411’s Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions Report: Ric Flair On His Retirement at WrestleMania, NWA Title Reigns, Royal Rumble 1992, More

411’s WWE Broken Skull Sessions: Ric Flair Report

-Original air date: 04/12/20
-Run Time: 1:40:33

-Welcome to another episode of Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions and this time he has the one and only, Ric Flair joining him. Before getting to the episode I want to wish everyone who is celebrating a Happy Easter and I hope everyone is doing what they can to stay safe out there. I want to take a second to let everyone in on the news that my wife and I shared this weekend: Baby #2 is heading our way in late October and my son is quite excited about being a big brother. Now, let’s get to it!

-Steve Austin welcomes us and says his guest is the greatest of all time, Ric Flair!

-Shop opening!

-Flair and Austin toast to start and Flair says he is drinking in moderation now. It’s a word he is learning to use. Austin starts with how Flair is feeling. Flair says he feels great and it will be 3 years this August since his issues. He was able to regain his memory and had 4 heart surgeries over a 7 week span in 2019 and has felt great since then.

-Austin shows a picture of them from a few years ago, and then brings up that he and his his peers all consider Flair the greatest of all time. They talk about the lifestyle of Ric and Steve’s generation and they know it’s probably different today. Ric says he hated to go home because he would be on the road for 30 days and then get 1 day home. This was before his two youngest were born because his oldest lived in Minneapolis. He hated it because he would be nagged about why he wasn’t home more, so he would sometimes just go to a city a day early.

-He talks about his wife Wendy and that she likes going out as well. He does say he wished he had toned it down when he had his younger kids. The only time he had with them were when Bischoff sent him home and when WCW went out of business. Those were his best times and he loves being around Wendy’s kids now.

-Austin brings up that he learned that Flair bought all the clothes he would wear. They cut to a promo from 86 where Flair talks about his clothes costing $1500. He plugs getting them from a place in Kansas City. He modeled himself after Buddy Rodgers and Flair was blown away when he met him. Buddy told him there was only one diamond in wrestling and it was him and then shook his hand. Flair thought it was the coolest thing ever. He says he learned to dress well from his dad because he was a doctor and learned to dress professionally.

-They talk about Johnny Valentine and how he didn’t like the Irish whip because it wasn’t believable. Valentine was his first partner and Wahoo would beat the tar out of him and he would flop down. That is where Flair got the flop from. He continued to do it because fans liked it. Austin brings up that he heard Ole hated it, and Flair says Ole also hated the flip in the corner.

-Austin asks what Vince thought of the Flair Flop and he says he loved it. He didn’t like the slam off the top though. Flair says it was because Ross would point out his age and Lawler would always bring up that it never worked. He mentions in his match with Shawn at Mania, they switched places and Shawn was the one getting slammed off the top rope.

-Austin wants to know if Flair knew back then the impact he was making. He brings up how Flair is respected by rappers and athletes all over the world. Flair plugs that he is going to see Lebron James tomorrow night and we get footage of him introducing the Lakers at one of their home games. Lebron is the one that gave Flair the moniker of “The Founder of Swag.” Lebron told him that Rolex watch kept him out of trouble and inspired him. Sweet!

-Austin asks Flair what his go to speech is when he speaks to athletes. He tells them they are all on the same playing field and you know when you are better than someone. You want to go out there and be the very best you can be. If you don’t want to be that person, then it is time to quit. Flair talks about seeing Austin pacing in his prime backstage waiting for his music to hit. Flair knew he had to be the man and knew what he was following when the match before him was Sting, Tully/Arn, or The Road Warriors. The talk morphs to getting color and Flair says he was given the okay to do it whenever he felt was needed. The only time they were given an order was during War Games and Austin mentions he was game for that as well. He says Flair made it look better because he had the long platinum hair which would stain red.

-Austin again calls Flair the greatest of all time and wants to know who Flair holds in high regard. Flair says that what is wrong with the business today is that the word “great” is passed around way too much. He calls Austin the biggest box office of all time and plugs him for also being a great worker. He puts Hogan at two as far as drawing money even though he wasn’t a great worker. He says that even Hogan would admit he wasn’t a great worker. Flair puts Taker at 3 and then says you can put him, Michaels, and HHH wherever you want. He gets back on people using the word great too much and says that Race and Funk were great workers, but they don’t get the recognition because of the time they worked. Flair says he is relevant at 70 because of what he did in the 80s.

-Austin mentions that people were great workers or draws and some of the best were those who fit in both categories. Flair puts over the matches Austin had with Steamboat and thinks that is when he worked the best.

