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Ric Flair Exclusive Interview: “My daughter Charlotte is the best wrestler in the entire world!”

Posted: Sep 4th 2025 By: Liam Solomon

In an exclusive interview with eScapist Magazine, WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair has expressed that his daughter Charlotte is the greatest wrestler in the entire world. He also revealed his Wrestling Mount Rushmore and questioned how Logan Paul is so good at what he does.

Q: Do you have a favourite video game of all time? Or did you play any with your kids when they were younger?

A: I’ve never played video games in my life. I can’t play them, I’m terrible. My kids could beat me in one second, so I quit. I’m a bad loser.

Q: Were you surprised you weren’t included in the latest WWE 2K25 game? Did anyone let you know about it?

A: I knew about it, but I didn’t expect to be, as I’m still under contract at AEW. Unless you’re on the cover, you don’t make any money anyway. Maybe 0.3% or some damn thing!

Q: Would Hulk Hogan be at the top of your wrestling Mount Rushmore? And if so, who else would join him?

A: That’s such a tough question, but obviously it would be Hulk. I feel like it would be Hulk, Stone Cold. Then the greatest worker of all time, because I’ve wrestled everybody and he probably could wrestle better than anybody right now if he was healthy. Shawn Michaels. And then of course I’d put Undertaker up there.

Q: Would it be a nice touch if WWE named an event after Hulk Hogan to pay tribute to him? Could you see that happening?

A: I don’t know, they’re unpredictable now, and the merger with Endeavor (TKO) has changed so many things, so I don’t know what the answer to that would be. I can’t tell what will happen anymore. When Vince was there, I could tell that Vince ran the show, but without Vince being there, I don’t know whether Endeavor runs or whoever else runs it.

Q: A lot of fans felt you had a great chemistry with Randy Savage, better than you did with Hulk Hogan. Do you feel the same way about the chemistry you two had together?

A: No, we had terrible chemistry. He wanted to rehearse and I didn’t rehearse. I only did it for WrestleMania. Instead of having a week off, I had to come to Tampa and wrestle for three hours a day with him to memorise a match. And that just wasn’t my style. You have to feel the crowd.

Q: Did you have a top three crowds/cities that you loved wrestling in most?

A: Tokyo would be top, then Chicago, and in the old days, Greensboro, North Carolina. Tokyo was insane. I’ve been there 68 times. It’s diluted now, but when it was just All Japan and New Japan. It was unbelievable.

Q: Did you see Rampage Jackson’s son, Raja, unleash a vicious assault on Syko Stu earlier this week? What did you make of it all?

A: He put him in a coma didn’t he? I’m very close to Rampage and I tried calling him, but obviously he wasn’t taking calls. Can you understand in a way, sometimes you can lose your temper in the moment and snap like that, then regret it afterwards? Yeah, but not to that extent. A receipt here or there keeps everybody straight. But not to that extent.

Q: I saw Mark Henry and Rob van Dam defended his actions. And tried to justify them. But in your view, is it undefendable?

A: How could they try to defend his actions? I’m not defending the actions by any means, but you never know the extent of what happened, unless you’re actually there. So it’s easy to make an observation from afar. But if you were not really there, we’re probably missing several key components to what happened.

Q: What’s the closest you came to losing your cool in the ring? Because you always seem very calm and collective there.

A: I’ve never lost my cool in the ring. I’ve had to punch some guys back like Vader, just because he was always trying to rough me up. But I’ve only had to punch a few guys. One punch and then everybody calms down, smooth it over.

Q: Did you see what Bret Hart said about your wrestling style back in the day and like he compared you to Gunther? Obviously Bret is one of the best technical wrestlers in the history of the game as well. So where do you stand on it?

A: Oh, I agree with Bret as far as being one of the greatest technical performers of all time. That goes without saying. But Bret never liked to get smacked, and that’s the way I worked. We laugh about it now, but he just hated getting chopped. But for me with someone like Ricky Steamboat, you must have seen our matches. I hit Steamboat as hard as I could. I hit Sting as hard as I could and the people could feel it. Especially when you’re out on the floor. I even watched a match between me and The Rock recently. I was smacking the hell out of The Rock. He didn’t care. For Gunther, I haven’t watched him enough, but what they find fascinating about Gunther is his look. He has a tremendous look. Because when he wrestled Pat McAfee. Pat McAfee was 10 times the athlete that he is. But Gunther has a great look. His facials are great and all that. But if you’re comparing him to me, come on, there’s levels to the game.

Q: Let’s have a word about your daughter Charlotte, how good is she doing right now?

A: She only became a wrestler by accident. But not only is she the best female wrestler, she’s the best wrestler in the world and the most athletic person in the company. She is the best wrestler, male or female and I can say that without flinching, without looking back. The only person who I think is close to her, when he is on and healthy, when you think about in ring timing and knowing where you are all the time, is Randy Orton. Randy’s really underutilised. Why do you think that is? I don’t know. I think maybe he made somebody mad along the way. Randy’s not afraid to say what he thinks and that’s not always popular.

