WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair defended former WWE, WCW and TNA Wrestling creative member Vince Russo in a recent interview in regards to the demise of World Championship Wrestling, stating that Russo was not responsible for the company’s death and that the company was on its last legs by the time that Russo had arrived and that all Russo was trying to do was survive like the rest of those in the company.

Russo reacted to Flair’s comments in a recent blog. An excerpt of that blog is below.

It was only recently that Ric Flair went on that same talk show in the UK and was asked the question, “Did Vince Russo kill WCW.” Truthfully, I had no idea this interview even took place, until somebody told me about it on twitter. When told that I should look at the video and see “what Flair said”—I about threw up in my Taxi wastepaper basket. In my heart, of hearts, I knew, that if the iconic Ric Flair feel into the trap of placing the smoking gun in my hand—whether it was the truth, or not–this would be the final vindication that all my haters needed—to just put me in the hole and throw the dirt on top. In their minds, if FLAIR said it—then it must be true.

So Ric was asked the same question I was–in the same exact studio I was–only a few short months later. In putting in my ear buds I was expecting the worst. In my business you just “assume” that everybody is going to pile on when it is the sheik thing to do. But on this day . . . Ric Flair didn’t buy in. Flair quickly put the kibosh on the interviewers question when he said that WCW was dead “long before Russo got there”, and all he, Russo, was trying to do was “survive” like the rest of us.