Owen is a seasoned sports journalist with over a decade of experience and has recently become a specialist in conducting interviews. A graduate of News Associates, he has contributed to various publications across the UK...
Read Full BioIn an exclusive interview with Casino Beats, wrestling icon Ric Flair heaped praise on Dolph Ziggler, saying he’d book him on WWE TV every week if he were in charge. He also nominated Randy Orton as the best worker in the company right now. Tony Khan also got a special mention from The Nature Boy.
Here are the key headlines from the interview:
- Dolph Ziggler would be booked EVERY week if I were in charge!
- Randy Orton is the best worker in WWE when he’s fit and healthy
- Tony Khan is such a gentleman; he cares about everybody who works for him!
- I’d love to get in the ring with Ricky Steamboat again. He’s the best babyface of all time
- The Four Horsemen had the popularity of The Beatles when we went to town
- And nobody could afford me these days, nothing comes close to Ric Flair!
- Me and Post Malone have become more than friends, he’s a tremendous human being
- There will never be a WrestleMania moment like Shawn Michaels retiring me ever again
Casino Beats: Do you have any untold casino stories when flying out to Vegas with the Four Horsemen? Or even just some of your own experiences…
Ric Flair: Not that I can tell. I have a lot of stories, but I can’t tell them. We had a lot of fun in Vegas. We used to stay in Vegas at the Tropicana Hotel. It’s not there anymore. And we would call it the Great American Bash On Tour. We’d fly to Seattle, back to Vegas, then to Portland, and back to Vegas. Albuquerque, then back to Vegas. Frisco back to Vegas, LA back to Vegas. And then head home. It was great fun.
Casino Beats: Were there many card games that used to go on in the locker rooms back then?
Ric Flair: A lot of the guys used to play different games, but I was never much of a card player myself. What would be your game of choice? I didn’t play games. I always liked watching all the matches to see what was going on and who was doing what to make sure I didn’t repeat it in my match.
Casino Beats: Did you see Dolph Ziggler return to WWE TV last week?
Ric Flair: Yeah, he looked great, didn’t he! He’s too much. Dolph Ziggler is really underappreciated. If I were booking him, I’d have him on TV every single week. He’s really good.
Casino Beats: How are you feeling a couple of weeks on from being pulled from AEW TV after your Rotator Cuff injury?
Ric Flair: I’m better, I’m doing fine. I’ll probably have to have something done with it, but I have a long weekend ahead of me with two appearances. One in California and one in Chicago. And then next week, I’ll figure out when I have time to go down there and get it looked at. Tony Khan is a really great guy. The guys over in AEW are great. Wrestling is in a good place right now.
Casino Beats: You mentioned Tony Khan there. What’s it like working with Tony?
Ric Flair: I can’t say enough good things about him. He is fantastic, and he is just a total gentleman, and I think he legitimately cares about everybody. They’re not just a number to him. I think he legitimately cares about everybody that works for him.
Casino Beats: How does it compare to working under Vince McMahon?
Ric Flair: The difference between the two products at the minute is not just the technology, but it’s time as well. WWE/WWF has been around forever, and it’d be very difficult to overtake them. They have so much momentum, and now they have this new deal with ESPN. But I think it’s great for the business and for the guys that have an opportunity to work in other places as well.
Casino Beats: Chris Jericho said that TNA has overtaken certain organisations as the ‘2nd’ company in the pecking order. Do you agree or disagree with that statement?
Ric Flair: Oh, I like AEW much more than TNA. I don’t know much about TNA because I haven’t seen it. AEW has some really great performers.
Casino Beats: AEW has got so many young guys, but also they had Ricky Steamboat on TV recently. What did you think of that segment?
Ric Flair: I just loved it. I wish that I had been able to do something with Ricky, but my shoulder didn’t allow it. But I try to see him as much as I can. Him and Shawn Michaels are the two best baby faces ever of all time. Nobody comes close.
Casino Beats: So would you want to be on TV with Ricky sometime in the future? You guys can get in the ring and talk to the fans!
Ric Flair: I’d love that.
Casino Beats: Would you consider tag teaming with him?
Ric Flair: No. I definitely could. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen.
Casino Beats: You and Ricky obviously shared so many memorable matches together…
Casino Beats: We set the bar so high. When they’re talking about something 40 years ago and still talking about it every day, we did something right.
Casino Beats: Do you have a match in mind that was your worst with Ricky?
Ric Flair: Me and Ricky having a bad match? It never happened. Our worst match was our best match.
Casino Beats: Which was your best one with Ricky?
Ric Flair: I liked Chi-Town Rumble. We had so many good matches prior to that. I mean, I was 40 years old then. Ricky was probably 35. And we go back years before that! We just had chemistry that is very rarely found today in the business.
