Ric Flair Says His Roddy Piper Stories Were Cut Out Of A&E Biography

As a guest on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show, Ric Flair spoke about his discomfort with his recent inclusion in a storyline with Lacey Evans. Flair also spoke about his historic nightlife throughout his career and explained how crazy his schedule was back in the day. The 16x World Champion said he'd travel between three different cities in one week, wrestle one hour matches in those cities, then party all night, and wake up and go to the next town.

"Where I was so problematic and did so many things wrong, misbehaved at the highest possible level, as hard as I worked, I partied Ariel, you have no idea," Flair said. "Sydney, Australia on Wednesday for an hour, St.Louis on Friday for an hour, Tokyo on Sunday for an hour, that was just one week. I had a few drinks coming and going. That was an example of what my schedule was and it was an hour every night."

Flair also talked about his relationship with celebrities during his wrestling career, namely Charles Barkley. Flair said he and Barkley, who is a former NBA player and member of NBA on TNT, have shared some amazing stories over the years.

"I've socialized with all those guys back in the 90s and some of them in the 80s, especially Charles Barkley," Flair said. "Man, I would like someone to just follow me and Barkley around right now. I just saw him, he's got a place in the Four Seasons in Atlanta, he's got his own condo. He is the king holding court in downtown Atlanta."

During WWE A&E's recent biography on "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Flair said none of the stories he told about he and Piper early in their careers were shown. Flair described what he told A&E, which was a time he and Piper traveled before Piper had a contract with WWE.

"They didn't play one story of me and Piper I told them, can you believe that?" Flair said. "Ariel, you have no idea. He travelled with me when he didn't have a job, a year before he went to WWE, and I took him to Puerto Rico and Japan, he had one trip to Japan and never again. He wasn't going to leave ahead of schedule but we got him to keep a couple more days."

Living the gimmick in the ring and out of the ring, Flair talked about the difficult situations he's put his four ex-wives through. The Nature Boy said he didn't behave well back in the day and lived his gimmick and believed he truly was the best and wanted to show it every night in the ring and out of the ring.

"It had to be brutally difficult to be married to me because of my schedule and because of the way I sold myself," Flair said. "I know the difference between support and control. No one is telling you [Ariel] how to format your show, I can guarantee that, because only you know what to do. The outside distractions get to be so much that they get to be so much that they're impossible to live with, that was my case a couple of times. Trust me, I did a lot of damage when I just wasn't behaving, there's no other way to put it. Not out of control, just was not behaving, I was Ric Flair and I wanted the world to think it and I did not care if I was married or not.

"That wasn't about women, that was just me living life. I wanted to be the biggest spender, I wanted to wear the best clothes, I wanted to buy drinks for everybody, every bit of that is true. I can't possibly explain to you how I can justify that, but that was my thought process because I really did think I was the greatest. I thought I was Joe Namath and everybody else wrapped into one. If Joe Namath bought a mink coat, I bought a mink coat. There's a guy here in Atlanta called Friedman Shoes, world famous, I bought 135 alligator shoes from him."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Ariel Helwani's MMA Show with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.