Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Ric Flair Wants One More Match, Bray Wyatt, Space Mountain, Who Is The GOAT?, Charlotte Flair

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

Ric Flair (@ricflairnatureboy) is a legendary professional wrestler and a 2-time member of the WWE Hall of Fame. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Tampa, FL to talk about the recent passing of Bray Wyatt, his thoughts on his last match, why he wants to wrestle again, his WOOOOO Energy drink, the psychology of his knife edge chops, why he feels Charlotte Flair and Brock Lesnar are the best athletes in WWE, who he thinks is the greatest wrestler of all time, what went wrong with WCW, his personal issues with Eric Bischoff, his thoughts on The Rock, his son Reid Flair, advice for his younger self, the fact that Sting is still wrestling at 63 years old and much more! Sponsors: ZBIOTICS: Get 15% off with the code CVV and have a better morning after you drink at http://zbiotics.com/cvv GHOSTBED: Get 40% of your purchase with the code CVV at http://ghostbed.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to http://TryMiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com BONCHARGE: Go to http://boncharge.com/CVV and use coupon code CVV to save 15% MYBOOKIE: Get a 50% welcome bonus when you use the code CVV and sign up at http://mybookie.ag Quote I'm thinking about: If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one. - Dolly Parton For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com f you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are go. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleleet. Man, welcome back to another one on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet, and woo, we've got the nature boy himself with us on this episode. If you haven't already, give that follow button a big old knife edge chop because Rick Flair is the man.

I'm sure you've heard it before, but Rick Flair lives the game. gimmick. Better yet, the gimmick is Rick Flair. Rick Flair is the gimmick. And that's why it should come as no shock at all when he says he wants to wrestle another match. He's like, I want to wrestle another match right now. The passion that this man has not just for the wrestling business, but for life itself. And when you think about it, he had two real close calls with death. The plane crashed decades and decades ago. And then about five years ago, when he had like a 5% chance to live,

and he kicked out. And I had such an enjoyable time chatting with him. He's just, he's the best. And what a day this was. This was the same day that we did the Hulk Hogan interview. So we did this one with Rick in the morning in Tampa. Then we drove to Clearwater to do the interview with Hulk at Hogan's Hangout. Then back to Tampa,

where we had a drink. or two or maybe more with Rick Flair. And look, when Rick Flair asks you to have a drink with him, I mean, you're not going to say no to that, right? There's so much that we covered during this interview, and it's so hard to create titles for these episodes because they're an hour long, and you've got 100 characters on YouTube to create a title.

So, yeah, I threw in a few topics that we talked about in the title here, but there's like 15 or 20 things and so many great stories weaved into all of this. So I know you're going to enjoy this. And yes, you hear during this interview that Rick casually invites me to hang out of the Pearl and have a drink with him, you can't say no to that. And I don't drink a ton now, especially now that we have a little girl and we don't have a lot of sleep. But good thing I had Z biotics on hand, this stuff really works.

If you haven't heard about it, you take this as you're first drink of the night and then you have your enjoyable drinks, your libations throughout the evening. Thank you, Cody Rhodes, for reminding me of that word. And then the next morning you wake up and it's like you didn't even have drinks the night before. It's amazing. So you'll hear an ad read for it, but I needed to throw that in. Use the code CVV at Zbiotics.com slash CVV. You'll say 15% and it's honestly a pretty impressive, pretty impressive thing when you make Zbiotics that first drink. you have the other drinks after that. If you enjoy this conversation,

please snap a screenshot, share it with your friends, share it on social media, and tag us so we can share it out as well. Rick is at Rick Flair Nature Boy. I'm at Chris Van Fleet, and what a good one. Here we go.

It's my conversation with the legend himself, Rick Flair. I feel like there's only one way we can start this. And it's, woo. So good to see you. Thank you.

Yeah, no, it's so good to see you. The last time we talked was about a year ago as you were preparing for your last match. Yeah. And, well, it's so much has happened since then. Yeah. And I'm still alive. Because we've lost five.

We've lost, you know, look at the people we've lost this year's as I talked to. Well, superstar Billy Graham, the sheik, Terry Funk, Bray Wyatt, I mean, it actually has been a state of paranoia. But when you think of the profession that you're in, the line of work that you're in, you've lost a lot of friends. Huh? You've lost a lot of friends. I have, yeah.

But it sure was really losing Bray Wyatt. Well, I wasn't best of friends with, but his dad and I were very close. And his mother and I were very close. And 35 years old, 36, rather. Yeah. So it would be the same age of my son. No, my son would have been 35. Wow.

And they were all together, all of them together. When I retired in Orlando, 2004, it was Bray, Taylor, his brother, West Briscoe, and my son, all there in the same tent of catering. Wow. But the amount of people, like the amount of wrestlers that die far too young, does it just come to a point where it's just like, I don't know, you get numb to the news now? Well, I mean, it's, well, this was, I had nothing to do with, wasn't drug related or anything. It's just a health issue that they didn't see coming, you know,

and I don't know whether I've heard so many different stories, whether it's COVID related or not, but it just, yeah, I mean, actually Billy Graham, Billy lived a lot longer than people thought. He's had kidney issues forever, so. And it each shake with 80, it was, it was not. normal, but the problem for me is that they're all within a couple years of my age, you know, so it makes you, it makes you aware. Yeah.

How many times do you feel like you've skirted death? Well, I know twice. I mean, the airplane crash would have, it would have to be considered one. Yeah. And then, of course, in 2017, when I was on life support for 13 days, you know, and ICU for 31, didn't know where, I didn't. And then, which a lot of people still don't understand, I didn't know where I was for six months after I woke up.

What do you mean? I had no remember of anything behind me, just going forward. Wow. I didn't even know that I lived in Charlotte. Didn't know that I had a lawyer. I didn't know I'd been, I couldn't remember anything for six months. Wow. That's how I got beat up so bad legally.

Because I'd forgotten I had lawyers and, you know, when I was dying, you probably heard this. everybody was taking everybody was wanting my shit yeah including my agent who stole about 300 grand just took it because it was all an escrow you know if i was dead then it would have gone and so she took it all out of escrow and put it in her pocket including 50 000 from esPN for 30 for 30 so how did it all start coming back to how did how did your memory start coming back this one day just started kicking in no way yeah so if I mean, that's literally the idea of like, do you remember?

Yeah, no, actually it was, I had texts. When I woke up, I think I, I actually think I counted it because they wouldn't give them my phone, but I had like 170 texts, right? And half of them I didn't realize. I thought, who was this person? I mean, I saw 704, which is the Charlotte area code, but I didn't know who it was. And then it just started, I just kept it.

