The Unseen Side of Ric Flair: Business & Legacy | Ric Flair DSH #849

I think stuff like that is driven by anxiety.

And

you know, when you travel as fast as I was traveling,

different day, man.

I can't even picture you with anxiety.

I thought you were just laser though.

I was traveling to get a little anxiety here.

Really?

Wow.

Landing go to bed for three or four days in a roll.

You were out here partying, man.

You're probably hallucinating at that point.

I am not hallucinating, but I was tired.

All right, guys, Ric Flair here, one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Thank you.

And brought the product, too.

Brought it all.

Man, I've had some of those edibles.

Great time.

Good luck the rest of the day.

Yeah, not today.

I knew today I had to be sharp.

I take those at night, man.

What else you've been working on, man?

I know this brand's taking off.

And the woo energy, the energy drink, and the cannabis has kept me busy.

Yeah, you're still working, man.

You're still grinding.

Traveling with it, yeah, you got to support it.

You travel a lot.

Yeah, I sure do.

Do you feel like you're still working as much as you used to, or have you you taken some time out?

I don't know as much as I used to, but I enjoy it.

I mean, I like the people I work with, and

these cannabis guys are the best, some of the best friends I've had, as are the guys with the energy drink.

Nice.

When did you start using it?

We've all become

really close friends.

That's awesome.

That makes it nice.

Yeah, I know those guys.

They're great people.

When did you start using cannabis?

Was it when you were wrestling?

No, I didn't start using cannabis until maybe three years ago, the edibles.

Oh, wow.

So really late.

I mean, I smoked marijuana and all that before, but I had asthma as a kid, so I didn't really,

it wasn't that I didn't like it.

It just affected, and then I finally grew out of it like in my mid-30s.

Damn, I didn't know you had asthma.

Yeah, but I smoked, well, nothing bad.

I mean, it's nothing worse.

I was dying, but I carried an inhaler once in a while.

You know, get nervous.

It's all...

I think stuff like that is driven by anxiety.

And,

you know, when you travel as fast as I was traveling,

it's a different day, man.

I can't even picture you with anxiety.

I thought you were just lazy though.

I used to have a little anxiety.

Really?

Wow.

I'm learning to go to bed for three or four days in a row.

You were out here partying, man.

You're probably hallucinating at that point.

I'm not hallucinating, but I was tired.

Were you going on benders often, like partying, just celebrating for days?

Every night.

Damn.

You never got sick of it?

Nope.

Wow.

Not when I was younger.

Yeah.

I don't get sick of it now.

I just can't do it as often.

Damn.

Your mindset is different, man.

Yeah, I went through that phase in college, but I got kind of sick of it.

I got worse after college, just a starter kid for me.

Yeah, that opened your eyes.

Yeah,

wrestling for 52 years

for the

unforeseeable future.

Yeah, I mean, you're a living testament to that.

Wrestling for 52 years.

What was your favorite era?

What was your favorite years?

80s?

Yeah.

How come?

No social media, wide open.

week out here in Vegas.

So you think social media kind of ruined that wrestling?

No,

I think it's hurt a lot of things.

I mean, you used to be very conscious of all you

not that anybody was misbehaving, but you got to,

you know, people are just loving it.

People love to indict you.

People are so jealous of success.

It's unbelievable.

There's a lot of hate.

Especially at my age.

Really?

Yeah.

You think people like to see me making all this money?

Really?

That's interesting.

I thought people would lay off at your age because you're older and wiser.

Are you still getting hate?

Well, it's just by nobody that'll ever recognize themselves.

I mean, they all have a phony tag name and all that goes, right?

Yeah, I get hate too, but then I'll click on.

They criticize you one day, the next day they love you.

Yeah.

Yeah, I get a ton of hate, and I click on their profiles, and it's like a fake profile.

They're all fake.

Yeah, people can't use their real accounts because they're too nervous to talk.

Yeah.

Yeah, it sucks.

Then you can find them.

Have you ever confronted a hater in person?

