As we’ve been reporting here on eWn, Ric Flair was involved in an incident at a Piesanos restaurant in Florida over the weekend.
According to the WWE Hall of Famer, he was asked to leave due to a disagreement with the kitchen manager, whom he accused of spending a long time in the restroom. Co-owner Jerry Roberts confirmed the decision to ask Flair to leave before a video of the incident surfaced on TikTok, showing Flair having a verbal altercation and denying any wrongdoing.
Earlier today, Flair spoke with The Gainesville Sun in an attempt to clarify his side of the story. The Nature Boy said that when he went to the bathroom, he was approached by a member of the staff. The staff member used the stall and could be seen in the cracks “texting away.” Flair stated,
“I’m like, I don’t shake hands or take photos in bathrooms. Any man that goes into a bathroom knows you can see into the stall. I said, ‘Get your a– off there, I need to use the restroom.”
After leaving the stall, Flair claimed a female member of the staff called him a ‘creep’ and ‘peeping tom’.
Flair added, “I’m not going to tolerate that and you wouldn’t either,” he said of the employee’s comments. “… That’s a pretty offensive remark. I’ll be quite honest with you, I was pissed because I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s my word against the kitchen employee and it makes no sense. I admit to everything I said. I have no problem with it because I was mad. I have the money to buy the restaurant. It’ll be called Ric Flair’s Italian Bistro.”
Flair was asked to leave after insulting the staff and tried to give a $1,000 tip to a bartender. Piesonas co-owner Jerry Roberts claimed that they denied Flair’s tip and instead, the ownership team paid staff out of their own pockets.
Roberts added, “It was really a matter of principle on how our team was treated and no matter how much money someone’s willing to spend, if their not going to treat our team with respect, we just felt like that was the right thing to do.“
UPDATE: Ric Flair appeared on “The MJ Morning Show” on Q105 earlier today and further addressed the incident.
While Flair admits he shouldn’t have gotten angry, he felt like he needed to stand up for himself. Flair also claims he wasn’t drunk and “only had Michelob Ultras and ‘probably’ two mixed drinks.” The Nature Boy went on to say that he ended up ordering food from the same place via Uber Eats after the incident.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the confrontation blowing up: “It just escalated and I was wrong for getting mad, but I kind of felt like I was defending my position.”
On standing up for himself: “I was wrong for losing my temper. When I feel like I’m put in that area where I’m uncomfortable and all of a sudden everything just fell apart, I got upset. I was wrong for getting upset. I probably just should have just walked out the door, but it caught me so off-guard because we were having a wonderful time. Then all of a sudden … someone in their kitchen said I did something wrong in the bathroom and there’s no one there except me and him.”
As we’ve been reporting here on eWn, Ric Flair was involved in an incident at a Piesanos restaurant in Florida over the weekend.
According to the WWE Hall of Famer, he was asked to leave due to a disagreement with the kitchen manager, whom he accused of spending a long time in the restroom. Co-owner Jerry Roberts confirmed the decision to ask Flair to leave before a video of the incident surfaced on TikTok, showing Flair having a verbal altercation and denying any wrongdoing.
Earlier today, Flair spoke with The Gainesville Sun in an attempt to clarify his side of the story. The Nature Boy said that when he went to the bathroom, he was approached by a member of the staff. The staff member used the stall and could be seen in the cracks “texting away.” Flair stated,
“I’m like, I don’t shake hands or take photos in bathrooms. Any man that goes into a bathroom knows you can see into the stall. I said, ‘Get your a– off there, I need to use the restroom.”
After leaving the stall, Flair claimed a female member of the staff called him a ‘creep’ and ‘peeping tom’.
Flair added, “I’m not going to tolerate that and you wouldn’t either,” he said of the employee’s comments. “… That’s a pretty offensive remark. I’ll be quite honest with you, I was pissed because I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s my word against the kitchen employee and it makes no sense. I admit to everything I said. I have no problem with it because I was mad. I have the money to buy the restaurant. It’ll be called Ric Flair’s Italian Bistro.”
Flair was asked to leave after insulting the staff and tried to give a $1,000 tip to a bartender. Piesonas co-owner Jerry Roberts claimed that they denied Flair’s tip and instead, the ownership team paid staff out of their own pockets.
Roberts added, “It was really a matter of principle on how our team was treated and no matter how much money someone’s willing to spend, if their not going to treat our team with respect, we just felt like that was the right thing to do.“
UPDATE: Ric Flair appeared on “The MJ Morning Show” on Q105 earlier today and further addressed the incident.
While Flair admits he shouldn’t have gotten angry, he felt like he needed to stand up for himself. Flair also claims he wasn’t drunk and “only had Michelob Ultras and ‘probably’ two mixed drinks.” The Nature Boy went on to say that he ended up ordering food from the same place via Uber Eats after the incident.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the confrontation blowing up: “It just escalated and I was wrong for getting mad, but I kind of felt like I was defending my position.”
On standing up for himself: “I was wrong for losing my temper. When I feel like I’m put in that area where I’m uncomfortable and all of a sudden everything just fell apart, I got upset. I was wrong for getting upset. I probably just should have just walked out the door, but it caught me so off-guard because we were having a wonderful time. Then all of a sudden … someone in their kitchen said I did something wrong in the bathroom and there’s no one there except me and him.”