-Flair picks the 80s with Crockett as the best period in his life. He knows he stunk up the joint in his first run with the NWA Title. He didn’t get to work with all these guys he came up with and got stuck with guys he didn’t know in Kansas City and Florida. Things were fine in the Carolinas, Puerto Rico, and Japan. He felt he became world class and ready to take on the world when he won the title for the second time (against Race at Starrcade).

-They talk about learning to work as a champion and Austin brings up winning the TV Title for the first time from Bobby Eaton. Flair admits he is more than a 16 time World Champion, and then wants to talk about Bobby Eaton. He talks about how amazing he is as a worker and not many people are aware of that, and Austin agrees as he will always put him over. They’re not lying here!

-The second time Flair won the Title, Dusty was the booker and he got better opponents. So everywhere he went was sold out because he had major opponents in each town. Flair goes back to how great Austin was during his run and he came to the WWE at the perfect time.

-Austin goes to Starrcade 83 vs Race vs Starrcade 93 vs Vader. Flair will always pick winning the title from Harley. He brings up the well known story that is was supposed to be Sid vs Vader, but he got into the fight with Arn and both were suspended. The show was in Charlotte so they went to Flair and he was game. He says Vader didn’t want to lose the title and says he could be a bully, but was fine with him. He admits he had to fight in that match and brings up that Harley (who managed Vader) told Flair during the match that he was embarrassing him. That fired Flair up and he fought back against Vader. Austin jumps on that and Flair says it meant he had to light up Vader. They show the shot where you can see Race yell something at Flair and then they start laying into each other on the floor. Race asked him what he was doing and Flair admitted he was losing a bit of himself.

-Austin asks who calls a match between him and Race. Flair says it was Harley early in his career and them him later, because Harley trusted him. He says that Terry Funk trusted him as well and says he did everything Mick Foley did other than fall off a cage. He says that Terry is in bad health and brings up that Kevin Nash told him there are only 3 traveling World Champions left: Flair, Terry and Dory Funk.

-They talk about working to cover calling things in the ring without the crowd catching on. Flair brings up not having to say anything with Steamboat. Austin says he has always considered Steamboat to be the greatest babyface of all time. Flair agrees and also puts Shawn up there. Flair says there were two guys who could never be heel: Jack Brisco and Steamboat. He hated when they made Sting a heel as well.

-Flair says he loved being a heel and hated being a face. He laughs that he had a limited move set to be a face. They talk about the chops and Flair says that Taker and Bret Hart hated taking the chops. Taker would tell him before the match he only got 3 of them to use. Flair says he saw that Bret made a comment that if Flair chopped him again, he would punch him in the face. Flair assures us that conversation never happened and jokes the chop was his whole offense. He goes over that his offense was a chop and knee drop and that the guys he worked who had back problems couldn’t blame him as they didn’t take big bumps.

-Austin asks about the Figure Four and Flair says he got it from Jack Brisco. He brings up Kevin Owens calling Steve about using the Stunner. Flair puts Owens over as a great kid who can really work and Austin nods in agreement. Flair says that everyone is using a Superkick now and that you can’t have 500 moonsaults and superkicks every match. He wants to tell the kids that less is more, but he knows it will go in one ear and out the other. Austin says that Taker and Show both said the same thing when they were on the show. Flair says kids today have a limited opportunity to work with other people. He would work with people from Brody to Shawn to Khali to Steamboat and Andre to HHH.

-He mentions he had 3 singles matches with Andre. He didn’t know what to do with him and Andre just told him they would take it easy. Austin asks if he learned anything from Andre. Flair says not too much, but says he was Andre’s driver before Timmy White. They would hit the bars together and Flair brings up that Andre had no privacy. He tells a fun story of Andre having people hit the bar if he would see them in an airport and really who is going to tell Andre no.

-Austin moves on to Hogan and says he is one of the best ever at reading at crowd and Ric absolutely agrees. He would also sell for anyone and knew how to get the audience to respond. Austin says that Hogan could work, but was a big guy who worked a big guy style. Austin also appreciated the way that Flair could work a crowd as well and knew when it was time to manipulate a crowd. Flair says that you don’t know that action until you got out there and that every crowd is different. Flair doesn’t know why you would ever cut someone off like Austin, Steamboat, Hogan, Morton or Von Erich when they are blowing the roof off a building. He feels you need to let them blow the roof off and then bring it down once you sense the crowd is ready for it. He got into once with Ole who kept yelling at him to cut off The Road Warriors and Dusty, but Flair felt the fans wanted to see them run wild. They would get the heat segment and if it only lasted 5 minutes, so what. He says it best that the fans didn’t want to see Austin laying on the mat selling. They wanted to see him kick ass and if that meant taking 35 stomps in the corner, then so beat it.