Only if they confronted me.

I never, you know, never thought one out.

Yeah.

Yeah, there's too many to even bother with that shit.

That's interesting.

80s.

So, yeah, everything started becoming documented and you kind of had to move in silence after that, right?

No, not moving silence.

No, I've never really changed.

You just have to be more more aware of what you're doing, you know.

Yeah, there's a lot of people that are like paparazzis following you around, right?

It's annoying.

Yeah, people always want, you know, your life.

Yeah.

It's because it's a border of theirs.

When did you realize this could be a business, like a lucrative business in wrestling?

Because at first the money wasn't there, right?

Well, I never made the big money in wrestling.

I missed that, damn it.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Oh, I thought you made millions wrestling.

No,

I never had a million dollar year wrestling.

Damn.

Okay, so the money came after.

The money came after.

I make more money now than I made.

I make three times as much money as I've ever made in wrestling in one year.

Whoa.

Let me see.

Almost four times.

Holy crap.

That's interesting.

So when did...

The most money I ever made in one year in wrestling was $850,000.

Damn, $850,000.

Yeah.

I didn't know that.

Because you see all the guys now.

They're killing it, right?

Logan Paul and WWE They got to be pulling millions so you paved the way for those people

Well, you know, I don't look at it like that.

I'm just I'm happy for them.

You know they

I like to see people evolve.

I like to see the business evolve.

I like

to see people prosper.

I mean

it's what it's all about.

I mean, I think I had a lot to do with you know helping make it happen, but I don't regret not not having the money.

So you were just doing it'cause you loved it?

I loved it, yeah.

Nice.

And what year did

so you retired a few times, right?

Well, I retired in 2008, and then I was going through a divorce.

Oh, God, it's a long story.

So when you're paying a lawyer to $30,000 a month and paying $30,000 a month in alimony,

you go through the money fast.

So I went back to work

a couple of times.

Then actually the biggest thing that I've run into, I had some real estate deals that did very well.

I had had ten gold gyms Whoa that did real well I used to work out at those in the Carolinas you did yeah, Jersey.

They had a gold gym bridgewater in New Jersey.

Yeah, they were very popular at one time

so I had ten of those and

Then when the gym business got so prostituted I sold them, but I made good money on them nice

and then actually

I make a lot of money.

I do very well doing signing autographs for

Fitterman Sports.

But along came this cannabis and the Woo Energy opportunities.

These are the two biggest things I've ever been involved in.

Whoa.

So that's just working with the right people then, right?

Finding the right part.

I'm working on it and people

guiding me in the right direction.

Nice.

Like the Rod Man over here.

Yes, sir.

He goes to the same gym as me.

Shout out to Lifetime.

What happened to Gold's Jam?

I feel like they were everywhere today.

They just, well, what happened is that they,

an example, when I opened mine in 91, I was charging $50 a month.

And now you can work out for $12

a month

in its planet fitness.

I mean, I don't know how they keep, I don't know how they stay open, you know, but

they're packed.

That's how they stay open.

You can't even get a machine.

So many people.

But, I mean, are they kept clean?

And there's a lot of things about the gym business.

You have to be very careful of it.

You have to keep the locker rooms for the women really clean.

And,

you know, I've been in some I just wouldn't w work out in.

Now the the

the ones that seem to be taking over the business are lifetime.

Dude, they're 400 a month.

Yeah, yeah.

That's how much people are paying for that gym.

Yeah, but it's honestly worth it.

Yo, the prime, the new lifetime in Harbor Island,

damn business gym ever been in my life.

Yeah.

Yeah, the sauna, the hot tub,

the cold ball, raggleball.

You playing pickleball?

A little bit, yeah.

Let's go.

I love pickleball.

Yeah.

I kind of want to own a pickleball team, honestly.

You know?

You got the money.

I got some money.

I've lost a lot, too, like you.

Yeah, you know.

Well, if you knew what I lost, a divorce and a lawyer.

I saw what happened to my dad, so I can imagine.