And while I was sitting in a recovery, and I was, basically sitting in a black chair. I'd never watched Netflix in my life. I'd never watched Prime. Didn't even know what they were. So then I started watching Arrow. Then I watched Webster. And then I mean, right on the line, I've seen them all.

What was the one with the, in Chicago, the family, the functional family that was so popular? The guy was, you remember with the daughter, kind of raised the family. Oh, it's popular forever. I don't. Married with children? No, no, no, no, no.

No, this is after that. This is like in the last five years. The guy won, he won several awards for it. I don't know. No. No, no, no. Let's see if we're going to figure this out. We have to figure this out.

It was really good. Did you ever at that point, maybe go back and watch some of, your matches to remember who you were? No. I had no memory of any of that. What about your family? No memory of that? Well, yeah.

I remember when they came to see me and that, but I didn't remember anything about, for six months. I mean, it's a strange deal. That is why. And then to realize one day, God, I do remember that. I mean, it just

kind of piecemeal the self together. Wow. But I could remember everything going forward, and I knew the people, but I didn't know. In other words, I recognized Steamboat he was there. I recognized Hulk and all that. But I didn't remember wrestling those guys. When you're that close to, you know, maybe. 5% chance to live.

That's crazy. Is there one core lesson that comes out of that? The quote lesson for me was to make sure and tell everybody that I cared about in life, I was obsessed with it for two years just, I love you. Because you never know when you're going to say goodbye. Yeah, yeah. And I also learned it's not worth being at odds with anybody at my age. Whatever happened in the past, it happened, and we all survived it.

So I started the interview with the Big Woo. I love how you say thank you when someone woo. That's so great. I like when someone says woo to you, you're like, yes, thank you. It's great. It is. Yeah, it's got me on your show. I mean, this is the fourth time that we've sat down together.

I'm glad that we're sitting down here in person. Woo energy. You can't just say woo. Woo energy. Your energy drink has become such a big thing now. Yeah, yes. It's getting bigger every day. And I didn't realize this until recently, the correct way to spell woo.

five ohs five oh's that's it's trademarked for five ohs but i can enforce to in other words like macdonald's did one more the guy went woo and we went right to macdonalds and shut it out rather than put me in the commercial yeah repay me i don't know what it cost them to shoot on a commercial that a minute long commercial has to cost of millions to put together i mean based on my knowledge of it especially with the production value. So you gave them a cease and desist letter

for Wu? Yep. That's hilarious. Yeah. I also have probably five or six letter. And I basically could

shut down all these edible. Our new approach now is to just try to get the arenas that to carry the drink. Right.

So what's the deal behind Wu energy because there's so many different energy drinks? Okay. Hold this. This is what I do We got to point this at you still though.

Okay, okay. Okay. And it pulls off because Bo has this problem. Okay. I have to give. Okay. I have to give Bob. Well, we'll point it to you then.

I have to give a vote. Vaux has a shot out here. Vos is a man behind. It is a proprietary blend of functional mushroom that promote all natural energy. Thank you, You know how impressive it is, though? You grab that again, shove it up. No, good.

I can never remember. You know how impressive is that you read your phone without wearing glasses? Yeah, I don't wear glasses. I've had four eye operations. You know how many people just in their 40s are like doing one of these? Six million dollar man rebuilt, brother. I love it. It's incredible.

No aches and pains, that kind of wood, right? No aches and pains? None. Is that because of the cannabis? Is that because of Rick Flair drip? No, it's because I just, God gave me a gift. I mean, my rotator cuffs, I've torn and all that, but I don't have, I have limited range, but I have no pain.

Wow. So I'll take the limited range and I'll pay a chick to rub my back if I can't scratch my neck. When you get up in the morning, does anything hurt when you get out of bed? No. You know how jealous people are right now? I know they're insanely jealous. Nothing hurts. Sit down on the black chair, turn on and get out.

Then watch take that first take. They can get the day rolling. That's so good. How many trademarks you have? You got Wu, you got Rick Flair drip. Limousine riding, Staling and Profiling. Limitzing ride. You've got to beat the man.

I've got like six. Rick Flair drip. I was lucky to get that. Working for a drip, stiling, profiling, limiting ride, private jet fly, beat a man, like five or six. Amazing. Yeah.

Is there one that's your favorite? Well, I don't have this trademark. I'm working on now. None of you can be first, but any one of you could be next. I've actually got two new T-shirts. Yeah, that's the thing with Doja, right yeah yeah did they reach out to you when something like that happened no i was in Vegas i'd met her before uh i met her when uh triller came to um

Atlanta gosh it's is like maybe 2018 maybe 19 yeah and um she was there with snoop and rickie ross and i met her beautiful girl beautiful really nice and then uh she just reached up She and my wife, Wendy, a really good friend. So next thing I know, we're working with them. I mean, she's a big time too, right? Huge. Yeah. Between stuff like that, Rick Flair Drip, the song,

your cultural icon. Again, what's amazing is there's so many people now that are aware of who you are, that might not even know you're a wrestler. Exactly. And certainly have never even seen a Rick Flair wrestling match. For sure. Well, that's a YouTube.

thank God for the network and the YouTube and all that and the old interviews people love those old interviews how could you not I mean you literally have alligators on your feet right now as we sit here well I have to live my gimmick so I should have them over here I don't even know that I had to wear the Rolex too I mean to come on I don't feel like the biggest diamond I had I feel like you probably sleep wearing a Rolex I do how many Rolexes do you have right now

Now I've got ahead, I have four left. What happened to the other four? I gave one to my daughter that I wanted, when I was, when I died or when I was real sick, I woke up and saying I gave like my Hall of Fame rings to my son-in-law's. I gave what Ashley wanted that watch more than anything was the one that Sean Michaels gave me. and then I've lost I've lost like four over the years and what we'd call escapades.

Girls, I can borrow my stuff. They borrow it? Never to be seen again. You've lost more Rolexes than most people have. Main codes, wallets. If someone is aware of who you are, oh, Rick Flair's a wrestler, that's crazy. What match do they need to go watch

if they're watching their very first Rick Flair match. But like a really good one? Sure. Whatever match? Did we start with? Steamboat, myself, 89, Chaitown Rumble. Anything with Steamboat. It's an educational tool.

He's that great. There were a lot of people that thought maybe Steamboat would be your last match. Yeah, yeah. It just didn't work out, you know, for, for health issue-wise, Rick had some minor ones, I don't know for sure. That's funny, we probably wrestled each other without embellishing. We probably wrestled each other between 1,500 and 2,000 times. And so many times they were for an hour, right, or an hour and a half.

And we became very close friends, but we didn't socialize a lot. Does that make sense? Rick's a quiet guy. sticks to himself. Yeah, the opposite of a very much. He drinks some beer once in a while, but he just keeps himself. He's too humble.

