In an Ric Flair 24 documentary bonus clip that was published on WWE’s YouTube channel, Triple H talked about an emotional moment for him during Flair’s 2008 Hall of Fame induction speech:
“People will say, ‘well, if you get the opportunity in life to meet your hero, don’t meet him.’ I met mine, became best friends with him, traveled up and down the road [and] got to induct him into the Hall of Fame. I was way more nervous about inducting Ric than I probably was about anything else that entire weekend.
Now, Ric’s doing his speech, and at some point, I see somebody wave from the curtain, like wave me over. I stick my head into the gorilla position. Vince is like, ‘how much longer has he got? He’s talking about the 70s, he’s not even in the 80s yet.’ Vince is like, ‘Well, we’re going to get dropped dead off TV, you’ve got to go out there and cut him off’. ‘You mean you want me to go on stage and tell Ric Flair to wrap up his induction speech?’
He’s like, ‘Yes, go right now, and I’m like, for the love of God, right?’. So I have to walk out there to the crowd’s booing, and I’m like, ‘You’ve got to wrap it up.’ He’s like OK, he just keeps going.
Now, there is panic at Gorilla, like people calling me over. ‘Why didn’t you tell him, well, I did tell him.’ Why isn’t he wrapping it up,’ I said ‘it’s his Hall of Fame speech, and they were like go tell him again.’
I’m like ugh. The worst possible feeling I could have is having to tell Ric, ‘you’re a legend. You had a great career. You gotta get off the stage please.’ I don’t know if that was a big deal to him or if it was like this whirlwind to him, but oh my God, for me, it was the worst moment ever. That was a crazy weekend, but then, you can’t write a better fairy-tale ending.”
