Eric Bischoff made an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, and during it, he opened up on his issues with Ric Flair as the two have exchanged heated words in recent weeks.
“That’s a weird one. Six months ago, I was out having cocktails with Ric Flair and Wendy. I ran into him at an autograph signing at a convention in Houston about a year ago and we just had the greatest time. He called me in my room, ‘Come on down, we’ll have the greatest time, woo!’ I got the text. Then all of a sudden, I get blindsided. I don’t know what got into Ric. Maybe somebody said something to him that I said, or he heard me say something that rubbed him the wrong way, or he had some kind of a flashback, but I honestly don’t know. Even last night, I got into Vegas and I am sitting down and having a beer and looking through my social media. I see stuff that Ric said. I fire back, and as soon I was done, I said that’s it, I’m just not doing this. I have a lot of affection for Ric. I don’t know why, but I love Ric. I’m sure I’m not the only one that loves Ric and does not know why they love Ric. He’s got that personality. I have a lot of respect for him and I don’t want to engage anymore in the social media thing. If Ric wants to sit down, have a face-to-face conversation, and tell me what I did wrong, how I pissed him off or irritated him or whatever, I am happy to do that and put it behind us and move on. But as far as the social media stuff, I’m probably not going to talk about it on my podcast anymore, because I am hoping that it just goes away.”
Bischoff also reflected on the backstage fight that Flair had with him at WWE Raw in 2003. At the time, Flair was still wrestling while Bischoff was the Raw GM.
“I don’t know what year it was. I had been in WWE for a couple of years. While I was in WWE, the week before the incident I am about to tell you, I showed up to Monday Night Raw, we do TV and Ric is there and Arn Anderson is there. We go out for a beer after the show. Ric says ‘Eric, come on, we will go to the hotel bar, join us.’ So boom, went out to the bar and had a great time, just like old times, right? The following week, I showed up to Monday Night Raw and am sitting in what they call the TV office. It was like a prop office in case they needed it, but I always used it for a dressing room because nobody else used it. I had the whole place to myself with a couch and a chair. So I’m in there and I am talking to my wife on the phone, it was my wife and my real estate attorney. We were closing on a piece of property. So I am on a 3-way conference call with my attorney and my wife. I am sitting in a chair. Ric comes walking into the TV office. Arn is behind him and Jonathon Coachman is behind him. I’m talking on the phone, ok cool, it wasn’t my office, it was everybody’s office. I just happened to use it. While I am on the phone, Ric comes over and he just starts yelling and screaming at me, ‘You MF-er! You get up out of your chair.’ I’m talking on the phone, and he just starts firing shots at me, he’s throwing punches at me, connected with me 3 times while I’m on the phone. Here’s the deal. Ric Flair has been throwing working punches for so long, I don’t think he knows how to throw a real punch. I’m not saying that to be funny, or try to be a tough guy, because I’m not. But he hit me 3 times and I still had the phone in my hand. For a minute I thought, ‘Is this a work? Is there a camera? Am I in a scene that nobody told me about?’ Then his lip started bleeding after he hit me for the third time. He was so mad that he bit his own lip and started bleeding all over himself, and I wouldn’t fight him.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription