Triple H will no longer step foot inside the squared circle as he recently announced his retirement. It turns out he was planned to retire WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair, who had his last match against Shawn Michaels instead. ‘The Nature Boy’ opened up about alternative plans that the company had for his retirement match back in 2008.
Ric Flair talks about the plans
Shawn Michaels sent Flair into retirement after defeating him at WrestleMania 24. It marked his last match for Vince McMahon’s company. However, ‘The Nature Boy wrestled in other promotions after leaving. On his To Be The Man podcast, Flair was asked by a fan if other stars were considered to be his opponent at WrestleMania 24. The Hall of Famer said that Triple H was another option for his final match in the company. However, that was not materialized. Here is what he said:
“I think just Hunter [Triple H]. Yeah, I don’t think Randy [was to face him at WrestleMania 24]. I wrestled Randy in a way through, Randy was gracious enough [to wrestle him].”
Flair revealed on the same show that Michaels had pitched the idea of retiring him to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. He said:
“Shawn wanted to do it [retire him]. As a matter of fact, I’m so flattered – I think about this – Shawn said, ‘Why can’t I do the retirement speech too?’ I mean, I was so flattered that both he and Hunter [Triple H] wanted to do this,” said Flair.
You can check out the podcast below:
Ric Flair is set to make his in-ring return on July 31 after losing to Sting on the September 12, 2011, episode of TNA IMPACT. Flair will step foot inside the squared circle for the last time by facing The Rock’ n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) and a mystery partner in a six-man tag match. The WWE legend will be teaming up with ROH and AAA World Tag Team Champions FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler).