And penalty and interest.

Oh, man.

$60K a month, you said?

Jeez.

That was for custody of the kids.

You were fighting for the...

No, no, no.

That's just what I was paying alimony to three women.

Holy crap.

At one time.

Damn.

They ganged up on me.

You think they coordinated it or was it?

No, it's just that I had been married for

great, had a great marriage for 10 years.

And she just decided, and I decided she couldn't live with my travel schedule.

I was gone every day.

The 70 days.

I'd worked 365 days a year, twice on Saturday, twice on Sunday.

That's no exaggeration.

When I was a world champion, going from New Zealand to

Tokyo back to London, London back to St.

Louis, St.

Louis to Atlanta, out to Portland, Oregon.

I mean it was that kind of a schedule.

That's nuts.

Yeah.

So um

that uh that uh marriage lasted twenty-five years and then

that was the expensive one.

So

um

no it was never ever never never an issue with the kids.

It just but they want element, they want to get paid.

Twenty-five years of that lifestyle is impressive actually.

'Cause I think a lot of women would go crazy not seeing their husband.

And your kids must have taken it hard too, right?

She never left the kitchen of 11,000 square foot home.

Yeah, when you put it like that.

What are you going to do with all that?

And the kids are gone.

Yeah, no, that's something I struggle with too.

I travel a lot, and it's definitely hard dating an entrepreneur or businessman.

I could see why some girls can't handle it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, I was watching you on Rampage Jackson's show.

Shout out to Rampage.

He's coming coming on soon.

You said you had 35 robes that cost 15 grand each.

Yeah.

Do you still have those?

No.

You sold them all?

No, my wife stole them all.

Oh, your wife?

Oh, my wives stole my robes.

Damn.

One took five.

One took six.

I've given numerous to charity.

One's in the Smithsonian, and they won't go back to me.

That's cool.

One just sold for $108,000.

Damn.

And I could probably go out and get them, but because

they've been stolen, you know, like out of locker rooms.

Yeah, $108,000 for one.

If you could find 10 of them, that's a million bucks right there.

Yeah.

You might have to hit up your ex-wife.

Yeah,

like they're going to give them back, right?

You think she still has them, or do you think she sold them?

I don't know.

You know, I've gotten to the point where I don't care.

Yeah.

That petty, they're going to steal my stuff.

You're at peace with all of it, yeah.

I didn't used to be, but I am now.

That's good because that stuff will eat at you, right?

Oh, God, that resentment and open your

last thing you do,

everybody's gone, and you open the place where you keep your secret stuff, all gone.

Yeah, bank account empty.

What?

Damn.

Oh, yeah, I got a lot of stories.

It'll be in my movie, Rock's making a movie of my life story.

Let's go.

When's that dropping?

Uh,

well, the pitch is going on right now.

I don't know.

It'll be a three-part series, I think, on

I think,

hopefully on Netflix.

But I don't know for sure what that is.

And I don't want to

quote me on that.

You have a 30 for 30, though, right?

BSPM?

I already have a 30 for 30.

And then the one that really killed it was

becoming Ric Flair on Peacock.

Peacock.

Yeah, made by WWE.

Oh, wow.

I didn't see that one.

That's better than a 30 for 30.

Really?

Yeah.

What made that one so good, do you think?

More information, more detail.

It was

nominated.

Wow.

Yeah, it was probably cool getting to show your backstory that people didn't know that about you, right?

Yeah, me being adopted out of an orphanage, a stolen baby, and all that.

Whoa.

Yeah.

Wait, you were adopted, you said?

Yeah.

Oh, I didn't know that.

I was stolen out of an orphanage.

Stolen out of an orphanage.

So they didn't legally adopt you?

They did, but they legally adopted me from people that stole me.

Holy crap.

Yeah,

they weren't aware of it.

Damn.

What a story.

Yeah, you've been through some stuff.

I also saw you take your blood work every 30 days.

That's really interesting.

After being sick,

I'm religious about it.

Yeah.

