Many people who hear Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair in the same breath think of their incredible match at Wrestlemania XXIV in 2008. The match is famous for being Ric Flair’s retirement match along with HBK mouthing ‘Sorry.. I love you’ before nailing the last Sweet Chin Music. You might not know how these two legends met. In an interview for the Ric Flair Show podcast, Michaels was on as a guest. He shares the great story of meeting/ partying with Flair when he was 19 years old in Kansas City.
Shawn Michaels on meeting Flair for the first time and not paying for a drink:
“I want to say it was like Julie’s or something like that. It was just a small little nightclub. It wasn’t even a nightclub – it was just some place where there were some pool tables and a little bar. The guys used to go there and hang out and that was actually back, I was 19 [years old] at the time and that was back when the [legal] drinking age was 18. And I was going up to the bar to order a beer and ‘Naitch’ came up and he said, ‘what are you having, kid?’ I said, ‘just a beer’ and he goes, ‘I got it’. And so he bought me a beer, then, of course, I thought, ‘okay, here’s my opportunity – I’ve watched him for years and of course I just had to take that moment to let him know what he had meant to me as a [professional] wrestler’. It’s just one of those things, you’ve got your one chance to give your five inch spiel about how he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and yada yada. And all I know is that, thank you very much, I didn’t buy a drink the rest of that night” (Source: The Ric Flair Show, H/T WrestlingInc).
You can listen to the full show here.
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Not a bad night of meeting your idol!