Ric Flair discusses WrestleMania 33, Puma WWE-themed footwear launch
By Jack Crosby
Ric Flair took the time to sit down with FanSided to discuss WrestleMania, daughter Charlotte and the launch of some new WWE-themed footwear
There are discussions throughout all of sports and entertainment as to who the greatest of all time in the respective area is, and a lot of times, you’ll see or hear some of the same names pop up every single time. When it comes to the world of professional wrestling and WWE, more than most out there will fire out one name when asked who the greatest of all time is — “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
A 16-time world champion — that number could be higher depending on what stats you read — Flair had one of the greatest in-ring careers in the history of the business. With his illustrious in-ring career in the books, these days Flair is an ambassador for WWE, making some appearances on television, mainly in some capacity with his daughter Charlotte.
With WrestleMania weekend here, Flair is using his ambassador role with the company to promote an exciting new partnership between WWE, Puma and Foot Locker. The partnership was brought about to release limited-edition footwear featuring designs of six WWE legends. These legends include Flair himself, The Undertaker, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, the Ultimate Warrior and Stone Cold Steve Austin.
“I’m just getting really familiar with it now, but I’m learning that it’s a new partnership with the company,” Flair said. “Obviously Puma is a great company and they’re successful, and anything that comes to our brand that makes us look better I’m always in favor of.
“I think it’s gonna be great and the experiment has worked out pretty well so far, from what I’m hearing.”
To find out more information on purchasing the new footwear, you can visit Foot Locker’s Launch Locator for details.
Of course, the launch was timed perfectly as WWE is currently celebrating its most important weekend of the entire year. This Sunday from Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, WrestleMania 33 will take place, with a plethora of good matches on the card playing out in the ring.
But which one is the “Nature Boy” looking forward to the most?
“The one my daughter’s in,” Flair not-so-surprisingly admitted, referring to the Fatal 4-Way Elimination match that Charlotte will be taking part in along with Nia Jax, Sasha Banks and Bayley for the RAW Women’s Championship.
Flair is so proud of all that Charlotte has accomplished in such a short time on the main roster, and he elaborated a bit on how she’s quickly becoming one of the best women competitors the industry has ever seen.
“She just always improves,” Flair proudly noted. “She never stops, she’s so hard on herself and she’s so disciplined. She just wants every day to be the very best that she can be, and she continues to get better every day, as hard as that may be to believe with how talented she is already.”
Aside from Charlotte appearing in her second-consecutive title match on the biggest stage WWE has to offer, there are two other bouts on the card that Flair will be keeping a close eye on.
“After Charlotte’s match, next one I’m looking forward to is the match between Seth [Rollins] and Hunter [Triple H],” Flair admitted.
“And I happen to be very excited about the Roman Reigns-Undertaker match,” Flair continued.
Many out there will be keeping a close eye on the bout between Roman Reigns and The Undertaker, and the interest it has drawn has led to speculation that it could end up closing out the night on Sunday. With The Undertaker being the legend that he is and Roman Reigns being arguably the most polarizing figure in WWE right now, this one is a tough call, even for Flair.
“Do I think Roman can beat the Undertaker?,” Flair wondered. “I don’t know, this might be one of Undertaker’s last WrestleManias and he’ll be tough to take down.”
WrestleMania is a place where stars are made and have the potential to break out. When asked about some potential breakout stars on the roster, though, Flair noted that in today’s day and age, three particular guys everyone is familiar with have set the bar pretty high for that.
“There’s three guys on the roster right now that have broken out like WWE have expected, and that’s Dean [Ambrose], Roman [Reigns] and Seth [Rollins],” Flair said. “I can’t see many right now breaking out much farther than they have; they’ve come such a long way in such a short period of time.”
WrestleMania 33 will take place on Sunday night from Camping World Stadium at 7 p.m. ET on the WWE Network, with the Kickoff Show beginning all the festivities two hours prior at 5 p.m. ET.