Ric Flair Discusses Backstage Meetings With Vince McMahon, Going Off Script

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Conducted by Wrestling Inc. President Raj Giri

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Ad Libbing his promo with Randy Orton before getting attacked:

I just did my own thing. At the end of the day, I think they trust me enough. Now that I’m supposedly more mature, I’m going to deliver something heartfelt… and I didn’t tell him what to say. I said this is designed to get this whole [thing] over, what we’re doing here Randy. It’s designed to enhance what you’re doing right now in the business, and I’ve known him so long.

[Orton’s] in the groove. It’s a groove that very few people ever get in. You could be great for a long time, and then you take that step where you’re not just great, you’re whatever the next level is because he’s always been good. He’s at a level that very few people get to, ever.

How difficult it is to meet with Vince McMahon backstage:

They are really strict about the quarantine. In other words, the way the locker rooms are laid out, because of the smaller facility, but even in the meeting room, everybody is six feet away from each other and masks are mandatory. So if you want to see Vince, I have to walk all the way back in through a building and an office, which I’ve done twice.

Like he and Bruce would be the only two in that particular room, and has he come out? I’m sure he has, but I have not been privileged to see it. Everybody wears a mask. It’s a fine and a half. Trust me, he’ll fine you. He knows that he’s going to be scrutinized because we get scrutinized like no other sport, but it’s because the guy’s the leader.

How much it meant to be a part of Randy Orton’s storyline heading into SummerSlam:

Well, it’s huge. I used to tell him, when you want to be, you’re the best because nothing’s changed. He’s always had that phenomenal gift athletically. He’s got that once-in-a-lifetime look. He’s a great great heel, but that’s kind of his personality. Keeps to himself. Just the opposite of me. He’s not loud, running around raising hell, but he has really found his niche.

I think that being so happy in his personal life, where he’s so comfortable at home. So when he is with Kim and the kids, he can go to work and just focus on work. Problems at home can be a huge distraction when you’re trying to be a perfectionist and trying to be good at what you do. I think hand-in-hand, his personal life is at a very high level, and his work is second to none. He’s doing fabulous right now.

His thoughts on the Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre match at SummerSlam:

They delivered. What a match, I mean talk about two heavyweights going at it. I was thinking to myself, boy, this is so damn good. There is no winner. There is no loser. I liked the ending. That’s how Kerry Von Erich beat me in Dallas. When you have a match that good, people are waking up today going, it doesn’t matter who won or lost. We as fans won, and that’s the name of the game. God, what a match they had.

If he thought McIntyre beating Orton with a backslide was an homage to his match with Von Erich:

No, but you know what it was. It was done in such a chain of events and excitement that it fits in. The problem is sometimes just a plain wrestling move is better than jumping off the top rope or getting suplexed off, which they had in the body of the match, but when you get beat with a wrestling move, nobody loses, everybody gains, especially the audience.

Flair feeling that Orton made McIntyre at SummerSlam:

I really think last night made McIntyre. Randy really made McIntyre. I mean McIntyre’s work was spot on too. I mean it was solid. There was no air. They’re not stopping. No rest holds. They just kept boom boom boom. People look back and say, ‘oh, that’s easy to do.’ It’s not easy to do. They told a great story and no outside interference, which I loved. Nobody is running down.

It was just a championship match, and they had a winner. I don’t know whose idea that was, but to me, it was the right thing to do. Once and awhile, a wrestling hold can win you a match. It doesn’t have to be something that was found in Lucha Underground.

(photo credit: WWE)