[1990-05-26-NWA-World Championship Wrestling] Interview: Ric Flair

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Flair found out that a match has been signed behind his back for everyone's "Black Hero". He said he doesn't like lots of people for professional reasons, but he doesn't like JYD for personal reasons. He says JYD will never high-five Michael Jackson or Mike Tyson, and he'll never sit on Arsenio Hall and say he's the first black world champion. He closes by saying that when Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul flirt with him, they don't even mention JYD. Crazy racist promo.

[PeteF3]

Flair is livid that the NWA has signed a World title match for the Clash for Flair vs. JYD. Flair doesn't like a lot of people in this sport for professional reasons, but for personal reasons, he doesn't like JYD. Flair promises that JYD will not high-five Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, or go on Arsenio Hall as the first black World Champion at his expense. "When Janet Jackson wrapped her arms around THIS, she wasn't thinking about the Junkyard Dog!" Then he namedrops Paula Abdul in a rather racially confused moment.

 

Unbefuckinglievable. This is already a runaway for Worst Angle of the Year. I'd rather watch ten million Warrior promos than watch Flair do everything short of putting on a white hood.

[soup23]

This made me groan more and wince more than a wrestling angle has in a while.

[Kevin Ridge]

NWA has signed World Title match between Flair and JYD at the Clash. For personal reasons, Flair does not like Junkyard. Flair says that JYD will not become the first black World Heavyweight champion at he expense of Flair. Crazy to think back that at this time we didn’t have one yet.

[Cox]

Wow, Ric Flair is really piling on with the racialist stuff here. Paula Abdul is, randomly, the only non-black person he namedrops in this promo. Is it just me, or does Ric Flair look particularly like Ashley Schaeffer in this promo?

[garretta]

It only took one segment to change my mind.

 

In a previous thread, I said that I was giving Ole the benefit of the doubt, that I didn't think that Flair calling Rocky King "boy" and threatening to make him unable to moonwalk on one leg, among other things, were done with racist intent, that they were just Flair getting heat as best he could like he would against any wrestler regardless of color. Then he opened his mouth again, and the benefit of the doubt vanished for good.

 

The minute I heard the words "your black hero" in reference to JYD, I knew there was big trouble. Then he started in with going after Janet Jackson, and my stomach lurched. Not at the thought of him sleeping with an African-American, but at the knowledge that he was taunting JYD with it. As Pete said, he should be above this by a million miles.

 

I can get the idea of JYD going on The Arsenio Hall Show and such, knowing that Arsenio is a fan and would no doubt have wanted JYD on his show if he would have beaten Flair, but the whole idea of Flair being dead-set against losing to a black man, or even of him disliking JYD for "personal reasons", was insulting not only to African-Americans, but to the Flair character. He's supposed to dislike those who can take what he has because they're good enough to beat him, period. Color's not supposed to enter into it, and hasn't up until now. He's never felt the need to insult Koko B. Ware or Butch Reed or Tony Atlas (three previous black challengers) in a racial manner, so why JYD, and why now? It's not like he's going to drop the belt to him, or even have a serious program with him. This is just filler until Sting's ready at the Bash, nothing more.

 

Why didn't he stop it? He could have, and he was about the only one in WCW who could have. Surely the suits at Turner would have listened to him and told Ole to knock off the racist bullshit or else. What was Ole going to do if he refused, run high school gyms in Georgia? This was the only major organization left who would take him on as a booker, because he was done in the ring and everyone knew it. I guess Flair figured that since this wasn't a major program, it wasn't worth it to rock the boat, and JYD was probably grateful to be back on the big stage. Besides, he'd just finished working with Lawler, who was even more insulting and stereotypical.

 

One last question: Where was Hank Aaron or whoever was in Hank's position at the time in the Turner organization? I can't remember exactly what Bill Watts said that got him branded a racist and fired, but it surely couldn't have been worse than this crap.

[Loss]

What Bill Watts said was probably worse, but somehow, WCW got away with a lot of storyline stuff in the early years because so many execs hated wrestling and didn't pay attention to it. The main issue with Ole was that he was out of touch. That type of race baiting stuff worked in the late 70s and to an extent in the early 80s, and wrestling had passed him by. It's funny that you mention high school gyms, because that was a constant Dave complaint about Ole's booking - that he was booking WCW like a regional company instead of a national one.

 

Also of note: I think Thunderbolt Patterson understood this dynamic of them doing things they shouldn't and saw how he could leverage it to his advantage, because he insisted during this time that WCW hire him or he would arrange an NAACP protest at CNN Center.

[drew wardlaw]

This is totally bizarre. What is Flair talking about high fiving Michael Jackson? This stinks. This is when WCW starts falling from the great start they had earlier in the year.

[GSR]

Flair says that behind his back the National Wrestling Alliance have signed a match for the World title at Clash of the Champions between himself and the Junkyard Dog. There are a lot of people in this sport he doesn’t like for professional reasons, but he doesn’t like the JYD for personal ones. He tells the Dog that he’ll never high five Michael Jackson, he’ll never high five Mike Tyson and he’ll never sit on Arsenio Hall’s show and say that he’s the first black heavyweight champion of the world. Over his dead body! He’ll not go in the record books at his expense! When Janet Jackson wraps her arms around him, she doesn’t say anything about the Junkyard Dog. When Paula Abdul grabs his arm and says ‘Ooh, champ’, she doesn’t say anything about the Junkyard Dog. At Clash of the Champions he’s going to thump him for a number of reasons, and number one being that he’s Ric Flair and no athlete on the face of the earth insults him.

 

It astounds me how much race is being used as an angle in wrestling in 1990. I never twigged that the reasons Flair doesn’t like him for ‘personal reasons’ until he finished him promo. Then sadly, it became obvious. Unbelievable!

[dawho5]

Flair with the kind of promo that makes you wish he would just talk about women and jets and titles. How did a rinky dink promotion in Memphis do a racial angle 100 times better than WCW?