Ric Flair may have hung up his boots but he has one eye on the future of wrestling, as he names a young star as his “number one” draft pick.
Ric Flair recently competed in his final ever match as he teamed with son-in-law Andrade El Idolo to defeat the team of Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett. While that match stole the headlines, the match was only the headline act on a night of great wrestling that saw stars from all sides of wrestling’s divides come together.
One match on the card had particular relevance to Flair as it saw his old Four Horsemen group line up against The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express once again – in a fashion.
‘The Enforcer’ Arn Anderson was ringside as the Sons of the Horsemen Brian Pillman Jr. and Brock Anderson teamed up to defeat Ricky Morton and his son, Kerry Morton, while Robert Gibson watched on from the outside.
The Horsemen may have one-upped The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express again as Pillman Jr. and Anderson picked up the win but Ric Flair’s eyes were clearly elsewhere for that bout.
Speaking to Andrew Thompson, Kerry Morton discussed his interactions with Ric Flair and Flair’s kind words to him about being his number one draft pick:
“What a lineage, man, the Four Horsemen and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. Any old-school wrestling or current modern wrestling fan that’s really into the game should know that the Four Horsemen and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express made history, and we did it once more on Ric Flair’s Last Match. I saw Ric Flair during the week, and he took his time and he came and talked to me.”
“He said, ‘You know, Kerry, I was a big, big fan working with your dad back in the day. He told me, he said, ‘Kerry, if there was a draft in professional wrestling right now, if there was a draft pick, you would probably be my number one. Hearing ‘The Nature Boy’ say something like that is absolutely the most humbling thing in the world, the greatest professional wrestler of all time, ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair to call me his number one draft pick is very, very humbling.”
“He watches me at NWA, National Wrestling Alliance, he watches me at Major League Wrestling, and he’s watched me on the independent circuit time and time again. Really cool.”
Twenty-one-year-old Kerry Morton frequently teams with his legendary father on the independent scene and he has also had matches for GCW as well as the NWA, and MLW.