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Grappling Legend Ric Flair Coming to Newburgh

Posted: Apr 21st 2009 By: CMBurnham

Where else would you find Ric Flair during his retirement but in a wrestling ring?

Professional wrestling fans in the mid-Hudson Valley will have the unique opportunity to meet the 60-year-old icon when he appears at Northeast Wrestling's annual Spring Slam on Friday at Newburgh Free Academy at 8 p.m.

Flair will also be part of an autograph signing and photo opportunity at 5:30 p.m. for those who sign up at www.northeast wrestling.com

Proceeds from the show will go to the Newburgh Wrestling Boosters Club.

Flair will be in the corner of his 21-year-old son Reid, as he teams with Arlington High School graduates Rob Begley and Dale Chapman - now known as Vik Dalishus and Hale Collins, "The Now" - in a six-man tag team match.

Here is some more from my interview with Flair:

? On working the recent tapings for Ring of Honor.
" The thing about the product I like is the people who own the company," Flair said. "They are high-level professional thinking people and now they're involved with [Dallas Mavericks owner] Mark Cuban and HDNet."

? On who he was impressed by at the ROH tapings. Without hesitation, he gave a name.
"Nigel," Flair said, referring to former ROH champion Nigel McGuinness. "I hadn't seen him before. He's a great speaker and he has a lot of skill. I was impressed with a lot of the workers there. Nigel works hard in the ring and is a really phenomenal speaker."

? On watching his good friend, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat competing at WrestleMania XXV.
"There was no doubt in my mind," Flair said. "People who didn't know him might have been surprised, but I know Ricky. I was so excited. I tried to tell these guys, he's been in the ring a lot. If he wrestles again, they'll be thinking he's 25."

? On the movie, The Wrestler and how fans are now perceiving pro wrestling because of it.
"I think people gained a level of respect for how hard we work," Flair said. "I just hear positive things because of it. It's not about the guy living in the trailer. It's a story about an individual wrestler. We get trashed a lot as a business. Guys that never made it will show up at Nancy Grace's desk."

"I thought his performance was fabulous," Flair said of the movie's star and his good friend, Mickey Rourke. "I thought he deserved to win the Oscar. He trained so physically hard to be part of that. I have the utmost respect for him."

? On one of his most famous matches that upstate New York fans will remember: capturing the World Wrestling Federation championship at the 1992 Royal Rumble in the then-Knickerbocker Arena in Albany.
"Everybody tells me that was the greatest Royal Rumble," Flair said. "I didn't think it was that great of a match. It was more of the opportunity to represent the company. Being the champion of WWE is a huge honor. [Vince McMahon] doesn't put that thing on anybody.

? On whether or not there was anyone he never worked with that he would have had the opportunity to work with. Flair struggled with this and said in 35 years, he worked with just about everyone he could think of, even guys like Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody, who people don't remember, that he did wrestle. Then he came up with one he never faced.
"John Cena," Flair said. "On my way out, I got to wrestle everyone except John Cena. I love John Cena and I respect him a lot, but it never came about."

? On who should be in the WWE Hall of Fame, who isn't already in. Flair hesitated on the answer.
"As soon as possible, Arn Anderson. But of course, I'm prejudiced. He's got to be on a ballot soon."
"It's really harder each year to find main event guys. That's just the business. Not everybody got to that level. Last year, at the Hall of Fame, I said that the biggest star in the history of pro wrestling was Steve Austin. I wasn't just blowing smoke. It wasn't Hulk in the 80s. Steve clearly set a standard, I thought.

? Flair also mentioned one match that he'd like to have a mulligan on is his match with The Rock. The two wrestled on RAW in July 2002.
"I wish I could wrestle him again," Flair said. "It was a terrible match. I was having some psycholgical issues, which I have from time to time. Answer this. How does Ric Flair psych himself out?"
He mentioned that he had a lot of respect for Dwayne Johnson and that he first met him when Johnson was 12.

? On whether we could see his son, Reid in a match in the near future with Ricky Steamboat's son, Richie.
"No one would be happier to see it than me," Flair said, noting that he sees Steamboat's son all the time.

? I mentioned to him that I met Ricky Steamboat at an ROH show years ago and asked Steamboat if he would ever get in the ring with Flair at a WrestleMania and he said he wouldn't because of his inactivity and his back injury. Now that Steamboat is semi-active and Flair is retired, Flair said he wished he could get back in the ring with him.
"If you gave us a month to train, you could book us again for two years," Flair said.

? On what Triple H is really like.
"He's wonderful," Flair said. "He's one of the top three guys in the company. He's a phenomenal performer. He's a great human being and a wonderful guy."

"He has an unbelievable work ethic. He reminds me of me. On the road and on house shows, He never...not ever...takes a shortcut. He's very smart."

Tags: Ric Flair, WWE, Roddy Piper, Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen