Ric Flair and Sting couldn’t have been much more different once they left the ring. Yet according to Flair, there is one surprising thing the longtime rivals have in common: they have both been married four times.
While speaking on the Dual Time podcast, Sharf asked Flair which wrestler was completely different behind the curtain from what fans might have imagined. Flair didn’t need much time to come up with a name: “Sting.”
When Sharf repeated the name, Flair explained that despite spending years wrestling Sting and making plenty of money with him, the two had almost nothing in common socially. Sting lived in what Flair described as “total moderation,” while Flair certainly didn’t.
“Sting. Okay. Yeah. He was, you know, total moderation. [Sting] and I were married to each other from ’77 to, like, I think our last match was like in ’93, and we had nothing in common socially. I mean, I wrestled him, we made a lot of money and spent hours — hour-long matches, long, long — boom. But he was real quiet on the outside. Me, not so much.”
Then came the part that made their completely different lifestyles a little more interesting. According to Flair, Sting still ended up going through the same number of marriages as he did.
“But he’s been married four times too.”
That immediately prompted Sharf to joke that perhaps Sting had actually been doing the same things Flair was doing, only much more quietly.
“So he was doing what you were doing, but quietly, is what you’re saying?”
Flair quickly shut that idea down. He wasn’t accusing Sting of secretly living like the Nature Boy. Instead, Flair believes the wrestling lifestyle itself can simply make marriage difficult.
“No, but I mean, it is just hard to be married to a wrestler.”
Flair knew that problem firsthand. During the same conversation, he explained that he intentionally avoided wearing his wedding ring because part of selling the Ric Flair character involved keeping female fans from thinking he was married.
“I never wore my wedding ring. ‘Why aren’t you wearing your wedding ring?’ I said, ‘I’m trying to sell wrestling and tickets. Can’t have the girls thinking I’m married.’ ‘Why not?’ Doesn’t work like that. Promoter told me not to wear it.”
That came after Flair had already joked about how his own attitude contributed to four divorces. He said he never explained what he was doing to his wives, and if they didn’t like his lifestyle, they were “gone.”
Sting apparently lived nothing like Flair away from the ring, and Flair made sure not to suggest otherwise. Still, the Nature Boy couldn’t resist pointing out that after all those differences, they somehow ended up with the same number of marriages.
What do you make of Ric Flair’s explanation of how the wrestling business affected his marriages? Let us know in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
