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Yesterday, PWInsider.com sat down with WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair to discuss his latest project the Wooooo! Energy Drink, which several sports teams have adopted as their official Energy Drink and more. Some highlights from the conversation:
On getting involved with Woooo! Energy Drinks: "Everything's great. I met [business partner] Chad [Bronstein] 18 months, actually almost two years...my life's just totally changed. I'm still obviously involved with wrestling because of Ashley {Charlotte Flair] and I love it but just pursuing other interests and along with the cannabis, this energy drink has really got us all motivated. Chad and his partners came up with the idea and the concept and it really is a different formula than any other energy drink. People love it. And as I've learned from Chad if you don't go out there and promote it personally, it doesn't have the same impact if you just drop it off at the store. So, I'm enjoying it, the people we work for great and we're kind like on a tour. And we've done nine the first time, we're doing four more stores. We'll probably end up doing, probably twelve, I think we have six or seven stores if I'm not mistaken in Ohio and Pennsylvania. So we're trying to hit all of them in the next six months."
Whether he ever suspected the Woooo would take on cultural signifigance: "No, I could not. I realized when it caught on, I think I used it when I first left WWE, and every night someone would chop somebody I would text Vince, 'You're never gonna get rid of me." It caught on and I'm thankful. Not that I really overthought it, I just started saying it one day and now there's almost not a stadium probably in the country or that I've ever been and even, well not North Korea necessarily but all through Europe and New Zealand, Australia, they all, they love it. The kind of cultural expression of emotion of high, good emotion. I think about it sometimes, but I'm actually, I take it a day at a time and I'm sometimes overwhelmed but I don't share that with too many people. I've obviously shared with Chad, but you have to understand, Mike, there's a lot of jealousy in the world. As happy as I am about my success, and I mean obviously, Chad, my partner's not, but there's a lot of people that are resentful. You know how it goes, on social media and that, but overall, like when I walk in the Columbus Blue Jacket locker room tomorrow night, they know I love hockey. I can talk about hockey. Since you know, before Gordie Howe and all the guys I used to love when I was a kid growing up in Minnesota. And so I love hockey and you know I love talking about that and I can always throw a couple of names out there, I'll probably call Tie Domi to say hi to the boys, they'll be thrilled. I just look forward to it. Every day is a new day for me and every day becomes more exciting. Who's lucky enough to be at my age and experience all this stuff going on a very, very, very positive, very positive way?"
Vince McMahon selling WWE: "To be honest with you, I was surprised. I never thought he would ever walk away from it but I think he probably felt the time was there and sold it for, you know, he actually put a price on it that he thought no one would ever pay and then along came somebody and paid the price. And I think he put 3 billion more than anybody ever estimated. And that's just what I've been told and what I've read, doesn't mean it's true, but I think he thought nobody would ever buy it. And then they came along and bought it. The stock has held high and they continue to forge forward and they continue to be, in my opinion, the most entertaining product. Well, I think wrestling's more entertaining period than any others for me. I think Tony's done a great job with AEW too. The fact that Tony's picking up more programming. The people at Turner aren't dumb, they realized that the program is important and it's keeping the ratings up and you know as an example last night, they loaded up the NXT show last night, did you notice? They're really trying to beat Tony's Wednesday night show. So that remains to be seen but I don't think The Undertaker and everyone will be there every Tuesday night but it's interesting to see the chess match between the two."
Whether Intends to Wrestle Again: "No, that was completely taken out of context. No, I have no desire to wrestle again. I said I could, because I feel great. And if I did, I could be better because I would learn from the mistakes I made getting ready last time, which was not hydrating. I weighed 218 and I didn't drink any water that day, a combination of nerves and everything else. We really had worked out what you would have thought, Mike, as a decent match, not great by any means. But when I mentioned that I didn't feel good, everybody thought I was having a heart attack and that was a blatant error on my part but no, I feel great. I'm so damn...I'm probably the only guy in the business that doesn't have a knee replacement or hip replacement or anything. I feel great."
Thoughts on the Energy Drink after trying it for the first time: "I was amazed because it's so long lasting. It's not just three hour, some three hour, you know, a little bit of a high like a Five Hour Energy or a Red Bull, it's so long lasting. There's no anxiety whatsoever. I've given it to people that train with Olympians and their answer to me is, they don't even realize that six or seven or eight hours of their life has gone by and they're just wide awake. It's really good. It's very good. I'm not an expert, by any means. I drank a lot of coffee in my day but the ones that I've tried, there's no comparison and I have no problem saying that. But I think the fact that we're NSF certified, which is a big deal and none of the others ones are speaks volumes to the quality of it."
The experience of meeting fans while promoting the energy drink: "It's very rewarding. I haven't gotten a negative comment in the 11 stores I've done and people are just nice. It tells me I did something right; number one, and number two is you never get tired of hearing somebody say, "I appreciate the entertainment you gave us and my family."
Memories of Jim Crockett Promotions and the WWF running the same cities head to head: "It was great. The Marriott was never the same. They were in the [Philadelphia] Spectrum, they were at 19,000 capacity and we were at 10,000 capacity [in the Philadelphia Civic Center]. And all the guys getting to see each other because so many guys had been in the NWA and just, you know, couldn't turn down that opportunity Vince gave them to go to the WWE, which was a completely different product than what we were selling. We were selling wrestling they were selling more entertainment which ultimately prevailed because nobody understood marketing like Vince and the guys were making tons of money on just marketing aside from their wrestling pay. So that was interesting. We didn't look at it like that, we'd all see each other and have a drink and laugh and then knowing that we probably wouldn't see each other again for another 70 days. That's how long some of those runs were in between going home that they ran. Make no mistake, the guys in the WWE ran as hard as we did. I don't mean ran - their schedule was as difficult as ours."
Favorite City for the Four Horsemen in Ohio: "In the 80s we loved Cleveland. It's hard to find something to do on a Tuesday night in Cleveland. I tried. I dragged Chad's partner and a co-worker to eight different bars. We finally found one with one good looking girl in it. But I've had a lot of fun in Cleveland. The whole...it's such a sport-loving state, I mean in general, forget about football, they love, I mean the Blue Jackets. I've never been to one but I heard the games are insane, I'm really looking forward to it. Very enthusiastic and I went to High Street for the first time since the 90s. High Street is like, they made it now where it's so contemporary that it doesn't look like a college town anymore. I mean, it's a very high level, very high standard. Beautiful hotels, nice restaurants, and Chad's getting me a penthouse so I can move out there and support the Blue Jackets."
The Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team will be announcing that Ric Flair’s energy drink, Wooooo! has become the the official energy drink of their team today. Flair will be in attendance at their season opener tonight. Flair will also be making the following signing appearances today in support of the energy drink:
-12:30 pm: Hamilton & Route 33 Giant Eagle: 3841 S Hamilton Rd, Groveport, OH 43125
-3:00 pm: McCutcheon & Stelzer Market District: 2900 Stelzer Road, Columbus, OH 43219
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