Ric Flair has learned one thing about giving advice to younger wrestlers — sometimes they’d rather listen to people online than a guy who spent decades at the top of the business.
Flair addressed the issue while speaking with Booker T on the Hall of Fame podcast. Booker explained that he has tried giving younger wrestlers constructive criticism on social media, only to have some of them fire right back as if his decades of experience mean nothing. Booker asked Flair what he makes of that attitude, and The Nature Boy said he’s already learned his lesson.
“Well, I’ve learned my lesson. It doesn’t do any good. I mean, people say to me, ‘He’s a prick. He won’t help anybody.’ Everybody I’ve given advice to that’s asked me, right? And people have been very polite asking me sometimes, especially when I was traveling with Ashley a lot, the young guys.”
Flair then explained what frustrates him. According to Flair, wrestlers will ask for his opinion and then immediately check social media or seek out somebody with far less experience before deciding whose advice they actually want to follow.
“But they take my opinion, which I pretty much know what I’m talking about, and then they get in the car or they walk up the ramp and they either look and see what the mark said about it or they talk to another guy who’s got as much experience as him or less, and that’s who they go with.”
“God forbid I know anything.”
The 16-time world champion said that dynamic is one reason he doesn’t bother publicly breaking down matches the way he could. There is another reason Flair keeps things positive these days — his daughter Charlotte Flair still works for WWE.
“You know what I mean? I could critique these matches. I haven’t now. I mean, it’s hard, but it’s not worth the aggravation.”
“Number one. Number two, my daughter works there. I’m not going to say anything except positive things.”
Flair may have decades of experience, world championships and thousands of matches behind him, but he sounds finished fighting with wrestlers over whether his advice is worth taking. If somebody would rather check the replies after walking through the curtain, The Nature Boy seems perfectly happy to let them figure it out themselves.
Do you think younger wrestlers should put more value on advice from veterans like Ric Flair? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
