After last night’s episode of Raw, Ric Flair made an appearance on the “Stone Cold Podcast” to speak to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin about his storied pro wrestling career. During the podcast, he talked about everything from surviving a bad plane crash back in the 1970s to the outrageous cost of some of the robes that he used to wear (some of them cost more than $10,000). He also touched on the death of his son Reid, the time he bought a tricked-out limousine from the governor of North Carolina (WTF?), and his friendship with Triple H. You can read an excellent breakdown of the entire podcast, which aired on WWE Network, here.
Throughout the podcast, Flair mentioned on several occasions that he ran through money throughout his career trying to live up to the persona that he had created in the ring. He frequently try to outdo fellow wrestler Dusty Rhodes and competed with him when it came to buying bigger houses and better cars. He also touched on his troubled family life and the divorces that came about as a result of him being on the road all the time, which ended up costing him a fortune. And at one point, he revealed that he borrowed money from Vince McMahon frequently. On one occasion in particular, Flair fell into debt to McMahon to the tune of $800,000, and according to him, he had to hand over the biggest check he ever received from the WWE in order to pay McMahon back.
“He’s always been there,” Flair said while speaking about McMahon. “When I’ve had financial woes, through my divorces, he’s lent me money. But I’ve paid him back…One time, I was into him for $800,000. Eight hundred grand. He said, ‘I wouldn’t lend my kid this kind of money.’ But I got my WrestleMania check [from WrestleMania XXIV]…I won’t tell you what it was, but it was a lot. Biggest paycheck I ever got in my life, right? ‘For Deposit Only.’ I handed it right back to [Vince].”
Flair’s financial troubles are very well-documented, but owing $800,000 to your boss seems like just about the worst financial situation you could put yourself in.
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[via Wrestling Inc.]