That was quite in 2017.

I was about bad.

It took me three and a half years to come back from that.

Whoa.

27 years.

Was that the heart attack here?

Huh?

Was that when you had a heart attack?

I didn't have a heart attack.

My intestine ruptured.

Oh, your intestine ruptured?

I had a bar while I was drinking.

Holy crap.

I went septic, total kidney failure, respiratory heart failure, and pneumonia.

Damn.

Took you three years to recover from that?

Well, I had a stoma for a year.

You know what a stoma is?

It's where the bag is attached to your intestine.

Okay.

In other words,

you use your

bag.

So that's your intestine, the bag?

No, it's attached to your intestine.

Got it.

And then

they waited

almost 18 months because they wanted to make sure it healed before they tried to put it back together.

And then

it's a

strange story because the doctor came in the first day and he goes,

you know,

you can't eat or drink anything here, obviously on the inner venous.

But on the ninth day it wasn't working and he

told my partner, he said,

well, if it's not working tomorrow, I gotta put the bag back on.

And the next day, it clicked.

Wow.

Yeah, so I'm very lucky.

Holy crap.

I don't take it for granted.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Was your mindset like, were you kind of checked out?

What were you thinking during that phase?

Just hoping it would work.

So you were still optimistic?

Well, you know, you learn not to be optimistic.

I was, you know, functioning pretty well by that point.

But But traveling like that, especially going to California,

I've had the bag break on me on a plane, and I have to stay in the bathroom for three and a half hours on a plane.

Whoa!

Yeah, you can't walk around with an open strong bag.

Holy crap!

Yeah,

yeah, because when you're that high up, the pressure probably breaks the bathroom.

It's just that, it just

can't expose the cabin to that odor.

Yeah, just not a cool thing.

So I'm very fortunate that I got

able to get by that.

So you've been taking your health super serious since that moment?

Everything except drinking.

You can't cut that out, man.

I can't.

I love that.

My dad's Irish, so I know how that goes.

You drank a 30-pack a day.

Yeah, crazy.

You wouldn't even feel it.

No, I know.

Well, I don't feel a 30-pack, but

I like vodka.

Yeah.

Wow, that's a tough one, vodka?

Chaser, at least?

A little cranberry for the kidneys.

Oh, man.

How long?

I drink a lot more water than I used to.

Yeah, water is important.

And I saw on Rampage's show, actually, you've been drinking since 15.

You started young.

Yeah,

you might say.

That's freshman year in high school.

I mean, I wasn't drinking every day then, but I can

remember the first time I ever did.

That's impressive.

So you were drinking every day for a certain period, though?

Every day of my life?

Yeah.

Like, how long did that last?

When I started drinking, literally drinking, I was 18.

And you didn't take a day off?

No, I don't know.

Holy crap.

That's impressive.

For real.

Like,

when I was in rehab for 35 days, other than that, you couldn't drink then.

I drank, what's worse for you?

10 dad Cokes?

Two packs of Marlboros and two cans of Skoll?

or some drinking.

Yeah.

I took that coin they gave me, walked across the street, put it on the bar, and ordered a 12-pack to coke.

Man, you got blessed genetics.

Yeah.

I don't think a lot of people could sustain that.

I think it's genetics and your mindset combined.

Just a workhorse.

You gotta be optimistic.

Yeah, I love that.

Were your family big drinkers too?

Your friends?

Oh, yeah.

I've always

drink, yeah.

Never had a problem finding people who drink.

Yeah, that's never an issue for you.

You've drank with some cool people, Motley Crew.

Yep.

You partied with those guys.

I saw their movie on Netflix.

Yeah.

What did you think of that movie?

I haven't seen it.

Oh, you didn't see it?

Yeah.

No, I drank with those guys and we were in Jacksonville, Florida.

Good guys.

They seemed like the craziest partiers I've ever seen.

Yeah, I tell you, it was a lot of fun.

It was Kid Rock.

Kid Rock?

Yeah, kid's a lot of fun.

