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Video: Ric Flair and Chris Kanyon debate if Kanyon was fired from WWE for being gay

Aaron Rift

Former WWE and WCW star Chris Kanyon, who passed away in 2010, made an appearance on the Howard Stern Show in 2006. Ric Flair called in and responded to the claim that Kanyon was fired from WWE because he was gay.

Video footage can be seen below and here is a recap of the conversation via Ed Jones…

Ric Flair called in to dispute Chris Kanyon’s claims that he was fired from WWE because he was gay. Basically Flair called on behalf of Vince because Producer Gary Dell’Abate (Baba Booey) said he called for Vince but most of WWE was in Japan, so they had Ric call in. Plus Ric was supposedly a friend of Kanyon and they always got along.

Kanyon gave Ric the utmost respect, called him the greatest wrestler ever, but totally disagreed with Ric. The Nature Boy had said that Kanyon was a good wrestler, but didn’t have “it” anymore and that is why he lost his job. By “it” he meant the whole package, character, charisma, etc, and Flair also said WWE really had nothing for him anymore. Howard had stated that Ric was in management, but Ric said he was just a worker. Flair said he shows up each Monday and brings his all, and he doesn’t know how he has made it this long in the business, year in and year out.

Kanyon kept pressing Flair as to why he was really fired, and Flair insisted it had nothing to do with his personal life. But he did say Kanyon made it a point to talk about his personal life, and the choices he made in his “lifestyle.” Kanyon quickly said it wasn’t a choice and they moved on, but I was shocked they didn’t press this statement more. Stern has always exposed “ignorant” people like bigots, KKK members, anyone politically incorrect, and in this case Flair was pretty much implying that Kanyon chose his gay lifestyle and was suffering for it now since he doesn’t work for them. This made it seem like they did fire him for being gay, or at least talking about it too much.

He claimed Flair knew he was gay, and that he had told his buddy Arn Anderson back in Atlanta, but Flair said he had no idea. Kanyon said he really liked Ric, but you couldn’t expect real answers since Vince still pays him, which is kind of true. Basically the segment ended with them saying we really need Vince McMahon to come in and settle this with Chris, but I am sure that will not happen.

Flair quickly took a shot at Howard wanting to know why he didn’t want him on during his book tour but Howard didn’t really hear him as it got lost in a bunch of people talking at the same time. At the end of the interview, Ric had changed his tune a bit, saying Kanyon wasn’t any good anymore, to which Chris said Flair had not seen him in 4 years so he couldn’t know what he did in the ring.

Flair also denied Kanyon’s claim that Ric wanted Chris to train his son David, to which Ric laughed and said it never happened…Flair said “work out” with his son and “training him to wrestle” are 2 completely different things.