Ric Flair isn’t one to shy away from making bold claims, but his latest comments regarding CM Punk may be some of his brashest to date.
Discussing ‘The Best in the World’ on his To Be The Man podcast, Ric Flair commented on the possibility of Punk returning to WWE for WrestleMania 38 vs. ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. Austin has been rumoured for a return to the ring at ‘Mania in recent weeks, with Punk’s name floating around as a potential opponent, should he be medically cleared and open to a WWE return.
Ric Flair isn’t keen for him to come back, though. Instead, ‘The Nature Boy’ claimed that people would be “jumping off the roof” if CM Punk were to return to the sports entertainment giant:
“For Steve [Austin] to put on the tights and go out there and wrestle as ‘Stone Cold’, he’ll take a lot of pride in himself, because he’s a man’s man. He always stays in good shape. I mean, his body’s still great. He looks good. Knowing his ego and knowing who he is, he’ll want to be ‘Stone Cold’. If he wrestled CM Punk, you need to beat him in 30 seconds, so that’s not the answer. ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and CM Punk? Come on. Give me a break.
You can’t even mention their name in the same breath. Please. The Rock and him? I don’t know. They could look at each other and be just a question of who’s doing the favor because they’re not gonna wrestle for an hour. John Cena, I liked that idea, too. But, you know, it’s like we talked about with The Rock.
You know, the decision was made sooner than we know about it because if Steve’s getting ready to wrestle a real match, real time in LA, it’s gonna be damn good. But I mean, come on. I don’t mean this bad, but CM Punk just can’t act like he acts in one company and go to the other, and act like that and come over and expect to be in the main events. If he was in the main event at WrestleMania, you would have a riot in the locker room. Think about it. He didn’t leave on good terms. He didn’t leave the other place [AEW] on good terms.
I mean, it’s not about his ability. I’m just talking about that I can’t even fathom the WWE even entertaining bringing a guy in that would be putting him ahead of [AJ] Styles, [Randy] Orton. I mean, you could have Steve wrestle either one of those guys. If Steve can work, if his neck is okay, Steve is a working fool. He could wrestle Randy. You’d have guys jumping off the roof if you brought Punk in there and threw him in the main event at WrestleMania.”
Ric Flair Asked Colt Cabana About His Issues With CM Punk
On the same podcast, Ric Flair also asked Colt Cabana about his longstanding issues with CM Punk, having previously been close friends and even tag team partners with him. As the former Dark Order man bluntly put it, “it’s a long story”.
The two-time AEW World Champion has remained absent from All Elite Wrestling since his actions during the All Out media scrum. Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks of The Elite became the final set of suspended employees to return from their absence, emerging at Full Gear to unsuccessfully challenge Death Triangle for the AEW World Trios Championships.