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Former WWE manager Jim Cornette recently spoke about Ric Flair's speech at the 2023 Hall of Fame ceremony to induct The Great Muta.
The Nature Boy was in Los Angeles during WrestleMania weekend to induct The Great Muta into the Hall of Fame. Many fans felt that Sting should have been the one to induct the new Hall of Famer, given their storied rivalry back in the day.
This week on the Jim Cornette Experience, the veteran suggested that The Nature Boy mentioned Sting's name at the start of the speech, and that possibly didn't go down well with WWE. He also questioned Flair's decision to bring up the Steiners, given that Rick Steiner had heat due to controversial comments.
"Flair in the first 15 seconds says, 'I thought they probably want Sting to do it.' Do you think they wanted him to mention Sting's name and bring that up? Then Ric started talking about his experiences in Japan and the Steiners, possibly not the weekend for that, and Hase, Sasake, free squats, and Japanese training."
Cornette detailed how the 16-time world champion hardly spoke about the Hall of Famer and instead kept on rambling about the wrestlers he faced during his time in Japan.
"For about 15 seconds he mentioned meeting Muta in Atlanta in WCW. Then he said, 'They wanted me to show him Altlanta.' Nothing about he was the booker during majority of Muta's run. He called him the best Japanese wrestler he ever wrestled and then he pulled out a list of the other Japanese wrestlers he wrestled, ignored Muta for the rest of his speech, and then introduced Muta." [3:35 - 4:41]
You can watch the full video here:
WWE was reportedly unhappy with Ric Flair's speech
Earlier this week, Fightful Select reported that higher-ups in the WWE were not happy with Ric Flair's induction speech.
The report also stated that Konnan's speech inducting Rey Mysterio was well received and appreciated. However, Flair failed to get the same reaction, and his account was met with a negative reaction within the company.
This year, the Hall of Fame Class of 2023 included Rey Mysterio, The Great Muta, Stacey Keibler, Andy Kaufman, and Warrior Award recipient Tim White.
What did you think of the Hall of Fame Class of 2023? Sound off in the comments section below.
If you use the quotes from this article, please credit The Jim Cornette Experience and add a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcript.