Q: You mentioned John Cena there, how do you feel about him becoming a 17-time World Champion?

A: I love it. I think the world of John.

Q: And what do you think he’s gonna do when he walks away from wrestling?

A: Well, he is making so damn much money in the movies right now. He doesn’t need to do anything. I hope that he’ll walk away and stay away. Wrestling is very addictive. When you’ve done it as long as John has, over 20 years, it’s hard to change your way of life. But he already has, because he’s taken big lapses of time off. And he is very happily married, his wife is lovely. They’re building a new home here in Tampa. So I see John periodically, but I can’t say enough nice things about John Cena. He’s a wonderful person.

Q: It’s kind of come full circle, because Hulk Hogan was one of the first in wrestling to go into films, and now we see The Rock, Cena and others. How much do they owe to Hulk for paving the way into that industry?

A: Hulk’s movies suck! They didn’t go anywhere! John and Dwayne are making a lot of money. Especially Dwayne, he’s the most entertaining son of a b*tch alive. He kills me. I go back and look at his old stuff and he was funny as hell.

Q: What was your favorite Hulk Hogan movie, though? If you had to name one? Or the worst?

A: The one where we played Santa Claus. It was horrible. But it’s hard to go off and take off into the movies. I tried it one time and they get up at 6:00 AM. And with The Rock and John, they’re going to get their workouts done first. And then it’s take, retake, retake, take, retake, retake. Then they work till eight at night. They have dinner, they get up and start it over again. I was never cut out for that. I would’ve needed a mid altar by 11:00 AM.

Q: How do you think things have changed in creative and would you rather wrestle now with Triple H as head of creative, or were you happy with how it was under Vince in your day?

A: Well, I think Triple H is doing a fabulous job. I think the hardest thing for Triple H right now is trying to validate that fortune they spent on the NXT because they got so many people coming over that, and here’s the deal. When you’re on live TV, you get one shot. You better do something to catch somebody’s eye or you won’t be there next week. They gotta have something. Even if it’s just one thing. Unless they got some big plan, elaborate scheme, the video and all that. But you make all these videos then and you walk back out in a live audience after all these weeks of videos, you better be damn good. Because if you’re not…

Q: You mentioned ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin earlier. Do you think WWE is kind of a badass character like him at the moment? Who would or who’s the closest?

A: Yeah, but you’re not gonna find it. Because that’s Steve. Steve just likes to hunt and fish, cuss, swear. That’s it. Drink beer. That’s Steve. You can’t replicate him. I’ve always said it’s either Hulk or Steve being the biggest stars in the history of our business. I would put Dwayne in there except Dwayne didn’t stay in there very long. And if you, if you think about this, which I wasn’t even aware of until a couple years ago. When Steve broke his neck he was 39 years old. He hit another 10 years. Can you imagine?

Q: Some of the recent decisions by WWE to release certain wrestlers such as Karion Kross and his wife Scarlet. Did that surprise you? And were you surprised at the fan reaction?

A: What was the fan reaction?

Q: I think they were just shocked really and didn’t see it coming. Same as the R Truth decision.

A: I think R Truth deserves to be in the company as long as he wants. He’s provided so many forms of entertainment and he’s just a genuinely nice guy. Every time I see him, I’d say, you’re older than me. What the hell are you doing out here? He was good friends with my son, but he’s a great guy. And he brings a lot of talent to the show because he can do anything.

Q: So was it the right decision to let Karrion go?

A: Well, I don’t know. I didn’t see him enough. I have no idea. I mean, as matter of fact, I only think I met him one time. The problem is, the problem today with a lot of the guys is they can do all this fancy shit, but they don’t have any fundamentals. They can’t punch, they can’t kick. They can’t remember to work their way to the center of the ring. You know what I mean? They don’t know where to go, they don’t have facial expressions. There’s so many things that you’ve gotta be aware of. When the camera’s on you, like in a tag match, if you’re on the sideline or on the apron, you gotta be in character a hundred percent. The minute you go, like you’re looking around and the camera catches you, that’s what the fans see. You gotta stay as active on the outside as your partner or your opponent is on the inside.

Q: Maybe some of them are trying to run before they can walk

A: Well, that’s probably human nature. They’ve only wrestled against other kids trying to learn the craft too. So I can’t blame ’em. I mean, Shawn Michaels has done a hell of a job. I couldn’t figure out how Logan Paul does some shit. I thought, how the fuck, how did he learn that? And then I realized that he was being trained by Shawn. Shawn can teach anybody, that’s how good Shawn is.

Q: Are you a fan of social media stars like Logan Paul and IShowSpeed coming into WWE?

A: If they can pull it off, yeah! He absolutely has. How can you knock that

Q: How much of that is down to Shawn Michaels and how much of that down to his own personal drive to succeed?