-Austin goes back to their WCW days and Austin says he modeled his early career after Flair. He was told he was going to be the next Ric Flair and obviously there will never another Ric Flair. Austin was in a 6 man with Flair and Sting and he watched them work and knew he had a long way to go. Flair says he always worked with Sting and told Austin back then that he still had time.

-Austin shifts to Royal Rumble 1992 and they talk while Flair makes his entrance at 3. Flair says he was out with Dibiase the previous night. The star power in that match is just amazing! Just in the high lights they’ve shown we have seen Bulldog, Shawn, Von Erich, Flair, and Boss Man. They both put over Ray for being a big man that could work. Piper is out next as Flair says he was 42 during this match. The crowd loses it for Piper and then we cut towards the end with Savage getting tossed. That leaves Hogan, Flair and Sid. Flair wins when Hogan helps pull Sid out.

-Flair says he didn’t get tired during the match. Austin asks if Flair liked working Rumbles. Flair says everyone calls it a great match and agrees it is for a Rumble. He brings up the point I made earlier about the star power and says there were 20 guys in the match that are in The Hall of Fame. Austin was going to bring that up as well as everyone in that thing was so over. Flair says that it is harder now because only 10 guys in a battle royal actually mean something.

-AWESOME! They show the Flair promo after The Rumble. Everyone involved was on their A+ game: Flair, Heenan, Perfect, and Okerlund all deserve credit for this amazing piece of business. Austin cracks up with Gene’s “put that cigarette out” line. TREMENDOUS! Flair is laughing about it as well and says he drank at least 12 martinis with Gene after the show. Again, I say, TREMENDOUS!

-Flair says that he was using that time to stick it to WCW. He was ready to go Day 1 there and had all of his confidence. Austin asks about the “tear in my eye” line and Flair says it wasn’t rehearsed and it just came to him. He was in the big time now and brings up that the NWA was it at one point, but that stopped when Vince Jr took over the world. Flair considered himself the best wrestler in the world at that time and he had the mindset to be the WWF Champion. Austin and Flair both agree that the business is a work, but they take their spot as a shoot.

-Austin brings up Perfect, Heenan, and Gene being in that clip and how they are no longer with us. Flair calls Heenan the greatest manager of all time. He also brings up Heenan as a worker in his day and that while he couldn’t work an hour, he could put on an exciting show.

-Kerry Von Erich is discussed next. Flair calls him a nice kid and he is sorely missed. He names the 5 stars that were the most over he ever faced: Austin, Hogan, Kerry, Dusty, and Ricky Morton (in the Carolinas). He talks about rubbing Morton’s face in concrete and the heat from the teenage girls. The crowds were on fire and nearly caused a riot. Austin talks about the high pop the Rock N Roll would get from the women.

-Austin wants to know why Hogan vs Flair didn’t happen at WrestleMania VIII. Flair says he doesn’t know and he never asked. He thinks Vince had different ideas and Hogan was getting ready to leave. He talks about working with Randy and dropping the belt to him. He says that was the last we really saw of Liz in the WWE as Randy was in a bad way. He did the run with him and then Warrior dropped him on his head, so Vince asked him to drop the title to Bret. He then finished up and says it was the greatest year and a half ever. He worked Hogan, Piper, Savage, Perfect, Bret, and even Taker a bit. He had 80s fun with those guys and says he had a lot of fun with Taker. He says he has lost 4 Rolex watches when out with Taker.

-Austin moves to Sting and says that Flair is the one that got Sting over. Flair says he had something to do with it, but people don’t give Sting enough credit. Flair says Sting is not an aggressive guy and calls him the nicest guy in the world. He trusted Flair fully in that Clash match and says it is hard to go 55 minutes, but he did it with him. We see the close of that match and a star was born! Flair can’t say enough good things about Sting. Flair says he has wrestled Sting nearly as many times as Steamboat. He puts Sting over for being a great guy that is happy where he is in his life. He can’t think of a lot of guys that are that happy in their post-wrestling life.

-Flair says he made a lot of bad choices and they were all his. He credits Wendy for helping to bring him back and then puts over that Vince handed him his check before the Saudi show. That was a weird transition, but at this point Flair likes to go off a bit. Case in point he starts talking about being rich, then poor and back to rich again. He talks about the IRS and how after paying everything he has about 1.5 million.

-Austin asks if Ric would change anything and Ric says he was way too wild. He doesn’t want people to admire what he did and instead wonder how that was possible. He talks about having to pay alimony to 3 different women and that he also owed Vince over $800,000. He was able to pay him back and now he is even steven and back to making money. He jokes he is still in demand, but not Steve Austin demand.