He's so great. Yeah, he's way too, he's way too humble. When we talked about a year ago, you were leading into your last match, and here we are on the other side of it. When you look back at that, how do you feel like that night went?

Everything went great, including the 9,000 people we packed in there, which was more than WCW or WCW. It had in the building forever. And then I just, I walked on the ramp and I just, you know, a combination, I guess I'd be nervous and everything. Started out fine. And all of a sudden I, I don't know why,

I got lightheaded for a second. I thought, I made a mistake of saying to one of the guys, I don't feel good. Well, they all went, they all thought, I was talking like my heart or something like that. And that's the worst thing I did. And then I got real lightheaded and, you know, that was, I was in and out all during the match. Did you think there was ever a point where you might not have been able to finish the match?

Oh, yeah. I was fighting like hell to get through it. But it was just fighting here. Nothing that I felt. Yeah. I wasn't hurting anywhere. I just felt bad because the guys, you know, all panic, worried him out my health. Yeah.

And we had constructed such a great match. If it had come off, the way we've practiced forever, it would have been a masterpiece. But I just, you know, I walked back in the locker room and take her ready to drink three Gatorade. And then I went to get rocked and drank all night long. Couldn't affect me that with the kid. So what was missing from the match that we would have seen?

Oh, God, everyone was going to slam me off the top. suplex me, stuff on the floor. Everybody just panic. All with concern for me. They didn't forget their parts. They just, let's get through this. I mean, doing that. That's why I had to fake that heart attack.

I went, slow down, slow down. I'm okay. I should have never said anything, right? So then we got a little bit morbid back in, but my son-in-law was going, he had to put the breast sucks on my hand he's going to wait wake up sir oh wake up sir

okay that was it is that for sure your last match I go God I want to wrestle again right now oh stop it isn't that crazy it is I feel like because like Ricky Morton the guy that I should have chosen for my last match would have been great it's Ricky Morton

It's still wrestling. And, you know, I don't want to go through it. You know what the best thing formerly about it was is I forced myself to really get in shape. I've heard heard this from guys over the years when they were older. I was like in my prime, the older guys would say, man, it's, I'm tired of working out, you know. And they get to time when you just get bored working out if you don't have a goal. You know what I mean? And it gave me a goal.

And I mean, I had just attacked it. I just stopped drinking or anything. But I was, you know, training, literally training three hours a day, five days a week, in the ring or I was doing the sled or rope. Yeah. Yeah. I got my bench press up at two and a quarter. I mean, so from being dead to all that was pretty cool. How are you able to keep up the pace that you keep up?

while still drinking? I don't know. As Vaux. I got a bow drinking. I didn't even know a Vaux drank until I moved down here. Now I got a formula of the hole, right? It's one double 42 in the rocks, right? Then I got to feed them garlic shrimp, okay?

And then a double 42 or a double margarita. Then I have to buy them to flank steak with the rug on it. Then, and then whatever, just to keep them going. But I know how to keep them going. And then if I could find a couple of chicks from Hank to talk to and both good. For people who don't know who Vaux is, Voh on the other side of the cameras, the man behind Rick Flair, Dritt,

your cannabis line, will energy, everything. Yeah, Vow has been side by side with everybody that I love in the world today. I mean, like Joe Namath, he travels on heavy company, man, Kid Rock, who's a good friend. Vo works with everybody.

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You'll save 15% off. And you are going to love this sauna blanket. This episode is brought to you by Z-Biotics, and let's face it, after a night of drinks, I don't bounce back from alcohol like I used to. I have to make a choice. You either have a great night or a great. day the next day. It's one or the other. That is until I found Zbiotics. Zbiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists

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Stop it. I don't get them. Ever. You can go as hard as you go and wake up fine? Well, I don't go as hard. Believe it or not. I have my formula at $5, and I'm home at 10. I don't do the 3 o'clock in the morning.

I have been Vegas, of course. Like you go out of five, or you're having five drinks? No, I'll be across the street. Are you overnight tonight? Yeah. You say overnight tonight? I'll meet you to Pearl at 5. Hell yeah.

There you go. All right. That'll be a story. Can I tell all the girls are coming? Woo, my, just don't tell my wife. now. She won't. Oh, she's Norris County. My wife's watching this.

I love you, honey. You're the best. No. Oh, hell, yeah. I'm having a drink with Rick Flair. Oh, yeah. What are we drinking? Kettle 1, soda, cranberry lime,

a bottle of still water, and Wu energy. Make it a double. Okay. All right. What's the best Wu energy? My wife's watching, too. And yes, I'm going drinking with this handsome guy

tonight. there's a new carrot in Tampa we are in trouble what's your favorite Wu energy flavor because there's so many good ones I like the raspberry that's a good one it's like a strawberry banana is it strawberry banana and pineapple right

yeah lemon and what Dragon fruit dragon fruit okay yeah I just go like I like the red can did you drink every night yeah I love you say that of course yeah seven nights a week, seven days a week.

Every day. Amazing. That's the same thing I told my therapist. My third. He said, how many days a week do you drink? I said, every day that I work. How many days a week do you work every day? Twice on Saturday, twice and Sunday.

He said, and you've been doing this how long? I said, 20 years. He was laying on the couch. I was talking. him. Hey, Doc. That's amazing. When was the first time that you ever said Wu? 1974. Do you remember it? Yeah, we're going to have a Wu anniversary party in Miami. What's that we're going to? Are you going to 11? Yeah, 11 Club 11, yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, 50 years of Wu. 50 years of Wu. 11, but have you been to 11 before? I have not. I lived in my

I met the owner. I've never been. I lived in Miami for five years. 11 is a very dangerous place. Yeah. No, I've never met. Women there do not wear clothes. No.

I've heard that. Yeah. But, you know, that's overrated for me. I'd rather not wear mine than have them or theirs. Is that why you cut so many promos where you took your clothes on? Exactly. Those are, those promos are, so legendary. What's the mindset behind those promos of you're taking off your jacket,

you're taking off your shirt, then you take off your pants. I don't know. Just trying to be different than the other guys that are out there talking about. But were those planned out? No. Coming out of Buckhead, a couple cups of coffee, and there we are. And then elbow dropping the pile of clothes. You've talked like a lot about how you don't plan out. nothing. You don't plan out the matches, but the promos? Well, it's the hardest thing I've had to learn over the years when I went to work for Vince, like in the 2000s.