Yeah, what was he like?

Phenomenal.

One of the greatest people I ever met.

I love that, man.

And I've had a few beers with,

I guess you would call him a big-time celebrity,

Post Malone.

Ooh.

Posty.

Yeah, Posty can drink.

He can hang?

Yeah.

Yeah, he's good at beer pong.

Yeah.

You good?

We played beer pong all the time.

Yeah.

I'll see him next Tuesday.

Okay.

In Birmingham.

How good are you at beer pong?

Good.

Yeah?

All right.

We might have to play one of these days.

Let's do it.

I got the reach.

Do it tonight.

Got that wingspan.

Yeah, let's do it, man.

I haven't drank in a while, but if you want to drink, I can't turn that that down.

Why have you drank in a while?

Just been working, man, to be honest.

That's an excuse not to drink?

Yeah.

I feel like I can't do both.

Really?

Yeah.

We have been hanging out with the right guy.

Yeah, I guess not.

You're the only one I know that could pull off both.

I don't know other people that can do that, man.

Up till 4 a.m.

to the gym before I caught the plane.

You're nuts.

I can't.

I heard when you're in a plane, you get drunk faster, right?

When you're up there.

No?

Last time I was on a plane, Hogurd and I were flying out of San Jose.

We drank 10 Bloody Marys a piece before we took off.

The guy cut us off before we took off in the air.

That's nuts.

I thought the altitude gets you more drunk, but not with you.

I've drank all the way to Tokyo without going to bed.

Oh, my gosh.

Who could keep up with you?

Have you ever met someone that can?

A lot of people can.

Yeah.

Yeah, you'd be amazed.

That's surprising.

Who can out-drink you?

Oh, I don't know now.

Most of my friends are dead.

Roddy Piper could.

Okay.

Damn.

You're one of the few remaining, man.

Yeah.

How does that make you feel?

Makes me nervous.

You fear death?

Well, we just lost two guys, and then we just lost a third.

You know, things happen in threes, and then my very close friend Pete Rowland just passed away.

damn that's sad you never know when we parted at three yeah I'm sorry to hear that yeah but you've lived I was with him that I was with him the day before he died holy crap and was he fine or fine he died of natural causes he was 83 whoa what a fun guy what a great tremendous human being damn well that's probably the best way to go out at least you know no disease or anything

um

damn that's sad that was with my Sunday wow in Nashville that happened with one of my guests recently dude dude.

I was with him, filmed a great podcast, and next week he died, 64 years old.

Well, if I walk out here and fall over, you'll be famous.

I wouldn't want to be famous for that, man.

Damn.

Yeah, death is one of those things, though.

You can't run from it.

Can't.

But you've lived such a fulfilling life.

Like, is there anything you haven't accomplished at this point that you want to?

I feel like you've done everything.

I've done everything.

Like, I can't even think of what you could do.

You've traveled the world.

I've been trying that at a house, but why?

I mean,

I've had every car I wanted.

I've got some beautiful children.

That's the important thing.

Know that they're safe and they're well off financially.

And

my grandchildren are good and they're healthy.

Beautiful.

Life is good.

I couldn't be happier.

I love that.

Yeah, that's my goal.

Like, the next generation should be better than how I lived.

Yeah.

With my kids.

Yeah, no, they're all covered financially.

That's awesome.

Yeah, you've traveled the world, too.

You've probably been to a damn near every country.

The only place I haven't been is the Mideast.

Mideast?

Well,

I've been to Afghanistan and all that to see the truth.

And I've been to Djibouti now, but I haven't been to

Israel, and I've never been to

trying to think about if I went to Iraq or not.

I don't think I went to Iraq, just to Afghanistan.

That's rough.

Yeah, what was that like witnessing all that?

Rough.

Yeah, I remember growing up as a child seeing that war on the news every day.

It looked crazy.

Absolutely horrible.

My cousin served in Iraq.

Yeah, those two wars were.

I haven't got enough to say about

how

much the military should be appreciated and more.

