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Aug. 8, 2023 - This Past Weekend - Theo Von

02:07:40

E457 Ric Flair

Ric Flair is a 16x World Champion professional wrestler and entrepreneur. He is noted for his tenures in the NWA, WCW and the WWE. He is regarded by many as the greatest professional wrestler of all time. Theo Von is joined by wrestling icon Ric “The Nature Boy” Flair for a special episode of This Past Weekend. They chat about growing up wild in Minnesota, transforming into a wrestling superstar, the many times he almost died, insane airplane parties, the politics of the WWE, his friendship with Hulk Hogan and more. Ric Flair: https://www.instagram.com/ricflairnatureboy/ Special thanks to Grand Cathedral Cigars in Tampa, FL for hosting this episode of the show. https://www.instagram.com/grandcathedralcigars/ ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Morgan & Morgan: If you’re ever injured, visit https://forthepeople.com/thispastweekend or dial Pound LAW (#529). Their fee is free unless they win. BetterHelp: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp — go to http://betterhelp.com/theo to get 10% off your first month. BlueCube: Learn more at https://bluecubebaths.com/w ------------------------------------------------- Music: "Shine" by Bishop Gunn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3A_coTcUek&ab_channel=BishopGunn ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: tpwproducer@gmail.com Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers/ Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reiner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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	I got some new tour dates to tell you about.
	We have Oakland, California on September 16th.
	We've added a show there.
	Akron, Ohio, October 7th, we've added a show.
	Washington, D.C., on October 22nd, we've just added a show there.
	Also, limited tickets remaining for Milwaukee and Las Vegas.
	Get all your tickets at theovon.com slash T-O-U-R.
	If a show is sold out, don't go crazy and spend a ton of money.
	We'll come back through and you can get you a fair price ticket over there.
	Again, all tickets at theovon.com slash T-O-U-R for the Return of the Rat tour.
	Thank you so much for just coming out and being a part of my life.
	New merch for you merch heads out there.
	We've got some new shorts.
	That's right, the Rat Life shorts in blue, salmon, and sand.
	We've also got the new tie-dye, Be Good to Yourself teas in Aqua, Creamsicle, and Indigo.
	Get that and more only at TheoVonStore.com.
	We want to thank Grand Cathedral Cigars in Tampa, Florida for letting us host the episode here at their beautiful lounge.
	And it's a cigar really universe for cigaring.
	And doing that, it's stunning.
	It is undeniably the nicest cigar lounge that I've been in.
	And I've only been in probably 11 cigar lounges.
	So that's the only part of it that I want to be honest about.
	But we are very thankful for them in Tampa, Florida at 2201 North Florida Avenue.
	Today's guest is a 16-time world champion.
	There's nobody like him.
	I'll tell you that.
	He's one of a kind.
	He has had quite a life.
	I mean, the guy has been, he's almost, he survived a plane crash, a lightning strike.
	He's been through it all.
	We're grateful for his time today.
	He's one of the greatest entertainers of our time.
	Today's guest is the nature boy, Rick Flair.
	Shine that light on me.
	I'll sit and tell you my stories.
	Shine on me.
	And I will find a song I've been singing.
	I'm going to stay.
	And I will find a song I've been singing.
	Yeah, that's why I moved over to Nashville years ago.
	Is that where you live now?
	Yeah.
	Oh, cool.
	Yeah.
	That's a great place.
	Save that tax money, too.
	Yeah.
	No kidding.
	And you can conceal carry.
	You can carry a weapon over there.
	Oh, you can?
	Oh, yeah.
	I believe that.
	Well, we're really cancer carry a weapon now.
	I mean, somebody, even when it's not legal, somebody's carrying a weapon.
	Oh, that's just true.
	Well, heck, in half your career, somebody always, that was the funny thing about wrestling.
	Somebody always showed up with a weapon.
	I was like, Jesus Christ.
	You have no idea.
	You wouldn't believe some of the stories I could tell you about guns.
	Yeah, man.
	I'm trying to think when I saw my first gun.
	Did y'all have guns in the house growing up?
	Yeah, my dad was an avid hunter.
	He was?
	Yeah.
	I grew up in Minnesota, so we pheasant, duck, stuff like that.
	Oh, yeah.
	Yeah, not big game, but shotguns.
	Yeah.
	And then I collected guns for years.
	I had a guy that was a policeman in Asheville, North Carolina.
	I won't mention his name.
	In the 70s, that, you know, how these, you know, these guns that they recover and raids and all that shit, right?
	And he would let me walk in the room, pick out what I wanted.
	I would just pay ridiculously low amounts of money.
	Like as an example, they used to have the state troopers used to carry that nickel-plated at 357.
	I mean, yeah, unbelievable.
	They can't find those guns anymore.
	Yeah.
	The only gun I don't have, I should have got it, but I didn't, is I was going to buy a replica of the Lone Survivor.
	The Lone Ranger?
	No, the Lone Survivor.
	The rifle.
	Oh, I never even seen it, I don't think.
	Oh, yeah, the one that Bradley Cooper carried, remember?
	Yeah.
	Uh-oh.
	Oh, yeah.
	Who played Lone Survivor?
	Wahlberg or Cooper?
	Mark Wahlberg.
	Mark Wahlberg.
	Where was the sniper?
	Oh, you got to check that out.
	That rifle is beautiful.
	Yeah?
	Yeah, they have it right here in Tampa.
	I shot recently, I shot, I was in Nashville, actually.
	I was at Kid Rock's house.
	Have you ever met Kid Rock?
	I was a kid.
	I know him real well.
	Yeah, dude.
	Yeah, and John, they went all five of the bars now.
	Yeah, I'm trying to get the kid to carry the drink.
	He won't carry it for you?
	I haven't asked him yet.
	Where I'm going, Joey, I know him real well.
	His place is too much, huh?
	Oh, man.
	His place is unreal.
	He built like a new, it's almost like the capital of the South in a way or something.
	It's a replica of the White House.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, you roll up there.
	You're like, this is unreal.
	In a big arena, I thought it was like a warehouse.
	He's got a goddarn production studio in there, all his collected cars.
	I mean, two bars, a church, 600 acres of prime land.
	Oh, yeah.
	He said he can get married and divorced right there legally on his property.
	That's unreal.
	I said, I think the bar probably helps you get divorced.
	I said, I think that'll lead to it.
	He's not touring right now.
	He said, I'm going to let the young kids help inspire them and help them.
	Yeah.
	Rick, thanks for hanging out, man.
	Thank you for having me.
	Man, I spent so much of my childhood watching you, man.
	And thank you.
	Thank you.
	You know, it was some people watched WWF, right?
	And that was fine.
	That was easy.
	But when I was a kid, if you stayed up and if you watched NWA, right, that's who knew about like those, that's when you could tell if people were rich or not.
	Yeah.
	That's what I felt like.
	Like poor kids always knew about all the NWA guys.
	Where are you from?
	I'm from Covington, Louisiana.
	Okay.
	So, just like a small town outside of New Orleans, mid-south.
	Yeah, and man, dude, Terry Funk, just Von Ericks.
	Just, God, there was so much awesome wrestling back then.
	JYD.
	Oh, dude.
	What was he like in person?
	Good guy.
	Yeah?
	Yeah.
	Died way too early.
	But that was the Rock and Roll Express right there, Midnight Express, Bill Watts.
	Yeah.
	We've lost a lot of them, unfortunately.
	The Von Ericks?
	All gone except for Kevin.
	And that's that.
	I mean, yeah, that whole family just tragedy.
	Three suicides, I think, in the family.
	Did you go to any of those funerals?
	What about the funerals over the years?
	I went to three of them.
	Well, let's see, the oldest son, you know, got electrocuted when his dad first started out there in Buffalo, New York.
	Yeah, when he was a kid.
	He had a trailer.
	He never wrestled or anything, but he just got electrocuted at a hot wire in a damn trailer park.
	And then Carrie and David, you know, had some kind of obviously illegal substance.
	It was a, I can't remember what they're called, but it was.
	It's probably, I hope it was cocaine.
	No, no, it's a muscle relaxer.
	Oh.
	He choked to death.
	He couldn't regurgitate.
	They call them somas.
	Somas, dude.
	Oh, yeah.
	I took somas.
	He loaded up on somas, and he got sick after eating Korean barbecue and all that, which we all do in Japan.
	And he died right there in his own room.
	Same thing happened to Miss Elizabeth.
	Really?
	Yeah, she couldn't regurgitate because she was taking the somas.
	I've never understood that, but that high from a soma is nothing that I want to entertain ever.
	Yeah, a buddy of mine gave me two somas once, and I was genius, and he wanted me to drive us somewhere.
	So he's not the smartest guy.
	And I drove us onto a street that didn't even exist right into a ditch.
	I'm sure.
	I've never tried one, but man, I can name three or four guys that have died, you know, because they just can't regurgitate and they wake up in the middle of the night and the somas relax, your muscles so bad, you can't.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	I mean, it's 10 times the impact of Obalium.
	Yeah, man.
	Some of those medicines are just too powerful.
	Yeah.
	Did you go to some funerals over the year?
	What was like a wild funeral?
	What was one that really hit you, man?
	I mean, obviously funerals are just heartbreaking.
	Well, probably the hardest for me in the last five years.
	Well, first of all, Dusty Rhodes was...
	And then Harley Race.
	That was really difficult.
	Yeah, Dusty must have shot.
	I mean, it must have been heartbreaking.
	The WWE, the funeral for Dusty was as well-handled as anything I've ever seen.
	They had it here in Tampa, obviously.
	And shit, there were probably 2,000 people trying to get in.
	But the WWE had full security.
	The boys spoke so elegantly of their dad.
	Cody, who's wrestling now, they both wrestle, but Cody was WWE was telling a story.
	And neither one of them broke down real bad.
	I'll break down when I think about it.
	But he said, he asked his mom one time, he said, how come there's only just pictures of dad in the house and the other wrestlers?
	And his mother replied, why would you have a picture of any other wrestler when you're married to Elvis?
	Was he a good husband?
	What kind of guy was he?
	Great guy.
	Wow.
	He was so lovable.
	He was the most innovative.
	You know, one of the most innovative right there with Tyder Vince and innovative with ideas and creativity.
	He was so fun to watch.
	There's wrestlers that are entertaining to watch because of their physical acumen.
	There's wrestlers that are entertaining to watch because of the moves they do.
	Dusty had that, like, I loved when he would go against the ropes and kind of put on this like, like, almost feminine wilds kind of thing, you know, and like, he was just a con.
	You know, he could wrestle.
	I wrestled him probably a thousand an hour Broadway.
	He could wrestle for an hour.
	Wow.
	Yeah.
	The only weight was it was deceiving is to the fact that he was in good condition.
	It's hard to wrestle an hour.
	Yeah.
	Oh, yeah, dude.
	Oh, I can't even make love for 11 minutes.
	Yeah.
	To be honest with you.
	So, so, yeah, you put me against another man.
	I can't do an hour, bro.
	You know, no matter what city we're in.
	I better keep you overnight in Tampa tonight, brother.
	I get some people that can help you out with that.
	I don't know.
	My friend Dick Murdock told me a story one time.
	The girl said, hey, what about me?
	He said, hey, we both started at the same time.
	I can't help it.
	You can't keep up.
	That doesn't fly with the chicks these days.
	No, these days.
	Yeah.
	All these chicks want to, you know, everybody wants to get off and it's just too much, man.
	I miss the old days when a woman was as happy you showed off.
	I can't, yeah, man.
	Well, I always had to take, you know, I've always had, so I was always so nervous.
	I've always been nervous, kind of nervous my whole life.
	And I've always had to get those gas station pills, those wiener pills, you know?
	And a lot of the series they came out with, they never even tested, I don't think on humans or whatever.
	I think a lot of them were animal tested, which I respect, but it's a little different, you know.
	Three blocks from here at the age of rumination going, hey, I get four shots a week there, brother.
	I'll take you by after we do the interview.
	They shoot you up?
	Oh, yeah.
	Oh, wow.
	It's amazing what you can do to yourself these days if you got the money.
	Where they shoot you right in your weenail?
	Yeah, right there.
	Takes 25 years off.
	Oh, damn, dude.
	Yeah, because look, I'd get the gas station pills and they make my legs sweat, right?
	So I could have, heck, but I could barely stay on the bed.
	That was the problem.
	I mean, it would be like the lady would like, she'd be like, did you get off?
	I'd be like, no, but I think my thighs did.
	I mean, I would, they make your legs sweat so bad.
	Some of them, they made them in India.
	Yeah.
	And, I mean, those shook my nervous system.
	But yeah, I've always needed the pills, man.
	I think I used to, I used a lot of steroids when I was young, and I don't know if that had enough, I don't know, who knows, who knows?
	You know, it could just be that I'm in my head a lot, but yeah, I've always in my youth.
	Oh, yeah, dude, I took them, dude.
	I once, I'll tell you.
	And small testicles.
	Nobody explains the downside.
	Oh, man, you can spend four minutes looking for one of your nuts.
	Exactly.
	If you're on the.
	Hey, we got the neticins over here to make them grow back.
	Call them ACG.
	How big do they get?
	I don't know.
	Everybody's got a different opinion.
	Oh, I remember mine got so small when I was a senior in high school, like trying to find the last two pieces of Halloween candy in a pillowcase, man.
	It got pretty bad there.
	Yeah, I remember, we used to use Test 200, I think was what we used or something.
	Doing an all-damn test, yeah.
	God, that shit was fun.
	Yeah.
	My God, I would fucking choke out my own stepmother.