I'm already in my 50s, right? But I have to feel the crowd. I don't know how the entertainers feel about it. I know that I'm sure the guys that the singers that are top caliber or any entertainer, knows what songs if we were waiting to hear. Yeah. And he'll play this.

special ones, I'm sure, in accordance with the up and down to the crowd. But for wrestling, if you plan the whole match out and you walk out the door and the reception that's totally, totally different than you expect, all of a sudden they don't like you as much as they're like the other guy, right? And the guys, they don't have the experience to turn it around. And they could be doing stuff to people just saying, but they don't have the experience. and it's not, it's not fair for them from lack of effort.

It's not, because they're working hard. They just don't have the experience and say, whoa, this isn't working. Slow down, Jacks, especially when you're on live TV. Yeah. But what about the promos? The promos, the promos, you have. The promo of the script, I came to that.

I tried, they scream with me all the time. I go, you know, it's one time, you know, Eddie's heel, don't draw. Okay. What is that? been. Was Space Mountain just purely? Purely.

Like spur of the moment? Just for the moment. We're sitting there and I, you know, I had the traffic. You know, 85 goes right into 75, right down to Port Lauderdale. I know because I've hitched like down there when I was 15 and 16 years old. So we stayed at the Marriott Hotel on Riverdale Road, which is right on 85. So I was thinking to myself, okay, I do something. I said, so all you girls that are on your way to Florida.

Florida to ride space mound or Fort Lauderdale. You don't have to go any further than the Riverdale Road. You can stop for the night and ride space mound to the Marriott all night long. 18 and 28, no boyfriend's husband. At what point do you feel like Rick Blair, the character, and Rick Flair, who's sitting here right now merged and became one? Oh, my children will tell you, it's been too long. To be Rick Flair, I just couldn't just turn down.

on and off. But I wasn't aware of it. Does that make sense? Sure. My schedule was just insane. Yeah. But if I look back on it, the only part I regret is actually sometimes I would be so tired because I was out every night anyway, which I enjoy self-inflicted.

But when I had one day off, and let's say I was in Port and Oregon, instead of flying home for that one day because I had to be back in. someone got no one in place the next day i mean i literally would have had five hours at home i wish i'd gone home on those days just to make an appearance because a couple times um i just i was just retired i mean i just had to sleep in one day because i'm on the first flight wrestle the show first flight next day every day you know like the it's so different now like that yeah well first of all nobody could have ever done it with tsa and all that back then you could jump on the plane with 30 seconds left, right?

And sometimes I jumped on with one of the flight in it. Yeah. Same time. Where'd you come from? I don't know, room 202. Me too. It's so different now. Like I feel like the men and women who are wrestling now,

they're not living that same lifestyle now. No, thank God. Thank God. I wouldn't wish I'd have anybody. Do you feel like... They still work. hard. They work I would say that

they're scheduling always like 150 to 155 days. It's a lot. And if you're on top, different knowledge that went by it. I didn't have to do media all day long. They are required to do so much media on their days off.

They're doing, they're on Zoom calls and talking at TV stations and especially when it's like WrestleMania time or Roe Rumble. one of the bigger events. If you're one of the top level of talent,

you're going to New York for a day on your day off. That makes sense? Of course. You're not wrestling, but it's another day. Yeah. I mean, especially Charlotte. Like Charlotte's one of the biggest stars. Oh, yeah.

She's non-stop. Do you have conversations with her about when she breaks the record, when she becomes the 17-time champion? No, but I certainly hope it happens. I don't know what they're doing right now. Who knows? It's got to happen.

It'd be the biggest thing in the business. If they're really interested in doing something, because I feel like the women have more empowerment right now than they've ever had, sell and deserve it, right? But if they're the biggest thing could ever happen, because John and I talk about us, John Cena and I. Can you imagine us walking down and congratulating Sean? What kind of, what kind of rating that would get on TV?

to see that finally happen. Yeah. I mean, I think it's, I think it's the biggest thing they could do right now. It felt like for a long time it was going to be John Cena that was going to break your record. John Cena's back right now, but it just doesn't feel like they're setting him up

for a title run. Well, the reason being, and I mean, it wouldn't bother me at all, but John's home because of the writer's strike. Yeah. And the actor's strike. And I'm not sure why, I think, Romans on some limited schedule, you can't have your champions sitting home. I mean, it affects the arenas.

And they want to, you know, they want to see in the arena who they see on TV. Yeah. So you can't have too many guys like that. But I would have no problem with John Brick in it. It just feels like it's going to be your daughter. Yeah, I think so too. You know, I wish for, for, and I really, I wish. for it for the business. It'd be great.

It doesn't feel like she's going to stop at 17. No. I feel like she could get into the 20s. She's in the best shape of her life. She looks like a million dollars. Carried herself impeccably. I mean, I know I'm bragging. I'm getting trouble when she was here

all this, but he's asking me, Ashley, I'm just telling him. He's initiating the conversation. I think the most amazing part about her is it wasn't her dream to follow in your footstops. No, not at all.

It was, you know. My son. Yeah. And when he passed away, she was like. A lot of what she does, even today, is, is motivated by him. Even though he's been gone, I mean, they just, she just, she set out to fulfill his dream. Wow. Yeah, it's amazing because she's going to go down as one of the greatest of all time.

Yeah. Absolutely. Man or women. Right. Which is like, it's the reverse of your story, because I feel like you were put on this earth to be a pro wrestler. You were put on this earth to be one of the greatest of all time. Thank you.

And I feel like she's, I guess, just inherently just great. I don't know, is this nature? Is this nurture? Is this because she's Rick Flair's daughter? No, because she's the most skilled athlete. She and Brock is there are the two best athletes in the company. It's not even arguable. Brock is a phenomenal athlete,

and Brock has learned how to work. I sent him a text Saturday. I just said, you know, he was so intimidating when he first came in on. I had to work with him, too, but, you know, he's just, he's just a big, big guy with incredible athletic ability. I mean, that's of almost a 40th vertical jump

when he jumps up on top of the apron. I would have to say that's close to 40 inches, right? Sure. They're 208 pounds. They have a 40-inch vertical job. I don't want to be there to the day that he misses and falls on his knees. I don't want to be his opponent. No, he's an incredible athlete.

And they've got some really good athletes in the company, but Ashley could have gone and play D1 3-D-1 sports if she'd wanted to. Wow. Where is your relationship with WWEI right now? It's fine. I don't work for them. Yeah. I mean, I'm always going to be indebted and be thankful for the relationship over the years,

but when you work with them, you're pretty much locked up to, you know, to anything. And they have a real tough, enforceable contract. So I wouldn't be able to do the marijuana. I certainly wouldn't be able to have the energy drink unless I gave them 50% of it or something like that. I mean, you know, in all fairness, I don't like that, but I can understand they're going to put, give you the TV time and help give you, give you the opportunity for yourself to become a star. Yeah. If you have that star quality, then they deserve a good part of the money.

