[1997-04-14-WCW-Nitro] Interview: Ric Flair, Roddy Piper & Kevin Greene

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Time for an interview with the woefully irrelevant Ric Flair. They are in friendly territory, so he gets the legend's reaction, as does Piper. It's amazing how much Flair slipped from even September of the previous year. Piper rambles about who knows what in a charismatic way before finally getting around to issuing a challenge to the NWO for Slamboree. He breaks out into "I'm Too Sexy" for no apparent reason, makes a Pee Wee Herman reference, talks about the NWO riding skateboards and is otherwise in his own universe. He makes the first "paved road" reference, which is a metaphor that is woven into every promo hyping the Slamboree match. Kevin Greene seems like a guy who really could have adapted to wrestling with more time. Not bad for a novice promo. Flair does his "Mean Gene", which isn't fully developed yet and tries to give an interview with a good hook, but if he was going to reference 1993, why not mention his win over Vader at Starrcade instead of pretending that's when Wrestlemania VIII happened? Flair was just freefalling before our eyes at this point, and it's a little sad to watch.

[soup23]

I don't know what Piper is talking about and I'm starting to wear on these crazy man promos talking about skateboards and whatever else. Kvein Greene talking about Flair/PIper kicking ass while the NWO was still sucking mothers milk is a good line.

 

Flair gives us a history lesson talking about him being there the night Bruiser Brody died. Sorry, wrong thread. He does give us the story of quitting wrestling camp twice, wrestling Dick the Bruiser, and apparently he fought Macho in 1993 and he acts like he won the match. Flair then does his jig as Reggie White looks on.

[Kevin Ridge]

Didn’t Kevin Greene feud with the Horsemen with Mongo turning on him? I had to look up Greene to get more info and he seems to be the victim of the “no wrestling” clause that was put into NFL contracts.

[El-P]

Two rambling irrelevant old guys and a dumb jock who apparently forgot about the whole Horsemen deal the previous year. This isn't good, and it's the first time both Flair and Piper look like dinosaurs with no business working a hot angle on top. People can say whatever they want about Hogan, but infact he carried Piper at Starrcade 96 and at this point he was delivering the goods while Flair looked washed up and dated.

[El Boricua]

According to the Observer, apparently the original working plan for Slamboree was a six man tag between Flair, Piper & McMichael vs. Kevin Greene, Reggie White & Jarrett. Apparently someone realized that maybe that wasn't the best match to run in Charlotte, so it then got changed to Flair, Piper & Kevin Greene vs. Hogan, Hall & Nash. Hogan didn't want to do the match so Syxx got the spot. Reggie White was already booked for the event, so they had him face McMichael in singles action.

 

They might have been better off booking Jarret & McMichael vs. Greene & White and putting someone else with Flair & Piper (maybe Benoit, or how about Rey Mysterio based on his issues with the nWo around that time).

[PeteF3]

Greene is now buds with Flair despite still having issues with McMichael. Whatever. Piper makes a Congo reference, which is refreshingly hip and modern by his standards. Then we go to Right Said Fred and PeeWee Herman and homophobia and The Godfather and a bunch of other shit. Oh, and Piper is continuing to focus on Hogan even though he's not in the upcoming PPV main event. Greene's promo isn't bad for what it is, even if the talk about entitled NFL rookies is a little whiny.

 

All in all, this really is a mess of a segment, even if there are isolated good parts. Flair and Piper come off as the old-timers that Bruce Springsteen was singing about in "Glory Days"--you can still sympathize them in the face of the NWO, but it's getting more and more difficult.