	Yeah.
	And I didn't even have one.
	You know, I never experienced that.
	It never gave me, I guess I didn't take enough of it, but I didn't have that, what they call road rage.
	I mean, things upset me over the years, but it wasn't as a result of being steroids, you know.
	Yeah.
	But I think you had enough energy in you.
	Yeah, I've always been high energy.
	Yeah.
	What a blessing, huh?
	Yeah.
	People have always assumed that I snorted cocaine and all that.
	The only drug I've ever taken, but it was prescription is Xanax.
	Really?
	No cocaine.
	I did smoke with you when I'm younger, and I smoke it now, now that I'm involved in the world of cannabis.
	But I think that's one of the reasons I'm still here because that up and down of cocaine.
	And then the guys would take the uppers in the morning.
	Not just our guys, but athletes, period.
	Yeah.
	It's a game when you're competing.
	Stay up and then go down.
	Stay up, especially when you're traveling internationally, like going to Japan twice a month or going to Australia twice a month, like I was doing in the 80s.
	It was crazy.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	And once you get used to, this is the tough thing about using performance enhancers.
	I think once you get used to getting something to help you get up or to get down, it's hard not to want to use it again.
	And then you need the opposite of it.
	So that's where it gets really tricky.
	Well, when I almost died in 17, I mean, I literally, you know, you know the story?
	I mean, I know a lot of stories where you almost died.
	So which one are we talking about?
	Oh, 2017.
	Okay.
	Oh, when you had the stomach, when you had the...
	Right.
	I was septic, respiratory heart failure, total kidney failure, pneumonia, septic being the worst part, right?
	And I was in a coma for 13 days.
	So when all that, and then of course I had a stoma, the bag attached to me.
	I just had that for a year.
	But at the end of the day, when I finally realized, and I had no memory for six months going backwards.
	Forward, from the time I woke up, of course I recognized everybody, but I couldn't remember anything.
	I didn't even remember going to the hospital.
	Wow.
	So, but when I finally started taking a toll of myself, like, I thought, fuck, I am really a fucking, I'm a nightmare.
	Cosmetic fucking nightmare.
	I look like shit.
	What do you mean, a cosmetic nightmare?
	Well, I mean, I've got a scar from here to here.
	I lost 41 pounds.
	I was stoma.
	I'll show you some pictures later on.
	It was bad.
	So that changed everything.
	Yeah, and my testosterone count, you know, something I always took pride in, right?
	And we all do what we get it done.
	Blood work is a necessity of life.
	My testosterone count was 12. That can kill you alone.
	But doctors don't want to play.
	The word testosterone is like, no, you know, doctors don't want to hurt.
	I mean, you can, there are ways to find out the levels that you should be at.
	But I was down to 12. So I called the doctor.
	He said, well, that's too low, but I don't want to prescribe it.
	12?
	What?
	It's 12. 12 sounds like.
	Yeah, it's supposed to be 400 at my age.
	Oh, damn, you had 12 left, dude?
	Yeah, I keep it at 1,000 now.
	Oh, okay.
	But I have to run by the gas station every week.
	Oh, yeah, dude.
	Fill her up.
	And I got $60 on pump number one.
	The $400 of my age don't work.
	I have $1,000.
	I got to have open jacket.
	Oh, yeah, brother.
	Isn't a thousand too high for you?
	No.
	Perfect.
	Yeah, so you were out of comma.
	What was it like to be in a coma, man?
	I always wanted to be in a coma.
	I just dreamt.
	Wow.
	I just dreamt.
	And now you wake.
	Like I dreamt my daughter got married and I went back and old autobot stuff and wrestling.
	It's funny.
	I got so high with Mike one night.
	Mike Tyson?
	Is that what we're talking about?
	Mike Tyson?
	Yeah, Mike.
	So high.
	We're partners in the cannabis business.
	Got so high with Mike one night in the Hamptons that I went, it's called a cannabis coma, right?
	I mean, I actually thought I died.
	I said to myself, and they brought me back to my room and I lay there.
	And I thought, I mean, I wasn't aware of anything.
	I kept asking people to touch, you know, like you do when you think you've been hurt.
	And people were squeezing my hand, but I would be talking to them and they wouldn't talk back to me.
	And I was like on a delay process, right?
	And I said to myself, did I die?
	Have I just died?
	Because I feel like I did when I was in my coma, but I can think.
	I don't think I could think when I was in my coma.
	I mean, that's the way I was talking to myself.
	Wow.
	and all of a sudden, I mean, everything possibly worked.
	The room finally at three o'clock in the morning, I kind of sat up like with the blur and went, I'm alive.
	I'm back.
	Yeah.
	I called someone on the phone and said, is this really you?
	That's all screwed up I got.
	That was just a television.
	That was a television timeout.
	Oh, my God.
	That's all that was.
	I said, did I take my clothes off at the dining room table or anything?
	But let me know what I've done wrong.
	All I could think of was what I possibly could have done wrong.
	Yeah.
	Oh yeah, man.
	I remember, I remember just being too, I just, It gets you too high.
	Well, I just hadn't done enough.
	I practiced up every time I knew I'm going to see Mike.
	Yeah.
	You got to work your way up to it.
	Yeah.
	I'm about a three or four hit guy, but I just said, I'm going to smoke as much as you right now, brother.
	Dude, that weed comes off the top rope, bro.
	Oh, man.
	That shit's highlight.
	Yeah, that shit make you highlight, dude.
	I remember getting so high one night I was trying to sneak up on a mirror for like probably two hours.
	That's good.
	And I'll tell you this, dude.
	I got pretty fucking close, man.
	You could sneak it up on the mirror?
	Oh, I think if it had been a leapier, I could have done it.
	I should have brought some Rick Flood Rip for you, man.
	Oh, I'll get some.
	Okay.
	I'll get some.
	I'm glad I got this, man.
	You brought me this.
	Okay.
	I mean, this alone is pretty epic.
	Yeah.
	You know, it's great.
	You are like an original human energy drink.
	I am.
	Yeah.
	So to have one, yeah, makes perfect sense.
	Have you been in an accident?
	Have you been damaged up?
	Check your body.
	Is something broken?
	Is something missing?
	That's the, you're like, whoa, Jeepers.
	No wonder I'm late to work.
	I don't have a limb.
	Well, Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm.
	If someone has done you wrong, well, what are you going to do?
	Being fair is very important to me.
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	Submitting a claim to Morgan and Morgan is as easy as washing your thighs, baby, with warm water and good soap, free soap.
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	That's right.
	Could be a car accident.
	Could have been something that happened at work.
	Fairness is important.
	Morgan and Morgan, their fee is free unless they win.
	For more information, go to forthepeople.com slash thispastweekend or dial pound law pound529 from your cell phone.
	That's for the people.com slash this past weekend or dial pound law pound five two nine from your cell.
	This is a paid advertisement.
	This episode is brought to you by better help.
	That's right.
	I've gotten therapy.
	I've gotten better help.
	You know, I've had times where I wasn't seeing the world as comfortably as I should be.
	You know, and it wasn't just a little thing.
	It wasn't just something that I knew would pass.
	It was something that was building and gaining momentum inside of me.
	And it kind of scared me.
	You know, if you're struggling, if there's something that's off, it's, I mean, we're humans.
	We have a voice and we need to use that and we need to get feedback from someone who knows what they're talking about.
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	This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.
	You know, one thing, Rick, that I noticed that you did, that you always did really exceptionally, which kept me super entertained, was your ability to play defense actively, right?
	Like even if you were being the victim in the fight, you were always like asking for mercy.
	There was always, if you got hit, you always went over your own legs.
	It was like, it was as much fun to watch you like being defeated as it was to watch you winning.
	And for some reason, sometimes it was almost.
	I'm better at getting beaten.
	You were good at it.
	You were really good at it, weren't you?
	And then I just lie next day on TV and then people forget about it.
	That didn't happen to me.
	When you were begging for marching, nobody did it.
	Like, yeah, it was, it was just, there was.
	Especially with the hair red, blood flying everywhere.
	But there was something about it that, because a lot of guys, they would just be getting beat in that moment.
	Yeah.
	But you were always actively demanding the attention.
	Sometimes I wouldn't even know who was hitting you because I was watching you.
	And that's really interesting.
	A lot of times you're watching the B ter, not the BT, you know?
	Yeah, I could take an ass kicking.
	I was dirty good at that.
	How did that energy start, you think?
	I just had it my whole life.
	Brother, I was ADD before ADD was positive.
	Oh, yeah.
	I'm still looking out the window in fourth grade.
	Richard, could we have your attention, please?
	Social studies 101.
	I spent 13 years in high school.
	Let me tell you, I still haven't passed English or Latin.
	There's only four years of it.
	I was there five.
	I mean, you had ADD.
	I didn't go to 12th grade.
	I went to 13th grade and then barely got out.
	Did you go to prom?
	Do you remember going?
	Did you go to high school prom?
	Oh, yeah.
	Yeah.
	Who was it?
	Well, here's the funny thing.
	This is a great story.
	I've never told you before.
	So I hitchhiked.
	My parents were in Minneapolis.
	I'm very conservative.
	I was in private school in Wisconsin.
	I got in trouble.
	It was either private school, nothing bad.
	Yeah, the Hadley Center, where'd you go?
	What was it called?
	I went to Wayland Academy in Beaverdam.
	Prep school, very expensive.
	It was either that or a form school because I got in some trouble trying to buy liquor underage.
	Nothing serious, but it was enough to get me in trouble.
	And then riding my scooter around Lake Calhoun.
	So I got there, so I made all these friends.
	And, you know, there's no cell phones back in the 60s and all that.
	So now I have a whole new group of friends, and they're all from wealthy families.
	And they go to, everybody's going to spring break.
	I said, what spring break?
	They said, we're all going to Florida.
	So I went home and I said to my mom and dad that second, I go visit my friend Bruce in Chicago.
	And they said, yeah, they gave me 200 bucks and took me to the train station.
	And they drove off and I walked out of the train station and hitchhacked all the way to Fort Lauderdale.
	Wow.
	It was the greatest.
	I did have two years in a row.
	Would you go right out to the interstate and put your thumb in?
	Brother, I'm telling you.
	I mean, I'm walking through Macon County line, man.
	That was some strange shit for a guy from Minneapolis walking through Macon, Georgia, brother.
	Hell, this looks different than Minneapolis.
	So anyway, then I got picked up by these college girls.
	Went right in.
	So my first night there, I'm in Arby's, right?
	And with my friend and his chick is working at Arby's.
	And she goes, where would you, oh, God, a Wisconsin leather jacket on and no shirt.
	And I didn't like trying to be cool.
	And she goes, where'd you go to school?
	I said, University of Wisconsin.
	She said, cool.
	She said, you want to go have drinks afterwards?
	I said, what time do you get off?
	She said, 10 o'clock.
	And so I ended up staying with her and her mom.
	Wow.
	On top of my mom was a particularly.
	On top of which one?
	On top of both.
	But I invited the one.
	I invited the one to, what was there, 10 days?
	I mean, look, dude, 10 days, you got to meet the whole family.
	Exactly.
	But I ended up inviting her to a prom, you know, but not even thinking.
	And so I get a letter from her at school, and she said, my mom is flying me to Madison.
	Are you going to pick me up particularly to the prom?
	And I had a girlfriend in high school.
	Boy, that was bad.
	So I had to have, and I made a mistake.
	So Gwen Worthen was her name.
	Gwen, where are you now?
	Gwen Worthen.
	Forgive me.
	And so she didn't fly in then?
	She did fly in.
	Oh, she didn't.
	You told your girlfriend you couldn't take her.
	Yeah.
	Wow.
	Yeah.
	So was it strange?
	Because I similarly brought a girl to.
	Well, I didn't have that kind of relationship in high school.
	Right.
	They gave us what they called Saturday night.
	This is a great shit.
	They gave us what's called sosh, right?
	So what is it called?
	Soch 10 minutes to go hide behind a tree.
	Who did?
	The parents?
	No, the school did.
	Oh, really?
	So they have dances and all that.
	And at 10 o'clock, you get 10 minutes to go hide behind a tree.
	And then back.
	It was a co-ed school, back to the dormitories.
	The dormitories weren't co-ed.
	Right.
	But we all had binoculars and shit, you know, until the school fucking chicken.
	You had a lot of intel.
	We had the intel fucking hell.
	And Polaroids were available back then.
	Yeah, brother.
	So they gave you 10 minutes after the prom and after the dance and after every Saturday night, they called it Soj.
	Okay.
	You guys can have 10 minutes or nine minutes.
	Treaty and get in 10 minutes, right?
	I mean, come on.
	Yeah.
	But you can try.
	I know I did.
	Just as I got that first hook, I called here goes a whistle.
	Oh, oh, oh.
	It's like a military drill.
	Everybody runs, you have 10 seconds to return it over.
	Well, turn the goddamn dogs loose.
	Just a hook get herself.
	Oh, it's so hard to touch a tent with a St. Bernard bar.
	Oh, my God.
	Just tune in Tokyo, probably.
	Just try.
	Nick Shank.
	You're trying to get that bra on?
	Nick Shank.
	Can you just not wear a bra or just wear a big sweater?
	Nobody will know.
	God, that was fun.
	So you were unsuccessful with staying committed in a relationship from the beginning.
	Oh, yeah.
	I've had problems with that with relationships.
	I've been married four times.
	Wow.
	But a lot of that is in respect to my travel.
	God, you know, you being a fan, you probably don't realize I wrestled an average of 400 days a year, 400 times.
	Yeah.
