In April of 1995, Ted Turner-owned World Championship Wrestling teamed up with New Japan Pro Wrestling to put on the largest pay-per-view in pro wrestling history, held in Rungnado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea. As part of the International Sports and Cultural Festival for Peace, the “Collision in Korea” was a two-day show with a combined attendance of 340,000. North Korean organizers hoped to entice the greatest athletes in the world to come — and though many declined — boxing legend Muhammad Ali and “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair led a small gang of Japanese and American pro wrestlers to the secretive country. Nearly 19 years later, Flair discussed his trip to Pyongyang with For The Win.

FTW: What was it that made you decide you wanted to go to North Korea?

Ric Flair: Well, initially it was going to be Ted Turner, Jimmy Carter, me and Muhammad Ali — in the end it just ended up being myself and Muhammad Ali, and some other guys that worked on the undercard (the Steiner brothers, the Road Warriors, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Scott Norton to name a few). I just thought, number one, it’d be cool to travel with Muhammad Ali. Number two, it was a challenge, and I just thought it would be an experience to remember later in life.

FTW: Did you consult anyone before you went over? Was it an easy decision for you, or something you had to think about for a while?

Flair: I talked to some friends of mine in politics and asked what they thought, and they all thought I was crazy for going. Back then I was just a team player, and they wanted me to go. I think they asked, if I’m not mistaken, George Foreman if he wanted to go. When I’m in the same light, the same consideration as George Foreman… that’s pretty cool and I’ll accept the opportunity.

FTW: Can you describe the experience of getting off the plane in North Korea?

Flair: It was extremely intimidating. They split us all up, took our passports, took us to different hotels, and they assigned different people to take care of us. I had someone who stuck with me all the time, from the sports ministry department. The guy who was taking care of me looked at me, and I had a Rolex on. He said “do you know how many years I would have to work to buy one of those?” I had no idea, he said “10 years.” People over there were making six dollars a day.

FTW: What was the crowd like at this arena, because it’s a little eerie to watch the show on tape? The announcers repeatedly say there were 190,000 people there that night, is that legitimate?

Flair: 190,000.  I didn’t even know they had a facility that would hold [that many people]. It was huge — it was a two-day event, I didn’t wrestle the first day. I watched the show with Ali up in the sports minister’s press box. They had a card show, did you see that? It was like synchronized swimming — the cards showed a couple of missiles taking off from Korea, one going to Japan and one going to America.

Flair: I think initially they expected it to be more like amateur wrestling… they would ask me how [these wrestlers] could do this to somebody, you know, a wrestling move. I would say “I don’t know, they couldn’t do it to me.” They probably thought they were getting duped a little bit.

The crowd enjoyed it, and I wrestled Inoki the second day. The crowd responded pretty well to him. (Though Inoki is Japanese, he was trained by Rikidōzan, a revered athlete in North Korea) It’s hard to explain, it was just really intimidating.

Flair: They kept us three days after the event — we were supposed to leave right after but they kept us three days longer. The thing that really disturbed me the most was that they wanted me to make a public statement…. that after my time in North Korea, I saw that they could dominate the United States of America if they wanted to. I couldn’t say that, you know what I mean? I can’t remember how I angled my way around that one but I did not say that. I just said that I was thrilled and honored to be there and appreciated their hospitality. They were, for the most part, very nice. It was just an intimidating format, the whole time. There was no misunderstanding that [the North Koreans] wanted us to know that they were a threat as a world power.

One of the guys over there [Scott Norton], apparently called home and said something that would indicate I guess that he wasn’t happy where he was, that he didn’t like being there, and they cut off his phone. I didn’t communicate to anybody… I brought my wife and kids to Tokyo with me in case I didn’t make it back.

FTW: Do you have any souvenirs from the trip, or did you take any photos?

Flair: They wouldn’t let us take pictures. You know what they gave Ali and I? They gave each one of us a huge engraved vase, that was the extent of what I brought back. I didn’t go shopping or anything, I just stayed in the hotel, and did the tours that were pretty much mandatory. In all fairness I can’t say they treated me badly. The watch thing still cracks me up, the guy wouldn’t stop talking about my watch. I almost wanted to give it to him to make sure I was going to get out of there.

(USA TODAY)

FTW: You visited at a different time, and North Korea has since lessened travel restrictions and opened the door a bit. What’s your reaction to Dennis Rodman visiting the country?

Flair: I don’t really have a reaction. Dennis and I used to be friends, but I’ve probably seen him once in the past 10 years, so I don’t see Dennis enough to discuss it with him. I just know if I was over there, I’d be on my best behavior every minute.