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WWE News
Interview Highlights: Flair talks about disputes with Vince McMahon this year, loyalty to WWE, TNA option, more Nov 30, 2007 - 3:31:03 PM
In case you missed it earlier this month, Ric Flair spoke candidly to the UK Sun about a variety of topics. While Flair was working out his difficulties with WWE over the past couple of months with WWE, denying our reports that at one point he sent word through his agent he was quitting rather than continue to be disprected, he agreed with Vince not to take their disputes public. But once those differences were worked out, he felt free to speak about some of the problems he's had behind the scenes recently. The following are key excerpts of that interview:
-"First of all, Vince McMahon doesn't argue - he tells you! I may have had a word with him about what I was going to be doing, but that's all it was. I have utmost respect for the company and always have. Nobody can ever quote me saying anything negative about the WWE. I may have been a little bit frustrated, like I have been once or twice in my career. One of the problems with me is that I still see myself in the same light that I saw myself 25 years ago."
-"Well, since we're being so candid here, I think they need to give me more promo time. For sure. It's like they forget sometimes that I can do it every night, three times a night if I have to. If they gave me the time to talk that they gave The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin I could be out there all night long. And I told them that. But the problem is, and I get it, what do you then do with somebody who is 58 years old? ... He will steal the show... and that's the problem! You can quote me on that."
-On not being part of WrestleMania earlier this year: "Not nearly as disappointed as me! That was another argument that I didn't win. I have never talked about this openly before, but obviously I was not happy because I didn't see myself in that position. Then again that's me and I have a tendency to see myself in a role that I'm not in anymore. I also have a tendency to think that I don't have to do certain things, because of what I've achieved in the business. That doesn't mean that's right, that's just me. And ultimately I haven't won but once again it's not really arguments. It's me saying: 'What do you think about this?' And Vince telling me: 'I don't like that, you're going to do this.'"
-On whether he'd considering going to TNA: "No. I would never in a million years go anywhere else. My future lies either with the WWE or at home with my wife, four kids and two and a half grandkids - I have one on the way."
-On how he and Hulk Hogan have both benefited from WWE: "Whatever notoriety Hulk Hogan enjoys in life and whatever post-wrestling success Hulk Hogan has enjoyed in life, as with myself, it is a result of working for that company. Don't misunderstand me, we both worked very hard and travelled more than we had to, but we were both part of a machine that has promoted and taken a lot of people, including us, to the level of notoriety that we have today. So for me to leave the company or break the relationship I have with them is never going to happen."
-"I will be back on TV, but I don't have a timeframe. As far as a contract extension, I think I have a job with the company for life. That's the level of respect that they give me. That's a verbal agreement, and I have gone on verbal agreements with the WWE and Vince before that have never ever backfired on me. I have never thought about doing anything else other than work for the company. What I'm doing right now - talking to you and promoting the WWE and the Survivor Series - is what I enjoy doing the most."
-"I've never seen myself working behind the scenes creatively. It's not that I don't like that aspect of the business, however one of the problems I have is that I become impatient. The people that orchestrate and work behind the scenes are very patient, and they have to be because we have a lot of young talent. My problem is that I think everybody needs to work as hard as I worked when I was in my prime. And that's something I just can't change."
Ric Flair [artist Grant Gould (c) PWTorch]
-On the promo he cut on Carlito's passion: "It's funny, because a few people have asked me that and I've never had the chance to answer before. I had just had a big argument with Vince, so I was venting my frustration. Vince was trying to tell me that 1980s heels don't work any more and that the stuff I did in 1985 he doesn't like. And I never like to hear that! So what Carlito got was the aftermath of me and Vince having an argument about who I was. I said to him: 'Hell, I don't even know who I am anymore.' Which is sometimes how I feel after getting into an argument with Vince... and never winning."
He also talked about verbal jabs he's exchanged with Bret Hart and Mick Foley.
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