[1999-01-21-WCW-Thunder] Interview: Ric Flair

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Flair announces that there will be a tournament starting tonight to crown new WCW World Tag Team Champions with the finals happening at SuperBrawl. Ugh, this tournament - the one where we never got brackets and the NWO kept sabotaging the first round matches. Flair then turns his attention to Hogan and cuts an incredible, money-drawing promo.

 

"Hogan, make no mistake, when I was in Garden City, Kansas, wrestling Rufus R. Jones for an hour, you were in Madison Square Garden for all the money! I know it, the world knows it. The difference is I was the World Champion, and you were a man on fourth before intermission beating the crowd to get a cold beer, pal. I was putting in time. I was with Race, Brisco, Funk, Kiniski, Sting, Luger ... I was with the boys that had to walk the real aisle. You, my friend, were carrying Dolly Parton to the Oscars - God Bless You. You were making movies with Stallone. You became a bigger than life commodity, and for that, I give you your due. As for being a wrestler, you can't now and never could carry my jockstrap, pal."

 

He says SuperBrawl is about the two of them really establishing once and for all who the world champ really is. He asks Hogan to look around the dressing room and asks him if he thinks Jericho grew up wanting to be like Flair, or like Hogan. He also asks him if he thinks Chavo grew up wanting to go upside down into the turnbuckle or cup his ear. This is Hogan's fame versus Flair's reputation. He tells Hogan not to train for a cosmetic appearance, but to train to wrestle the hardest match of his life against the Dirtiest Player In The Game.

 

This just hit every note brilliantly. One of the all-time great Flair promos. No wonder that show drew such a massive buyrate.

[tim]

Yeah, this promo actually makes me excited about the prospect of a 1999 Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair match. Wonderfully delivered and really sold every aspect of the match up as best as it could be done. And of course the aside to cajole some guy in the crowd was classic too.

[Tim Evans]

Great promo. I loved him ripping Hogan and getting subtle digs at WWF while Mean Gene holds the mic. This just proved that Flair still had it even in 99.

[soup23]

Wow, what a promo from Flair. I remember being so turned off by this match in 1999 but that was me at my angst years with no appreciation of history. Everything Flair touches on here is spot on and works great in retrospect. His promos from December 98 and January 99 are up there with any point of his career.

[Zenjo]

I really liked the bit where Gene mentioned Bischoff and invited Flair to make a joke about him. Ric blew it off because this was a serious promo and he didn't want to dilute the message. I can't believe he actually managed to make Hogan vs Flair in 99 seem exciting.

[PeteF3]

By God, Flair is doing his damnedest to resurrect a stale, stale, stale top angle. Ric unleashes some rhetoric that's undoubtedly coming from a real place, and all of a sudden SuperBrawl feels like the true clash of legends that it should be treated as.