	Because twice on Saturday, twice on Sunday for 10 years.
	My accountant would say, how can you wrestle 400?
	Rick, I know you graduated, but it's only 365 days.
	I said, I know, but I wrestle twice on Saturday, twice on Sunday.
	Man.
	I did that for 10 years.
	You cannot, I'm never home.
	How do you stay married?
	Some women just can't live like that.
	And I don't blame them.
	Yeah, of course not.
	Yeah, my first wife just said, this is cool.
	And I have two kids by her.
	We get along the other state.
	We never had an argument.
	She just said, this is not what I signed up for.
	Yeah.
	I said, I'll buy you a bigger house.
	She said, I don't care.
	I've been spending my life alone.
	Because once you get on the road and if you're successful, as you know, it's fun.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, you know, and why go home?
	If you have a day off and you're like in Los Angeles, you have one day off.
	Are you going to go all the way back to Toronto, North Carolina?
	Are you going to stay in LA?
	You're going to stay in L.A. and start a new family.
	I mean, yeah, I mean, you find your old family.
	How many guys do you feel like had kind of illegitimate children out there?
	Oh, I don't know.
	Do you think it started to happen?
	I think I'm sure it has happened, but I mean, that happens with any traveling people that travel.
	Yeah.
	It's going to happen because I've never experienced that myself.
	But, you know, some of these girls, in the old days, they wanted to get pregnant.
	Oh, yeah.
	If you had money, they wanted to get pregnant.
	And guess what?
	Hello.
	You know, that's why all this stuff is so sophisticated now with DNA and all that.
	That stuff wasn't around back when I was your age and that.
	Yeah, you had to hold the baby up next to the man.
	Yeah.
	It's crazy.
	But no, I never experienced that.
	I don't know, but I think, you know, falling back, that can't all fall back on wrestlers because it's two partners.
	Well, yeah.
	Well, that's happened.
	I mean, the football players that travel, the basketball players that travel, baseball players are never home.
	I mean, yeah, pilots and flight attendants.
	Come on.
	Celebrate.
	They're just, yeah.
	I mean, they just have fun.
	In the old days, they were the most fun.
	The flight attendants were the most fun.
	We have tickets to the matches tonight.
	Yes.
	What do I tell you saying that?
	Oh, okay.
	I'm not supposed to tell you, but that.
	Yeah, flight attendant, bro.
	And flight attendants used to be hot.
	Oh, were they ever?
	They still are some of them.
	It's just an attitude thing now.
	But some of them now, they're hot, but then they're like men.
	Well, it's just.
	Or, you know, they're just kind of like you think it's a woman, and then they turn them when they say, you know, and they're like, I'm a man, you know, and you're like, oh, dang.
	I haven't experienced that, but I've experienced it where they just don't want to do any more than they have to.
	Yeah.
	In the old days, I think that they were.
	They would go above and beyond for them.
	Above and beyond.
	But normal.
	Does that make sense?
	Things have changed a lot with that.
	You know, you've got to be very careful what you say to a woman now.
	Oh, yeah.
	Oh, yeah, you couldn't exist nowadays.
	No, me, no, I'm kidding.
	God.
	I used to walk around all the flight attendants doing the sweet and low joke, you know.
	I'll show it to you later on.
	You know what sugar is the difference between sugar and sweet and low?
	I'll show her later on.
	No, you could never do that with a plate attendant now.
	Good Lord.
	But did women get offended back then by it?
	Or they kind of liked flirting or whatever.
	Oh, they like to flirt.
	Are you kidding?
	Yeah.
	I mean, but, you know, now it's like any kind of travel today.
	I mean, I dread, that's why I fly private a lot.
	If it's within, if it's practical.
	Yeah.
	Understood.
	Because people in general, they put computers on, put earplugs on.
	You got no one to talk to.
	People don't drink on, in the old days, people would drink on the planes.
	Oh, yeah.
	Talk to each other and walk around.
	And now everything is such a stringent, I mean, everything is a rule.
	Yes.
	You know, remember the old, we used to sit in the old cabins at the higher end, the 747s, tell stories, laugh, the big trays of food.
	I mean, all that stuff on our domestic airlines had gone.
	Yeah.
	Now the foreign airlines still let that stuff go on.
	Oh, yeah.
	But we've shut down everything.
	Singapore Airlines, you would never get off the plane.
	Yeah, you want to go.
	You'll never.
	You can get a massage.
	Oh, they'll polish.
	Yeah, everything.
	They had somebody come on and polish my feet on there.
	Did they?
	Yeah.
	I didn't even know they needed polish.
	Anything you want.
	They'll do it all, dude.
	They'll fucking cut your, I mean, they'll cut the hair on the back of your legs.
	Yeah, but ongoing Dom Perian, I mean, they just, they never stop serving you.
	Yeah.
	It's great.
	But domestically, they've just gotten so conservative.
	It's just different.
	Everything is a rule.
	That's a great statement.
	Everything's a rule now.
	It's like, don't attack the pilots.
	Don't smoke in the bathroom.
	Well, I understand that, but I mean, it's just, you know, I understand the pilot thing, but it's like, you know, if you're, I'll give you an example.
	So I fly, I've got, like, I've got 4 million miles with Delta.
	And I had to, when you add up all my miles over the years, you have 70 million.
	I'm sure.
	No, I probably have had 15 million miles.
	Between Northwest, which went bankrupt, Eastern went bankrupt, U.S. Air.
	Well, I mean, they've all, you know, have gone upside down.
	American, United.
	Well, they're still going.
	And Delta, of course, is my favorite choice.
	I like Delta, too.
	Yeah.
	But we used to be able to socialize and all that.
	Now, you know when Cap Light, when the thing goes on and they go, here's what makes me mad.
	And I'm sure you felt it.
	You know when the captain goes, okay, ladies and gentlemen, we're getting ready to approach.
	That means you're right at 10,000 feet.
	I know this for a fact.
	You're still 45 to 50 minutes from touching down to play into Sending.
	Ma'am, can I have a cup of coffee?
	No, we've closed the galley.
	Ma'am, the flight, we're not going to land for 50 minutes.
	Oh, that's, I'm sorry.
	I like, well, ma'am, I said, can I have a belt beer?
	She said, no, we've closed it up.
	I said, is that your rule or the flight rule?
	I said, are you, I mean, I've had women, are you harassing me?
	I said, no, I was asking you for a beer.
	Excuse me, you know?
	Or they'll go, oh, yeah, please, Mr. Floyd, what would you like?
	Can I have a picture?
	Can we assign something for my son?
	It's A or B. Yeah.
	And some of, and I would say it's like 80, 60, 40, good, but the 40 can just, you know, and then, and then like I had that surgery, right?
	That bag broke a couple times on an airplane.
	Yeah, it smells bad, right?
	I had to stay in three hours in the bathroom.
	The woman's knocking, what are you doing?
	Oh, you really don't want me to know, but don't knock on the door again.
	I mean, you can't, yeah, it's horrible.
	Wow.
	Because it's your, it's a bad thing.
	It attached your intestine.
	So it's attached to your intestine.
	So it's dooky.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	It's terrible.
	It's terrible.
	Damn, buddy.
	Yeah, I would never wish anybody ever.
	Yeah, I mean, I've stepped in shit before, and that's, that's, if I was bringing my own shit outside of me, I would be bummed out.
	My wife actually had to learn how to clean it.
	Well, we hired full-time help, right?
	Yeah.
	It got to be where like on the weekend, they're sending like a weekend warrior.
	It's like being in a rest home.
	The regular staff is gone, and the people working on the weekends don't want to be there anyway.
	They're second string, third string.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Yeah, you're talking.
	So then she finally went to diploma class and learned how to do it herself.
	But it's nasty, man.
	Yeah.
	And you have to re-watch what you eat because different things trigger it.
	Does that make sense?
	Was it kind of cool to eat some things and see them come out in the bag?
	I know the bag wasn't clear.
	Oh, it wasn't?
	They didn't make clear bags.
	Damn, you got to get that clear one, huh?
	I was like, that'd be crazy.
	I'm laughing right now.
	It wasn't funny then.
	Yeah, no, it's crazy.
	My sister was born with a rare liver disease, and so she needed a transplant her whole lives when we were kids.
	And so she had to have a bag a lot.
	And so there was always, we were always dealing with bile or some type of thing around the house, you know.
	It's terrible.
	I feel bad.
	I'm making light of it.
	No, we're joking.
	I was just saying some of the things that you go through with that condition, and it takes really patient people that make sense that really care for you to be around you.
	Well, nurses, that's one thing.
	I would love to marry a nurse, I think, one day, because the ability to have that job is really a God gift, I think.
	Let me tell you, I had, right after this, I had to have four heart surgeries in seven weeks.
	Okay.
	But by the time, by the second two, they were walking me in into the same room and the same nurses.
	And the girl brought a, what do you call those things?
	A player, she was playing my Space Odyssey.
	And she goes, she goes to me.
	I swear to God, you couldn't make his stuff right.
	So they put me down and covered me up.
	And she put a washcloth on top of my groin.
	And she said, I won't let anybody see Space Mountain looking like this.
	And the next day I know I'm asleep.
	That's awesome, man.
	The cold cloth cover me.
	Who says that to a patient?
	She said, we don't want to see Space Mountain looking like this.
	No, we won't let anybody see it look like.
	I hope she meant the other nurses.
	These days, man, you don't know who's trying to look.
	Oh, my God.
	Wow.
	Or take a picture of the son of me.
	Ric Blair eat all that shit.
	Look at this little daily.
	Who's he kidding?
	Yeah, you don't want to, yeah.
	That would be the worst, man.
	Oh, no, shit.
	Yeah, when I was getting my second best activity, he was the first one in work.
	I told the girls are waiting.
	I said, you guys signed the release?
	And they go, what release?
	This release is such, you're not going to tell what small my dick is.
	They all started laughing.
	She goes, we don't do that here.
	I said, ma'am, I'm just kidding.
	I'm getting ready, going.
	Have you guys cut my nuts again?
	I'm just trying to find some fucking humor in the moment.
	Like, gee, first lady, you want to saw into my nuts.
	Let us have a choke.
	We don't side release these guys.
	I'm just kidding, please.
	How small my dick is.
	Dude, that's it.
	Oh, yeah, good.
	Penis.
	Yeah, some people.
	Might as well say it.
	Yeah.
	Girls use that word more than guys do.
	Now it's different, man.
	Oh, girls will send messages.
	Girls will be like, come and fuck me, you creep.
	I'm like, Jesus.
	Well, all right.
	I haven't got one of those lately.
	I'll get my number passed out.
	What state had the best women, do you think?
	Florida.
	Here or.
	Because Florida has a lot of criminals built into it.
	There's something about that pirate.
	Because remember, pirates started this place.
	They're Spanish.
	People can dance.
	They can hide treasure.
	Yeah, it's a great place to live.
	You know, the difference between Miami and Tampa is like night and day.
	Yeah.
	Tampa just, this is great.
	But Texas, beautiful women there.
	Oh, yeah.
	There's beautiful women everywhere, but it just seems like there's an abundance of them in Tampa.
	Plus, you have all the colleges here.
	You've got Tampa University.
	Then you have South Florida, UCF, where she went.
	And then you've got Florida, Florida State.
	I mean, there's a bar over here called AMSO that during the football season, the alumni, it's insanity.
	What's it called?
	American Social.
	Okay, AMSO.
	Yeah, that's over here on the water, you know, with the yachts outside and everything.
	And I would say it's probably 14 or 15,000 square feet.
	It's big.
	Yeah.
	And they can house it.
	But, man, they have like 30 TVs for these college games and that if you've ever in town.
	It's a vibe, huh?
	It's a vibe and a half.
	And there are women everywhere.
	God, I wish I was 35 just one day.
	What would you do, you think?
	Oh, I've thought about that a lot.
	I don't know, man.
	But just give me an idea.
	35 on a Saturday in American social, a lie could do a lot of damage.
	30 even more.
	That five years, huh?
	Did you guys, after the matches, was there like group shower?
	How did it all, was there like a big group shower?
	Oh, what the big group shower?
	Like for that, like, did you guys, was it like a football team that after the match, after the night, everybody, was there like a big shower?
	I mean, once they get their matches and they're gone, yeah.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	And when you guys used to drive, I mean, one thing that's always fascinating about wrestlers, I'm friends with The Miz, right?
	He's a wrestler.
	Oh, yeah.
	He's a great kid.
	He is a great guy.
	How do you know him?
	He's a great guy.
	We've known each other for almost 15 years now.
	No, he's a great kid, man.
	He's a guy that really cares for the business, man.
	And they shit on him when he started.
	They gave him a tough time.
	They gave him a tough time.
	That's bullshit.
	And that, you know, that's the guy that bullied people.
	I got no time for that.
	But he's a wonderful kid.
	And he's made the most of it.
	And I'm going to tell you the truth, whatever they hand him, he makes work.
	He did it.
	Yep.
	That's a good point, huh?
	It's a gift.
	Whatever they hand him, he goes, he doesn't complain.
	If he does, I'm not aware of it.
	And so damn respectful.
	He's a great kid.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, I met him years ago with his dad.
	He was always a hard worker and just extremely cares about.
	He always had that energy that was, he always had this charisma that was a little bit beyond him as a person.
	He's a Cleveland guy.
	So is Dolph Ziegler.
	Oh, is Dolph?
	Yeah.
	Yeah, Dolph's a comedian, too, you know, right?
	Yeah.
	I know that he's, I know that he's done some comedy.
	He and I communicate sometimes on social media.
	Yeah.
