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More on WWE's Unhappiness with Ric Flair

Posted: Aug 23rd 2013 By: mikeiles

Following his wild performance at last Saturday's 2K14 press conference, Ric Flair has reportedly found himself in hot water with management.

As I noted last week, the two-time Hall of Famer stole the show at the event. He was loud, rude and generally pretty crazy. Now, this isn't really anything new, but he also trashed Daniel Bryan, mentioned TNA and outed the supposedly clean-cut John Cena for being a big drinker.

Yeah, those are big no-nos at an official WWE conference.

Truthfully, Flair didn't wreck the show. If anything, he made an otherwise average press event hugely entertaining.

The conference, and the video game, got a hefty amount of press and attention out of the entire thing, with fans clamoring to YouTube to see the footage.

So, it's all good, right?

Alas, it doesn't appear that WWE executives were too enamored with Flair's behavior.

In this week's (subscribers-only) Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer gives an update on the situation. Interestingly, he notes that while the video game executives in attendance were unfazed, the McMahons were deeply unhappy: "The 2K people had no problem with it and liked it. The WWE people were furious, because of image."

He discussed the fallout from Flair's antics:

The end result was that Stephanie McMahon came out to apologize to the audience, most of whom were laughing at Flair?s stories, but it?s not the image the company wants its wrestlers to project. Vince McMahon was also said to be furious. Flair was pulled from the Q&A session after the show with the media that was there and also pulled from SummerSlam, where he was to make a surprise appearance.

Meltzer explained that Flair had been expected to take on a PR role with WWE but that this was now up in the air: "At this point, it?s very much questionable where things stand with Flair and the company."

Considering the relaxed attitude of the 2K14 people towards Flair, WWE seems to be over-reacting here. Some of Flair's comments were out of line, sure, but it appears almost everyone involved enjoyed hearing the legend's stories.

Is this only an issue because management is making it one?