The feud between WWE Hall of Famers Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair has raged on for the past 25 years, and Bischoff has now stated that he is done responding to Flair after the tension spilled over into their respective podcasts in recent months.
On the latest episode of the “83 Weeks” podcast, Bischoff told co-host Conrad Thompson that he is over his feud with The Nature Boy.
“I’ve thought, as you know, ever since Ric made the first comments about me being some kind of an arrogant prick or whatever it was, that was like first, you know, shot across the bow. And it really caught me by surprise,” Bischoff said. “I mean, six months ago, I was sitting at a bar in Houston entertaining a room full of people with Ric Flair. It was classic, Ric Flair, you know, I even posted a couple of pictures of it, it was so much fan. Dennis Rodman came down. We all hung out together. And I’d see Ric at different conventions and, you know, we’d get together if we’re at the same hotel. And I’d get a text from Ric, hey, come on down, see you at the bar. And that was like six months ago, right. And then all of a sudden, bam, I’ll get blindsided with that.
“And I don’t know what it was, I have my suspicions, I’ve had other people suggest what it might be and whatever. And, you know, because I went into that kind of like, well, it’s just Ric being Ric, and he just kept on and on. And then I responded, you know. I did an interview with Chris Van Vliet in Las Vegas, Thursday, and Chris asked me about it. I said, Chris, I’m done, you know, I have love for Ric, true affection. I don’t know why, personally, but, you know, there’s probably a lot of us that have affection for Ric and don’t know why, but it is what it is. And I have a lot of respect for Ric. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to fire back, especially publicly if somebody’s going to start taking shots at me from the sidelines because for better or worse, it’s in my kind of nature just to fight back, right.”
Bischoff went on to say that he has too much respect for Flair to continue, and that he is willing to meet with him face to face.
“I’m done, I’m just done. I have too much affection for Ric and too much respect for Ric,” Bischoff said. “If Ric wants to sit down, face to face, take a swing at me, I don’t care. I’ll still have affection for Ric. But if he wants a face-to-face and just kind of talk this thing through and figure out where it’s all coming from. And look, if I owe Ric an apology for something I said that set him off, I’m happy to do that. But I just don’t want to participate on the whole social media thing. I just don’t think it’s healthy. And again, because of the respect I have for Ric, I just don’t want to it, I’m not doing it. He can say whatever he wants about me publicly. He can post whatever he wants on his social media. I’m just not going to engage. But again, face-to-face, it’s a different conversation, but this social media crap, eh, I’m not doing it, I’m all done.”
Tony Schiavone of AEW recently stated that he believes the Flair vs. Bischoff feud is a work in progress.
You can listen to the latest 83 Weeks podcast below:
(H/T to Joshie Lopez and WrestlingHeadlines.com for the transcription)