	But he's a great kid.
	The Miz and I have been friends for a long time, and I've always admired his ability to roll with the punches.
	What was it like whenever you did they did your storyline ever get like where you were like I know you had the like those bitch off years where you didn't love it and um hated it.
	Yeah worse it must have been hard, huh?
	Well, I was the guy, you know, out of sight, out of mind.
	It didn't work.
	He kept trying to lose me.
	Like, what do you mean out of sight, out of mind?
	Means he thought if he could take me off TV and bury me, that he forgot, he forgot where I'd been for 20 years, 25 years before I met him.
	Yeah.
	You don't lose 25 years of being a man.
	And then all of a sudden have some dip shit try and put you in the back of the pack.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, I don't even think you couldn't either.
	He beat my brains out, though.
	That was a big self-confidence, a big time loss of self-confidence period in my life.
	Yeah.
	Yep.
	I guess you don't have as much control over how not relevant you stay, but how much vis you, how much attention they give you.
	I mean, it's kind of interesting the way you guys' business is set up, right?
	It's like you're the performer, you're the athlete, you're the competitor, but then there's also this business side that kind of gets to politics.
	Right.
	Ask us.
	Was it like that early on?
	Did it change?
	It wasn't like that early on.
	No, when I got into business, you were either good or you were bad.
	And if you were bad and they don't like you, they beat you up.
	Really?
	Right?
	Beat you up right in the ring.
	If they could.
	Yeah.
	Now it's all political.
	It's off.
	Jesus.
	It's a business more.
	Yeah, usually when you enjoyed it the most, when I enjoyed it the most, is when you were there because you were that much better than the next guy or the woman.
	Now it's, you can be better than anybody, but it's all, it's, it's, it's, But you either accept it or you don't be part of it.
	I'd rather be part of it and accept it, and I don't talk about it.
	And I'm not talking about any individuals.
	I'm just addressing the reality of our business now.
	I mean, it's very political.
	Where football and all that, it's political, but you're not going to put Aaron Rodgers down.
	You're not going to put down XYZ guy guy.
	Well, just whatever I'm using, use Aaron as an example.
	Yeah.
	Because he says something smart.
	You're going to play to win.
	Right.
	And if somebody says something smart, it's almost with you guys, it almost would behoove them to use that as the.
	Well, yeah, but here's the deal.
	They have these writers that come in that have never wrestled.
	Writers are unwrestled.
	I mean, they come and they go.
	Turnover.
	And how do you ever get to learn the business?
	If it took me 12 years, let's say I started in 72. I didn't figure this shit out really until 83. So how long is that?
	10 years, nine years?
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	It took me nine years to figure it out.
	And every time I thought I had it, something else popped up.
	Yeah.
	But then once I got it, I didn't let it go.
	But then people want to take it from me.
	Oh, he's too old.
	It's not ready.
	It doesn't look the same.
	80s heels don't draw.
	I've heard it all.
	And here I'm sitting here with you today.
	Where are they?
	Yeah.
	I don't know.
	They're driving between towns.
	Yeah.
	Some of them in buses, some of them in rented cars.
	What was it like when you guys would hit the road?
	Was that a lot of fun?
	Did you guys enjoy it?
	2,000 miles a week, man.
	Minimum.
	Yeah, it was fun.
	And it was mostly the southeast you guys were in, huh?
	Well, I was in Charlotte.
	I'm probably the only wrestler alive.
	Even Hulk had to move out of Florida.
	He moved to Stanford for a while.
	He tells you that.
	But Hulk and I are probably the only two guys that during the course of our career and our heyday that never left home.
	I never left Charlotte.
	They wanted me to go to Atlanta.
	They wanted me to go to Florida.
	I mean, I wish I had come down here only because of a tax issue.
	Tax havings, yeah.
	But once I found, when I was there, when I got to Charlotte, it was me and Richard Petty.
	The highest building was 10 stories.
	Brown bag.
	I mean, I've seen that town grow.
	And why would I leave that to come anywhere, right?
	Yeah, especially if it's your home.
	If it's a city, you feel like that's your home.
	Well, I moved there when I was 23, and I grew with the city.
	Yeah.
	Did all your wives, you met them all in Charlotte?
	Yeah.
	Wow.
	No.
	My first wife I met in Minneapolis.
	She's from Minneapolis.
	Oh, yeah.
	She lives in Charlotte now because of my grandchildren.
	Yeah.
	Never had a crossword, just great story.
	So we used to stay at the Raleigh Hilton, and there was a bar called the Hilton Underground, right?
	So this guy walked up to me and says, goddamn, I was talking about 10 girls.
	It was packed.
	Because I used to always say on TV, I used To go, whatever hotel we were going to be in, I would say 18 to 28, no boyfriends, no husbands.
	Yeah, come and see the nature boyfriends.
	I just tell them where we were.
	What'd your wife think of that?
	Well, same thing she thought about me not wearing my wedding rings.
	Why'd you wear a wedding ring?
	I said, God, that's not my gimmick, honey, please.
	Why are you telling me where we were staying?
	I said, they give us a deal in the hotel room.
	What do you think?
	I mean, do you actually think anybody shows up?
	Boring.
	Of course, the voyage place is packed.
	Meanwhile, this guy goes to me, can the guy get laid here?
	I said, can that guy get laid, brother?
	I'll get you laid out here in the staircase.
	Let me buy you a drink.
	He was my wife's private eye.
	I introduced him to all the guys.
	Hey, this guy's a cool guy.
	I don't know if I got him laid or not.
	Hey, listen, I was so good.
	I used to get the ninja wrestlers laid.
	That's hard.
	That's hard.
	Cowboy Lang.
	Give me late, give me lead, give me lead.
	I said, you know, some bitch.
	It's hard to get to lay it.
	Only a few women are going to leave.
	Yeah, what kind of women would usually go for that little fella?
	I can call one right now.
	She runs the speedway club in Charlotte now.
	Oh, Lord.
	Give me the.
	The officer called me and said, the minister in town.
	I said, who are laying?
	They're laying in old Tokyo.
	They want to ride with you.
	It's like, he'd be my Eldorado somewhere down the road.
	Give me the lead.
	You're the nation boy.
	Give me the lead.
	Give me the lead.
	Man.
	So you like hooking your buddies up?
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	It was hard getting that.
	Tokyo was impossible to get laid.
	Really?
	Yeah.
	So in Tokyo, it was hard to get a little person laid?
	Yeah.
	But the cowboy Lang had a brigade hang on him so I could sell that to the girl.
	Yeah, that wand on him.
	Yeah, yeah.
	My God, boy.
	I'd hate that.
	I mean, it'd be so hard.
	I mean, that would be just a just to, you know, that's like a damn kettlebell for you.
	Something like that.
	I mean, if you even have half a pound of wiener on a little person, that's fucking.
	Yeah, it looks a lot bigger than a little guy.
	And especially if you put the right makeup on the sides of it, dude.
	Because I'll put makeup on mine.
	I'll make it look, you know, you want the light to hit it the right way.
	He's lighting everything.
	When was the first time you got laid?
	Do you remember it?
	15. Wow.
	Yeah.
	It was 14 or 15. I had just got my WSI and I was a WSI?
	Water safety instructor.
	We were a lifeguard at a lifeguard and thing.
	I must.
	I think I just turned 15. So I got my WSI so I could be a lifeguard at the my parents live in the colony apartments while they're waiting for a new home to be built for two years.
	So I just summertime job clean the pool lifeguard give swimming instructions talk to the mothers.
	Yeah, huh?
	Yeah.
	God, boy.
	The lonely mothers with their husbands on the road.
	You were working both sides of the net there, man.
	Yeah.
	Here you go.
	And you met a girl?
	He did a crawl.
	Mama, don't let your babies grow to be a little nature boys.
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	And the owner moved on.
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	They are cold plunges.
	And man, they just put you.
	God, they just put you right back into the cradle of civilization, baby.
	They make you feel alive, son.
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	They're really, really wonderful, BlueCubeBaths.com.
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	Yeah, it was a fun job.
	So you met a lady there?
	Flight attendants.
	Oh, God, there were flight attendants there.
	It was everything.
	Jesus.
	To this day, I'm not a beta because I was seeing this girl that was a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines who was dating the head of the beta house at the University of Minnesota.
	So when they rushed me, it was like five years later, the guy never got over it.
	He was jealous?
	I guess.
	I was 15 and she was, what, 23?
	Dang, that's a win, bro.
	I used to be sitting there.
	I'd talk to her mom and dad in the apartment, and she would say, Rick, come to the door.
	Come up to the stairway so I can show you something.
	And I'd walk over to the stairs and she'd be standing there completely naked and high heels.
	Wow.
	Going like this.
	Oh, yeah.
	Yeah.
	Okay.
	My God, boy.
	And tits was just so nice back then, weren't they?
	Everything.
	My God.
	I'd never seen them like that in my entire life.
	Even in the magazines, it looks different.
	Yeah.
	Nothing like a real tit.
	Yeah.
	You're an adult woman.
	My God.
	I blew coral a car, which took me 10 hours.
	You what?
	I blew coraled her car, which is that old fashioned deal where it's 10 hours sweating like a snow bitch, 120 degrees.
	That's how much I like that stuff.
	She had a 442.
	And that's the first woman you ever made love to?
	No, no, no.
	First time I made love to was.
	I didn't know how to make love.
	Oh, yeah.
	Yeah, I was like, you know, who knows?
	But the validity of the fact is I could recover in six seconds.
	So just, okay, let me just, okay, I'm ready.
	Wow, really?
	When you're young, like, God, like a human score gun.
	I never had that.
	I would get counted out of the ring all the time.
	Yeah.
	I mean, I would get, yeah.
	God.
	And there's nothing sadder.
	I'll tell you this from somebody, you don't have this experience, but I'll tell you there's nothing sadder when a girl's like, you want to go again?
	You're like, I want to, you know what I'm saying?
	But we're not.
	And then you have to sit there and do something or you got to fucking go get a lemonade or something.
	Yeah.
	I haven't experienced that, but I have to.
	You don't want to, Rick.
	Yeah, I have.
	But in that situation, I just go like, I'm tired.
	Oh, yeah.
	But then the worst part is.
	I never say I can't.
	You never tell a woman the truth.
	No, Jesus.
	The minute you start telling her the truth, then you got to be honest with yourself, and that's hard to do with women.
	They can put the hottest light on me and ask me a thousand times.
	And I am guilty of doing it, but I still won't admit it.
	Wow.
	I told the judge five times, Judge, I did not do that.
	We have you on film.
	That's not me.
	It looks just like you.
	It's not me.
	The judge said, I'm going to hold you in contempt.
	Well, I'm not going to admit it's me.
	What do you call it?
	I plead the fifth?
	I'm going to remember that.
	When you start telling them the truth, boy, you're in trouble.
	Holy cow.
	But literally.
	Women like that game.
	They want you to, they want to be, they want to be as clever as we are.
	But they're not.
	So women like the game, huh?
	You got to remember that.
	Oh, sure, they do.
	That's a lot of stuff.
	I'm going to tell you something right now.
	Women love cowboys.
	Ladies love outlaws.
	Like little babies love stray dogs.
	You know that.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	For every good woman, there's two outlaws.
	Ferbier outlaws is 20 women.
	Even if they're certain lengths.
	They make the noise.
	Boom, boom, boom.
	Boom, boom.
	Oh, man.
	Yeah, that's crazy.
	God.
	Yeah, dude.
	There's been some times on the road, it's like, yeah, there's sometimes you like there.
	I think there could be a woman that could come up to me right now and be like, do you remember this?
	And I'd be like, I have no idea about that.
	Yeah.
	First of all, a lot of them don't look the same.
	I just, I have no idea what you're talking about.
	It was me in 1982.
	I said, who?
	Do you know why?
	I mean, hello.
	Someone move her out of line.
	She's blocking traffic here.
	She's claiming she knows me.
	It's impossible.
	Boy, I think I've got a gold.
	Have you had some ladies that came back that showed me?
	Oh, hell yeah.
	My God.
	That happens at least once a month.
	Different cities around the country.
	Remember me?
	No.
	And how old are they?
	Well, I'm 74. Some of them are, oh, my God.
	And I've probably, like my friend and I just said, beak.
	He says, everybody your age is dead.
	And some of these chicks might as well be lord.
	There's no way that you and I. The Mariana West short, not a chance.
	Mistaken identity.
	You got the wrong guy.
	My name is Fred Phillips, not Rick Flair.
	Did you watch my biography?
	Man.
	Jim Dandy.
	Was it, you worked, I know you worked on the road.
	Who do you, who was fun to travel with on the road?
	Like when you guys were just in the car cruise and who was oh, me, Arn, Tully, and Barry is the best.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Oh, JJ, yeah.
	And that was during Four Horseman Days?
	Four Horseman Day, the best.
	Wow.
	Man, we.
	How much fun must that have been?
	You guys, and would you all ride in the same car?
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	What kind of car would you get?
	We're all driving Cadillacs and I bought, then all of a sudden the Mercedes thing hit and I bought it.
	But I started buying Mercedes.
	I never changed.
	I bought a Roto's Lace one time, but it just, it doesn't even worth it.
	Yeah.
	Because the doors open, a big deal.
	And you can't park it near anything because you're afraid it's going to get dinged up.
	That's what I never liked.
	I rode with a friend one time who was rich and I'm like, dude, we got to park seven miles away because you don't want to get the doors dinged.
	Yeah, you guys would hit the road, huh?
	Oh, yeah.
	Well, we, well, later on, we traveled via private jet.
