Ric Flair talks Ronda vs Charlotte, his time in TNA, more
WWE Hall of Famer and 16-time world champion Ric ‘The Nature Boy’ Flair spoke with Greg Beck at wrestlingnews.co and talked about staying relevant, the hippie gimmick he did briefly in the mid 70s, why Shawn Michaels will never wrestle again, and he reveals that Hulk Hogan has been pitching for a match with Flair for WrestleMania 32. the full interview can be found here.
Here are some highlights:
Flair downplays the notion that he had good matches in TNA after his match with Shawn:
"Good by whose standards? Ric Flair standards or TNA standards? Could I entertain them, yeah. I was far from being Ric Flair back then. I just got bored. I missed the business. There are nice people there. Dixie's [Carter] a nice person. Hulk [Hogan] talked me into it and I went with it. I love Kurt Angle, I love Sting, and I love James Storm. I have a lot of friends [in TNA] that I still think the world of. It wasn't like I was working. It wasn't like I was Ric Flair. I can always talk. I can talk tomorrow if they want me to and I can get bumped around. I just have to keep my clothes on because cosmetics is a major issue at this point (laughs). Even though I look good, I look really good for my age. I hate that saying more than anything else ... 'you really look good for your age.' Hey, how about 'screw you buddy (laughs).' I want to look good because I look good not just for my age. It's a cosmetic issue, not a health issue. I could wrestle tomorrow. I wouldn't want to be in the main event of WrestleMania but if I had to wrestle Hogan tomorrow I could pull that off or a guy like Kane. He's the best in the world. I could wrestle Randy Orton blindfolded."
On whether or not he's a UFC fan and thoughts on a possible Charlotte vs. Ronda Rousey match:
"I am when Brock Lesnar or Ronda Rousey [fight] otherwise I'm not. Actually I like Jon Jones. Yeah, I like him. He's tremendous. Brock doesn't [fight] anymore and I'm a big fan of Ronda. I think Ronda is fantastic." I tossed out the idea of a Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte match at WrestleMania 33. "Let’s do it man, that's what I wanna see. Charlotte's not afraid to get in there. In all fairness, if she had a year to train, I'm not saying Ashley would win by any means, but if she had a year to get ready for it, it wouldn't end in round 1...i'll predict that. It wouldn't be a 14-second tap out. Ashley would need to learn submission wrestling but Ashley is strong beyond belief. Today, think about it right, she could do 30 front handed pull ups and 100 push ups. She can run at level 9 for an hour on a treadmill and she weighs 155 lbs with 3 percent body fat."