Casino Beats: I saw pictures of you on social media recently putting in hard work at the gym. How important is it for ex-wrestlers to look after themselves once retiring from in-ring performing?
Ric Flair: I think it’s very important because it’s so easy to gain weight, so you’ve got to watch your diet. Because when you’re wrestling every night, your metabolism changes. You can eat anything you want, drink anything you want. Not now. You’ve got to watch your diet and try and stay active because your body is used to being so active, and then you all of a sudden just walk away from it all. I think it’s hard on your body. I’m very fortunate I don’t have any injuries, and I don’t have new hips or new knees or anything like that. I’ve got four torn rotator cuffs. But as my friend Ray Stevens would say, ‘it’s a long way from your heart mate’
Casino Beats: Do you train with anyone in particular, or do you have a personal trainer?
Ric Flair: When I can, I train with Rob MacIntyre, John Cena’s personal trainer, up at Land O’Lakes. But I haven’t been up there in a month as I’ve just been busy with business and stuff like that.
Casino Beats: Would you say Cena is in the top three of all time?
Ric Flair: I hate doing that because if you look at Steve Austin and what Hulk Hogan did. … If you’re talking about work rate and all that, I don’t even want to… there’ve been so many great workers. Like I said before, I think the two greatest workers, and I’ll stand by this, are Shawn Michaels and Ricky Steamboat. Let’s leave it at that.
Casino Beats: People say that you and Gunther have a similar style. Would you have liked to face Gunther?
Ric Flair: Has Gunther ever been a babyface? I don’t know how it would go because I’m a terrible babyface. I’m a great heel, but I’m a terrible babyface. So I don’t know. I’ll stick with Roman Reigns. I’ll tell you what, the best worker in the company right now is Randy Orton.
Casino Beats: You mentioned to us last time that you think Randy Orton is underutilized, which many people agreed with. How do you think he should be booked when he returns?
Ric Flair: Well, he came back from that back injury, but it really all depends on his health. He’s made a lot of money, so he probably can do anything he wants to do. If you give Randy a good opponent and he’s on, he’s the best, second only to my daughter!
Casino Beats: Are there any memorable nights that people may not know about between you and your friends back in the day in the locker rooms?
Ric Flair: I just know that Vince McMahon told John Cena he couldn’t hang around with me! He told Big Show big he couldn’t hang around with me, too! I’ve had a lot of fun over the years, just put it like that. It’s pretty well documented.
Casino Beats: If you had to choose one person for a night out now, who would you choose?
Ric Flair: Oh, the best times I ever had were with Arn Anderson or Barry Windham. The four Horsemen, man, when we came to town, we were the Beatles. Everyone wanted to have a piece of the Four Horsemen. Everybody. I don’t think you’ll get aura like that again for a long time. I don’t think there’ll ever be a group like that because we never won, but we stayed on top. Does that make sense? We had great opponents, Dusty Rhodes, Sting, the Road Warriors, Nikita. I mean, it was a phenomenal time in business.
Casino Beats: I saw you posted an edited video made into a song from a promo you did. With your history of music videos, would you be interested in creating any new music?
Ric Flair: If somebody wants to do something with me, I’d love to. I think my best friend in the music industry right now is Post Malone. We’ve gotten to be more than just friends. I think he is a tremendous human being. He loves wrestling.
Casino Beats: Do you think there’s any time that we might see him step into the ring, like his friend Jelly Roll did?
Ric Flair: No, it’s not for him. He’s too busy making money.
Casino Beats: Your final match was a real spectacle with a proper emotional angle. Do you think Cena deserves a more fitting send-off, or is this the right way?
Ric Flair: Well, this is just how I feel, but I don’t think there are gonna be another WrestleMania moment like me and Shawn. Because it was real. It was very real. And then what he said to me, and just the relationship and the respect and knowing those guys grew up on me. It was a great honor for me.
Casino Beats: The last time we spoke to you, we discussed how Kayfabe is fading from wrestling. As someone who lived your character 24/7, can you recognize anyone performing today with that level of commitment?
Ric Flair: I would say my daughter. A lot of the guys do. I’m not there enough to judge, you know what I mean? The guys don’t go to the bars like they used to, and it’s only because social media won’t leave us alone. They can’t hurt me, but anybody can say anything, and everybody believes it, whether it’s true or not.
Casino Beats: Do you think a character as flamboyant as yours, the Nature Boy, could thrive in this era now? Or do you think that times have changed?
Ric Flair: Thrive? I would own the era! I would own it. Thrive. Are you kidding? They wouldn’t have enough money to afford me today!
Casino Beats: What would be your dream booking for yourself on a main event?
