Ric Flair has reflected on the relentless travel and wrestling schedule he endured during the height of his career.
Speaking on the Dual Time podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer recalled a period during the early 1980s when he says he had just 17 days off across three years while regularly wrestling multiple times per weekend.
“I used to work every day, twice on Saturday, twice on Sunday. From 1982 to 1985, I had 17 days off. Think about that. Three years, 17 days off.
And some of the days off I was traveling. I did one of the wildest runs I ever did where I wrestled an hour in Sydney, went to New Zealand, wrestled an hour in Auckland, wrestled an hour in Christchurch, back to Auckland, flew non-stop back to St. Louis—not non-stop, but Chicago to St. Louis—wrestled an hour in St. Louis, flew to Atlanta, wrestled an hour, and took off in the morning, went back to Atlanta or to Japan at the 13,000-mile week.”
Flair’s schedule during that era was particularly demanding due to his position as one of the industry’s leading attractions, with extensive travel accompanying his in-ring commitments.
His recollection also highlights how different the wrestling business was during that period, with top performers frequently working an extraordinary number of matches while traveling between territories and international destinations.
For Flair, the physical matches represented only part of the workload. Even some of the limited time he had away from the ring, he recalled, was spent traveling to his next destination.
