On the latest “To Be The Man” podcast, Ric Flair gave his thoughts on several of the big wrestling news stories going on this week.
On the possibility of Austin Theory wrestling John Cena at WrestleMania 39:
“I know this about John and this is what really makes John special. If there’s a scenario, trust me this is not from him, but I know him very well. If there’s a position that will help the company and help an individual that he likes, he’s in. Theory wrestling John Cena makes Theory automatically a big player. Whether you think he is or not, he’s getting to wrestle John Cena. John Cena is a big deal. John’s in that category of like when Austin comes back or Rock comes back. When John Cena comes back, it’s a big deal. John is very giving. It’s not about John Cena anymore. It’s about what he can do to make the company better and be a company guy, but by the way, you got to pay him a lot to do it (he laughs).”
Flair said he doesn’t believe The Roman Reigns-Cody Rhodes WrestleMania match should turn into a three way with Sami Zayn:
“I’m going to stay true to my thought process and it’s going to be Roman and Cody. The three-way, and I’ve seen some. They can be really good, but it’s not nearly as meaningful, especially if the champion doesn’t get beat. To me, that’s not really changing the title. If you beat the third guy, then what are you really doing? You didn’t beat the champ. Whichever way they go, I’m sure they will have a hell of a match. I think Cody deserves it, but Roman has done such an outstanding job that if they leave it on Roman, more power to him. Sometimes you don’t want to take the momentum off of something that is working so well. People could be deceived by that too. I want to see (Cody win) because that’s the one chip as Cody would say that his dad never got. I would like to see him have it one time. I don’t think it would hurt Roman at this point, but there again, I don’t know because I’m not really good at the actual statistics of marketing and everything else. Roman has been carrying the flag for a long time.”
On Sasha Banks becoming the IWGP Women’s Champion:
“I think it’s great. I think it’s great for business. In all fairness to anybody else, Sasha is one of the top four women performers alive right now and it’s not going to change tomorrow. I’m happy for her and now she’s conquered two worlds, so I’m really happy for her.”
On what he feels Tony Khan should do to increase AEW’s ratings:
“I would continue to own the company, but I would let somebody fresh book it. He books and runs it, but he’s also very vested personally in football which he takes a lot of pride in, and the Jaguars are getting better, which I’m really happy for them. They will probably be in the playoffs next year. So what I’m saying is Tony has to divide his time and his passion between two things.”
