"I think he wanted to hurt me" - Ex-WWE star details his legit backstage fight with Ric Flair
WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff recently detailed his legit backstage fight with Ric Flair.
After working for several years in WCW, The Nature Boy returned to WWE in 2001. Nearly a year later, his boss in Ted Turner's former promotion, Eric Bischoff, also joined the Stamford-based company. In 2003, the two men had a physical altercation backstage during a Monday Night RAW taping.
In an interview with Inside The Ropes, Bischoff disclosed that a week before his incident with Ric Flair, the two, alongside Arn Anderson, went out for drinks and had a good time together.
However, things dramatically changed a week later. The 16-time world champion followed Bischoff into a TV office and tried to pick a fight with him while the former WCW Senior Vice President spoke on the phone with his wife and attorney.
"I'm in this deep-seated comfortable chair and Ric starts cutting a promo on me. 'Get up you son of a b*tch. I'm gonna tear your eye out. I'm going, 'what the hell?!' I though maybe I was in a scene that I forgot about. I'm talking to my wife and my attorney and he's working himself up into a frenzy and he starts firing shots at me. Bam, bam, bam, while I'm on the phone. They were working punches. I think he wanted to hurt me, don't get me wrong, he was hot. But muscle memory is a tricky thing. I think he's been so used to throwing working punches that he didn't know how to throw a real one, which only made me more confused." [2:29 - 3:20]
Despite The Nature Boy's actions, the former WWE RAW general manager allegedly told Flair that he would not fight him.
"I'm sitting here on the phone and I never even got up yet and Ric hit me three times while I'm having a conversation. Now I'm really confused because they were working punches but he was mad. He was so mad in fact that he bit his lip while he was screaming at me and there was blood running down his chin and I was still on the phone and haven't even stood up yet. It didn't phase me. If he would have come in and laid one between my eyes, the outcome would have been different. I wouldn't have just sat there and go, 'Ric, what the hell are you doing?' and then finally I put my phone down and I just said, 'Ric, there's not a chance in the world I'm gonna fight you." [3:21 - 3:59]
A WWE veteran recently opened up about his relationship with Eric Bischoff. Check out his comments here.
Why didn't Eric Bischoff fight WWE legend Ric Flair?
Although Eric Bischoff has held several positions in the wrestling business, he was not a wrestler. Meanwhile, Ric Flair is arguably the greatest in-ring performer in the sport's history. While some might think Bischoff could have been afraid of Flair, the former WWE RAW general manager stated that he was not.
During the same interview with Inside The Ropes, Bischoff disclosed why he refused to fight The Nature Boy.
"I wasn't afraid of Ric. I'm very confident in my ability to defend myself and have been for a long time. It wasn't that. I was just so confused because he was, what I thought, was my friend. A week earlier I'm drinking beer with him at a Marriott and now he's throwing punches at me telling me he's gonna pull my eye out of my socket." [4:00 - 4:15]
A picture of Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair, presented without context https://t.co/lcl7lFsV2i
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