Ric Flair spoke with NBC Sports Radio to promote his and Charlotte’s new book, Second Nature: The Legacy of Ric Flair and the Rise of Charlotte, now available from Amazon.com
During the discussion, Flair gave an update on his health, his sacrifices he had to make to be the best wrestler in the world, his upcoming ESPN 30 For 30 documentary and his recent claim that around 10,000 women have taken a ride on Space Mountain.
Here are the highlights of what the Nature Boy said about:
His Health: “Believe it or not, I feel great right now. This health issue, self-inflicted, I mean, I had two rotator cuff surgeries, but they are both… I [am] pain-free. I don’t have any hip injuries. All my guys, literally, all my guys from my generation that are still alive got hip, shoulder, ankle, elbow replacements. I’m really good in that respect. I have a beautiful, new fiancé that I’ve been with for five years, and I can tell you honestly I haven’t naitched in five years, so you can put that down in the headlines. ‘Naitch’ no more, but I feel great. I guess the plane crash was the worst thing that happened to me. I don’t remember that, but I remember [medical personnel] saying, ‘I think we’re goingto lose this one’ and I think they were talking about me.”
His ESPN 30 For 30 Documentary: “I guess I like the fact that I’m about as open and honest with things that involved my children, my son that passed away, and I hope that the people understand that didn’t understand the work. In 20 years, I never had a day off. Twice on Saturday and twice on Sunday and that’s not an exaggeration. And most of the time, I’d wrestle an hour every night or two hours on the same day. And that’s a lot of traveling, a lot of wrestling. Tokyo [Japan] one night, back to St. Louis [Missouri], Sydney, Australia the next night, Auckland, New Zealand, over to Japan, back home for a week, and then back in Japan.”
The Sacrifice He Made To Be The Best: “That’s the life I lived, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. I would trade it for the time now when I look back. I know my son is still very upset and angry and that’s something I have to live with, but he’ll never get over the fact that I wasn’t around enough.” Flair added, “I’ll take the blame for it. I was very selfish. I wanted to be the best and I competed against myself because I knew I was that much better than everybody else.”
Claims That He’s Slept With 10,000 Women: “Well, if you do the math, I started when I was in seventh grade!” Flair laughed, “let me say that hypothetically, I slept with five people. You’d go to your friend next door and go, ‘bulls–t!’ If I had said, ‘250,’ you’d go, ‘bulls–t.’ If I said, ‘5,000,’ you’d say, ‘oh, maybe.’ I’m not far off on that number. It doesn’t mean that everybody was Marilyn Monroe by any means, but I’m not far off. I wrestled. I was really good at three things: I wrestled, drinking, and talking, saying ‘goodnight.’”