Ric Flair On If He Sees Daniel Bryan Staying With WWE

Ric Flair spoke on a special episode of the My World Podcast with Conrad Thompson about current affairs in WWE.

Flair spoke about Daniel Bryan's contract recently expriging after his match against Roman Reigns on SmackDown a few weeks back where he was banned from SmackDown. It was recently reported that WWE was heavily trying to persuade Bryan to resign with the company. The 16x World Champion said he believes that Bryan will remain with WWE.

"He doesn't have an option, he's going to go home with Brie [Bella]," Flair said. "He's one of the nicest kids I've ever met in the business and he wouldn't leave the WWE. I would have a very difficult time believing he would leave the WWE, if he does, I'd be very surprised. That whole family, everybody's tied to the WWE.

"I was under the impression he wanted to go home and spend more time with the kids. I don't know what he's going to do, whatever he does I wish him nothing but the best. He's a great worker and just being honest with you, I did not think that at his size he could make a difference, but he has. Despite his size, he is really a hell of a hand."

Another talent leaving the company was in-ring wrestler and commentator Samoa Joe, who spent over five years with the company. Flair admitted that he was not familiar with Joe's situation.

"I don't know enough about that to even give you an intelligent comment," Flair said. "I didn't know, is he injured? I don't even know why he left or even why, they gave him his release right?"

It was also reported that John Laurinaitis has returned as the Senior Director of Talent Relations for WWE after the firing of Mark Carrano. Flair spoke about Johnny Ace, saying he's happy that he got the job and knows how difficult it is.

"That's the toughest job in the world," Flair said. "It's tough to have your friends working for you or your family. Somewhere along the line, they're going to have a vision that's different than yours and ultimately you're going to say hey this isn't what I've got in mind. The same would apply when they hired John, they brought him back because things had gotten out of control. In some cases, the talent was basically trying to tell the promotion, not Vince to his face, but trying to run the show.

"John is as diplomatic as he can be, he's as nice as he can be but John can be tough and he learned that booking over in Japan. He got into WCW too late, if he got into WCW earlier, there's a very good chance the company might have [stayed around]. If he was involved in creative, he would not have put up with any of that crap."

Flair also spoke about his friendship with Mark Carrano, saying he's tried to contact him after he was fired from WWE, which was first reported here at Wrestling Inc. After reports came out about Carrano harassing Darren Young and him stealing WWE memorabilia and titles, Flair said he could never believe that Carrano did anything harmful to anyone.

"I've reached out to him three different times and haven't heard a word back so I basically have no comment, I don't know what to say," Flair said. "I can't, from the bottom of my heart, believe he was ever militias. Who knows, sometimes the job just gets too tough for too long. It drove Jim [Ross] crazy and Jim dealt with it when it was really tough, a lot of egos, a lot of different egos in the clubhouse. It's a thankless job."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit My World with Jeff Jarrett with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.