I understand it. I don't like it, but it's only fair. And I've seen a lot worse situation for people. How much do you think changes with the UFC merger? That remains to be seen. I hope that Vince continues to have a lot to say about it. But, you know, that's to be seen. Yeah.

When we look back at your entire career, can you pinpoint where your prime is? Yeah, my best match ever. Sure. Or just like, you know, these six months, these two years, this is my, this is Rick Fleming. Oh, 86 to 89. Okay. Yeah. I mean, at 90, I mean, early 90s.

you know, I had a, once I really learned, I mean, really learned, you know, people are to say, you know, that they have, and people I like, I take DBS, I saw a raise on a podcast, and I'm the king of conversation on podcast. He said, yeah, Rick wrestled the same match every night. Well, Ted, and I hope you're here, this, Ted, I just saw you meant to tell you, but your face, but you didn't wrestle 300-hour Broadway to say, you're Ted. you can't help but do the same things you do you can't come up with 300 different things to do over 300 days a year i mean i wrestle 410 times one year that's crazy twice on Saturday i mean have you added it all up yeah and a lot of those are hour-long matches for 10 years of over 300 them were crazy yeah wow so you do some of the same things over and over again i'm sorry but you know until you won't

until you've worn those shoes, don't, don't judge them. But so much of you isn't just about the matches. It's about the promos and it's about how people feel when that match is over. Exactly, yeah. You hope that you've given them everything and that, I mean, that's, you know, the hard thing is if you really take pride in yourself, you're going to give 200 people those same, which I've wrestled for an hour in front of many times,

like whether it was the smaller towns in Kansas and stuff like that. Or in like an Oregon, some of the smaller towns. But you have to give them the same performance or level of performance that you give 20,000 people. Otherwise they go home and say, eh. So, you know, and you got to come back. Especially in towns that you come back to weekly or every other week. You've got to give them your best.

there's not a single match now that happens where someone does a chop and it's not immediately followed by a who? Yeah. When did that start? I don't know, but I watch it sometimes and I think of myself, guys, watch when I chop somebody. They go down. Just going back and forth. I don't understand.

I'm not going to critique anything. That's what I've learned not to do because you can't say anything because someone doesn't. and go, oh, God, he said, I'm terrible about me. But I watch sometimes, they'll chop each other and just, just to get the sound effect, right? Yeah, yeah. But they accomplish nothing. But they want, they want, you know, the crowning rack and so, whoa, I'll chop somebody.

Oh, who would they go woo? And the other guy goes, well, they go woo for me too. I mean, it's absurd. So for you, what's the psychology behind one of the chops you do? Well, first of all, you think I hit people really hard, which, like, Steamboat, I can look back, and I've been Terry Funk and I, well, name that all the guys in the old days.

They didn't mind getting hit. And now it's a matter of timing. I mean, it's when to do it, not just to do it, not just for the noise. I was oblivious to the noise back then, but it just became something that caught on and that's you know that was nothing that I planned but it's kind of like a woman job and then pretty soon they're going woo and it all it all fell together with that said do you feel like there's something that's missing from wrestling

now that you had or that your era had uh well not with everybody because some of those like like Charlotte and I'm not going to list the talent I had, but there's a lot of talent that understands, you know, that you have to be able to put things in at times in the match when they are more meaningful. She's a master of that now. She can flip the gears.

She can turn it around. There's a couple other people like that now. AJ Styles is really good. I'm not going to start the list because I'll lose them out and then someone else get upset but um it's being able it's being able to turn the audience where where they're reacting to what you want them to instead of them telling you what to do does that make sense of course a lot of guys listen to the audience and then instead of listening to what vince says in gorilla or michael hayes guerrillas where the we call the area you come out of

right for andres they run to the guy they run to the guy they run to the guy they run to the the computer to see what the fans are saying. Social media has ruined it. Some of these kids would rather have someone that knows nothing about wrestling. Nothing. Say God, that was cool. When it was a living chance. In other words, only care about what the guy

says is sitting in that chair, whether it be Hunter, Vince, Michael Hayes, those guys all have experience. Listen to what they're saying. Don't listen to what the fans. fans are saying when the fans own you and social media owns a lot of people it's it's upset me but you know i've learned now that hey i'll be 70 that's my new goal and my new my new thing now stay alive so i'm 75 i got five months left then what's the goal i mean we need you for much longer i need to be at the 95 but i'll take 75 if i live 75 you're

years after where I've been. That's three-quarters of a century. I feel like you could live to be 100. I hope. They're planning my birthday party and five different hotels already. Do you think, I feel like does cannabis play into this?

Oh, sure. Yeah. I feel like it's probably helping you maybe with some pain management. No, nothing else. I swear to God. That's an, I don't know. If I have a pain, I take cellar bucks.

What cannabis has helped me is to get off of Xanax. Because when I was traveling, I ate Xanax like candy. Just because when you're doing so much international flying, and the ambient didn't really work for me, but not a lot of Xanax, but it's maybe 10 milligrams. But when you're flying overseas back and forth, like one week, and I've told people to say, and they can look at my schedule.

I got it in black and white, wrestling Sydney, Australia for an hour one night, Auckland, New Zealand for an hour the next night, St. Louis, the next one, an hour, that week, Atlanta, and then back to Tokyo in one week.

Yeah, you're going to eat something. You're going to eat something or take something. Yeah. So I drank myself, and then when I got the jitters, I took a Xanax. So now the edibles of help. If I stay consistent on them,

I never go near Zanix. There's a lot of people that will say I don't care what anybody says WrestleMania 24 Rick Flair versus Sean Michaels that is Rick Flair's last match to me Yeah it should be You talk all the time about how you call stuff in the ring

That much, I think it's perfect That's the most perfect retirement match You know Sean told me to shut up But you're not He actually Sean said Keep your mouth shut I don't do exactly thing I tell you

No one's over to my entire life During the match you mean Before we walked out to it So John called the entire matchout? John, it called the whole thing. Did you talk at all backstage? No. What was going to happen?

Oh, yeah. Of course we did. Oh, yeah. No, we were reversed. Because you say so often, let's call it in the ring. Yeah. I need to hear it. Yeah.

No, no, we had it worked out real well. We didn't, I had no idea that I would be received that well. You know, you kind of wish, and I thought, all we go on, and I said, why couldn't we do this in Greensboro or Atlanta? Where I'm sure they'd go crazy, but they, they fell for it in Orlando. Then they gave me that hour long retirement speech, which

will go down in history is the longest retirement speech of all. Rick. Rick. No, we rehearsed a man. I mean, talked about it. They rehearsed it really, but we went through it. But he,

no, he just said to him right in front of everybody. Keep your mouth shut. And they said, let's do this thing. Here we go. When I walk out the door, I had no idea that people would be that excited. And of course, Jim Ross called it. It was, you know, it's emotional. Think about it now.

