Conrad Thompson says Ric Flair's Last Match part of 'master plan'
Conrad Thompson has opened up regarding how everything came together for Ric Flair's Last Match.
Speaking on My World with Jeff Jarrett, Thompson said the event was part of a "bigger master plan."
"You and I talked about this over a year ago," Thompson said to Jarrett. "I said, 'no, I'm not doing wrestling, I'm not promoting wrestling, I'm not negotiating finishes, I don't want to be involved in the politics.' I like my lane but this opportunity presented itself. The real story that we're not talking about, we will tell you one day, but this is part of a bigger master plan and no it does not involve Ric Flair wrestling again but the entrepreneur brain kicked off and I saw an opportunity for Sunday and I said, 'if I don't do it, I'll wonder what if, so let's do it.' We rolled the dice, I couldn't be more tickled with the results."
Thompson also credited Tony Khan and Vince McMahon for allowing contracted talent to take part in the event.
"I want to give a ton of credit and props and kudos to Tony Khan for allowing really the forbidden door to happen. We're not supposed to talk about it but we're going to say it one time, we had an AEW superstar tag teaming with a WWE special Vice President to take on an AEW superstar and Ric Flair. That shouldn't have happened," Thompson said on the show.
"There's a lot of reasons that it shouldn't have happened but Vince McMahon, back when that was a thing, green-lit it and so did Tony Khan and this could not have happened without both of those folks allowing it."
Thompson would continue to talk about how it was decided that Flair and Andrade El Idolo would team up against Jarrett and Jay Lethal in the main event.
"There were lots of ideas put together for how could we do Ric Flair's last match but when we settled on a story, it sort of clicked. 'Hey, wait a minute, the videos of Jay Lethal training with Ric have gone super viral, millions of views,' so we already have a built-in story there, we can just build on it. But it doesn't make sense for Jay to be his partner because they've been working against each other. So, in an effort to best take care of my father-in-law and Morgan's grandpa, let's make sure the guy he's wrestling that night is the guy he's been wrestling four times a week since April."
Thompson also addressed fans who were concerned about Flair's health heading into the match.
"I know there was a lot of people who said, 'oh man, when Ric steps through those ropes he's going to die.' Okay smart ass, he wrestled an hour a week four days a week since the first week of April. So, when he stepped through the ropes that Sunday it wasn't the first time he had done it, it was just the first time you had seen it."
In terms of Jarrett being Flair's other opponent, Thompson said Jarrett's loose association with the Four Horsemen played a role.
"We had been talking about on this podcast, is Jeff a Horsemen? Is he not? For over a year. So, those two things just fell in line, and by the way, over the summer, literally the day our tickets went on sale is when Andrade married Charlotte. So, everybody now knows through TMZ and People Magazine and everywhere else that Andrade is Ric Flair's son-in-law and everybody also knows that Jay Lethal has been training Ric Flair for his last match. I happen to be in business with and partners with a guy who knows how to be a heel in Nashville better than maybe anybody and so here we are. It worked but it couldn't have happened without Tony Khan, it couldn't happen without Vince McMahon."
Thompson would continue to praise MLW's Court Bauer, Impact's Scott D'Amore, and AAA's Dorian Roldán for allowing talent contracted to their companies to participate. He also credited the talent on the card with not treating the event as just another payday.
"Not one person involved in this treated it like it was for the payday," Thompson continued.
"There was not a bunch of big debate about what are we going to do for finishes. There was no politicking."
Thompson also mentioned that the undercard went 15 minutes short on time. They had hoped to get the main event in the ring by 8:15 p.m and they were able to do so by 8:00 p.m.
"We had an hour for the main event, we hoped for 45 minutes with the post-match at most."
"Everyone went out of their way to do it because they understood even though this might be one of the biggest crowds I've wrestled in front of or a big pay-per-view crowd or whatever, it ain't about me, it's about Ric."
"This was bigger than a one-off, this was bigger than a one-time show. No, we're not starting a promotion, I'm not saying that, I'm definitely not saying that. I'm just saying everybody minded their Ps and Qs because what are we going to do? Boy, if they don't do what we need them to we're going to punish them next week on TV? There is no comeback, this is it, they just did it and it was such a special thing."
Thompson spoke about the event on My World with Jeff Jarrett.
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