-WrestleMania X-8 and Flair says that Taker made him. He says Harley made him at Starrcade 1983 and Taker brought him back when he was at his lowest self confidence. HHH told him that Taker picked him for the match at Mania. Flair says he had a hard time fitting in when he came back in 2002. He was 20 years older than everyone else and the plan was for him to just be the GM. Someone didn’t show up to a show and he went from being a GM to wrestling Brock because someone (Austin) no showed. Austin laughs at that and says it always comes back to him. This shows again though that Flair likes to go off topic quite a bit, but it’s fine.

-Austin brings up that they wanted him to lose to Brock for no reason. He thought they were fucking with him and testing him. He knows he handed it the wrong way and Flair says he didn’t handle it wrong. Austin says he should have shown up and told Vince it wasn’t happening instead of just flying back home.

-Back to Taker and both agree that the gimmick is the greatest of all time. Flair says he was in shock when he got the news and he didn’t know how he was going to be able to pull it off. Even as he was walking towards the ring he wasn’t sure if he had it anymore. They show Flair not making the flip in the corner and he says Taker said to him “you think you can make it this time kid?” Nice! Flair makes it the second time and eats a boot when running the apron. Flair says that once he took that boot he felt at home. Austin marks out over the blood and again, how Flair’s blonde hair makes it work. They show Arn hitting one of the greatest spinebusters ever and Flair mentions that crowd was buying that finish. Taker ends it with a Tombstone and Flair says that Lanza congratulated him for pulling it off when he got through the curtain.

-They talk about having a physique and Flair wishes he was in more shape for that match. Flair says he was 55 and says Austin is looking jacked at 52. Austin says it is all arms and that he couldn’t do now what Flair did in that match with Taker.

-Flair goes back a few months to wrestling Vince at the Royal Rumble and gets emotional talking about Vince telling him how this was so cool wrestling him. Flair struggled with that as he wasn’t what he should have been and yet people are saying things like this to him. He had the same reaction with Shane in Japan. Ric breaks down as he came from those moments to being 71 years old and having people like Austin calling him the greatest of all time.

-Flair admits he battled the confidence issue off and on until Shawn retired him. He says that cage match with HHH at Taboo Tuesday got him back in the groove again. That leads to Austin bringing up Evolution and Flair says Orton is the best worker in the business today. It’s amazing to me that so many legends say that and yet so many fans have a hard time believing it. Perhaps he should superkick more! Flair says that when you lose it, it is very hard to get back.

-Austin wants to know what advice he was giving to Orton and Batista. He says that Orton would go home and talk to his dad. Flair wrestled his dad and knew he was giving him advice from a different era. He calls Orton and Dave great guys and says that run helped him. He jokes that he needs a 3rd Hall of Fame ring. He knows Evolution will go in, but he doesn’t know if it will be while he is still alive.

-WrestleMania XXIV: Austin says that is the match where Flair retired…temporarily. Oh man, I wonder if they talk about TNA? Flair says the beginning of the match was the greatest of his career as Shawn told him not to say a word and that was their night. They show Flair’s magnificent entrance and Flair says he tried to say something and Shawn told him to shut up. Flair puts Shawn over for having a match with himself that night and that wasn’t the first time because he is that great. Austin says he knows when Flair is calling a match and wants to know what it was like for this younger guy to call it. Flair says it took 15 minutes to settle in and wonders how good it could have been if he was on his game. Flair again goes back to losing his self confidence and how hard it is. It wasn’t about his everyday life, but getting in the ring at 59 years old. He was getting a reaction like no other and says it was a 3 day gig with Hall of Fame, Mania, and then the RAW after Mania.

-They show the end with “I’m sorry. I love you.” Still awesome! Flair says he was overwhelmed by the crowd and that he was the luckiest guy in the world. They show Flair coming back through the curtain getting a standing ovation and the tears are flowing from him. Oh man, now someone is cutting onions in the house as they show Dusty hugging Flair. Flair gets emotional watching it and that just gutted me.

-Austin asks about the TNA run and Flair says he needed the money and it was fun. He was there at 3 PM and was at the bar by 7 PM. He hated working for Bischoff again though and says he apologized to Vince for doing it. He just needed the money and liked being with the boys.

-They both talk exit strategy and Flair brings up hearing having a brand 5 years ago. He wishes he had a manager who knew social media years ago. He says that he is irresponsible and lazy and now has someone that takes care of him. He puts Austin over for always being responsible and Austin says he had a period where he ran hard and rough.