A: Well, he’s a hell of an athlete. Here’s my saying in wrestling; the minute you’re afraid to try and do something, you don’t belong in the ring. Because they ask you to do a lot of ridiculous stuff. You know, the bar, the ladder matches that, but the minute you’re afraid to do it, you don’t belong there. That’s how you get hurt. Hesitating on a big move. McAfee running across the ring, jumping up on the top rope, giving a guy a suplex, that’s a hell of an athlete Pat McAfee is. He should be wrestling full time. And he can talk too.

Q: We’ve had Travis Scott in the WWE recently, but it didn’t really go to plan

A: I didn’t hear what happened but he hurt somebody, didn’t he? Cody Rhodes. Well, Cody’s the wrong guy to punch. He’s a very important part of the company.

Q: What about other kinds of crossovers from UFC maybe or boxing like Conor McGregor?

A: No. I think Ronda set the bar and, and then Brock, is after that it’s been so-so. Ronda set the bar. She and my daughter had some fabulous matches. Only because she wasn’t afraid of her. All the other girls were afraid of her. And with Ashley’s height, it was hard for Rhonda to throw the judo moves where they looked cosmetically good. Does that make sense? I mean, Ronda could obviously have done whatever she wanted to with Ashley, but in terms of the cosmetic looks… because if you really wanna be considered a ‘great’, you’ve gotta be able to present yourself. Your moves have to be cosmetically perfect. That means if you’re giving a guy an arm, drag it, it can’t be dragging him over his body. It’s gotta be in the air.

Q: Quick word about Chris Jericho and the fact he’s been rumored to be returning to WWE after a few years in AEW. Do you think he deserves one final run?

A: Well, of course I do because Chris has meant a lot to the business. But I don’t think he’ll get it. I’m sure he’ll go to the Hall of Fame. I mean, he’s been a Hall of Fame athlete, human being wrestler, everything. But I would doubt very seriously if he’d get the kind of deal that John Cena got. I could be wrong. I would enjoy it. But John had a level of popularity very similar to the Rock’s. He was huge. Everyone loved him. It might be a bit of a stretch to see him back in there, but you never know.

Q: Do you have a favorite pay-per-view? Is there one historically that stood out for you?

A: Well, obviously the one that stands out for me is when I won the title, which I didn’t know I was gonna do until I got there. That was never promised for me or anything. I think my WrestleMania at the end with Shawn was probably the biggest moment of my career. I loved wrestling. Triple H and they gave me their everything. We cut ourselves to the bone. They both were outstanding friends of mine. I even posted that retirement day too for throwback Thursday. They’re just fabulous people. I talk to Undertaker periodically. There’s just some people that you’re never gonna get away from.

Q: Do you have a top three best technical wrestlers of all time? We still spoke about Brett Hart earlier, anyone else that stood out for you?

A: Technically. Well, Shawn could be a technical wrestler with The Rockers. They were technically amazing. I respect Marty, but Shawn was in a different league. From day one. Another good technical wrestler is Steve Regal. Very good. Very technical. He never really got the push he deserved. But, Steve is an excellent technical wrestler and, and on top of that, a great guy.

Q: While we’re on the subject of British wrestlers, what’s your verdict on Will Osprey?

A: His ring work is unbelievable. But I’ve never heard him talk yet. I’ve never heard him do an interview. Until I hear him do an interview, because you can be tremendous in the ring. But if you can’t talk, sayonara. I’ve never heard him talk, but he is a phenomenal guy. He’s really respectful to me and that Japanese kid that he wrestled when Sting retired is tremendous too. The big Japanese boy, oh, he’s really good.

Q: Does it frustrate you to watch current WWE stars cutting promos without the level of charisma that you had and the Rock had?

A: Well, they’re written down for ’em. If you gotta read something somebody else wrote down, it’s not gonna be as good. If it can’t come off of here and say what you think and feel without saying something that’s inappropriate. But for me, I just couldn’t wait to get out there. Me, especially with Dusty. Because it was never a question of who went first and who went second.

Q: You often call yourself the dirtiest player in the game, but what moment from your career best defines that side of Rick Flair if you had to pick one?

A: My matches with Terry Funk. He was great. When your skills diminish, which they’re going to, over time, you find a way to entertain ’em. Terry Funk would walk into the ring post, he was just fabulous. He wasn’t afraid to bleed either, man. We used to cut each other up.

Q: Last question, I heard your phone ring there, what did it mean to you to be immortalized in Song by 21 Savage and Offset?

A: Well, you know what’s funny is I had just gotten out of the hospital. I had a stoma for that. I still had that stoma on my side for a year and a half after I got outta the hospital. So, I was kind of uncomfortable actually. You know what I mean? I was really running at half speed. And the contact high in that house was unreal. I still talk to Metro all the time. What a great guy.