Ric Flair says he was banned from WrestleMania 41 after threatening Ludwig Kaiser
Ric Flair says he wasn’t allowed to attend last year’s WrestleMania 41 and never received a call back about a potential role at the 2026 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
Flair called in to The Ariel Helwani Show on Wednesday. During the interview, Flair revealed that he was not permitted to attend WrestleMania 41 in 2025 after making threats toward Tiffany Stratton’s partner at the time, Ludwig Kaiser, who Flair mistakenly referred to as Stratton’s husband.
Flair said:
“I threatened to beat up Tiffany Stratton’s husband last year, and I wasn’t allowed to go. A 24-year-old kid being threatened by a 76-year-old man, and I can’t go to WrestleMania. Are you kidding me?”
“That English kid, he’s gonna go as far in wrestling as a gnat. He’ll be a fly on the wall in a year,” Flair continued, referring to Kaiser, who is 35 and from Pinneberg, Germany.
Helwani asked Flair to clarify what happened.
Flair said:
“They had that thing where Tiffany made a smart remark about Ashley’s divorces, which we both know she’s not smart enough to have written. Somebody gave her the script.
And then he implied that, I’m just going based on social media, once again, which is a lot, that he was implying that he wouldn’t mind a one-off with Ashley.
And I went, okay, I need your number. I got it, which I can get anybody’s number I want any minute of any day. And I called him. I said, ‘Hey, when I see you, I’m gonna beat the s–t out of you.’
So he went like a little b—h, told Hunter, and I wasn’t allowed to go.”
Flair then implied he wasn’t sure if Kaiser was still on the WWE roster.
“Where is he now? Is he even on the roster?” Flair asked.
Helwani confirmed Flair was referring to Kaiser and told him Kaiser was wrestling in Mexico.
“I’m sure he is. I hope he stays,” Flair responded.
Flair continued by saying that, because of the contributions he has made to wrestling, there should be a red carpet rolled out for him wherever he goes.
“There should be a red carpet for me, a red carpet to the front row. And that’s how I feel about it.
With my contributions in this business and the work that I put in, hours and hours of trying to make wrestling something that it is today, and I gotta have problems with politics. Give me a break.
I’m not mad at anybody. I understand it’s politics now. It’s too much politics and not enough wrestling.”
Flair also revealed that Dennis Rodman asked him to induct him into the WWE Hall of Fame. Flair said he contacted WWE, but never heard back from the company.
“Dennis Rodman called me and said, ‘Will you induct me into the Hall of Fame?’ And I said to the powers that be, ‘Dennis wants me to induct him.’ I never got a call back.”
Rodman was inducted into the Hall of Fame last Friday by fellow NWO members Sean Waltman and Kevin Nash.
The full April 22, 2026 episode of The Ariel Helwani Show is available below. Flair was the first guest.
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.