WWE News: WWE Hall of Famer Larry Zbyszko reveals why Ric Flair refused to wrestle him

What’s the story?

Hannibal TV recently interviewed Larry Zbyszko, where the WWE Hall of Famer was asked if there was a particular reason why Ric Flair never wanted to face him. Here is how Zbyszko responded:

“He made comments to the boys saying, ‘That Zbyszko, he ain’t crap. It’s only because of Bruno, I’ll take care of Zbyszko.’ So the word got to me through the grapevine of the boys, so I said, ‘You tell Flair whenever he wants to see who the better guy is, let me know.’”

Zbyszko went on to add:

“In those days that was the way of saying, alright, we’ll get in the ring and this is gonna be a shoot brother.

Then some years down the road in WCW, they wanted me and Flair to work with each other, because we’ve been around 20 years and we’ve never wrestled each other.

Then Flair didn’t want to do it, he thought I would hurt him and wanted someone else--but that’s when he took off with the belt or something and went to WWE, he jumped ship.”

In case you didn’t know:

Ric Flair had signed on with WWE in August of 1991 and had brought the WCW World Title to WWE by calling it the ‘Big Gold Belt’ and billed himself as the ‘Real World Champion.’

During that year, WCW had sued Flair to get the belt back, but Flair claimed that he owned the title in lieu of the $25,000 deposit paid by the NWA Champions for winning the title, which he wasn’t given when he was fired from the WCW.

The event Flair was referring to was called ‘Showdown at Shea’, which was an event that was presented by the WWWF and was held on August 9th, 1980.

The attendance for that evening was 36,295, with the main event being Bruno Sammartino defeating Larry Zbyszko in a steel cage match in 13 minutes.

The Heart of the Matter:

Fans of wrestling and industry insiders alike have long speculated why Ric Flair and Larry Zbyszko never faced each other in the ring. During an interview with Hannibal TV, Zbyszko touched on this subject and offered his explanation for the same.

Zbyszko claimed that Ric Flair was “afraid” of facing him, fearing the repercussions of his previous comments on Zbyszko and left WCW altogether as a result. Here’s the video of him answering the Flair question in its’ entirety:

What’s next?

Larry Zbyszko has retired from professional wrestling, both as a performer and commentator. In 2015, he was enshrined into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Sportskeeda’s take:

One can imagine the legendary bouts the two of them could have had if they had put their differences aside.

Zbyszko is the final AWA World Heavyweight Champion and Ric Flair has done just about everything in the industry. The two of them could have drawn big numbers, but unfortunately, the match never has and never will take place.

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