According to Flair, he bled the most in the squared circle with ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes. As for whether he misses the blood in professional wrestling, Flair admitted that he does miss it, although he appreciates the greater good insofar as cutting back on the color is for the safety of the performers.
“Well, the person that I bled the most with would either be Wahoo McDaniel or Dusty Rhodes. I’d have to say Dusty, probably. We both had no problem doing that. And, it’s not that it’s a lost art. I think it’s just a health precaution and, obviously, it’s safer for the guys not to be doing it. For an old timer like me, I miss it. But I think there are occasions for it, but, obviously, there are health reasons and the safety issues the company has become much more aware of, the concussions, the blood, and stuff like that. I think it was a necessity, but do I miss it? Yes. I can’t critique [or] be critical of the company trying to make it better for the guys, safer.”
Given Bill Watts’ success with African American performers such as Junkyard Dog and ‘Big Cat’ Ernie Ladd, Flair was not surprised that Watts made Simmons WCW’s first African American world champion. With that said, Flair had no answer for why Simmons was never put in that lead role again, other than a regime change within the company.
“I just think that when Eric [Bischoff] and Hulk [Hogan] came around, they had their own plan, their own agenda. They pretty much just brought the whole Hulk entourage into the company.”
Apparently, during Flair’s initial stint with WWE, he had an arrangement with Vince McMahon that McMahon would give Flair a heads up and an opportunity to leave the company if McMahon ever decided to stop using Flair as a main event star. Flair indicated that McMahon gave him the opportunity to return to WCW in late 1992 or early 1993.
“[McMahon] just told me that he was going to go with the young guys and he gave me an opportunity to go to Watts, who had been calling me every day. And he said, ‘if you want to go, I need you to do a favor for me,’ which I did, and I was gone. I had so much fun being there, but I didn’t want to be in a reduced role.”
