Speaking on the latest episode of his To Be The Man podcast, Ric Flair looked back on his only run with the Intercontinental Championship during his time in WWE. In 2005, ‘The Nature Boy’ won the Intercontinental Championship from Carlito at the Unforgiven pay-per-view event.
Speaking to co-host Conrad Thompson, Flair recalled being fined $5,000 for refusing to take a picture with the Intercontinental Championship title belt following his win. He revealed that WWE still doesn’t have a studio picture of him posing with the belt.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On WWE not having a studio pic of him as Intercontinental Champion: “They still don’t have a [studio] picture of me with the Intercontinental belt. It drives them crazy, right? I said, ‘I’m not taking a picture with the Intercontinental belt’ and so they fined me five thousand dollars. And I told them. ‘When you guys are so starved for talent, that you’ve got to fine a 55-year-old guy for not taking a picture with the Intercontinental belt, you’ve got a developmental problem with talent.'”
On if he felt the IC Title was a step down for him: “No no no. It wasn’t that. I just didn’t want to take off my shirt any more than I had to. I’m talking about vanity. It wasn’t the belt; I mean that was awesome having the belt. That’s a misconception.”
On why he really refused to get a picture clicked: “I just didn’t want to take off my shirt any more than I had to. Man, I was ducking and diving. Paying Kevin Dunn off to shoot me at different angles.”
Ric Flair’s sole run with the Intercontinental title would end in February 2006 when he lost the title to Shelton Benjamin on Monday Night RAW.
