On the most recent edition of his podcast, Eric Bischoff discussed a backstage altercation that took place between himself and Ric Flair in WWE in 2002. Below are the highlights courtesy of WrestlingInc.
âThereâs a couple problems with the recollection of what Ric Flair gave,â Bischoff said. âNumber one, I was in a room that was used as a set, a TV Room, or my TV office room. No one else was in there. I was talking on the phone with my wife and my attorney about a real estate deal that I was closing up. I wasnât talking about Girls Gone Wild, so whoever wrote Ric Flairâs book is fabricating that story. Ric walked in with Arn Anderson. Arn wasnât standing by the door; he came into the room with Ric Flair. Jonathan Coachman was in there too, and I havenât said that anywhere else before either. Jonathan Coachman was in there as well and saw the whole thing go down.â
âI had no idea because I had been out having a beer with Ric and Arn the week before after TV and had gone out a couple previous to that night right after getting there, shortly after,â he said. âSo my thought process, my thinking at the time was that I was sitting there on the phone with my attorney and my wife was that Arn Anderson and Ric came in, which didnât bother me and I didnât think anything about it until Ric started screaming for me to get out of the chair. For a brief moment I put the phone on my shoulder and asked Ric, âWhat the fâk?â I thought it was a rib at first.â
âNow, Ric was throwing punches, which by the way never connected. I was sitting in my chair. I wasnât defending myself. I was sitting in my chair and Ric started rifling shots at my head, which none of them connected. They were working punches. He may have intended for them to be shoot punches, but to my point I was out on television 45 minutes after the fact and didnât have a mark on me, so you can believe me, not believe me, donât give a fâk, just giving you my side of the story because you asked,â Bischoff said. âBut heâs rifling shots off. he was so upset, and by the way my wife and the attorney were still on the phone and they were hearing all of this. I was still confused about the entire thing, like, âWhat the fâk is going on? Am I in a scene? Whereâs the camera? Weâre shooting an angle here and nobody told me about it.â Those were the kind of thoughts that were going through my head and I was really confused until I looked at Ric Flair and he was so pissed off he bit the inside of his lip and blood was coming out of his mouth. Mind you, I was still sitting in the chair and heâs bleeding from the mouth throwing punches at me.â
âNow, I did get up and I threw the phone down and I said, âRic, what the fâk are you doing?â He then went off on me, although I forgot what the words were. I told him that I wasnât going to fight him, thereâs just no way, I wasnât going to fight Ric. He came after me and threw a couple more punches, he wanted me to come after him but I wasnât going to do it. I finally got back up against the wall and I had no where else to go, and that was when Sgt. Slaughter came in and broke things up. So I never got kicked in the leg, he never had his thumb in my eye, he never had me down on the couch, none of that stuff happened,â he said. âWhat happened was that he walked in, I donât know what set him off, something must have triggered him, he was hot and wanted to beat my ass and threw some leather at my head, I got up and got out of the way, didnât have a mark on me when I went out to do television and Sgt. Slaughter did come in and pulled him out of there. Arn Anderson didnât do anything, just stood and watched. I lost a lot of respect for Arn Anderson that day. That was it, it was over, and when Slaughter took Ric Flair out I was thinking, âWhat the fâk was that all about?â Again, context is king. A week before that I was out having beers with both him and Arn Anderson after a show. It was just weird.â
âAs soon as it was over, I thought, âWell, this was fâked up.â I didnât want the word to go around and I didnât want Vince McMahon hearing it from someone else first, so I went back to Vince McMahonâs office, which wasnât something that I ever did. I didnât go back and try and talk to him during the course of the show unless it was something I had a question over in a performance he was involved in I left him alone,â he said. âI went back, knocked on the door and told him, âI donât know what the fâk just happened but hereâs what happened, itâs all cool with me. I have no issues but I wanted you to know. I didnât fight Ric Flair. I wasnât going to fight Ric Flair, not at an arena.â And he said, âAlright, I will look into it.â I walked out and Gerald Brisco met with me. By this time he had heard what was going on and Gerald Brisco was upset. He thought that I would be a lot more upset than I was. I really wasnât upset, I was just confused more than anything. I was shocked and confused because he didnât lay a finger on me. I wasnât concerned about getting my ass beat, I was just confused more than anything.â
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