-Austin goes back to the plane crash and says before that Flair was at 270. Flair agrees that he wouldn’t have the career he did if he stayed at that size. Austin brings up that getting dropped on his neck helped him because it made him become a brawler. Flair says the plane crash was similar as it made him change his style and his body. Flair brings up that fans weren’t paying to see Austin be Flair or the guy he was against Steamboat.

-Austin wants to talk promos and if anyone influenced Flair’s style. Flair says he was just living that life and we get another classic from 1985. He brags about an 800 dollar suit with lizard shoes and a limo with 25 girls dying for him to go WOO! Classic! Flair says that he had a great guy like Dusty to work off and try to outdo. He says Austin had the same with The Rock. Flair says as he did on ESPN 30 for 30 that he was selling booze and women, while Hogan was selling vitamins and milk.

-We talk favorite eras and Flair naturally says the 80s NWA/WCW. He also puts over The Attitude Era and how it was Vince/Steve and a bunch of pieces around it. His era in the 80s had The Horsemen, Dusty, Warriors, etc while the WWE had Hogan and it didn’t matter what else you had. He says the guys with Hogan that could work didn’t have too because they just had to play their gimmick. Case in point he mentions Dibiase and how he is a great worker, but in the WWE he just had to toss money around.

-Austin asks for favorite program and Flair says it was with Dusty for a lot of reasons. They show a black and white photo of them and Austin says it smells and looks like pro-wrestling. He admits they didn’t get along everyday and had quite a few fights. At the end of the day Dusty was a genius and says Dusty was more full of it than even he was. Austin says that his mother went to high school with Dusty Rhodes (that’s pretty cool) and his first show he saw Dusty who was bleeding like a stuck pig. Steve asked his mom why security wasn’t helping Dusty and she just rolled her eyes at him.

-We get a montage of WOOS including the WOO off with Angle on RAW. Austin brings up the moments when Flair would also rip off his clothes while cutting a promo. Austin brings up people still going Woo and asks Flair if he knew it would last this long. He brings up getting it from Jerry Lee Lewis and he hasn’t stopped since 1974.

-Time to talk about Charlotte and Flair saying her winning the Divas Title was the greatest moment of his career. They cover that she only became a wrestler to honor her brother. Austin puts over her composure and how she has the feel of a champion. Flair can’t say enough about her and brings up that even with how confident she is, she still needs to hear feedback from people. He brings up The Rock’s daughter and how tough it will be for her as well, but at least The Rock isn’t seen as a WWE guy as much anymore like he and Austin are. Flair brings up Mike Rotunda not having to slap Bray on the back because it is different with a son vs a daughter. He takes a second to put over Bray though and his Fiend character. He and Austin put over the character work from Bray and that he can work as well. Back to Charlotte and Flair puts over her being on top for 5 years which is a long run. He also feels she is going to be in the best match at Mania with Rhea. Austin feels her career can stand on it’s own as she would be just as great if she had a different last name and Flair says that means a lot coming from Steve vs him saying it as her dad.

-Austin goes back to Flair being a part of pop culture and wants to know how Flair feels about his legacy. Flair says he thinks about it quite a bit. He wants to be remembered for the good things. He never did anything illegal and never did any drugs, but he was wild. He could have done more for his family and been there more. He now doesn’t want to be remembered as the greatest wrestler of all time. He knows he influenced Austin, Shawn, and HHH and even guys like The Miz. He just wants to be remembered for the positive things.

-Flair brings up the night in Greeneville when he wrestled HHH and then they had a Flair appreciation night after RAW went off the air. I believe it is included on one of Flair’s DVD releases. Flair says he was at the point he was admiring Austin and here he was pouring him beers. It was a wake up call that he really meant something to all these guys. That is how he wants to be remembered.

-They toast to each other and that closes this episode.

-These Austin interviews are always great, and one with Flair could last hours and I wouldn’t complain. Flair does have a habit of going away from Austin’s question for a bit, but either got back on track or Austin got him back there. There was nothing really new covered her, but Flair provided some good insight on what he doesn’t like about today’s business and put over a lot of guys in this one. It’s just great to see that he is a good place and has things in order. This is an easy and fun to watch as I am always a sucker for two legends shooting the breeze about the wrestling business. Things got a bit emotional as usually happens with Flair and again, watching Dusty embrace him after Mania XXIV got me right in the feels. Hearing him mention he and The Funks are the remaining traveling champions alive is rather sobering as well. Appreciate these guys while we still have them and why I have no issue with Flair rambling or going off topic. Again, take the time to check this one out. Thanks as always for reading!