Ryan Nemeth Defends Actor’s Ric Flair Performance In The Iron Claw

Aaron Dean Eisenberg’s portrayal as Ric Flair in The Iron Claw has drawn criticism from wrestling fans, but Ryan Nemeth has defended the performance. Eisenberg plays the WWE Hall of Famer during a pivotal scene in Sean Durkin’s biopic of the Von Erichs, and the performance has been criticized by fans for not capturing the Nature Boy’s persona. Nemeth, who played Gino Hernandez in the film, appeared on Drop The Mic with Daron Jenkins and defended the performance. You can check out a couple of highlights below, per Fightful:

On the film as a whole: “I told this to Sean, the director, this, in my opinion, from anything I’ve seen, is the greatest depiction of pro wrestling ever on film. People can have opinions whether they like the movie or not, but wrestling has never been this perfectly depicted in a movie, and I stand by that. Maybe someday that’ll change and something will come along and do it better, but so far, this is the one.”

On Flair’s portrayal in the film: “People like Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes, more Ric Flair because he’s still around and is still everywhere in pop culture. They have iconic personalities and they kind of transcend wrestling. I imagine a lot of people don’t know Ric Flair is a wrestler, they just know him from popping up everywhere and pop culture. A few people I’ve talked to have said the actor portraying Ric Flair in the movie, ‘Well, you know, it’s not exactly Ric Flair.’ I think, yeah, it’s a movie. He’s around; you see him on Instagram and posting.

“I think the actor did a brilliant job portraying and capturing the character at the moment he was NWA Champion. Every one of these actors have taken a person, who for the most part isn’t around anymore, and captured and embodied them and they all did brilliant work. Someone gave me a hard time, ‘that’s not really like Ric Flair.’ I just thought, you’re not going to be happy unless it’s literally Ric Flair. It’s your mind doing that to you. He did a great job.”

The Iron Claw is now in theaters. You can see a portion of the Flair scene in question below:

Iron Claw RIC FLAIR SCENE #wrestling #ironclaw #ricflair pic.twitter.com/qJNVjdeJtI

— Bicks Flicks (@bicksflix) December 22, 2023