Ric Flair persuaded born-again Shawn Michaels to have some drinks on a 2007 UK tour, according to Matt Hardy.
Hardy recalls that Michaels “never did that at that time”.
On the latest episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, which was themed around John Cena, Hardy recalled the incident.
Do you remember the match John Cena and Shawn Michaels had over in the UK? It was something like 48 minutes, 50 minutes, or something along those lines.
Hardy appeared to be referring to a 56-minute match between Cena and Michaels on Raw in London on April 23rd, 2007.
Hardy continued:
I’ll never forget, so Ric Flair, who is insane, we all love the insane Ric Flair right? Ric’s the best, and I remember he was there that night he’s like, “Oh my God, you’re the man Cena. John you’re the champ.” And he said, “All right, we’re gonna get together and we’ll have some drinks down at the bar.”
We’re on an international trip so we’re hanging out and I remember Ric kept putting over Shawn Michaels and Shawn at this point was not drinking and he’s like very religious, doing his deal.
Ric was down there just constantly annoying the shit out of Shawn. He’s like, “Come on.” He said, “Look at the champ John, he’s the leader now, he’s having some drinks. Shawn, you can have a drink. That doesn’t mean you’re a bad guy. You can have a drink. Celebrate. You guys had a hell of a match tonight, you went 50 minutes, you did this, you did that.”
Ric finally got Shawn to cave and have some drinks, right, so he’s sitting back there with some drinks and you see the old Shawn’s starting to come out.
Putting on a slurred voice, Hardy imitated an inebriated Michaels:
“Look at you for instance, Jeff Hardy, Shawn Michaels wannabe.” He said, “People know that I’m the real deal.” He said, “You think you’re hot shit right now just because people love you, well that’s not it. I mean, people will always believe in me. Are they going to believe in you like that?”
Hardy stated that the incident continued with Michaels saying to Umaga:
“Look at the big man over here. Hey, I’m credible. People believe that like if I superkick you, they know I can beat you with that.” I remember Umaga bucked up, he said, Why don’t you give it a shot right now then? Go ahead.”
Shawn said, “Whoa, brother, I’m working, brother. Come on, work with me brother. I’m just working, I’m working.”
Hardy recalled:
“It was hilarious though because Jeff’s just laughing. It’s like, “This is so cool. Shawn Michaels is just talking shit to me.” And then Umaga called him out immediately, and you see Shawn back off.
That’s one of my favorite stories because Shawn never did that at that time. Ric Flair playing the devil on his shoulder,“Come on Shawn. Just have a couple of drinks. It’s not gonna kill you.”
