Ric Flair says he enjoyed his final run in WWE a lot, but having self-confidence in yourself is a great struggle, and it’s also something he can relate to with The Undertaker.
Flair recently spoke with Wrestling Inc and looked on his work and relationship with The Undertaker, who he faced off with at WrestleMania X8. During one episode of the “Last Ride” documentary, Undertaker opened up about his own insecurities as well as how he connected with Flair on a new level twelve years after Ric thanked him in the ring for that match.
“Ric thanked me after that match. And he goes, ‘I just want to thank you because you restored my confidence.’ And I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, you’re Ric Flair, right? You’re the greatest to ever do this, right?’ And he was as sincere as he could be and I didn’t understand until after my ordeal with Brock and it wasn’t that I lost, but it was the concussion and the fact that for the first time ever,” Undertaker told Austin. “I felt vulnerable to our business and up until that point, I was invincible. There was nothing that I couldn’t overcome, there was no injury that I couldn’t work through. That match with Brock really destroyed my confidence and it’s really hard for people to understand that. Like, ‘Wait a minute, you’re The Undertaker.’ And it wasn’t until, once I got my wits back about me did I truly understand why Ric thanked me for helping him and we kind of have that bond and that link now. But yeah, it took that concussion and all that to truly understand what he was talking about.”
Now speaking to Wrestling Inc, Flair shared his side of the story and explained that he’s well aware of what Undertaker said, but his own issues were a big mental hurdle to overcome.
“That’s when Mark carried me, but we did have a hell of a match,” Flair said. “In 2002, I’m 54, but we did have a hell of a match, which was great. After The Last Ride, he talks about [how] he had some insecurities too. His were around health problems, bad back and stuff like that, which caused him to be insecure. Mine was all mental but we share that in common.
“Self-confidence, no matter if it’s your body’s holding up or your mind and being able to do it and perform at the level that everybody thinks you can, it doesn’t matter how many times Hunter (Triple H) will say to me, ‘God damn it! You’re Ric Flair! Go out there and just relax. Be yourself.’ It goes in one ear, and it goes out the other. You shake your head and go ‘yes,’ and then you walk through the curtain and it’s just not there. And I think that is just due to being beating down for so long. I still really enjoyed some of that time and such great guys, Randy [Orton], Dave [Batista and] Hunter. How cool is that? Right?!”
Read More: Paul Heyman: The Undertaker Had ‘Perhaps The Greatest Career In The History Of WWE’