	Our company bought a Falcon 10, which was great.
	But in our younger days, we traveled.
	Oh, yeah.
	But we like to travel during the day.
	You're never going to, why drive it?
	When I was young, we drove at night.
	But as we started to realize that we were at a level of popularity, why not spend the night and enjoy the local, you know, whatever food, whatever establishment, ladies, flavor, yeah.
	Yeah, and then travel the next day.
	But then when we got the jet, that's we parked a jet in like Vegas, work Seattle back to Vegas out all night.
	Portland back to Vegas out all night.
	LA back to Vegas out all night.
	San Diego back to Vegas all night.
	It's called the Great American Bachelor Tour.
	Albuquerque back to Vegas, right?
	Vegas.
	Vegas back to Vegas.
	And then Frisco and LA.
	And then we hit Kansas City on the way home.
	Man, I mean, I was running on weeder products.
	You know, a lot of guys were bloating up, which is not uncommon.
	Doing coke?
	Yeah, the only reason I didn't, my dad was a doctor, and he just said from day one, man, he said, You're going to, I can see this happening in your business.
	I don't know anything about it, but you know, it happens not just to you guys, but because of the wear and tear and the travel, it's almost a necessity.
	Yeah.
	But I avoided that.
	But, man, I'll tell you, I've had 17 nervous breakdowns.
	No shit.
	I was just so exhausted.
	And one night I wrestled for an hour in Orlando or in the old Eddie Graham Sports Arena, which is a tin building, 104 degrees, and I wrestled butchery.
	And my heart was racing like hell.
	So I called my dad on a payphone.
	And he was in Minneapolis.
	I said, dad, my heart's racing.
	He said, what was the last time you went to bed?
	And I said, I don't know.
	I thought to myself, I didn't want to answer.
	I said, well, I went to bed last night at what time?
	He said, I never went to bed, right?
	And then so I had to go to Tokyo the next day.
	And I got in a plane going, God, I can't do this.
	So I drank all the way to Narita.
	Drank 14 hours.
	I maybe slept two hours, but I woke up, kept drinking, right?
	This isn't like 83 or 84. Land in Narita.
	Back then we had the paper ticket.
	And I said, I just can't do this.
	And I could hear Baba's wife, Flair Son, you know what, that how he, you know, that.
	I walked over to the guy.
	I said, when's the next flight back in the United States?
	Guy went, I need to get to Charlotte.
	He said, oh, we got one for Seattle leaving in 20 minutes.
	I said, and back then they didn't have that deal by the bags.
	Took the paper ticket, was back.
	I flew from Nerita to Seattle, Seattle to Chicago, Chicago to Charlotte.
	And to make a long story short, I sat down next to this guy.
	I sat down where?
	Sat down next to this guy on the plane going back to Nerita to Seattle.
	And I go, do you mind if I talk to you?
	He said, no, why?
	I said, I'm having a nervous breakdown.
	I need someone to talk to him.
	And he said, really?
	I said, yep, I'm having a nervous breakdown.
	And so I talked all the way to Seattle, drank all the way to Seattle.
	And then I slept to Chicago.
	And I walked or got in a plane.
	I landed in Charlotte.
	And the promoter was there, Jimmy Crockett.
	He said, you got to go back.
	You're advertised.
	We got back on the plane, never even left the airport.
	Went all the way back to Tokyo.
	Oh, my God.
	Drinking again.
	I mean, I was having a full-fledged nervous breakdown.
	And got there and went to the arena, wrestled an hour, and I broke the sweat, and I just started over again.
	But the guy from Seattle, we changed addresses, right?
	He sent me a Christmas card for 10 years.
	He said, I didn't know how famous you were.
	Really enjoyed talking to you, man.
	You're an interesting guy.
	Isn't that crazy?
	I didn't know how famous you were when I met you.
	Really enjoyed talking.
	I hope you're feeling better.
	Dude, that's a full-fledged breakdown, man.
	God, what did it feel like when you're having a nervous breakdown?
	Like, what do you kind of go through?
	I had one a few years ago.
	You just, you lose control.
	I mean, you just, like, you're looking for someone to talk to.
	It's strange.
	It's hard to walk up to someone and say, hey, I think I'm having a nervous breakdown.
	Most people want to run away and go forget.
	Call the cops.
	He's a wacko.
	Yeah, call a cop.
	I waited until the plane took off before it said it to him.
	I don't want him to call them 911.
	You're like, hey, remind me when we take off.
	I got something to tell you.
	And nowadays, you can imagine walking up to a plane and will you talk to me?
	I don't know how to break down the whole game.
	We'll take you.
	They'll call you racist and don't land the plane, please.
	They put you in the suit and take you off the plane.
	Oh, I've had about five of them.
	No kidding.
	Yeah, it's heavy, huh?
	You know what goraphobia is?
	Where you have to be close to something?
	Oh, yeah, yeah.
	No drop-off?
	Goraphobia.
	Yeah, you can't be alone.
	You can't walk outside of your house.
	Oh, you had that, you think?
	I know I had it.
	Wow.
	Yeah, I had it for about six months.
	I couldn't get myself to leave and drive to the airport.
	I mean, it's horrible.
	What do you think brought it on?
	And when you feel back in it, like what it- Do you think you felt bad about anything?
	Or do you think you just, it was just so much drinking and partying?
	No, just so much drinking and partying.
	I didn't sleep.
	And the one thing I did do, which is kind of legendary in our business, is regardless of what I did to myself, I worked out every day.
	And sometimes I just pushed myself too hard.
	And that would cause that.
	And then, you know, having different promoters try to, you know, like when I cut my hair, I really lost my mind when I cut my hair.
	Do you ever heard Spartacus put an earring on?
	I'm Ric Flair, motherfucker.
	You know, there's something, you know.
	When I cut my hair and I walked through the Charlotte Airport, nobody knew who I was.
	I wanted to absolutely walk in the bathroom and kill myself.
	Hey, you normally walk down there.
	Hey, Rick, combing my hair and all that.
	Now I got the surfer Joe Herrcut.
	Give me a break.
	You know, I mean, Native Americans, it was a big thing to them to have their hair.
	They took each other's hair.
	If they captured one another, they would scalp one another.
	I started a trend with it.
	Yeah.
	And then they have some promoter.
	I mean, I still can't believe I gave in to them.
	Yeah.
	Man, it's funny because I've cut my hair before and it fucking hurt me.
	Oh, I can remember the girl's name, Mary Riley.
	She's, are you sure you want to do this?
	I said, no, I don't want to do it, but I almost have to to keep my job.
	But man, I was in shock.
	That alone was a nervous breakdown.
	How hard was it to be like I could imagine, like, I don't have any children yet.
	I would like to have some one day, you know?
	That's the greatest reward in the world.
	Was it really?
	The greatest reward in the world, yes.
	Were you surprised that it was so rewarding?
	Did you think, did you...
	Yeah.
	My younger ones had more time to spend with.
	But my younger ones, they lived in Minneapolis, number one.
	And the NWA did not, was not, I was AWA.
	So the NWA didn't even go to Minneapolis.
	So I only got to see them during the summer.
	And when they came for the summer, I'm traveling.
	Right.
	So I just had them travel with me.
	Was some of that fun sometimes?
	Yeah, when we came to Florida for a week, yeah.
	Or we went to Portland for a week or went to Dallas for a week, you know, but it's a lot to do here with the kids.
	You know, Bush Gardens.
	Yeah, Bush Gardens.
	I've been to Disney World and Universal at least 50 times each one.
	Yeah.
	With both four sets of kids, with the four kids.
	Is it hard, like, because you're a hero to so, like, you're an icon to people.
	You're a hero.
	You're this, you know, this thing that's larger than life, especially in the time when you were like, when you were wrestling in your prime, and that was just a prime for like, if somebody was a star then, there was no way to, the only, they were, if television and their job labeled them a star, they were a star.
	There was no, and there were, there weren't that many stars, right?
	There were some, but there weren't a ton.
	Yeah.
	But was it, like, I wonder if, if it would be hard as a child, right?
	If I'm looking at my father, if I would always feel like, man, how do I love my dad as much as these other people love him?
	Does that make any sense?
	Yeah.
	Yeah, I think my older kids actually, because they didn't understand what I was doing, I think they were very resentful for a while.
	But, you know, it just, where is he?
	You know, and that's all they want.
	All they want is your time, and that time is what you don't have.
	Yeah.
	In my line of work, because we travel.
	I mean, even the kids today are still traveling four days a week.
	Oh, what's fascinating, a lot of people don't know about wrestlers is that all the times they aren't on television, they're still wrestling different fights.
	They're still wrestling different matches.
	They're leaving for a two-week tour of England and Italy.
	Yeah.
	Leaving, when, next week.
	Yeah, I just wonder if that built up like what it would be like to and you didn't have a choice, so you couldn't wrestle less, really, right?
	No, are you kidding?
	I had a chance to make a movie with Orion Pictures.
	They wanted me to do a James Bond thing.
	I think what I hear was like its best.
	The guy was a big fan of mine.
	He came to the forum.
	We're wrestling out there.
	And they offered me 250 grand.
	Wow.
	And I went back and Crockett said, yeah, you have to drop the world championship and go for six months, but I don't know where you'll be when you get back.
	And I couldn't, it had me buffaloed.
	I should have gone and made the movie.
	You think?
	Come back and I would have got right back.
	Sure, I would have given you.
	But you don't, you know, you don't know.
	And I think life forces you to make decisions based on what you know, not what you think you can be this.
	You know what I mean?
	A lot of guys tried forever to make it in Hollywood, and three have made it.
	Batista made it.
	John made it.
	And of course, Dwayne.
	But I can tell you, Roddy Piper spent his whole life, but outside of that, they live, they were just B movies.
	Yeah.
	He never got that crack.
	And it's not because he didn't have the talent.
	He just, it's bad for it political too.
	It's so political.
	Yeah.
	And now it's a lot of people's, you know, there's also even nepotism in that business.
	There's nepotism in you guys's business kind of, isn't there?
	Or like, I guess there's a tradition of name in you guys's business.
	You know, because you have like Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes.
	You had the Von Ericks.
	You had there's a lot of people whose children were also the flares.
	The flares, yeah.
	Your daughter is a wrestler.
	Both your sons wrestled.
	Huh?
	Well, your youngest son wrestled.
	Your oldest son didn't wrestle.
	My oldest son did wrestle, but he gave up on it.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	My youngest son's one that passed away.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, he would have been great.
	Yeah, but my daughter, I have no problem in saying this, is the best wrestler, period, female or male in the business today.
	Yeah.
	She's badass.
	Yeah.
	Was there ever a thought, did you guys ever get pitched to do a match against each other?
	No, no, no.
	What was it like when they had the ladies of wrestling back then?
	Because remember that?
	Horrible.
	They put those dames in there sometimes, you know?
	And everybody looked like they were like angry jazzer sizers.
	Yeah, yeah.
	No, that didn't float.
	It was a nice theory and concept.
	Did y'all have to travel with those ladies?
	No, no.
	You never saw them?
	I saw lady wrestlers in the old days, but it's a totally different thing.
	And they were as badly managed and mistreated as the Midges were.
	I mean, the Midges got paid nothing.
	Really?
	It was terrible.
	Yeah.
	That's why anything I could do to help them transportation-wise and that, or buy them drinks and food or that.
	Or get him late, get him a little.
	Yeah, yeah.
	That front wing.
	Give me leg, give me leg, give me leg.
	You don't need your boy, you don't need your boy.
	Give me leg, give me leg, give me leg.
	Shut up, Lang.
	And would he wear a cowboy hat?
	Yeah.
	Oh, yeah.
	Google him.
	I got to pull up Cowboy Lang.
	Cowboy Lang.
	He's famous.
	And was he the tallest?
	I think he's really 4'10, right?
	Ooh.
	That's tall enough to fuck, huh?
	There he's right there.
	Ooh.
	Gee, would you like him?
	Look at Cowboy Lang.
	Yeah, G's a little pretty small.
	Dang.
	He got nice hair on him, huh?
	Yeah.
	The Cowboy Hollywood, 4'10, 4'11?
	4-4- Yeah.
	Oh, if you show up to fuck at 4-foot, you gotta really mean it.
	Especially with a 5-foot-9 chick.
	Oh, wow.
	How do you even...
	I mean, I don't even...
	It's like scaling a mountain.
	I would have watched that match, dude.
	Or at least like hanging up your, putting the star on the Christmas tree, huh?
	I have a friend that was with a one-legged mission.
	And the boy and I have one day.
	I said, how was that?
	It was brutal.
	Yeah, they didn't have to.
	I'm not mentioning any names.
	We had a little person in our town, and people would always try and get him to tell them, like, people always thought he knew secrets and magic and shit.
	People would always like, do some fucking magic and say shit like that.
	Tell me about this.
	Say you're on a plane, right?
	The plane's full of cocaine, right?
	It's going down.
	You don't do cocaine, but there's one and it's all wrestlers.
	Who's the guy that's got to get in there and fucking the only way to save the plane is somebody's got to do all the cocaine.
	Who's the guy that could really fucking party?
	I used to do a lot of cocaine.
	Oh, I used to call him John Wesley Harden, you know, who John Wesley Harden is, supposedly the fastest gunslinger of all time.
	I've never seen anybody in my life, and this is a compliment to him as a person and a man.
	I've never seen anybody that could run.
	And I'll take Keith Richards all day long, could run with Roddy Piper.
	Wow.
	The hot rod brother.
	He used to wear that shirt that said he had the best shirt of all time.
	How much rod can you take?
