Russ Weakland of HollywoodLife.com emailed me to provide the following information on Ric Flair’s behavior on the day of the WWE 2K14 Symposium. Russ noting that all of this took place before the Symposium panel discussion event but after the roster reveal:
I was at the reveal for 2K and then went over to the JW Marriot to grab some food. When I was at the bar getting food, Ric Flair arrived with a friend. Throughout the entire time he was there, he had wine but wasn’t drunk. Throughout the time Ric was at the bar, Stephanie McMahon, John Laurinitis, Dean Malenko and Michael PS Hayes came down to say hello, and all were in good spirits. The bit Flair did with Damian Sandow at the 2K reveal was fun and Ric left without incident.
As noted, Ross denies he was drunk but something seems “off”. Near the end of the video, Ross can be heard cussing while trying to cover for Flair. You can clearly tell from the video that Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan and Steve Austin are very uncomfortable. Paul Heyman and Mick Foley also appear to be uncomfortable but “play along”.
UPDATE: Ric Flair has some serious heat with management over his conduct at the WWE 2K14 “30 Years of WrestleMania” panel. According to sources, TV executive Lisa Lee was at the event and shot video of it on her camera before notifying WWE management that Flair seemed to be drunk. WWE Executives Jane Geddes and Mark Carrano were summoned to remove Flair from the stage while it was ongoing.
WWE officials are very angry at Flair, who has been in talks to be the company’s goodwill ambassador. Stephanie McMahon had to personally show up at the event and apologize to 2K Sports on behalf of WWE.
ORIGINAL Just to recap, WWE had a panel discussion for the WWE 2K14 “30 Years of WrestleMania” roster reveal consisting of Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, Mick Foley, Paul Heyman, Steve Austin and Ric Flair with Jim Ross hosting. JR was deeply sardonic in his witticisms and things got incredibly…honest. Among the highlights were Ric Flair going off on story tangents at the end, noting while discussing his WrestleMania VIII match that everyone else involved is gone and more. Jim Ross quipped at a couple of points that the event was “sponsored by Grey Goose,” the vodka and toward the end Heyman stands up, walks over and rips up Ross’ script because things have gone so far into left field.
WWE management was very displeased over how things went. You can watch the full video (which is 75 minutes as opposed to the 53 minute “official” one) below. Meanwhile, Jim Ross posted the following to Twitter:
“@dono6971: @JRsBBQ Some on-line sites are posting that you and Ric Flair were drunk.
Complete lie. I was not drunk. Ridiculous
— Jim Ross (@JRsBBQ) August 18, 2013
Seriously, you need to watch this video below, especially near the end ….
Watch live video from 2K on TwitchTV
