FTR and The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express are confirmed for Ric Flair’s return match.
As a part of Starrcast’s festivities in Nashville, Tennessee, two-time WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair will be coming out of retirement to make his in-ring return. His match is being billed under ‘Jim Crockett Promotions’ and the match is taking place on July 31st.
The 73-year-old Flair has been training with AEW’s Jay Lethal. While making the media rounds to promote the match, he sat down with Vickie Guerrero for her ‘Excuse Me’ podcast. To start off, Flair said there were conversations being held with people at AEW about being a part of the match and said he was 90 percent sure they’re a lock for it.
I was gonna attend this event anyway [Roast of Ric Flair] but, then the idea of me having one last match came and you know, we’re talking to obviously people from AEW. Hopefully they’re gonna be able to participate. I’m 90 percent sure they are. But, it’ll be a lot of fun for everybody.
When further asked about the match and the specifics, Flair said it’ll be a tag team bout and the formal announcement is coming on 5/23, but The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) along with ROH and AAA World Tag Team Champions FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) will be in the tag match. Flair added that the other person in the match is working their situation out.
That would be Monday [when the match is formally announced].
A tag match. There are four people that I know are in it for sure: FTR and Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, and myself but the last person is working it out right now. Brand new robe, new tights, everything, one more time. Everything, yup.
As the conversation went on, Ric stated that Charlotte and Andrade El Idolo are getting married this coming Friday.
Returning to the topic of his in-ring return, he said he’s currently working on his pacing. He feels that he’s at the 40 to 50 percent range in terms of speed and he’s hoping to be near 90 percent come match time. Flair said he had to get over the anxiety of taking a bump.
What I’m working on now is the pace. I have to pick — when I started realizing I could take the bumps, that was at about ten percent, now I’m probably at about 40-to-50 percent. I’ve got two-and-a-half months [until the match], I’ll be 85 or 90 percent in terms of speed. Just picking up the pace. I just had to get over the anxiety of taking the bump. I was taking the first couple of bumps because I’ve got that damn pacemaker. I don’t need that to be unplugged any time soon [Flair laughed]. Not that they couldn’t fix it but…
During the Q&A portion of the podcast, Flair looked back on being able to work with the late Nancy Toffoloni-Benoit in WCW. Flair said he first met Nancy in the late 1970s when she was a ringside photographer.
Oh, it was great [working with Nancy Toffoloni-Benoit in WCW]. I loved Nancy. She was fabulous.
Nancy was great. I mean I met Nancy back in 1979, when she was doing just some photography work with the guys around the ring like when we [were] in Orlando and then all of a sudden, there she was in the business. She’s a beautiful person.
On the 5/16 POST Daily News show, John Pollock and Wai Ting gave their thoughts on Ric Flair’s return to the ring and to hear their reactions, click here.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit ‘Excuse Me: The Vickie Guerrero Show’ with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
