Ric Flair was recently interviewed by GameSpot and spoke about why he left WCW for WWE, who he thinks are the best wrestlers in the world right now, and whether he'd still be able to lace up the boots and get back in the ring today.
Flair says it was simply a difference of opinion that forced him out of WCW in 1991. Jim Herd wanted to change Flair's name to Spartacus, and Flair wanted Herd to drop dead.
"I left WCW because I couldn't get along with a guy named Jim Herd. Ted [Turner] liked wrestling, thank god, but he put his best friends in charge. You had somebody who didn't know anything about wrestling running a wrestling company! And that's just not the way it works, you know?
The guy came in and said he wanted to cut my hair and give me an earring and then call me Spartacus. The guy sitting next to me, Kevin Sullivan, said, 'Well, why don't we just kill Mickey Mantle and change his number, too!?' It was that drastic.
I was outta there. And one week later, Vince [McMahon] made me the champion. So that's one of my greatest promos. 'With a tear in my eye, y'all can kiss my ass!'"
Flair talked about the performers that he considers the best in the wrestling world today. Not surprisingly, one of his four options is related to him.
"It's one of four people: Randy Orton, A.J. Styles, my daughter [Charlotte], and Seth Rollins.
I didn't even have to think twice about that. Orton is just one of the most gifted guys I've ever seen. Orton brings the whole package. He's 6'4", phenomenal body, he's a good talker and a phenomenal in-ring performer. Seth Rollins is the same, just a little bit smaller. A.J. is close to being Shawn Michaels in terms of work ethic. He's really good and his interviews have gotten better.
And then, my daughter...I'm not pushing her. She doesn't need me to push her. You've seen her, she's real good. The other girls just have a hard time keeping up with her."
Flair spoke about how lucky he was to have had such longevity in his career, and in The Nature Boy's mind, he could still wrestle today at the ripe old age of 68.
"It's amazing. I've got a genetic gift, I think. In the length of my career, I cracked C5 and 6 in my neck, but the technology wasn't such back then. That was like '89, so there was no surgery for it. But I was lucky enough it healed itself. What people will never understand is I had to wrestle every night...There was no going home on vacation. And then, I broke myself in an airplane crash, in three places, in 1975. That laid me up for a while, about six or seven months. I was lucky enough to come back from that. And then, I've had two rotator cuffs. You know, I've had my knees drained and that, but otherwise I feel great. It's funny. I could wrestle right now. They won't let me, but I'm ready for any kind of action."
You can read the full interview at this link.
