A former WWE announcer became the subject of mockery when he was unable to take Ric Flair’s finisher correctly.
One of the greatest wrestlers of all time and with one of the most iconic submission finishers, The Nature Boy was able to win many matches and championships with his patented figure 4 leg lock. Although the hold has been applied to countless wrestlers, one former commentator who found himself in the ring with the Hall of Famer was unable to make it look as effective.
Despite the fact that he was not a wrestler, Jonathan Coachman competed in 30 televised matches in WWE. Along with 2 Royal Rumble matches, Coach has wrestled the likes of John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley and The Nature Boy himself. However, while competing against Flair on an overseas tour, Coach became the punchline of an in-ring mess up.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Coach stated that the Ric Flair match happened in Afghanistan on an overseas tour. Recalling the conversation beforehand, Flair at first wanted to call it in the ring before being reminded that the announcer could not do that. When discussing the finish, Coach admitted he messed up the figure 4 much to the amusement of the roster:
“That one happened in Afghanistan. I’ll never forget, they needed an extra match. They said ‘Hey Coach, we need you to go eight minutes with Ric.’ Ric was so respectful of everybody. I walked up in the locker room and I said, ‘Hey Ric, they need to add a match, so it’s going to be me and you.’ [Ric said] ‘All right, cool. We’ll just call it out there, figure four.’ I stopped, there were a couple of other talents in the room and they were laughing.
I said, ‘Ric no offence, I’m not Shawn Michaels, we can’t just call it out there. I need to know exactly what you are doing.’ My figure four that I took was so bad they had to edit around it. You never saw it. They started teasing me on the plane ride home, and they called it the figure two. True story.”
When asked what was so bad about it, Coach responded that he couldn’t get his leg in the right place as he was scared that he would suffer a legitimate injury:
“I was scared because you have to put your foot above your knee. You know when you have a hyperextended knee how painful it is? In my mind I was like I am going to hyperextend my own knee. So I just couldn’t physically make my leg go up there because I was terrified that I was going to have a blown ACL. So my foot was halfway up my calf instead of all the way up to the knee where he could hook it and it looked like the traditional figure four.”
Ric Flair Asked About John Cena Breaking His Legendary Record
WWE recognises both Ric Flair and John Cena as having 16 World Championships. With this in mind, many have speculated that Cena may win one more title during his retirement run in 2025 and break the long-standing record. In a previous interview, Ric Flair was asked if he had any issue with this.
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