Court Bauer Says Steve Austin Pitched Ric Flair Retirement Angle

– WWE Creative alum Court Bauer spoke with Wrestling Inc about the Ric Flair retirement angle at WrestleMania 24 and more. Some highlights are below:

On Steve Austin pitching the Ric Flair retirement angle: “At WrestleMania 23, (Steve Austin) floated to Vince that he thought Ric would be retiring soon…and pitched this idea that Ric would lose at WrestleMania, and he’d be fighting the odds every match, and if he lost, he’d retire, and it would culminate at WrestleMania. A broad idea.”

On Vince’s reaction: “Vince loved the idea and said we’re doing it. He told Brian Gewirtz to do it. By late June Vince is like ‘where’s that story at? let’s do it.’ Nothing. He gets upset and I get assigned the story. I map it out, we know where it’s going and ending, but how do we get there? I wanted to sprinkle in moments from his life and career, and build these pay-per-views like chapters, revisiting his rivalries. Along the way he was going to have confrontations with younger talents who would get the rub working with him and having these fresh, one of a kind matches.”

On how he had it planned: “I remember we were going to have a Survivor Series and bring back the Horsemen against Flair’s greatest rivals. It was going to be Ricky Steamboat, Mick Foley, Dusty and Sting against Flair, Malenko, Barry Windham. I think Sting’s contract with TNA was coming up, but he was considering it. Ted Dibiase was pushing it hard. It was very close, but it didn’t happen. They did a different, briefer story with Mr. McMahon laying down the gauntlet. I don’t think it got the mileage they could have got.