Originally published at Ric Flair calls Vince McMahon his 'hero', says no one has treated him with more respect in the wrestling business
Flair also touched on his relationship with Vince McMahon.
The 2023 WWE Hall of Fame class included Rey Mysterio, Stacy Keibler, Great Muta (Keiji Muto) and the late Andy Kaufman and Tim White.
Inducting Muta was two-time WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair. During that same week, Flair spoke to the prospects that WWE brought in for their tryouts in California. Flair recapped that experience while on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
He shared that he was brought in as a guest for an interview class and spoke to the prospects about learning how to do a promo. On the topic of NXT, Flair stated that if there’s 100 people there, only one percent of those talents might make it to the next level.
Yeah, they just did (WWE brought Flair in to talk to younger talents). It’s fun. They had me come into an interview class for NXT while they were in LA. Now they’re on this program where they’re hiring, bringing nothing but college athletes, D1 college athletes into the training center so when they’re in L.A., they brought in, I wanna say 50 or maybe even 100. I think it was 50 college athletes from all over the country and we went up to UCLA and they had them do endurance training. Then they had them come to a seminar where I talked about how to learn how to interview, which is really hard to explain because it’s gotta come from here. It’s gotta come from here and the biggest problem is really, if they got a hundred people, let’s say, at NXT right now, out of that 100 people, one percent might make it.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Vince McMahon became the focus point and Flair called McMahon his ‘hero’. He said he does not care what Vince does and only judges people based on how they treat him.
He’s my hero (Flair said about Vince McMahon). I judge people by how they treat me and he has treated me… I’ve never had anyone treat me with more respect ever in this business. He’s a great guy. I don’t care what he does. He’s my hero.
Following up on that, Flair recounted an interaction with McMahon in which Vince told him that 80s heels do not draw. He expressed to Ric that in that moment, he did not want to hear the ‘kiss stealin wheelin dealin’ line anymore.
He (Vince McMahon) said to me one time, ‘80s heels don’t draw! God dammit! I don’t wanna hear any more of that kiss-stealing, wheelin’ n’ dealin’ sh*t!’ (Flair laughed)
In the summer of 2022, Flair competed in his last match and tagged with Andrade El Idolo to score a win over Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Joe Rogan Experience with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.