Ric Flair On Influencing The Rock's Persona, Who Came Up With The Idea For The Four Horsemen, Promos
As previously noted, WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair was recently interviewed by NBC Sports Radio. Among many other things, Flair discussed the art of cutting promos, influencing many pro wrestlers, and how the legendary Four Horsemen faction came about.
On the subject of cutting promos, Flair professed that it came from his life and passion for the pro wrestling business. Moreover, Flair credited the likes of the late great Dusty Rhodes for creating competition.
"That all came off the top of my head. We'd be out in Atlanta [Georgia] all night long, back at the hotel around 5 a.m., change clothes, and go to the studio and start taping at 9 o'clock. That's just a lot of coffee and a lot of liking what I was doing for a living, being surrounded by guys like Dusty and Arn [Anderson] and guys that had so much influence on me. And we went out there and we competed with each other. Does that make sense? If Dusty was out there first, I knew I had to follow that. If I was on first and Dusty had to follow me. It was very competitive."
When asked how much of the persona of The Rock was derived from Flair, 'Naitch' suggested that Dwayne Johnson himself would admit that he borrowed a lot from the 16-time champ. Flair went on to say that he has influenced a lot of pro wrestlers.
"I think he'll admit that a lot of me was him," Flair said. "I don't know how many Rolex watches I've sold for Rolex from guys buying their first Rolex. I can remember Randy Orton got his first big check with Evolution. The first thing he bought was a new tricked out diamond encrusted Rolex, so I know that I've done some damage. I think a lot of guys have become more wardrobe-conscious. Does that make sense? Looking the part all of the time as opposed to when you're in the gym. Every time you walk into a door, you want everybody in the joint to look at you. That's just what it is."
According to Flair, Arn Anderson deserves all of the credit for the Horsemen idea.
"Actually, the idea for The Four Horsemen came from Arn, just something he said one day about The Four Horsemen. I can't remember the terminology, but he put up [the] four [hand gesture] and Arn did it and we started doing it each week and within a month it caught on and it was bigger than ever. It was huge, so I give all that to Arn. He took the ball and he ran with it."
Click here to check out the interview. If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit NBC Sports Radio with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: NBC Sports Radio