The moment right before he delivers that sweet chin music, you get up on your feet. Come on. And your lip is quivering a little bit. I knew it was over. But it's like this moment that I don't care who you are that brings a tear to your eye because then it cuts to the perfect shot of Sean Michaels. I'm sorry. I love you.

Boom. I mean. Nothing, nothing. No longer of all that. It was legit. Like, it's like it's a romantic moment.

It's a special moment. It's an emotional moment. I can't imagine wanting to wrestle another match after a perfect ending like that. When you're paying alimony to three people in one time. Yeah. That's the only reason to cause it. I just got myself jammed. I blame it on myself, but the day that I left wrestling,

I mean, I've been doing it for 39 or 40 years. The next day, we were in St. Croix with my wife, and I was miserable. I mean, I just so used to walk into that locker room and how you doing the guys and going to catering. And then I couldn't get myself. off and stay home. I had to go out of right. I'm still the same way. I have a really hard time

sitting home. I don't drink at all the holidays. There's not one there's not one bit of alcohol in my own. I'm a social drinker. I like to talk and have fun, laugh. Bono, I drag both from the country now. Ted and no bow drink. Now I can, now I fell in the street. You like to hold court at the bar. Yeah. I've seen it from a distance. in the circle, but my goodness, it is a magical thing to watch.

Yeah, there's a court to be held. And it's funny, like, I'll call them in if I have to. Even just walking through the lobby this morning, like, you like looking at women. And I love to say it. Oh, like you didn't look at the dagger and shake you with the white pants, I'm okay. You remember the color of pants. I'll look at her again and walk out and hope she's still here.

God be sitting at the tomorrow, please. I noticed you don't talk a ton about your time in TNA. What are the highlights of your time in TNA? Jay Lethal. The greatest TNA promo of all time. Yeah, Jay Lethal, beating on Hulk. Hulk was going through so much, so many problems physically with his back. Yeah, that was that time frame when he had like three or four back operations.

but any time I was Ron Hulk and then of course the thing that the thing that I just couldn't get rid and I never should have gone I could have done something else too but I

the being around Bischoff and Rousseau is enough to make anyone want to just kill them I mean it's I don't know I mean I've never

Bischoff you know I try to forgive him. And then I see like that documentary they did on me and he brings up the example of why he had to fire me for a year and set me home. You know, when guys weren't showing up for steroid tests, he ran a company like it was a, you know, it just, it just, with him and me, it's, he couldn't get rid of it. Out of sight, out of mind, didn't work. Been there too long, done too much, been too, a big part of it. And then also another big mistake was they should have never ever called WCW.

They should have bought the NWA. I mean, like Turner, he had the money to buy the NWA. Those guys don't want, they wanted like 100-something thousand. But I get WCW, but then Jim Hurd, I mean, one mistake after another. And then they had that little bit of run. And it really was, 83 weeks. But in the day of three weeks, where were they? Bankrupt and bought.

ATM. He gave money to guys that never drew a dime in the business. He gave money to everybody but me. You didn't make a lot of money in WCW? Nothing. Really? Wow. No, I have put everybody over, but I made money.

But, I mean, you'll see Hulk later on today. Hulk knows. Well, I'm not going to get in a hawk of a hawk. You know, the thing that I, so a number one thinking highly of him as a person because he's been such a good friend to me, especially when my son was sick and we did him insurance and hospital bills and all that. But, you know, you can't help but admire him for surrounding himself as smart people. And in this insensitive business, and it's insensitive.

When they're done with you, they don't give it. I mean, it's it. Unless you have a personal relationship or you're entrenched with it. Does that make sense? But even through the hard times, it's easy for people to forget. And that's normal in life. It's the same with our business. And Hulk just all smarter them all.

And I'm glad he did. You can't resent a guy. You know, I didn't like it at the time that he was making 25 times more than me. But I didn't hold it against him. 25 times more in WCW? Oh, no, but I meant, I'm being hypothetical, making 10 times more than me, okay? But I don't resent him for,

the other guy should have said, well, work, you found Hulk for me, you brought him in, you went and got a savage, sure, I'm going to pay you too, but he just love Hulk, nothing, but I don't have one good thing to say about Bischoff or her. The last couple years there was just a nightmare for me.

Shaving my head. They just had to have it. When you look back on your entire career, you're almost 75 years old. How do you define success? Success for me was going to work and whether it was wrestling an hour, an hour and a half, having the building full, having a great match and having a great time. with my friends afterwards. That's success.

Driving a nice car, seeing your kids grow up in with the cars they want, live in a big house, biggest house and the biggest town, the biggest town. I had all that shit. That was the old making that up. This is where the line is.

I had a 12,000-square-foot hole that nobody ever left the kitchen in. It's like a part of the house I've never been seen. Where the line is blurred between who Rick Fleur the man is and who Rick Fleur the wrestler is. Yeah. Getting on that Mercedes every day. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Klinemberg.

And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claim. And they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the Home Soil. comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are.

The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henko, follow and listen on your favorite platform. If on your very first day as a pro wrestler, when you were about to make your debut, if you happened to be there and this version of you was there, the veteran, and you were able to pull that veteran aside and say, can you give me some advice? What's the advice you would give to that Rick Flair who was making their debut? You got a lot to learn, kid. I was the living shit. I would have gone just FYI.

If you want to be something in this business, motherfucker, you need to get back and leave the building and I'll go over and start working out and forget about having a beer. Just pretend like that never happened because you're the living shit. What's your name, Rick Flair? You might want to rethink that too.

After that match, you might want to change your identity. How many matches to you weren't the living shits anymore? Quite a few. Probably a year's worth. Really? Yeah. I mean, I got better each time, but it's not a craft. did you pick up and believe me when I started the old guy old-timers did not want the young

kids to come along it was a battle every night we don't want to especially like when a guy like when steamboat came along and I was pushing hard for steamboat man I mean I never so many of the older guys were so mad at me I go guys I mean I'm what I was young men too but I was already established and I was a bad guy the good guys are the ones that get they get wrecked over a some new guy coming along, you know, and I go, guys, this Steve Boots is going to be special. The fight was on, though, man. But Ricky just turned out to be the best and a legitimately tough kid, too, so he didn't take any shit.

Who is the goat, in your opinion? The goat. Well, I think, to me, the goat is a guy that did the most for the business. not necessarily doesn't that means it had to be the best wrestler but the guy that

meant the most to our business and the guy that saved in my eyes saved WW Steve Austin yeah you can never I mean what Steve did

and then to be injured and retire at 39 do you know I mean I keep forgetting this until people remind me I don't see Steve as much as I used too. But he quit.