	I said, that's my gimmick.
	I want that damn shirt, hot rod.
	How much rod can you take?
	God, boy, I would want that.
	Yeah, I'd love, dude.
	My God.
	I would love.
	I mean, I would turn an eight ball into a two ball in four minutes.
	You have no idea.
	Really?
	You can do it, huh?
	The hot rod.
	I wrote it in my book.
	He said, I said, can I, I told the story I was in the Dominican Republic wrestling Jack Finetto.
	We had a riot after the matches.
	Oh, yeah, Jack Fineto, because over there, the wrestling, listen, I'm the first white guy to go to the islands, man.
	It was rough.
	No shit.
	What didn't they like?
	Well, we did a finish where he had a sleeper.
	I was just finished all the riot.
	It's a little guy, right?
	And the referee went one, dropped my arm, right, two, right?
	And the bell rang, right?
	And they thought that he won.
	And the guy went to hand the belt to me.
	I'm laying there like, you know, bloody and all that.
	And they thought, what the fuck?
	And they hit the ring.
	Fought ourselves all the way back.
	Got back there.
	They took me in the office.
	They gave me five grand and gave Roddy Piper a spatoon full of cocaine and took us over to a whorehouse and dropped us off.
	And dropped you off.
	Roddy looked like Chevy Chase in Trading Places and a line around his mouth.
	Remember that Trading Places, that movie with Chevy Chase?
	I like it.
	Scarface got nothing on my rod.
	Wow, man.
	He ended up doing stand-up comedy at the end of his career.
	Yeah.
	Listen, the most entertaining guy.
	To me, he's funnier than I used when I inducted him to Hall of Fame.
	I said, who's the guy that was married to Jenny McCarthy for a while?
	Oh, Jim Carrey?
	Yeah, Jim Carrey.
	He's funnier than Jim Carrey.
	Wow.
	He is incredibly funny.
	Witty.
	What was a gimmick?
	A lot of gimmicks, you know, I mean, one thing about wrestling is staying creative, staying unique, especially like as the wrestlers themselves, but also as the producers, the people putting it on.
	What was some gimmicks or a gimmick that fucking flopped?
	And you were like, this is fucking unreal.
	Oh, God.
	Too many.
	Too many.
	Too numerous.
	Too many to pick on just one.
	Yeah.
	Here's the deal.
	They probably have 100 kids.
	I'm not accurate on this count, but between 80 and 100 kids in Orlando right now at NXT, right?
	If I'm looking at what I've seen in the last 10 years, which my daughter's involved in that equation, in the last 10 years, my daughter, Sasha, Bailey, Becky, Roman, Seth, Dean, they're all main inventors and still are.
	That's hard.
	And once you get on top, it's harder to stay on top.
	You don't realize Miz has been around.
	Miz has been there 20 years.
	Believe it or not, Randy Orton's been there 22 years.
	He's just 40 years old.
	Wow.
	You know what I mean?
	And Randy's still on top.
	Randy started on top, ended on top.
	Cena had 20 years on top.
	It's hard.
	It's impossible.
	But the percentage of people that come out of there, I would say is 1%.
	It's that hard.
	I went to a big recruiting thing this summer in LA at WrestleMania, and they had 100 kids, I think, and 10. They took 10. And they recruited legit college athletes from all over the country to attend, flew them in, put them through the drills, you know, physical drills.
	Not the kind of like we used to, but still, just see what they're made of.
	But most Division I athletes have got the fortitude in that.
	And out of that 10, one might make it.
	It's that hard.
	It's that hard.
	Was there as many people trying when you were coming up?
	No, it was what the young, they did everything in the world to keep young guys away from it.
	Wow.
	So why was that?
	Because they didn't want the competition.
	So who?
	The best example of all time, Ricky Steamboat is not only a great wrestler, great person, but when Steamboat came to Charlotte, they hated him.
	Handsome, young, great body, because that was back then the bodies were just starting to become a big part of the business, especially in Vince's business.
	And everybody wasn't lifting weights, and nobody was as handsome.
	He was more about personalities in a way.
	Yeah, I had to really fight for him to get him, to even get him going because they said, oh, he'll never make it.
	Well, look how big he got.
	So, yes, I guess it was.
	And he's a real nice kid, too, which is not the kind of guy that's going to be a prick, you know?
	Right.
	It's easy to be a prick and then say, that's your way out.
	You know what I mean?
	Fuck, I don't want to do this.
	I didn't want to do this anyway.
	Fuck you guys.
	I can name 100 guys like that.
	Yeah.
	I didn't want to do this anyway.
	Or you held me back.
	That's the greatest line.
	How do you hold someone back?
	If you're not the promoter, how do you hold someone back?
	Yeah.
	You call the promoter and say this guy's an asshole.
	Well, a good promoter is going to go, fuck you, if a guy's got talent.
	If he can draw money.
	Well, look at Vince.
	Look at all the shit with bitch off.
	He still found a way to use them.
	Right.
	Right?
	And it worked.
	But how do you leave the company?
	In a garbage truck.
	He always gets it there.
	Put him in a garbage truck and drove off.
	His last day at the company.
	Really?
	Yeah.
	Wow.
	Yeah, but he utilizes it to make money.
	Yeah.
	Vince can forgive anything if there's a dollar attached to it.
	He's a businessman.
	Businessman.
	Yeah, business first.
	Wow.
	Hey, hey, tomorrow, you're going to be with Hulk, right?
	So ask Hulk.
	So Bischoff, Hulk, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall would go out on TV.
	And this is Hulk.
	And I used to think to myself, boy, you know, Hulk knows this.
	I used to go, man, this just ain't cool.
	Bischoff got so mad at me because I wouldn't do it.
	And they'd be on TV and they'd say, we're going to close you down, Vince.
	We're sitting here, Tanya.
	Because they beat him for 83 weeks.
	Right.
	Oh, beat him in the ratings?
	Yeah, for 83 weeks.
	Right.
	And then along came Stone Cold Steve Austin.
	And then one day he went like this to Vince.
	And guess what?
	83 weeks are over.
	Wow.
	And within two years, the company was bankrupted.
	Yeah.
	But he's forgiven Hulk.
	And he forgave Kevin and Scott Hall.
	Big Mann did?
	Sure.
	Yeah.
	You brought them all back.
	Yeah.
	And used all that to make money.
	Yeah.
	I mean, Hulk Hogan, to me, Hulk Hogan is the biggest star.
	He and Austin are the two biggest stars in the history of the business.
	I'll tell you a great story.
	I'm the NWA world champion.
	I'm traveling around the world doing everything.
	Hulk is in WWF, right?
	I go home to Minneapolis.
	My dad goes, how's it going right now?
	How's everything going?
	I said, it's good.
	He said, all my friends all Hulk Hogan, they don't know who you are.
	Dada, I'm the fucking world champion.
	Of what?
	Of what?
	Hate you, fucking Hogan.
	I'll say this.
	Your championship belt, I don't know if we win it.
	Tell Hogan.
	Tell Hogan.
	I'm going to tell the story about the Hooter girls in Jacksonville when I hid my watch and I couldn't find it.
	Want to hid your watch?
	No, I hit it.
	Oh, you did?
	Because I've had four stolen.
	It's funny how girls will wake up in the middle of the night and just walk off my Rolex.
	It's time to go.
	Wore my main coat.
	Some chick told me she was a professor at Northwestern University.
	I took her back to the hotel in Chicago.
	And my friend came in at four o'clock in the morning, and she was going around a revolving door with my Rolex on.
	I wore my main coat.
	My friend grabbed her and said, I don't think so.
	He walks into my room, kicks me into his bed.
	He said, did the chick was stealed your shit?
	I thought she was a t-shirt in a Northwestern.
	I guess not.
	They've all got a story.
	I woke up with two in Baltimore.
	And I looked for all my shit.
	I'm two girls married, right?
	So I go to the call like I said, okay, motherfuckers, where's my shit?
	What are you talking about?
	You threw your whorls in a bowl of spaghetti and told us you had 11 of them.
	I said, we're going to throw them along.
	We don't do that.
	I'm frequently interrupting naked.
	Round two, get the fuck out of here.
	Do you think people dreaded seeing, were you always like too much of a party for the scene?
	No, no.
	People loved me.
	People loved me.
	I could find something to do in Love, Texas on a Sunday night, brother.
	That's a lot.
	That's hard to do.
	Somewhere there's a victim.
	I just need to start the conversation.
	And what was the alcohol on Sunday?
	does.
	Who else could drink like that, Wicky?
	Who could really.
	Oh, God, name it.
	That's endless.
	AA, Mike Hagstrand, Piper.
	Drinky guys.
	There's a lot of guys could really drink.
	Yeah.
	Did you ever try to stop drinking?
	Well, I guess after your serv, after your, after that.
	Well, I didn't drink for a year.
	You didn't drink for a year.
	And at one time I was taking steroids, then I took an overdose of one, and my heart went like this.
	And the guy said, you've been drinking too much.
	He thought I had cardiomyopathy.
	So I did old duels for a year.
	It wasn't hard for me to quit drinking.
	It was hard.
	They put me in rehab.
	I had no problem quit drinking.
	How long were you in rehab for?
	35 days.
	And where'd you go to?
	Place here in Tampa.
	Oh, that's nice.
	Yeah, Florida has fuller.
	Every other building in Florida is a rehab.
	Oh, yeah, this was a dumpflow.
	It was an older.
	What do you mean?
	Like a drink.
	No, a days in.
	No, not a day's in, but La Quinta.
	Oh, yeah.
	Old LaQuinta over here on Fowler, right?
	Yeah.
	So my roommate, my roommate's a doctor from Fort Lauderdale that's there for digesting crystal meth anally.
	That's one roommate.
	Now, what's that got to do with me drinking?
	The other one, the other guy, is a 23-year-old that was taking 40 milligrams of valium at 23. You don't think he was vibrating?
	The other guy, I'm trying to think.
	The other guy, I don't know what the hell he did, but I mean, it was so far-fetched.
	And here's the deal: I get there, I go through all the physical and all that, get all the shit done right.
	The doctor jacks me out.
	I wake up in the morning, and when I was a kid, I used to smoke, so I just loaded up with cigarettes, dip.
	I've always dipped my whole life.
	I've quit twice.
	I don't dip anymore, but I. You will again, though?
	Yeah, I might.
	But it's just nasty.
	It's dipping.
	Oh, yeah, I don't like it, but you'll do it.
	Yeah.
	But I look across the courtyard.
	I'm smoking Marble, right?
	And I'm drinking a cup of coffee.
	And I said to the guy, my roommate, I can't remember his name.
	I said, isn't that the guy?
	That guy looks just like a doctor.
	He said, it is a doctor.
	I said, what's he doing here?
	He said, been a patient here for five years.
	I said, the doctor is taking care of us and the fucking patient?
	What?
	I couldn't believe it.
	So I walked up to the counselor.
	I told him, is that fucking guy, does he have a license?
	No, they pulled it.
	Well, how is he practicing medicine?
	It is a nut house.
	I was in the fucking nuthouse.
	I mean, I cried.
	I went, this is a nut house.
	I'm full of nuts.
	When the doctor's taking care of you, give me a shot, prescribing medication.
	And he's there for, he's a five-year vet.
	And he's a patient.
	And he's a patient.
	And he's taking care of me.
	Oh, my God.
	Who wrote that script?
	I don't know.
	That's what I said to him.
	Holy shit.
	Wow.
	Oh, my God.
	Damn, Rick.
	You're not allowed to talk to the girls, Rick.
	Okay.
	They want you to take this test again.
	What does this look like?
	A bear or a skunk or an owl?
	It looks like you dumb fuck.
	Why are you asking me the same question?
	I've been looking at this box for three days, three weeks, and I'm not going to change.
	I don't know what it looks like.
	What does it look like to you?
	And why are you in here?
	You're fucking in here, too.
	Yeah, you think I'm lying?
	Oh, shit.
	And did y'all do any athletics in there?
	Did y'all do like volleyball?
	Fuck you.
	One guy told me I missed the morning walk, and we went to the big meeting.
	I threatened to kill him.
	I said, next time you stooge on me, you motherfucker, I'll find you before we get here.
	Because the way of the thing, anybody want to talk?
	Oh, the circle before you go to bed.
	God, circle jerk.
	God, man.
	No, no shit.
	It was brutal.
	So you never.
	I got that coin.
	I said, we're so proud to give you the coin.
	I walked across the street, walked into a bar, put on the counter, and said, you can have this to confront it.
	Say Rick Flair was here and give me six Miller Lights and two Jack and Coke and two Kettle One and Cranberry and Lime.
	I drank them all right there.
	Then I had a little pick me up and take me over to the beach.
	Oh, you got to go for a swim after that.
	Jesus, I wasn't kidding.
	Was there ever any like wild?
	You're not supposed to drink.
	Okay.
	Oh, wow.
	They faked me out with that for a while.
	The company will never have your back break if you don't go back to Rhea.
	You said you'd go back.
	I'm not going back.
	Well, the company never uses you again.
	I'll say, okay, fine.
	Two weeks later, will you come up with the TV?
	Yeah, of course.
	I thought I wasn't allowed to come anymore.
	You are.
	Do you think there was anything, was there a point where you really damaged your ability to go back, do you think?
	That you damaged it, not that they chose it?
	No, with them.
	No, I always got along with them.
	Yeah.
	No, that's one of the reasons I'm successful.
	I've always said yes.
	It's a difference between me and Hulk.
	And he'll tell you.
	I said yes.
	Hulk said no.
	Yeah.
	Because I wanted to get along.