Absolutely.

Those guys are risking their lives for us, right?

Yes.

Yes, crazy times we're in right now with all these wars.

Scary.

What made you want to go to Afghanistan?

Did someone help you?

I went with the WWE.

We all went.

The company went.

Oh, nice.

To inspire the troops?

Yeah.

WWE is really supportive of the military.

Nice.

Now we don't go overseas anymore.

They always during the holidays go to

like Fort Hood or one of the big

Camp Lejeune or

Fort Bragg.

I mean they always

input on a show and we go out and see all the troops.

Shout out to the WWE.

It's cool to see big companies, you know, give them WWE.

WWE

stands out, I think, far and above everybody else

in terms of supporting troops, yeah.

Yeah, you rarely see big companies go out there and do stuff like that, you know.

It's just that's sad, too.

It is, yeah.

Well, it's capitalism, right?

I guess some people, some companies will sacrifice their consumers' health for money.

You're seeing that with uh certain food companies and medical companies.

It is sad.

Um, so anywhere you want to travel that you haven't been yet?

Space, huh?

Space.

No, I've never wanted to go I haven't cared much about

I think I'm from space.

People have suggested that.

What about the Titanic underwater?

Would you go down there?

No.

I can only go to about 30 feet and it hurts my eardrums.

I feel that.

Yeah, I don't get the whole space obsession, man.

I don't think the risk to reward is there.

Well, I don't understand how we can go to the moon and we can't cure cancer.

Facts.

Don't get me going on that.

Well, don't get me going on that.

Yeah, yeah.

We got to be careful.

We can go to the moon.

We can do all this technology-wise, which you're more than aware of being in this business.

But we can't cure cancer.

We can't cure paralysis.

Come on.

We got all these AIs now.

That's what that's what bothers me.

I mean, I I think it's great we've gone to the moon and all that, but

how do you put together technology like that when we can't we can't help our own people that are dying of stuff that's been

I I i'm just you know i just hope that everybody's being up front and being honest because we have too many people dying of cancer one in two dogs have it now too

one in two dogs have cancer when they die yeah wow it's going up in humans and dogs yeah every single time it's going up in humans yeah

it's something really bad with i don't want to misquote but a lot of humans when they die either have cancer or they die from cancer these days it's really terrible

i hope they

could find a cure in our lifetime.

That'd be cool.

Yeah, I wouldn't count on it.

You don't think so?

Well, I just don't.

I can't believe we haven't found a cure yet.

I mean,

and certainly the emotion of guys like Jimmy V.

And

I don't ever watch those shows like you've seen it in

the speech, right?

Yeah.

And

the guy,

my good friend from ESPN that died a couple years ago.

Oh, the black guy dressed in the suits.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, Stu?

Stu

anyway.

I know he died, but you know, he gave his speech and his daughter.

I mean, then he died a week later.

And the announcer from TNT, I mean,

those speeches are remembered forever and they're played over and over again, but we just can't seem to get over the hump

and finding a solution.

Yeah.

I'm with you on that.

Steve Jobs, too.

That was a crazy

Stuart Scott.

Yeah.

Steve Jobs was an eye-opener for me because you have all that money.

Yeah.

You still die from cancer.

That was like, holy crap, we're all vulnerable to this.

Yes.

You know, because usually you could buy your way out of a lot of problems.

Have you noticed that?

Oh, of course.

I love your honesty.

I haven't had the opportunity to do that, but

I've wanted to a couple times.

Oh, man.

Did the materialism of buying cars and houses, did that ever get old to you?

No, just

I just got what I wanted.

I wasn't even conscious of it.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

I just knew I liked nice stuff.

Yeah, you love buying nice stuff.

You made the robes popular, man.

I wasn't around before, right?

You were like the first big guy to wear those?

I think Gorgeous George did like years ago, but I've maintained it, man.

See?

There we go.

Always Brandon.

Any regrets?

Yeah, time spent with my kids will always be a regret, but I can't.

