Ric Flair Talks WCW Wanting To Repackage Him, Turning Down WWE In 1988
Recently on Talk Is Jericho, AEW World Champion Chris Jericho shared a podcast he recording aboard Chris Jericho's Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager At Sea: Part Deux with WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair. Among many other things, Ric, who turned 71 on Tuesday, talked about his decision to leave WCW in favor of WWE in 1991.
On the subject of leaving WCW for WWE in 1991, Ric claimed that WCW wanted him to cut his hair and repackage 'The Nature Boy' as 'Spartacus'
"That was Jim Herd. He wanted me to? the worst thing I ever did was cut my hair. Like, I remember walking through the airport. Nobody knew me. I mean, I was frightened because he wanted to call me 'Spartacus'. They wanted me to change my name and put in an earring. You know that story, Chris. They wanted to call me 'Spartacus'. You saw that haircut. What other explanation could there be?" Ric added, "I looked like a 12 year old kid with a surfboard shoved up my butt. It was that bad."
According to Ric, he turned down the opportunity to face off against the late great 'Macho Man' Randy Savage at SummerSlam (1988).
"[WWE] wanted me to come in '88 to wrestle Savage at SummerSlam. And I said, 'no', and we didn't have contracts back then. I just had a deposit on the belt and I was with Arn [Anderson] and Tully [Blanchard] and Barry [Windham] and we were selling out everywhere and I was happy. It was never about not going up there [to WWE] and having fun. A lot of guys that I was friends with were there. I just couldn't bring myself to leave that circle of friends that I was with. And then, we had talks again and that didn't do anything, so when I quit, I just called them and I said, 'I'm here and by the way, I've got the belt.' I tried to give it back. [WCW] said they wouldn't take it. That's the truth." Ric recalled, "I said, 'take it' and he said, 'shove it up your ass.'"
Ric, who recently talked about his daughter Charlotte's toughness, said his the greatest moment of his professional wrestling career was managing 'The Queen' as she defeated Nikki Bella at Night Of Champions to become WWE Divas Champion.
"Oh gosh, that's the hardest question to answer," Ric reflected. "The greatest moment of my career is my daughter winning the title in Houston [Texas], [Night] Of Champions, against Nikki Bella."
Ric went on to name his all-time favorite opponents from his storied professional wrestling career.
"I just can't name one [favorite opponent]," Ric said. "Harley Race made me. Ricky Steamboat, Sting, Dusty [Rhodes], Hunter [Hearst Helmsley], Shawn [Michaels], Chris Jericho, Taker – the list of people – Wahoo McDaniel, I mean, Blackjack Mulligan, Ernie Ladd, Andre The Giant, I mean, Bret Hart. There's nobody that I ever wrestled and I apologize to everybody? I'm making reference to Bret and I. Bret and I got into it and I don't know why, but right now, Bret and I see each other and it's very cool. And that's the way it should be."
Check out the podcast here or via the embedded player below. If you use any of the quotations from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.