	I didn't give a fuck.
	If they gave me something to do, I just made it better.
	I'll do it.
	Whatever.
	They put me in the nut house, act like I'm a nut.
	Okay.
	I am a nut.
	Did alcohol, your son had addiction issues.
	I'm in recovery, right?
	So I've had addiction issues over the years.
	It's in my family.
	Yeah, but heroin's sad.
	It's not an addiction.
	It's a disease.
	Yeah.
	It's unbelievable.
	I've never, I was in such denial.
	Unbelievable.
	And as a parent, is it hard to notice when that's going on?
	Because I've never been a parent.
	Like, is it hard to notice?
	Well, I think I noticed a little bit in high school with the weed net.
	But here's the thing.
	He was on life support four times.
	Okay, just prior to dying.
	And one time, one time, when he came off the ventilator, his left leg was like gone.
	I mean, we had to send him to Sierra Tucson.
	And from there he went to Colorado to climb to this facility that exercised to get his leg back and all that.
	Oh, his legs shut down.
	That's like Eddie Money.
	Not shut down totally, but he was humping.
	Yeah, Eddie Money used to huff so much gas that his legs shut down.
	Yeah.
	Well, then the next time, the worst was his oxygen level went down to 42 for 24 hours.
	That's supposed to be in 95 plus 97, actually, 98. That thing I'm going to put on your finger, right?
	The doctor calls me in and says, if he wakes up, he's going to be brain dead.
	So I was just, I'm preparing you.
	I swear to God, because I'm sitting here in front of you.
	He woke up.
	The whole family was there.
	We thought he was, you know, we all came.
	Everybody came from around the country.
	It's a good, because we thought he was going to die right there.
	He woke up.
	He was completely fucking normal.
	Wow.
	Nothing wrong.
	Did it shock you guys?
	The doctor looked at me.
	It shocked him.
	He sat down.
	He said, I've never seen it like this in my life.
	I'm happy for you, and I'm sorry that I gave you that diagnosis.
	No, I'm glad you did.
	Because then we went and sat down and figured out how to attack it again.
	Well, this is after the leg thing.
	Man, he was a fighter, huh?
	Yeah.
	But I mean, to this day, when you go to the doctor, if you're oxygen at 42, you're not supposed to be functioning.
	Yeah, you can't even whistle, dude.
	Yeah.
	And he woke up.
	He was completely fine.
	He's a tough kid, huh?
	And I went, my God, this has got to be, you know, like.
	This will be the wake-up call.
	Yeah.
	And so I took him to Tokyo.
	And I got in a plane to go back.
	I looked at him and I said, let me tell you, they put Paul McCartney in jail here for smoking a joint.
	They will bury you because it's very strict in Tokyo.
	They don't fuck around like they do here with drugs.
	You're in drugs in Tokyo or Singapore or something like that.
	You're in a world of shit.
	Man, he came back home to go to WrestleMania to see his daughter, see my daughter, and let him out of my sight.
	Went to buy tennis shoes.
	Came back, went through Del Frisco's to watch NCAA.
	He wasn't drinking or anything.
	Bottle of pills fell out of his pocket.
	So Wendy picks up the pills, took it away.
	Didn't even tell him I had it, right?
	So he wants to go back to the hotel.
	Go ahead.
	So Wendy went with him.
	So Wendy calls me and says, can I knock on Reed's door to get like aspirin or not Tylenol or something like that, right?
	She had a headache.
	And he didn't answer the door.
	So I went right back, right?
	This is like all in 45-minute time, right?
	Right.
	Yeah, you're at Del Frisco's.
	You hear that?
	You head back.
	I opened the door.
	He's like this.
	Just sit in a chair?
	No, sit on the floor.
	Okay.
	So I didn't see any needles.
	So I thought, oh, God, he just, I've seen him like this a thousand times.
	So I said, do I call the police?
	The same thing, at the same thing.
	I said, no, I'll just, I'm going to put him in bed.
	Because we were so lucky he didn't make a news because the cops kept it loaded on a DL for me.
	They put him in rooms under a different name.
	Right, they were helping.
	They were understanding.
	Yes, great guys.
	They pulled him out of his car one time and called me.
	I mean, so I had a really great rapport with them.
	So I just said, I'll let him.
	I said, but this time I said, I'm going to let them bottom out.
	I mean, they keep that word bottom out, you know.
	Yeah.
	I just couldn't imagine him dying in an alley somewhere because I let him bottom out.
	I mean, how would I ever get over that?
	It's really hard.
	So I wake up in the morning, go have coffee with my oldest daughter, come back, and I just said, fuck, I'm so fucking mad at him right now.
	I opened the fucking door just to check on him, which I just, I even walked out halfway.
	I said, shit, I'm just going to check on him.
	I can't just leave him.
	Walked in.
	He was purple.
	Call the cops.
	Same two.
	Same crew.
	Same exact people.
	Same paramedics.
	Boom.
	And the guy said, Rick, he was going to say the same thing.
	He said, stand outside.
	He came out in three minutes and said he didn't make it.
	I said, what?
	He said he didn't make it.
	It's time, Rick.
	Man.
	I've told this story 100 times, but I got guaranteed.
	It still kills me.
	I started drinking from 10 in the morning until I got there at 9.30.
	Got into the bartenders.
	Well, they were setting up 9.30 in the morning till 2 a.m.
	for five fucking years.
	i just couldn't believe it say if you don't go drink right then what why do you think you had to go like Only way to get away from calling it.
	I didn't take drugs.
	How do you get away from the feeling that you're responsible for not calling?
	I should have called.
	It's hard.
	I'm sure it's really hard to be the parent of someone that has an addiction.
	What did you learn about addiction, like watching your son?
	Like, was it anything that you were able to learn about watching it from, you know?
	Yeah, don't be in denial.
	I'm worse than Fritz Von Array.
	Fritz was in denial of the boys.
	He would not believe that they were getting high, that they were screwed up all the time.
	He was in denial.
	Oh, it's just you guys are just imagining it.
	Carried through the discus 210 feet at Houston.
	I mean, you know, that big, deep voice.
	Yeah.
	The boys are fine.
	They're just growing up and having a little fun, smoking a little weed.
	I'm more than that.
	Do you think addiction just runs in y'all's family?
	Well, I don't know.
	Your other children, do they suffer from it?
	No.
	No.
	I don't know how he got it.
	I mean, it's heartbreaking to witness.
	I've lost a lot of friends from addiction, and it is heartbreaking to watch, you know?
	So I can only imagine what it's like.
	What was your son like?
	Like, what kind of guy was he?
	The greatest kid in the world.
	Fun, handsome.
	I mean, I don't talk about my own son, but he was a lady killer man.
	He lived with me for a while after I got divorced the last time.
	And he would call me and say, Dad, will you do me a favor?
	And I said, what's that?
	Will you talk to this girl's friend while I'm God?
	Will you run a wingman for me?
	Yeah.
	He used to bring somebody that can get her out.
	I'll watch TV, but get the friend out of here.
	I can't even have a conversation with her.
	Jesus Christ.
	Did you have to really talk to some children?
	I'll tell you something.
	If you can find humor in this, as I'm standing up there, let's say there were 1,500 people at the funeral, maybe 2,000.
	A huge church in Charlotte, whatever held.
	And there were 20 girls in the first two rows I didn't know.
	Wow.
	Man.
	I would take him down to South Carolina to Columbia to go to the Game Cog game.
	I said, well, I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock.
	He'd come home with a different girl drive home the next day, every day.
	Like father, like son.
	He was the masterman.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	And he is.
	Do you think he felt like it was tough to live?
	I mean, I just wonder what it's like if your dad is so such a, you know, has had such a unique life, you know?
	Do you, I wonder if you feel competitive?
	Do you feel, or it's just life?
	That's just life.
	I say it's just life because the other kids aren't affected like that at all.
	Yeah.
	Ashley's, Ashley, Ashley, I can imagine maybe once in her life smoked a cigarette when she was 10 years old or twice.
	I mean, nothing.
	Nothing.
	And she's around it a lot.
	I mean, it's not as prevalent as it was, which is a big difference.
	Thank God.
	What drugs aren't as prevalent now?
	No, they're as prevalent, but not where the guys can just grab.
	I mean, they're more aware.
	Yeah.
	For some reason, thank God.
	Everybody's aware of the fact that the shit is dangerous.
	Yes.
	And we didn't have time to think about back then.
	Yeah.
	The guys in, if it made you look bigger, if it kept you up longer, but at least they have three days off.
	We didn't have days off.
	Ask Hulk.
	Hulk was on.
	It wasn't just me.
	Hulk was out 72 days at a time.
	Wow.
	It's a long time to be away from home.
	Oh, I can't imagine.
	You come home, people look different.
	And the worst thing that ever happened was invented cell phones so your goddamn wife would call you.
	Jesus.
	What's that?
	That song, Kid Rock, and Cheryl Crow sing.
	Living a life and a slow hell.
	Different girl every night at the hotel.
	Yeah.
	Woohoo.
	Here's the call to front desk and say, if anybody calls me, I ain't here.
	Hey, my friend.
	I am an alien.
	My friend Larry Rebecca.
	Tony Ellis.
	There's a comedian named Larry Reeb.
	He used to have this joke.
	One of my favorite jokes, he said, my wife said, never answer the phone during sex.
	I said, what if it's you calling?
	I always love that, my man.
	Did any just strange women ever show back up at your house?
	Oh, that had to freaking be scary.
	Are you kidding me?
	You drove up the driveway.
	I have no idea who you are.
	What do you mean you promised me last night?
	I didn't promise you shit.
	Now my kids and the woman, my wife's in the front yard.
	Never admit you're wrong.
	What happened?
	Nothing.
	I found black hair on the carpet in here.
	I said, what are you talking about?
	I'm telling you, I'd have a dog over here.
	This is human hair.
	Who'd you have here?
	Who'd you have here?
	Nobody.
	Somebody had a dog with 11-inch hair over here?
	You're like, I think it was a long-haired chow.
	What are we going to do, you know?
	Oh, man.
	Anyway, I'll have you.
	I'll call them, please.
	You told me you loved me.
	What are you talking about?
	I didn't know your name.
	You lied.
	Maybe I did.
	What?
	What about the product, man?
	So this is new.
	Ric Flair.
	I like it, man.
	It makes me feel good.
	It does.
	Have you drank enough to get?
	Oh, you did?
	I'm almost done.
	Are you alert?
	Oh, fucking alert, bro.
	I can leave another can for on, too.
	Dude, I'll have another can, dude.
	Hell yeah.
	It almost makes me feel erect a little.
	Wow.
	What's the toughest thing about getting older, Rick?
	About getting older?
	Yeah.
	What's been like one thing that surprised you that you didn't think would be that certain way or something that's been kind of interesting?
	You know, it's interesting for me.
	My dad was 70 when I was born.
	So it's all like, even just getting to sit around a man who's 70 or right and be in the present.
	It's just, you know, it's almost like, I don't know, it's just interesting for me.
	You know, I've never got to spend a bunch of time talking with my dad and stuff.
	So even to be able to have a conversation as an adult with a guy in his 70s kind of like resonates with me in like a special place, I think.
	Yeah, what's been interesting about just being older?
	Like, what's or what's been surprising about getting older?
	What do you think would not be one way or maybe would be different?
	I don't know.
	I don't think I even ever thought about anything like that until I got sick.
	Then you really appreciate you appreciate when you recover from something like that.
	I mean, the airplane crash was one thing.
	Getting hit with lightning was something else.
	But when you literally are on life support and you almost die, and then you realize that for some reason, you're lucky enough to be, and I truly believe that he makes every decision.
	He's going to give you another shot.
	I spend so much time preoccupied with trying to figure out how not to fuck up.
	Really?
	Yeah, because I love to fuck up.
	Yeah.
	I mean, I love to have fun.
	I don't mean fuck up.
	Right.
	I don't want to hurt anybody.
	Right.
	But how do I have fun and not get in trouble?
	Well, it just is it because social media, you can't do anything.
	Yeah, and I love to go out.
	I never drink at my house.
	There's not a one drop of elk on my house.
	I'm a social drinker.
	That's purely me.
	Yeah.
	So, and I just go out every night.
	You know, people don't understand when you spend 38 years on the road.
	Like Kevin Nash said to me one time, if I don't spend two nights at a hotel every week, I'm lost.
	When I took that year off and Bischoff sued me, and I went home, I hadn't been home.
	I hadn't been home and didn't even know my wife.
	Christ, my mother-in-law lived there now.
	We had two maids.
	I didn't even know it.
	What advanced daytime drinking?
	Three o'clock at the country club.
	Sometimes one.
	Wow.
	What are you doing at the country club?
	I'm not playing cards.
	I'm drinking.
	And I'm talking to the bartender.
	she's nice looking.
	I'm playing poker with my liver.
	That's what I'm playing.
	It's pasta night.
	Send the kids up, dude.
	I remember my dad used to take us to the bar and they'd have like that bowl of fucking peanuts.
	Oh, I know.
	Fucking man, it was so much fun, dude.
	And that's when bars didn't even have TVs in them.
	Remember that?
	That I can't deal with.
	No TV, no bar.
	No me.
	These days, you got to have the TV.
	You want the sports on?
	I love and die for sports.
	But you remember when they didn't have them, don't you?
	Yeah, you want to know something?
	Yeah.
	I never knew.
	This is the guy's on it.
	I'm so embarrassed.
	I didn't know what Prime, Netflix, Hulu, I didn't know what that was until I got sick.
	I didn't know how to Google myself.
