"He's trying to suck up to [Hulk] Hogan" - Veteran blasts Chris Jericho for comparing Ric Flair to WWE legend
AEW star Chris Jericho recently compared two WWE legends, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. Wrestling veteran Jim Cornette shared his thoughts on the matter, strongly disagreeing with Jericho's sentiments.
On a recent edition of his Talk is Jericho podcast, The Ocho hosted a watch-along of a Saturday Night's Main Event episode from 1987. During the show, Chris Jericho stated that Hulk Hogan was a "better worker" than Ric Flair.
In response to the comments, WWE veteran Jim Cornette stated the following on his Drive Thru podcast:
"Hulk Hogan was a good worker athletically, [and] physically. He was a great worker psychologically. (...) But can anybody ever say that Hulk Hogan was better inside the ring as a performer than Ric Flair with a straight face? That's insane." [00:39 - 01:09]
After today who is better?
Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair? https://t.co/c0wZKeLNXf
Cornette shared his views on the comparison:
"It depends on, as I just said, what kind of working. But just to make a blanket statement that Hogan was a better worker than Flair and the connotation that that would give, he's trying to suck up to Hogan for some reason, Jericho is. I'm just not sure what." [01:14 - 01:26]
Hogan and Flair have been highly influential in how wrestling is presented today. Nonetheless, it looks like Cornette is firmly on Flair's side in this debate.
Jim Cornette says Hogan's in-ring work "looked like sh*t" in WWE
On the same episode of his podcast, Jim Cornette highlighted Ric Flair's in-ring skills as a major factor for the 16-time world champion being a superior worker to The Hulkster. As usual, Cornette did not pull any punches when sharing his thoughts.
"Hogan, almost everything he did in the WWF [WWE] looked like sh*t in the matches. (...) Vince [McMahon] didn't want him to get hurt, and he didn't want to get hurt. And on those hard rings. But it was eight minutes and back rake and bad looking punches. He did everything right but the sh*t that he was doing looked like sh*t." [05:56 - 06:27]
Who would have liked to have seen Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair at a WrestleMania?! https://t.co/B6daxd4ChQ
With Hogan and Flair seemingly retired for good, it is unlikely that today's fans will see the two legends square off one last time to prove who is the better worker. A fair argument can be made for both stars, but this debate will probably never be concluded.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Jim Cornette's Drive Thru podcast and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.