Ric Flair says there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with being a champion but Drew McIntyre is already winning him over.
Flair recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard while promoting his new Celebrity Slots gaming app. He spoke about Randy Orton’s WWE career before transitioning to talking about Orton’s SummerSlam opponent, WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. Flair talked about Drew being “the man” and said things are a little bit different in how success as a champion is measured today, but he feels like Drew is doing great work and pointed to one specific interview where Drew really showed off what he’s about.
“If you’re giving Drew the ball on the other side of the court, that’s a big ball to carry. Everybody thinks being the world champion is easy, but if you’re the champion, man, you have a lot of responsibility. You’re not totally responsible for drawing the house like it used to be when I was the champion. Thank God most of my career we were sold out, but there were days when it wasn’t and man, you look at one person and you’re going to be the guy and you get paid more money you better be putting some numbers up. It’s a position that everybody wants to be the champion and everybody wants to be called the best, but man, it can be something that can keep you up at night, especially if you take it seriously.”
“I feel like Drew takes it very seriously and I thought that the interview he did that really defined him as an act is that sit-down ‘we’re gonna get ready for Mania’ talking about—which I didn’t know. I knew he was there before but I didn’t know the whole history and sometimes when you spell it out like they did in that sit-down interview—I believe it was with Charly or Renee—but they talked about him coming in and being the ‘Chosen One’ and all of that, I didn’t remember that. But I thought this is the way to get that story out and Drew was very, very good on that. I think he’s more comfortable with that then he is standing out there in the ring, at least when I’m watching I feel like he’s more comfortable like that.”
Flair hopes they put Drew in more situations like that, noting that those are the things that are compelling because they are real and he conducted himself very well. Flair noted that he recalls when Drew really won him over and called back to a conversation he had with him. He said the it’s a great sign whenever he gets “that kind of passion from a guy that understands what I’ve been through and what I had to do to be successful” and what it meant to be champion.
“I’ll tell you when he won me over. He’s a big dude, phenomenal physique, so I said to him one day, ‘You’re never gonna kick me with that Claymore, I got news for ya,’ just kidding him right? And he said, ‘Wow, after wrestling [Bruiser] Brody all those times, my Claymore’s nothing,’ and I thought to myself, ‘Well, here’s a kid that understands the history of the business and I really, that’s one of the things I like about him, he gets where I’ve been and wrestling Bruiser Brody was a handful, for an hour a hundred different times.”
Check out the full interview with Ric at the top of this page where he also discusses Randy Orton’s longevity in the wrestling business, his relationship with Charlotte, memorable matches from his career and much more.
Related: Ric Flair Says Randy Orton Has Always Been Great, But This Might Be His Greatest Run Yet
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