I mean, I quit. He had to quit because of a broken neck at 39. Yeah, he got back in and that, but, I mean, think about that. I mean, and he took a couple of swings out of it. You know, they put one label on them, but when he found that niche, him and Vince, the attitude here, but it was stone cold, man. Stone cold, Sean, Mike Tyson and Mike Tyson and that. And we were, we were arguing about the way, with the NWO, who's going to win a match.

Can we go with three minutes instead of 10? I mean, it just bullshit. But that's, that's where, all of a sudden, it, where Bischoff didn't know how to run a company. He just going to, you know, and then he put himself into it, which made it even worse, you know what? So, I don't know. Yeah, I think people forget that Austin's run was like, five years. Yeah, but it was a five-year run that made him a multimillionaire, and he put the time and I'll say, Steve, I love this so much. Steve had such an appeal to the fans that we'd be in

arenas where there were, you know, $300,000 house. Like I remember one night at one in Buffalo, New York, which you want to get the hell out, and Buffalo isn't what it used to be by any means, right? Steve sat in the building and drank beer with the marks, and they had $5,000. an hour after the show was over, throwing Steve Beards. Steve is in there. I go, Steve, let's get the hell out of here. No, but he gave, he gave, not only in the ring, didn't need to work hard, but, you know,

we're all running to get the hell out and beat the crowd, right? Steve's sitting there and join, and that's, and man, the people caught onto that. Yeah. What are you most proud of in your career? The influence I've had on other people. was they wanted to admit it or not there's a lot of people you've worked directly with

that I mean it's clear it's like this has been a pro to Javrick flair whether that's behind the scenes or that's on camera who is someone that you've been paired with that you feel like had the most potential someone that I was paired with the wrestle with oh it's steamboat for sure yeah but I had great runs with dusty great chemistry with dusty great runs with sting

great run with Hulk when they let us wrestle with each other I mean I loved wrestling Hogan I was when Hogan came down that aisle I've only seen three guys in history of business get the applause from the crowd where they is good in a frenzy

and that's Hulk carry von Eric and somebody else I was going to say well those two were oh and Steve of course when they're just doing the glass breaks and you Yeah.

Not really because I was always the heel. You know what I mean? I don't know. I mean, I'll tell you another guy. He didn't stay in it long enough. But, I mean, I just watched him later night. I am such a fan of the rock. I mean, I know he grew up liking me and he respects me and that.

But when he comes, when he, you open a show with Dwayne Narragutonson, you got a lot of shit to follow that. I don't care. I don't care who he are. I mean, that is, he came out there tonight. I didn't know he was going to be on a show, but I'm about died.

Wasn't I watching that with you, Vo? Yeah, yeah, he came out, I mean, and that poor, that poor Austin Theory kid,

I like him a lot, but what are you going to do? You're not, you're not going to jowlust with Dwayne. The fact that was on announced. He goes, the rock doesn't know who Austin Terry is. I'm saying,

I'm dying laughing. What are he going to say? Well, I don't know who you are. I don't think so. The fact that he came out unannounced, it was a genuine surprise. I know what? The rock doesn't know who lost it.

You've got to admit that's pretty strong. Do you ever see this stuff? He didn't even play the guitar when thinking Guerrero. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he's right in there too. I hate to leave.

I didn't mean that. he wasn't a big part of it. I just, I feel like Steve was, you know, where the rock had so many different opportunities. Yeah. I think the big dream was always

to go to Hollywood and all that, but watching him this weekend interact with Dion on game day. And I mean, yeah. He just got an incredible personality, man. I mean, I got all the time in the world for him.

And it looks like a million bucks. And a really nice guy. Yeah, that guy has a, he has this quality about him where he makes everybody that he's talking to feel really special. I don't. He doesn't,

he doesn't bullshit. He doesn't cut corners. He just says what he thinks, you know, and I love that. Yeah. And he carries himself. I mean,

he just, he literally, when he was sitting there in the middle of that crew on game day, he didn't see anybody else. Yeah. Didn't see her beat,

didn't see, course, was always entertaining, but wait just a minute. It would course go to the rock. Wait just a minute. Now I can't stop thinking about when he's singing the song for Vicki. Oh, my God.

Biatch, you look for a-mo tonight. Who could do that, man? So good. That's so much better than taking my clothes off. No, come on. I don't know. Taking your clothes off and strutting. Unmatched, Rick.

A different era. The strut is unmatched. It is so good. Thank you. So good. Look, I want to be super respectful of your time, but... No, I'm fine. I can say, we can, I can hang for...

I could hang all day with you. I'm not going to a bar and fine. I'm not either. We can day and drink for a while. When other people woo, Kurt Engel, famous for wooing, Sting, famous for Wynn. Do they reach out to you and go, Rick, is it okay with you if I will? Yeah, but they do it, and Sting doesn't do it nearly enough anymore, and Kurt quit.

Well, yeah. But did they reach out to you and say, hey, is it okay if I will? No. No. But I love Sting doing it. Sting was like, he was like my one guy that I could really, I feel like I, well, Ricky, too. But I actually, I feel like Steve had it, he had it right here from, Day one, but to go 57 minutes, and he's never done that for, and he didn't take a deep breath.

I have all, Steve Borden is a great guy. Can you believe he's still working now? I love it. I'm happy for him. As long as you stay it healthy, it's all I care about. It's amazing. He's in, 63, I think? Just a baby.

Just a baby. It is amazing thinking, like, when, and with Gray, respect and great love for you. When you were in your 40s wrestling, people were going, man, Rick Flair's getting old. Yeah, I know. Now there's guys in their 40s. You don't even talk about them being old. Yeah, well, that's because the people don't want me around. Why? It wasn't going to, because they were trying to get new guys over. Same problems they're having now. It's, you know, I was an interview yesterday with Sports Illustrated. They've got all these new kids in NXT, right? And literally, if you look at it,

and I'll talk to Sean once in a while. If one percent, let's say there's 100 kids there. If one percent, there's one percent of a chance that John Sina or Roman Raines or Moxley or Seth Rollins or Ashley

or Becky, I mean there's one percent that someone rises to that level. It may be less. I mean, you can go all day long, but, you know, running, practicing in a ring, going through drills, learn how to it, does not make you a wrestler. It's here, it's passion, and it's willing to give up. Almost like it is, I'm sure, when you're in medical school,

you have to give up everything. You do it, to be good at what you're doing. You're traveling across the country, a new baby and all that. I'm sure your wife would rather have you home. but you're doing this for a living. Well, I'm also sitting down with Rick Flair, right? Oh, but I'm serious. I mean, it's hard.

