WWE News: Arn Anderson Opens Up About Current Relationship With Ric Flair
On the latest episode of Arn Anderson’s podcast, ARN, the Hall of Famer opened up about his current relationship with longtime friend — and fellow Four Horsemen member — Ric Flair. The pair were best friends for decades, but ever since Anderson left WWE and joined AEW, the legends haven’t been as close, as 411Mania quoted him saying.
“Ric has since went his way as far as the business goes. I have went my way. I don’t think there’s any dissension, there’s no, nothing negative about it. It’s just, sometimes people grow apart and that’s much more what happened. And it’s more out of necessity, because we are going separate ways that we don’t see or talk. But for a very long time, I will say that I had a very good friend and that’s the way I will look at it taking it to my grave.”
Anderson also said that he still considers Flair to be one of the true friends he’s gained from the business, and is among a small group of people in that regard. The Hall of Famer believes that he can count the number of friends he has on “one hand,” and just because he doesn’t communicate with Flair regularly these days, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t still friends.
WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson tries to lift @RicFlairNatrBoy's spirits to no avail. #RAW1200 pic.twitter.com/BxVHOqMYVo
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) May 24, 2016
Anderson joined AEW as a backstage advisor in 2019 after being fired by WWE for reportedly letting Alicia Fox wrestle while drunk. Given that Flair is still employed by WWE, he and Anderson are no longer around each other as they used to be.
However, Anderson said his relationship with Flair became more distant when he moved to an office position while “The Nature Boy” was still wrestling. His promotion happened during the 1990s, though Anderson didn’t get into specifics about the time period.
According to Anderson, the fact he was no longer on the road with Flair is partly responsible for them losing touch with each other. Wrestlers and backstage personnel have much different schedules, and the reality was that they weren’t around each other as often once Anderson hung up his boots.
Anderson and Flair were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame together in 2012 as part of their Four Horsemen stable, which is considered to be one of the best factions in the history of sports entertainment. Hopefully, both performers will find an opportunity to reconnect with each other in the near future, as together, they played a huge part in popularizing the wrestling business in the 1980s and beyond.