Ric Flair: Me and Roman Reigns. They wouldn’t follow that one ever.
Casino Beats: Your catchphrase obviously became an international sensation; everybody knows that catchphrase, and so is there a catchphrase that you think comes close to that ever?
Ric Flair: Nope, nothing comes close to the Rolex-wearing, Diamond ring-wearing, limousine-riding, private jet flying. Nothing comes close to that.
Casino Beats: What about CM Punk? He said that there’s not the same ambition now as during his first WWE run, because he said everyone now gets paid a set salary. Do you think the set salary and not being paid to the Main event or paid to work more is harming the wrestling business, or do you think that’s good that everyone’s getting a set amount of money each year?
Ric Flair: I think it’s great the level of care and respect that the management has for the wrestlers is good. I’d have to think about that statement, I don’t know. I think guys still really try hard because everybody wants to be in the main event. If you don’t, then you don’t belong in the business.
Casino Beats: Is there anybody now, whether they’re in AEW, WWE, that you see as a future WrestleMania main event?
Ric Flair: That’s hard to say because you’re asking me to be hypothetical about someone in AEW, but it’s always about WrestleMania, I don’t know. It’s such a special place to be in the Main Event at WrestleMania. I don’t know because I’m not around enough. I watch a lot more now that Charlotte’s back from her injury. I don’t miss anything that she’s on, so I am seeing a lot more because she’s been on both shows a lot lately; she loves that.
Casino Beats: Charlotte was at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, which is such a memorable arena. Have you got a favorite moment from that arena?
Ric Flair: I really don’t, I think it would be probably against Hogan or someone like that, but I don’t think I ever was on a card where I sold it, where I can say, I sold it. I just came off of TBS, and I’m not offended by anybody that would say that, too, because I sold a lot of buildings, but I don’t remember selling out the garden.
Casino Beats: If you could choose to wrestle only in one arena ever again, where would it be?
Ric Flair: I really had a hell of a run in Chicago, and I had a hell of a run in Richmond, Virginia. Greensboro, Charlotte, it’d be hard to pick one. Well, CM Punk said just last week that Chicago has the best fans in the world. They’re great, I can’t argue that point.
Casino Beats: Obviously, you were used to feeding off such unpredictable crowds back then, and I think the crowds are a lot different nowadays. Do you think the current products help the crowd interact more or less? Because a lot of it in WWE, especially the promos, is mostly scripted nowadays?
Ric Flair: No, I think they all pretty much are. We spoke to Saraya yesterday, and she said that in AEW, you can just say what you want. It’s not scripted. The promos and the guys just go out there and do it themselves, and I think that’s why they get a good crowd reaction. Well, they’ll give you an outline, but if they know that you have the ability to pull it off, they’ll let you go off track. WWE is pretty strict on what they want said.
Casino Beats: You were one that didn’t use to get the scripts right. You used to go out there, and it was all raw, raw emotion, raw promo at WWE?
Ric Flair: Oh no, I got cussed out a lot for going off. I just can’t do a scripted interview. Because you never know how the crowd is gonna react to you, and I gotta hear the crowd to know where I’m going.
Casino Beats: Was there ever a crowd where you found it tough to cut a promo? What was the hardest one?
Ric Flair: I can’t think of one.
Casino Beats: I imagine there were times, though, when the crowd was so on your back and maybe you had to switch what you were saying?
Ric Flair: No, no. The crowd doesn’t tell me what to do; you can’t let the crowd tell you what to do.
Casino Beats: Who would be the strongest wrestler you’ve ever been in the ring with?
Ric Flair: Ken Patera, easily. He was an Olympic athlete, he won a bronze medal, the first guy to press 500 pounds.
Casino Beats: What about the funniest wrestler you’ve ever met?
Ric Flair: The funniest wrestler I’ve ever met and had the most fun with would be Arn Andersen. But he was a great worker too, I mean, really, really good.
Casino Beats: What about the best technical wrestler you’ve ever been in the ring with?
Ric Flair: Probably Bret, Bret, or in the old days, when I wrestled Pat O’Connor, he was a real technician.
Casino Beats: What about the stiffest wrestler?
Ric Flair: The stiffest, Brody, and Hansen. We’ll just call them solid. They had to remember when they came back to the States from Japan. I wrestled them both for an hour, so it’s a long night.
Casino Beats: What about the most painful finisher you’ve ever taken?
Ric Flair: I don’t remember taking a painful finish. I imagine that you probably didn’t cross paths with him, but MVP said that the Great Khali and his chop was the most horrendous thing to ever, ever be on the receiving end of. It was the most horrendous thing to witness. He also said that he was the stiffest wrestler as well, Khali. I love MVP, but that’s because he never wrestled Brody or Hansen.
