wrestling / News

Jim Crockett Recalls Building Up Ric Flair to Be NWA Champion, Forming Four Horsemen

November 17, 2019 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

– During his panel at Starrcast IV, Jim Crockett recalled establishing Ric Flair to be NWA World Heavyweight Champion as well as the formation of the Four Horsemen. You can see some highlights below per Wrestling Inc:

On preparing Ric Flair to be NWA Champion: “That was a tough one. Because if he was the champion, then we’d only have him for seven, 10 or 14 days a month; he’s somewhere else. To get him ready, we had to send him to all these different places because we had to establish his credibility before becoming the champion. The other promoters were not exactly wowed with me having somewhat of control over the champion. I was not the most popular guy in the room.”

On Flair flashing an airplane flight: “There was one commercial flight we were on, and we were sitting there, having a drink, everyone was calm. All of a sudden, I just knew Ric was up to something. You can tell when he gets that certain type of energy, like a little kid when they’re up to something. He had to go to the bathroom. He takes his robe with him. I thought ‘Oh, s**t.’ He comes out of the bathroom and you can see his calves. He opens his robe and says “Wooo.’ And you know what? They didn’t kick him off the plane, they didn’t tell him he couldn’t come back. Everyone knew that’s Ric. It’s what he does. If I did that, I would’ve been thrown in jail.”

On bringing Tully Blanchard into the Four Horsemen: “Ric was such a star, you can’t have that star everywhere. How do you bleed that over into something that is almost that good? We had the Anderson’s, but Gene didn’t fit the mold. I went to Kansas City, and Tully was working out there. I think the night I went out there he was in a barbed wire match, which is not one of my favorite matches. We went out drinking and I told him I wanted him to come out because we were going to create this team that Dusty Rhodes wanted to do. He didn’t want to come. Probably 25 beers later, I had had it. He was ready to come. Tully came and he and Ric really hit it off. They worked out together outside of the ring all the time. We had Ole Anderson and Dusty introduced us to Lex Luger and that was that.”