Talk about it here.

Seems to be some sort of post-Starrcade press conference, and Flair gives a great interview. His mouth isn't bleeding, so at first, I was thinking this had to be on a different date, but I think he just cleaned up. I like the serious, low-key side of Flair, especially because that side hadn't really been emphasized in years.

Even cleaned up he looks like he was in a war, and a bit shell shocked from the war with Vader. I thought Gene kinda hurt this. I felt he should have been a bit more low key. Still good stuff.

Yep, Gene was interrupting Flair at times. Putting his hand on Flair's shoulder to try to get him to wrap things up faster. Okerlund named Hogan in here. Was Hogan already in the works to come to WCW at this point?

Not sure if Hogan in WCW was a strong possibility this early, but Gene was probably referring to the semi-famous story of Hogan calling Flair the morning after the show and saying, "You made me cry last night, you old bastard."

They certainly mentioned him quite a few times around this time, maybe starting with this interview. And from what I remember, one of the Apter mags (most likely PWI) had done an article featuring pictures of Flair with Hogan and Jimmy Hart in late '93. He legit didn't sign with them until June, but Bischoff must have been pretty confident they were going to make a deal to let people drop his name on television.

This was a great, great interview. It felt very real but I do think Gene was distracting at times.

Gene was definitely distracting and I was also shocked that he mentioned Hogan as well as the Fratellos as all people. I assume he was referring to Mike Fratello. Flair does low key interviews real well and they are such a nice contrast to his styling and profiling promos.

Gene was distracting but he was also asking some legitimately good questions and having a real back-and-forth with Flair--I thought it was a strong overall performance, considering his job was normally to hold a mic and make smartass responses once the heel had left. Flair looks like hell--a big nasty shiner over his left eye and he's having trouble talking thanks to Vader whacking him in the chops.

I didn't notice Flair's black eye, but he definitely looked like he'd been through the mill more than once.

 

The Hogan name drop was a shock, and Gene sort of sloughed over it quickly, since he probably wasn't sure if Bischoff was going to let it air.

 

I liked the questions, and I thought that Gene put his hand on Flair's shoulder out of friendship more than anything else. Even if it was a wrapup signal, it was a lot more subtle than waving a finger in a guy's face, which is what he normally does in a situation like this. Cutting Ric off while he was acknowledging his family was ridiculous, though, especially since Gene had asked a question specifically about them. At the very least, they should have let Ric say his piece and edited it in post-production if they needed to.

 

I thought Flair was very complimentary toward Vader, but he probably won't stay that way, since there are more confrontations between them on the horizon. Still, any man who makes Ric Flair doubt himself, even briefly, is quite a man indeed.