	Yeah.
	I didn't know what Google was.
	All I did was drive, travel, wrestle, and have fun.
	I didn't know anything.
	I'm still not computer literate.
	She showed me the other day how to work emojis on my phone.
	Wow.
	And then when I'm laying in the chair, home from the hospital, I didn't, after being in rehab for a month, learn how to walk.
	I didn't know that I had a stoma.
	One day I'm sitting there, I'm home in the house, and the girl comes and said, I'm here to change your bag.
	And I said, my bag?
	Your special estate?
	No, this.
	Oh, that's why, yeah.
	Yeah.
	And I go, and I said, I said, I didn't, I'm in rehab because I couldn't walk or anything.
	Oh.
	And there they're, and I had forgotten.
	I didn't know, I didn't know I had the stoma in rehab.
	The whole time you were in rehab?
	Yeah, I didn't know it for 31 days.
	Then I got home and the woman was there to change it.
	Wow.
	Yeah, that's how that did.
	You were out of it.
	Then you appreciate life.
	Yeah.
	Was it hard to go back to drink?
	Well, then, were you shocked that you just after that 30, after the days in rehab that you went back to drinking?
	Is it scary?
	Like, is it bad for you to drink?
	Did the doctors say don't drink?
	I mean, also, the doctor was in the facility.
	Oh, they said don't drink.
	Of course they did.
	Okay.
	But here's the deal.
	Yeah.
	So being from a medical family, I went, I didn't get one second opinion.
	I got 30. Okay.
	Every time I met a doctor that knew anything about your internal, I'd had prior surgeries in 2015.
	And it's one in one million times that you can nick your intestine and it can burst again.
	And I was in that one million.
	So now when I drink my kidney levels, everything's perfect and my kidney levels are off a little bit, the doctor tells me, drink more water.
	So now I drink, for every drink, I drink a small bottle of water.
	Nice.
	You got a plan now.
	Got a plan.
	What do you think God puts you on earth for?
	Do you think about that sometimes?
	It seems like you do.
	I don't know, but I'm sure trying to mend my ways.
	I'm a wild, I was a wild son of a bitch.
	I still am.
	I'm harmless, but I was a wild son of bitch.
	Harmless, but wild, harmless.
	I've been neutered twice with nurses that did not sign the waiver.
	I wonder how many run around.
	We thought, we thought, we thought.
	What wrestler had that real hammer on him in no homo, but what wrestler really had that freaking wand on him, huh?
	You know, I don't remember.
	Somebody had to have that launcher.
	You've been around some of the biggest men in the world.
	Yeah, I know.
	I'm trying to think.
	I mean, what about haystack, baby?
	Oh, I only knew haystack.
	No, no.
	He might have had that needle on him.
	Yeah, I got the name, but I don't want to put it on the area.
	Yeah, no, no sweat.
	Yeah, yeah.
	I got him.
	No, I don't even have to know.
	He's married with kids.
	No, look, I'm just glad somebody's got a big one.
	I tease his wife all the time.
	Yeah, when you see one of those joust victims like his wife, that's got to be unreal.
	Yeah, but she wouldn't like me making a joke about it.
	No, I don't think, and I don't think we should.
	I'm not trying to get it out of here.
	This will be the front page out of the whole interview.
	Rick Flair says the hammer.
	I remember there's something about you, you know, because most of your life you get to know your own wiener, right?
	And then every now and then, somebody walks across with some real crazy wiener.
	You're like, my God, that guy's fucking running a different ball game.
	He's in a different line of work.
	Different genetics.
	That guy's in a different line of work.
	Boys, any other questions that you had?
	Biz, anything?
	The last match.
	I saw your last match in NASHA.
	Yeah, I dehydrated, man.
	It would have been so good.
	Yeah, were you, what do you mean, you were dehydrated for it?
	No, I was fixated on weighing 218 pounds.
	I was in better shape then than I was in 2008.
	I mean, I was up there where I'm going right now to John Cena's trainer.
	500 free squats.
	Wow.
	Running a mile.
	And I hate running.
	This is two years ago.
	A year ago, July.
	Wow.
	A year ago, July.
	And I mean, I had 10 weeks to get in shape for it, and I was doing everything.
	I mean, and I had a partner, and I drove, I dropped a trunk going right now to Rob John Cena's guy up here at Land of Lakes.
	I mean, but I was fixated on my got down to 218.
	But I'm cosmetic of a nightmare anyway, so I was going to wear a shirt.
	But I woke up in the morning, of course, I was drinking the night before at the Palm with the Hilton in Nashville.
	I love that bar.
	Yeah, it's nice.
	And then we saw Bobby one night.
	Bobby Rock, Kid Rock?
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	And then he came to the match.
	Oh, yeah.
	He walked to my dressing room and he went, I've been entertaining you for a long time.
	I came to watch you entertain me tonight.
	And then we all went to his place afterwards.
	Yeah.
	We had a big night.
	It's fun in there.
	because they got to get a bathroom on each floor, though, man.
	That's a good point, man.
	Jesus Christ.
	Buy a fucking bathroom.
	That five-floor climb downstairs to one stall when they got 2,000 people.
	It's horrifying.
	Oh, God.
	It makes you want to get one of those stoma bathrooms.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Well, no, don't wait for that.
	But anyway, so all I had was two cups of coffee and three eggs.
	I didn't drink any water or anything.
	And I got out there and I felt great and all that.
	And then I realized anxiety.
	And I made a mistake of saying to one of the guys, I don't feel good.
	Because now they think I'm having a heart attack.
	Yeah.
	Or da da da da.
	And I just, I don't feel it.
	I got lightheaded.
	I actually fell asleep on the apron.
	I'm standing, right?
	Really?
	Oh, yeah.
	Yeah.
	And the guy had to go, Rick, Rick.
	And I woke up and I got back in.
	And then I did something else.
	And I'm laying there.
	And at the end, Manny, my son-in-law is going, you have to wake up, sir.
	You have to wake up, sir.
	He was handing me the brass knucks to hit Jarrett with, right?
	So he put the brass snucks on my hand.
	You have to wake up, sir.
	You have to wake up, sir.
	But, you know, I went off the floor.
	I got whacked myself way too early.
	And then because everybody was panicking to end it, right, I had faked like I was having a heart attack.
	I went, ah, just because I want everybody to, I said, slow down, motherfuckers.
	We can do this.
	I mean, I can make it.
	Just listen to me.
	But, you know, what everybody's, first of all, I appreciate they were scared to death.
	I was going to die.
	Okay.
	But I wanted the match to be better because we'd rehearsed it to be a 20-minute, unbelievable.
	They were supposed to suplex me off a top rope and all kinds of shit.
	But anyway, that's what makes me want to do it again because I got in such good shape.
	And it's like, I'm a really goal-oriented.
	Like, now my new goal is like, I'll be 75, right?
	So in February.
	So I want to bench press 225 five times, and I want to do the 500 free squats in 14 minutes again.
	Wow.
	That's a lot.
	Yeah.
	It's very doable, but you have to do it.
	No.
	No.
	That might be one of the best quotes I've ever heard.
	It's very doable, but you have to do it.
	Yeah.
	I used to be able to do when I was best shape in my life.
	I used to take a deck of cards, Joker's being 20, face card.
	Aces?
	Ace, King, Queen, or 10, right?
	So flip the card, right?
	10 crunches, 10 push-ups, 10 free squats.
	Next one, Joker, 20. I could do all that.
	It's 457 of each in 38 minutes a record.
	That's hard.
	Because getting up and down for the free squats and the push-ups, 440, 57 push-ups is fucking hard.
	That's a lot.
	Yeah.
	Jesus, that's a lot.
	Yeah.
	That's okay.
	I couldn't do that for the last match.
	But in my, you know, when you're traveling, these shit towns, right?
	They don't even have a YMCA.
	Oh, yeah.
	Some of these small towns.
	So I just sat in the hotel room and had to figure out a way to kill the day.
	So there's other, you know what I mean?
	Who's somebody you miss wrestling?
	Who do I miss wrestling?
	Yeah.
	The biggest thing I miss about wrestling is a camaraderie.
	God, when you just.
	Who personally, like, is there a person you miss, you were like, man, we really, it was just a real.
	Oh, I miss Aaron the most, probably.
	He just lost a son, too.
	To addiction or no?
	I'm not sure what it was, but he.
	It's a horrible thing.
	Yeah.
	I just had traveled to many wonderful guys.
	I traveled with Sean and Hunter.
	I love hanging out with Undertaker, and I don't get to see him very often.
	Love Steve Austin.
	I hardly get to see Steve.
	Steve just keeps himself basically isolation.
	Yeah, Undertaker came out to a show of mine a week and a half ago, two weeks ago in Austin.
	Oh, yeah.
	It's really nice to meet him and Michelle.
	That's his wife.
	Yeah, beautiful.
	Yeah, she's beautiful.
	They just adopted a beautiful little baby.
	Oh, really?
	Yeah.
	Oh, I didn't know that.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, they're a great couple.
	They were so kind.
	Yeah, he's a great guy.
	That was cool.
	Did you ever get to meet Madonna?
	No, but Dennis Rodman did.
	Dennis is my man.
	Is he?
	How in the hell do you cheat on Madonna for Karma Electra?
	I go, I mean, Dennis, I said, Dennis, Dennis, you realize that I would walk on fire to lay on top of that.
	And you caught her.
	I think Madonna is incredible.
	Oh, yeah.
	When she was younger, what's that song of hers?
	Like a virgin?
	Like a virgin.
	Jesus Christ.
	Dance.
	With your heartbeat.
	I'll tell you this story, Rick.
	So I'm at my grandparents, right, dude?
	And they wouldn't let us watch wrestling or nothing, dude, because they were fucking, you know, they wanted the Lord to find us.
	And so I would go.
	On the Lord's Day.
	That's my mother-in-law would say to my wife, they're drinking again out by the pool.
	And on the Lord's Day, kiss my ass, Marianne.
	The Lord's Day.
	Every day is the Lord's Day, especially freeloader living off me.
	That's the bottom line.
	Freeloader.
	On the Lord's Day.
	Should up, Mama.
	Should up, bill.
	Oh, God.
	That would make a guy drink.
	Oh, yeah, that probably started it.
	Jesus Christ.
	God.
	We had to pack the beer cans up, me and Aaron, right?
	To tell stories, laugh all day long.
	I went across the street.
	I met my grandparents.
	So I'll go across the street.
	There's nothing to do.
	They're in a small town in Illinois, in Wyoming, Illinois.
	So I'll go across the street and there's a park there.
	And some girl, I never known her or anything.
	She had like a transistor radio.
	She plugged it in and tuned it to like a virgin, right?
	And she starts dancing on this picnic table for me.
	And I'd never met her or anything.
	I'm just a cat.
	I'm like probably nine or 10. I walked into the park.
	And I was just wondering what big stars came out to see you.
	I was trying to think of some of the big stars then that were like some of the biggest in the world and who you would have crossed paths with.
	That would have been surprising.
	Not that many.
	I mean, I'll tell you, I adore Chris Everett, right?
	Yeah.
	So I'm flying to Japan and I'm sitting this far from Chris Everett.
	She's wearing a yellow polo shirt, right?
	Gold Rolex.
	This is in the 80s.
	Smoking hot, right?
	God.
	And I mean, and not a word.
	I'm not going to go over and shoot myself and die, right?
	She didn't give you a son.
	Nothing.
	Zero.
	Zero.
	Double O's.
	But I flew back with Yvonne Lindel, and he wouldn't stop talking.
	Oh, God.
	Jesus Christ.
	Yvonne, get a drink.
	Calm down.
	Yes, wrestling's fake.
	Okay.
	Now, motherfucker, can we move forward?
	I live next door to Vincent Man.
	Good for you, buddy.
	Dude, I sat next to Eddie Money one time.
	He told me he used to huff gas, right?
	And so one of his legs shut down and kept working.
	And then he started showing me semi-nude pictures of his newest wife.
	It's pretty cool.
	Yeah.
	I can't get my wife to do any of that.
	Yeah.
	Well.
	No, she is like, uh-uh.
	You got to respect it, you know.
	What if I want to show you this, Rick?
	So I have an alternate personality that's a wrestler, right?
	And it's called the Rat King, baby.
	So I just want to show you one of my promos.
	Let me know what you think.
	Okay.
	And this isn't you, Rick.
	This is a different guy.
	What are your thoughts on that, Rat King?
	You think you're better than the regular folk, Rick?
	You think you're better than wrestling fans?
	Than the regular people who run you out your little loose meat dinners.
	Well, I got news for you, Rick.
	What kind of news?
	He is saying anyone can get it.
	Will you be the one, Rat King?
	All you need to know, Rick, is that I'm ready.
	Because I'm going to give you the truth, baby.
	And I'm going to give you the trauma.
	Name the time and the place and the place and the time.
	Because I got a clock and a globe and an axe to grind.
	From Alaska to Nebraska, from Maine to Fort.
	Wayne, it's your call, you turkey slicing boner monkey.
	What do you think there?
	Potential.
	I'll take it, man.
	You look good.
	From a legend, I'll take it.
	Rick, thanks so much for sharing your life with us, man.
	It's obvious you've wanted to be an entertainer, and you've been extremely entertaining throughout my entire life.
	Thank you very much.
	Appreciate it.
	Yep.
	You guys have a great trip.
	Woo!
	You remind me, Mel Gimmick.
	Now I'm just floating on the breeze, and I feel I'm falling like these leaves.
	I must be cornerstone.
	Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this piece of mind.
	I found I can feel it in my bones.

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