WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair is currently engaged in a war of words with the legendary Dutch Mantell.
Flair worked his “Final Match” last summer, teaming with son-in-law Andrade El Idolo for a win over Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett. The match was nominated for Worst Match of 2022 in the recent Wrestling Observer Awards, but the winner was Pat McAfee vs. Vince McMahon from WrestleMania 38. Flair responded to the criticism by telling critics to “go fuck [themselves],” while revealing he made $300,000 for the bout.
The Flair match was heavily criticized elsewhere, and the former Zeb Colter continued with that criticism on the latest “Story Time with Dutch Mantell” episode.
“I’ve had people write me and, seriously, people thought he was gonna die. I think he passed out a time or two in there. He doesn’t even remember it. Ric Flair now is trying to leave a legacy and he should have left it alone, or changed a lot of things in that match, because his legacy now is tarnished. I don’t know. Ric Flair is full of shit and always has been,” Dutch said.
Mantell continued and knocked Flair for lashing out at his critics.
“The fans should be saying it to him, ‘Screw you, Flair.’ The tickets weren’t cheap for that match either. I don’t know what the ringside was, I think it was like 50 or 100 dollars. That’s a pretty expensive ticket for just a big independent show, even [though] Ric Flair was on it. I would never, ever, ever say F-U to the fans who knock me for a legitimate reason,” he said.
The Nature Boy responded to Mantell’s comments on Twitter, referring to how the original article billed Dutch as a WWE veteran.
“Thank God They Used The Word Veteran & Didn’t Call You A Legend. Just A Miserable Old Wrestler Trying To Make A Buck. And BTW, You Never Had A Legacy To Begin With. WOOOOO!,” Flair tweeted.
Flair then made a follow-up post on Friday night, writing, “I Just Made You More Famous Than You’ll Ever Be From A Single Tweet! WOOOOO!”
Dutch then addressed Flair’s tweet on the “Smack Talk” podcast.
“He actually sent me a tweet today. He said I made you more famous with one tweet, and you’ll ever be. Thank you, Ric. Please, send out another tweet. I want as many tweets as you can send out with my name in them because you did me a favor. I’d say that. He called me an old something, a crippled old man. I’ll give you one; I am old. I remember him telling the fans to kiss his ass. I remember that. I’ll give you one thing, Ric. I’m old, but you are too. You are two months older than I am, so you can’t blame it on that. But I think my name today should have been trending on Twitter, and if it’s not, I’d be surprised,” Dutch said.
Dutch joked that Flair didn’t even tag him in the tweet, adding, “He didn’t tweet me; somebody forwarded it to me. He didn’t even put my name in it. Now, that’s disrespectful. If someone talks about you bad and you’re going to send something about it, at least tag me in it. He didn’t tag me in it!”
Mantell discussed the reactions he’s received from people, and revealed that he is up for a debate with Flair.
“I didn’t start hearing about this until 5′ O clock, I guess. And then, from there on out, I’ve been covered up in DMs, private messages, and texts. But out of 100% of them, if I could just, 90% kind of agreed with me. When you tell the truth, and he responds in such a way, there must be something to it. All I’m saying is he is ungrateful. Now, he might go back, and he might think about it again and say yeah, let it go. But if he doesn’t, hey, I’ll debate him anytime. It’s not up to me; it’s up to the fans and how they perceive it,” Dutch said.
Flair then responded tonight via Twitter, with what may be another jab at Dutch, writing, “Dutch, Let’s Just Agree To Hopefully Growing Old Reluctantly But Gracefully! We As OLD VETERANS Need To Be United, Not At Odds! [heart emoji]”
Dutch has not responded to Flair’s last tweet as of this writing.
You can see Flair’s full tweets below:
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(h/t to Sportskeeda for the quotes)