWE on air out of loyalty to Vince. I used to work for his dad [Vincent J. McMahon]. He's forgiven a lot of people man, Bruno [Sammartino], the Ultimate Warrior, Kevin, Scott..."
How excited would you be to see Asuka face your daughter Charlotte, or as has been rumoured, Ronda Rousey to face Charlotte at WrestleMania. That would be a box office attraction.
"Oh huge. Ronda because Ronda gets so much exposure from ESPN as well, which we do a lot of stuff with. That's why Brock [Lesnar] brings so much to the table, because Brock used to get so much ESPN stuff, which gives us an audience that might not normally watch it."
If Ronda Rousey was to come into WWE, she couldn't be in better hands than in a match with Charlotte.
"No. Charlotte will beat her when she wants to! Ronda better watch out. I can tell you this, Charlotte is not afraid of her in any way, shape of form. She is a lot bigger than she is. [5ft 10in to 5ft 7in and 144lb to 135lb]. She can deadlift 300lb and squad 250lb."
Flair also discussed not having a WrestleMania match with Hulk Hogan in WWE, his big 1992 Royal Rumble win, Bobby Heenan and more. You can read the full interview by clicking here.