10 Wrestlers Who Had Heat With Ric Flair

You don’t get to the top without making a few enemies and Ric Flair, across his illustrious, decades-long professional wrestling career, has made more than his share of those.

Celebrated in some circles as the very best to ever do it, Flair is equally criticised in other quarters for his polarising in-ring style, questionable business dealings and other exploits. 

These are 10 Wrestlers Who Had Heat With Ric Flair. 

10. Rick Rude

Despite both men being great workers, the matches between Rick Rude and Ric Flair in WCW in the early 1990s were always frustratingly disappointing affairs. This could have been because of a multitude of reasons, with both being natural heels, but it also may have been due to real-life animosity.

Rude was frustrated about his position in WCW in the early 1990s as he wanted to be the top guy and was never pushed as such. He seemingly laid much of the blame at the feet of Flair, who was on the booking committee, for his place on the card. 

According to Flair, Rude became increasingly confrontational during his final months in WCW, leading to a tense situation between the two backstage at the 1994 Slamboree pay-per-view.

Rude was supposed to vacate the WCW International Heavyweight Title after suffering what would turn out to be a career-ending back injury while defending the belt against Sting in Japan several weeks earlier. However, Rude didn’t like the creative presented to him by Flair and walked out of the arena after threatening to kill him. Rumour and innuendo suggests the issues between Flair and Rude may also have been exacerbated by Rude making a pass at Flair’s future ex-wife Wendy Barlow. 

9. Eric Bischoff

Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff reportedly started having issues after Bischoff gained significant power within WCW in the 1990s. Despite being one of the company’s biggest stars, Ric never felt like Eric gave him his due respect, especially when being compared to stars who joined WCW from WWE like Roddy Piper, Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. 

Their issues escalated when Flair missed an April 9, 1998, Thunder taping in order to accompany his young son Reid to an amateur wrestling tournament. Bischoff, in response, threatened to sue Flair into bankruptcy. WCW did file a lawsuit against Flair, costing him around $200,000 in legal fees, before Flair returned to the company in September of 1998. 

Flair and Eric Bischoff reportedly started having issues after Bischoff gained significant power within WCW. Despite being one of company’s biggest stars, Ric never felt like Eric gave him his due respect, especially when being compared to stars who joined WCW from WWE, like Roddy Piper, Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. 

Their issues escalated when Flair missed an April 9, 1998, Thunder taping in order to accompany his young son Reid to an amateur wrestling tournament. Bischoff, in response, threatened to sue Flair into bankruptcy. Bischoff filed a lawsuit against Flair, costing Ric around $200,000 in legal fees before the case was settled and Flair returned to WCW in September of 1998 and reformed the Four Horsemen with Steve McMichael, Dean Malenko, and Chris Benoit. 

The real-life animosity led to an on-screen programme, with Bischoff defeating Flair at Starrcade 1998. The next night on Nitro, though, Flair defeated Bischoff to become President of WCW. 

The real-life issues between Bischoff and Flair remained beyond their on-screen programme and bubbled over during their time in WWE when prior to the March 17, 2003, Raw taping, Flair confronted Bischoff backstage.

Bischoff, who believed their issues had been resolved after drinking with Flair and Arn Anderson the week before the incident, gave his account of the 2003 scuffle in 2022, saying:

"The following week, I showed up to Monday Night Raw and I'm 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 Jonathan 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 three 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 three 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."

Flair and Bischoff later buried the hatchet and worked together for years after, even becoming friends at one point, but the old animosity has arisen again in recent years, with Flair repeatedly calling Bischoff a “pr*ck” in 2022. 

H/T WrestlingNews.co

8. Mick Foley

The beef between Ric Flair and Mick Foley stems from shots the two men took at one another in their respective autobiographies. In Mick’s first book, he claimed that Flair was ‘every bit as bad on the booking side of things as he was great on the wrestling side’ while suggesting that Ric had held him down during his early 1990s run in WCW. 

Flair, in response, branded Foley a ‘glorified stuntman’ and likened his talent level to that of The Ultimate Warrior or Brutus Beefcake. Flair doubled down on his comments in interviews promoting his book, while Foley took shots at Flair in a promo he gave in Ring of Honor. 

When the two men ran into each other backstage at the December 13, 2004, Raw taping, things turned physical. According to reports, Flair threw a punch at Foley, who declined to fight the then-55-year-old as the two continued to bicker. 

They wound up working a programme together in 2006 and later hashed out their differences, becoming friends while sat next to each other on a plane.

7. Becky Lynch & Seth Rollins

While feuding with Charlotte Flair in 2018, the red-hot Becky Lynch branded herself ‘The Man’, launching a nickname that would sell t-shirt after t-shirt. 

Issues arose, though, as Ric Flair claimed ownership of the phrase. Having already trademarked ‘To be the man, you gotta beat the man’, Flair filed to trademark ‘The Man’ itself in September of 2019. This caused issues not just between Flair and Lynch, but Ric and his own daughter, as well as Ric and the company. From The Nature Boy’s perspective, he was just trying to look after his own interests and claimed he had attempted to reach an amicable agreement with WWE over the phrase. 

The dispute was eventually settled, but bad blood between Flair and Lynch lingered, with the two taking shots at each other via social media and on podcasts. 

Becky Lynch’s husband Seth Rollins was dragged into the situation when Flair called him out for ignoring him during an autograph session. Though Ric said he wasn’t mad at Rollins for taking his wife’s side and praised his in-ring talents, he still took the snub as a sign of disrespect. 