I couldn't have made the money and been as successful as I was if I didn't go to work.

Because back then, if you don't go to work, you didn't get paid.

Right.

There was no guaranteed contracts back then for us.

Yeah, I think to make a big deal.

And if your name was on the marquee, you had to be there.

Wait, you said no contract?

No, well, contracts didn't come into play till the 90s.

Whoa.

So you were just doing word of mouth, like handshake deals?

Yeah.

Holy crap.

All of us were.

So you had a lot of trust in these guys back then.

Because these days I feel like that wouldn't work.

It didn't work back then.

I'm just telling you how we lived.

I didn't say it worked.

Oh, man.

Yeah, I would have...

Too much doubt over that.

I need everything in paper these days when you're dealing with money and stuff.

No, exactly.

Especially in our economy right now.

A lot of fear and recession talks.

Yeah.

Who do you like in the election?

I like Trump.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What about you?

Well, I was just with Kid Rally and Trump Jr.

Nice.

Yeah.

I don't have anything.

I don't know Kamala.

I wish I did it.

I've met Donald Trump several times.

You know, they have a different message, but sometimes when I go to bed at night, I'm thinking to myself, you know, life is life.

and what is going to change?

I mean, every time we switch a presidency, people expect the world to turn around.

True.

It can't happen.

No matter who's in that spot, which is a very tough spot to be in,

they just can't make changes.

I mean, who's going to fix the border tomorrow?

I mean, in one day.

The election is not going to fix the border.

Yeah, it's not going to happen.

We've been through three presidencies.

I mean, and then

I guess my biggest gripe is that, which I mentioned earlier, is that we need to take better care of our military.

You know, the kids that come back from overseas that are hospitals and crippled, and

that should be the most fixable thing in the world.

Yeah, that's what gets me, too.

We're sending all this money to other countries.

Yeah.

We got homeless people, we got veterans suffering.

Yeah.

Like, why can't we take care of that?

Why are we sending all that over there?

Billions.

I know.

Why?

Well, there's some, yeah, there could be some dark reasons why.

No, No, I understand why.

We keep the Koreans happy, you know,

but,

geez, you know, sometimes you've got to start taking care of the people at home.

It's sad.

Certain cities now are not the same, man.

You walk the streets and it doesn't feel right.

Yeah, and I don't think anybody, I don't care whether it's Putin or anybody, it's got the nerve to push the button.

The nuclear button?

Yeah.

Once they push the button, everybody's gone.

Yeah, I agree.

And I mean, everybody threatens it, but

you do that, you're killing your own family as well as yourself.

100%.

You can't do that without repercussions.

I know, and it would be huge.

Yeah.

That's why I think we are,

they all know we're the strongest.

People want to play it down, but

even though we've reduced our military, or we've been told it's been reduced, I have to believe we're still the most powerful country in the world.

You ought to be out there.

I agree, though.

I think they put a lot of stress on the president.

Yeah.

When in reality.

Yeah,

and you don't really know what can happen to change the next day.

Because then the president's got to deal with the house.

Yeah.

And the house has got to deal with the senate.

And the senate's got to deal with the

house of representatives.

I mean,

there's so many ways that the president just can't go, this is this, this is this, this is this.

It doesn't work like that.

Yep.

Have you always been big in politics?

I almost ran for governor.

Really?

North Carolina.

We decided there were too many skeletons in my class

in 91.

Stormy Daniels stories would have been coming out.

Yeah.

What made you want to run?

Was it...

I'm good friends with Jesse Ventura.

Okay.

And Jesse was the governor of Minnesota.

People wanted me to run for governor of North Carolina.

Was that 2001?

Let me think.

When was Jesse governor?

I'm not sure.

I was too young for this.

I was born in 97.

Yeah.

So I flew as campaign manager.

and

at the end of the day it just didn't seem worth it when i went i went and saw jesse and he said

ricket it's a lot more than it seems like you know you would have been stressed yeah and i wouldn't have been i would have really been her social oh yeah

well that's the cool thing about trump all his skeletons are out there yeah you know i know that's what i'm saying

and it doesn't seem to have affected his popularity not at all Maybe at first a little bit, but now it's like, oh, I like it.