It's hard on the family when they're gone. At what cost has it been to be Rick Flair? Oh. Well, it's been, of course, I blame myself for my son, so that's the worst. Not that I had anything to do with it, but he was on my watch. So that. and the fact that, you know, he watched me drink growing up and all that, which had nothing to do with heroin.

But I mean, I'm always going to be, I'll always look at that as being probably something I could have worked on more. I didn't, I didn't think of the two, I didn't think of marijuana and drinking or cocaine and drink. I didn't see that because I've seen guys do it all and then walk away. away from it, right? But with him, you find, you've, I found out that heroin is not an addiction, it's a disease. And I mean, it almost got to be to the point where he, every four months I would start going. I'd say, where? I mean, I was like double check, double checking up on him because

he would disappear for a week and, man, we don't know where your kid is for a week. And it's very difficult to stay in a marriage when you can't, you know, don't have control of a child that is a major part, a major component of the family. It was hard. Do you think that he had what it took to, could he have followed in your footsteps? Could he have been as great as you? Oh, absolutely. He was more entertaining to me. When he was 16 years old, he was such a great amateur wrestler and baseball player, right? So I built a big trophy key. He said we're both he and Ashley in their respective rooms in that big house.

And they came home one time, 16 years old, and he'd taken one of his big trophies. He removed it and put a bottle of Louis Xirth there. I said, what are you doing? He said, I put it in my closet that. I said, is that Louis XIII, my stuff from upstairs? I bought 13 bottles from a restaurant that was going out of business in Cincinnati in Baltimore. And I went upstairs.

There was one bottle left. I came back and said, what are you doing? He said, you and Blackjack aren't booking the territory anymore. Dad. Me and Blackjack aren't booked in the territory. He's 16 years older than I was saying times have changed. No, I came home one time with this big outside bar. granite and all this tricked out back to time and tile in the pool.

My next door neighbor is a dentist. And he goes, hey, I really had a good time. I got out of the car and said, hey, Rick, I really had a nice time with your son and drinking a beer with him there. He's very entertaining. I said, I started thinking, my son, my son lives in Shelby. So I said, I go, I got a house. And I go, Reed, was David here?

He said, no. I said, were you drinking over the dentist yesterday? He said, yeah, he's an ice guy, daddy. We invited him over and we drank for a couple hours. Played pool. He's 17 years old. You tell me.

Dennis said, you're a kid. You know he's in high school, don't you damn at all? He used to kill me, man. Like father like son. Yeah. Yeah. I just didn't have that financial backing that he did. What I was doing, I was doing,

and my parents were nowhere, would never condone or know anything about, wow. I saw an interesting fact the other day, that out of all four members of evolution, you have had the most recent match. Yeah. Isn't that crazy to think about? Yeah.

you know I just saw oh yeah I know it's funny because Dave he's dad Dave just gone off in the Hollywood kicking ass right holy cow and Hunter the guy Hunter

he came close you know his ejection fraction was a single single digits I mean that's that's bad news yeah I know a lot of I've had four heart surgeries so and

And Randy's coming back, I think. I saw him. I think he's contemplating it. But, you know, there again, he's had that back injury, you know, there's always, it takes you a while. You hurt your back, man, and it's, for those things, then it becomes a mental thing. Because after I broke my back in airplane crash, to this day, I mean, even when I was working on out with Jay, I land on my left sign.

I can't land on the fly. I could never get myself to run into the turnbook as hard as I could have, like I deal with before that. Does that make sense? Yeah. So we're at another, Randy and I were talking about it at a Brage funeral. It's tough to just all of a sudden start throwing yourself back in when you've been off for a couple years.

You know, the greatest thing in our business of all is time off is your worst enemy. your skin get soft and then you come back in and you're tearing up your skin and your elbows your knees but if anybody can do it's him he's got randy's got unlimited skill god he's good he's smooth good i mean's right dad was great grandfather was great to hell of a story about it with randy or so rick i end every conversation with the same question and by the way thank you for being awesome like thank you for being the man. Thank you. You are the best. I could literally sit here and talk for the next six hours before we get our drinks and hang out in the bar. Is it six hours? Is that long?

You think they're going to white pants, I'll be in the buyer? I'll be a buyer. I'll wait for you here. Gratitude's such an important part of my life. I wake up every day. I say I allow three things I'm grateful for. And I end every interview with that. So what are three things that you're grateful for as we sit here right now. Well, the most thing is I'm grateful for is a relationship by having my two girls. I can't say enough. That's the most important thing.

Second thing would be, even though we're on and off and back and forth is Wendy has treated me, you know, when we've been there's some tough times, just because it's me. Once I came down here, I just got back into my old mode again. Once I got back up my feet, you know, which was hard on her.

But I'm thankful from my relationship with her. I know that no matter where we are in life, she'll always be there for me. And number three is my, the fact that at my age, when they say when you're 50, if you have five friends, you're the luckiest man in the world, At almost 75, I've got 20 really close friends, which means a lot. I mean, I can, you know, everybody has favorite people that like to be around, but I got 20 people I can call right now and will be right with me. And that's very rewarding.

And I have to add to something else. They have the respect to people like you, that your position in life and respect me, and look back on my accomplice and reflect on them and say, God, that's pretty damn cool. How could you not? You're one of the greatest of all time. Thank you. And I always enjoy being able to have a conversation with you. So thank you for this one.

And can we end it with a woo? Woo! So good. See you at the pearl, my brother. Five o'clock, bring both. Don't get any, don't bowl give any bullshit. Well, there we go. The nature boy himself.

The guy has stories for days. This is actually the fourth interview that we've done. You can check out the other ones. One of them was about a year ago right before his last match. I did one with Hulk Hogan five years ago. It was Hulk and Rick Flair together. I mean, it doesn't really get any better than that. But go check out the other ones.

And this was just such a great conversation. I love how open he is about everything, too. What do you think of his assessment that Stone Cold Steve Austin is the goat? Is he the goat to you? Let us know. snap a screenshot, let us know that you're listening, and tag us so we can share it out as well. He's at Rick Flair, Nature Boy. I'm at Chris Van Fleet.

I just got to say, what a run we've been on, right? Rick Flair, Hulk Hogan, Becky Lynch, Maven, Rob Van Dam, Lance Storm, Kurt Angle. The list goes on and on and on and on. And this one here with Rick Flair is one of six interviews that we recorded over a two-day span in Tampa. So there's some big ones coming up. Make sure to hit follow here, both on the podcast, and hit subscribe over on the YouTube channel so you don't miss out on anything.

What a quote here from Dolly Parton. If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one. Be great, be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. With Carrying Cross, by the way. What a conversation with Carrying Cross. Jim Rome takes on sports.

Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack.

Take advantage of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.