Eventually, everybody made peace at WWE Raw is XXX in January 2023.

6. Shane Douglas

Growing up, a young Shane Douglas idolised Ric Flair and was thrilled when he got to work with his in-ring hero in WCW. Douglas found out firsthand, though, that it’s sometimes best to never meet your heroes and left WCW with a much lesser opinion of Flair.

Douglas believed that Flair used his influence in WCW to hold him and other young up-and-comers down, but worse was the after-hours behaviour he claims to have witnessed, including Flair getting naked and acting inappropriately in front of women and children. 

After leaving WCW, The Franchise would continually trash ‘Dick Flair’ in promos during his run in ECW, despite the fact Ric worked for another organisation. 

When Douglas re-joined WCW later in the decade, he and Flair cleared the air somewhat and worked a programme together, but Douglas has continued to deride his former idol’s character in interviews ever since, to the point that it has become one of the things he’s most well-known for.

Flair, for his part, says he doesn’t care what Douglas thinks and is bemused by the constant attacks.

5. Bret Hart

Though Bret Hart and Ric Flair are both in the discussion for the greatest wrestler of all time, they had surprisingly low opinions of each other at one point in time.

Hart initially soured on Flair after beating The Nature Boy for his first WWE Title at a house show in 1992, feeling that Flair’s performance was lacklustre and dampened his big moment. He also complained of Flair wrestling in a predictable ‘routine’ fashion during house show rematches and Hart hated taking Flair’s chops. 

Flair took exception to these criticisms and, naturally, fired back. He accused Bret himself of being repetitive and questioned his drawing ability while saying that he was a ‘legend in his own mind’ but nowhere near as good as he thought he was. 

This went on for years until the two legends resolved their issues at some point. By 2021, they considered each other good friends. 

4. Ole Anderson

Various in real life feuds took place within the Four Horsemen, with the issues between Flair and Ole Anderson standing as one of the most notable, although the issues were decidedly one-sided due to Anderson taking issue with Flair over the Nature Boy having, what Ole considered, the same basic match every night and did ‘stupid’ stuff within it. 

When he was booking the Mid-Atlantic territory during the early 1980s, Ole actually suggested to make Flair NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion specifically so he would have to travel around the world and, thus, wouldn’t have the ‘same’ match in his own promotion every night. 

Beyond that, Ole just didn’t really get on with Flair as a person, complaining about his lavish lifestyle and the fact he always seemed to be hard up even though he made big money as a top star. 

Anderson regularly trashed Flair in interviews he gave after retiring, but Flair still said he was ‘grateful’ to Ole when Anderson passed away in 2024.

3. Scott Steiner

In the main event of the 14th Clash of the Champions TV special in 1991, Ric Flair’s WCW World Heavyweight Title defence against Scott Steiner went to a time-limit draw. The match was a disappointment, considering the talent of both men, and Steiner blamed Flair for purposefully ‘tanking’ it by sandbagging his offence and cutting him off at inopportune times. 

The Big Bad Booty Daddy carried the grudge around with him and made it very public knowledge when he blasted Flair in an unscripted shoot promo on the February 7, 2000, edition of Nitro, accusing Flair of ripping off original ‘Nature Boy’ Buddy Rogers, conspiring to get Steve Austin fired, and referring to him as a ‘jealous old b*stard’. When Steiner learned of his two-week suspension at the following Thunder taping, he attempted to attack Flair in the arena parking lot.

Since then, Big Poppa Pump has been unabashed when giving his uncensored thoughts about Flair, even if the two worked amicably in both WWE and TNA. 

As late as 2022, when commenting on Flair’s last-ever match, Steiner said he would like to fight his rival for real in the ring and would ‘kill’ him if given the chance.

2. Triple H

Even Flair’s closest friends and confidants are not exempt when it comes to falling out with him. Triple H was another wrestler who idolised Ric Flair growing up and jumped at the chance to work with him when Flair re-joined WWE in 2001. 

It was The Game who included Flair in his Evolution stable, with Ric crediting his then-best pal for helping him regain the confidence he had lost during the dismal dying days of WCW. 

However, when Flair was at odds with WWE over ‘The Man’ trademark in 2019, Paul Levesque got caught in the crosshairs. Details remain sketchy, but Flair admitted that the two of them had a ‘big falling out’ over the issue and were not on good terms for several years because of it. 

Things changed after Triple H had a serious health scare in 2021. On his podcast, Flair noted that it, plus his own near-death experience years prior, had softened his stance and the two men made nice when Ric was backstage for Raw’s 30th anniversary show.

1. Shawn Michaels

It would be hard to write a better ending to a full-time in-ring career than the extended sendoff Ric Flair received during WrestleMania 24 weekend. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on Saturday, had one last great match with Shawn Michaels on Sunday, and got to say farewell in front of his fans while soaking in the adulation of his friends and peers on Monday Night Raw. 

Michaels and Flair were close friends and there was nobody better to carry Flair in his last WWE outing. While Ric may have been grateful for what Shawn did for him (not to mention the $65,000 Rolex he received as a gift after), that didn’t make The Heartbreak Kid immune from his wrath. 

Flair laid into Michaels for comments HBK made about him on an ESPN 30 for 30 special in 2017, specifically that Ric Flair doesn’t love and never took the time to get to know the real ‘Richard Fliehr’.

Flair admonished Michaels in videos posted to social media two years later, asking him who he was to judge his character, given Shawn’s own murky past. A few weeks later, however, Flair apologised for his comments while noting that he was upset and had ‘gotten excited’.