You know, because at least you know him.

I was just with his son last Sunday.

Trump Jr.?

And with the kid, yeah.

And what a nice guy he is.

Great guy.

I met him too.

And that's a good sign about Trump, because if his kids are nice, you know, that's a sign he's a good father.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I look at that when I meet people.

I look at how their kids are.

Sure.

Because a lot of rich, successful people, their kids are like all over the place.

Sure.

You know, I'm sure you see that all the time.

Oh, yeah.

They call them trust fund babies.

You know?

What's that like balancing that with your kids knowing you have all this money and success, but you still want them to be hard workers and everything?

Oh, it's just something I've taught them, you know, even though I mean, they've made their own money.

They're not living off my money.

My kids have made their own money, yeah.

You didn't give them any money?

No, they've made their own money.

I will leave them when I'm gone.

I'm leaving them money, but they've made their own money.

Nice.

They've made their own way.

I didn't

my daughter's probably the best, greatest female wrestler that ever lived.

My other daughter is in the medical business.

My son is in the

recycling business and doing real well with that.

Nice.

Yeah,

they've all made their own money.

That's awesome.

I've been living off my money.

Well done.

Yeah, Shaq's like that, too.

I'm glad we straightened that out.

Because

that's how things come out wrong.

No, they've made their own money.

Yeah.

So I'll be leaving them money, but they don't need it.

That's impressive.

So you plan on leaving them all your money, though?

Yeah, that's always a debate.

Should I leave it to the kids?

Should I give it to charity or whatnot?

Sometimes when you get I'll give it to them and they'll make that decision.

You know

I I don't I you know I give money to charity now and I

got a friend who's got AL ALS and uh it's horrible.

Yeah, that's a tough one.

I'll be leaving money to that, but

how do you choose the charities you uh give money to?

Um

Well, I've always been big into MD.

I've always been big into

cancer, of course, and cancer research like the Jimmy V.

But this ALS thing, man, that my friend has,

you know, where they're totally alert here, totally, 100%, but nothing works.

Wow.

It's very sad.

Yeah, you could go crazy like that.

Damn.

I remember doing that ALS ice bugging challenge years years ago.

You remember that?

Sure.

Yeah, that was a good marketing campaign.

I'll see Kevin Hart today.

I did that with him.

Oh, yeah?

Nice.

Is he performing tonight, Kevin Hart?

He's out.

We're here with the Wood Energy for a convenience store convention.

Oh, nice.

He's a partner in this, the energy stuff?

He has his own brand.

Okay.

Yeah, shout out to him.

How big is this?

Which I'll have to remind him.

Yeah.

You guys in any stores yet?

Where can people find the stuff?

Oh, God, Rodno's.

Yeah, we're

in a lot of stores already, and actually, part of the reason we're here is to promote it into new stores.

But

we're in stores like 7-Eleven, Target, Giant Eagle.

Nice.

Hell yeah.

What about these blunts?

Where can you find these?

Everywhere.

We're in, what, 16 states now?

We're in top states and we're launching in Puerto Rico as well.

Nice.

I didn't know we was leaving.

Other than 14, all

Four of them are coming soon.

Oh, okay.

Nice.

Yeah, when's Puerto Rico?

That's pretty soon, right?

Yeah.

Got the flower, too.

I didn't know weed was legal in Puerto Rico.

That's cool.

Oh, it will be.

Yeah.

That's going to be a big market.

Well, dude, thanks for coming on.

Where can people find out what you're up to next?

They can just look at my

Instagram or look at my

I've got a booking agent.

But my primary thing now is to

travel and help support these brands.

And the best way to do that is to be out there and be busy.

Absolutely.

Yeah, we'll link it below for people watching this.

Thanks for coming on, Rick.

Thank you.

Yup.

Thanks for watching, guys.

See you next time.