The heat between Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff continues.
Flair and Bischoff have been trading insults on their respective podcasts and on social media throughout late 2022. Bischoff has since commented on the heat, stating that he has found the whole thing “surprising.”
Ric Flair Held Up WCW Before Going Out To The Ring
Speaking on the To Be The Man podcast, Ric Flair has dismissed claims that Bischoff was in charge during the negotiation stages:
Eric [Bischoff], not to change the subject. I hate even to talk about it. But Eric is saying now that I wasn’t instrumental in him getting his job. Well, I negotiated my deal. Here’s what I’m gonna do. I want to have Bill Watts on the podcast next week. I negotiated my deal to come back to WCW from WWE with Bill Watts. So how was Eric in charge? Why would I negotiate? Why would I negotiate with Bill Watts if Eric was in charge? I’m gonna have Bill on the show. And you know who reaches out to me all the time, Bill Shaw. I mean, that stuff with Eric is just, I go on and on. I mean, you know, one more story about Eric and we’ll let it go, because it’s not worth it, he’s full of sh*t.
Flair was scheduled to take on Hulk Hogan in a Steel Cage match at Halloween Havoc 1994 with the WCW Championship at stake. The event saw low ticket sales in the lead up, due to the match between the two icons already occurring twice previously.
So he and a guy named, the promoter for WCW, for years, Zane Bresloff you remember the name right? They called me and they said look tickets for Halloween Havoc aren’t going well. I said why would they? I put a Hulk over in Orlando. I put him over in the Moines, Iowa. What would possibly make you think that we would sell out Detroit? If we had Mr. T and Tommy Hearns and Muhammad Ali, who gives a sh*t. It’s a third match. I’m not gonna win the title in the cage.
In an effort to sell more tickets for the event, Eric Bischoff came up with the idea of Ric Flair putting his career on the line in the match. As the 16 time World Champion did not trust Bischoff, Flair demanded the terms in writing:
And they go, Eric goes, well will you put up your career. I go, okay. I said, Yeah, I said, but I need a guaranteed deal, God’s honest truth. I made Bill Shaw bring me a guaranteed deal. I was supposed to be off for a year. So at least looked at least semi legitimate. I signed it before I went to the ring, I’ll have Bill Shaw on the show. Before I went to the ring, I signed it, I’ve admitted it, I held them up. I said I’m not gonna just retire, I said, not gonna retire and I’m not going to trust Eric Bischoff. And who would? Right? So guess what? Less than a month, they called me, we need you back at work. And I went down and got dressed up in the crowd and jumped in and wherever that f*cked up show was we did where Arn put over the renegade in 13 seconds. I mean, it was just a debacle.
To this day, Bischoff still does not know where the bad blood between himself and Ric Flair has come from.
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