Stone Cold Steve Austin has named WWE and WCW icon Ric Flair as the finest wrestler to "ever lace up a pair of boots."
The beer-swilling 'Texas Rattlesnake,' 54, snubbed the likes of The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart and The Rock in favour of the 'Nature Boy.'
"He's the absolute greatest of all time to ever lace up a pair of boots, and the greatest world champ of all time," Austin told TMZ.
Austin, real name Steven Anderson, has a lot of respect for what WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan did for the business.
But the WWE legend has a special relationship with Flair, 70, and admitted that the two of them have a close friendship.
"Hulk Hogan was such a huge name in his right with putting wrestling on the map, what he did and taking it to the heights he did. But Ric is someone I really hold near and dear to me," he explained.
"Many people know Ric better than I do, but we've become such good friends and I have such admiration for him.
"I've been down in the dumps too and I've had guys reach out to me and it's helped me out when I've been in a bad time.
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"So, any kind of support that I can be there for Ric, I'm glad. I'm proud to be his friend, a close friend. And I wish him nothing but the best.
"He's a very special human being. They broke the mold when they made that guy."
Flair holds a record-tying 16 world championship reigns alongside John Cena and was the first two-time inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame.
The wrestling promotion enshrined him as a singles star first in 2008 before he was later inducted in 2012 as a member of the legendary Four Horsemen.
Stone Cold made his stunning return to WWE on Monday for the promotion's Raw Reunion episode and promised to bring plenty of beer.
And the WWE Hall of Famer lived up to his word as he downed plenty of booze after the show went off air.
Austin has refused to rule out a return to WWE again and wants the company to bring back the Raw Reunion every year.
"It felt great to be back out there," he told WWE.
"I'm not a sentimental guy, my name's Stone Cold Steve Austin and I'm known for dropping people on the stack of dimes that they call a neck.
"But to go out there with all of my brothers and sisters on this Raw reunion, I hope that they continue to do this every year because I will continue to show up.
"You don't need to ride me off into the sunset just yet."
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Featured Image Credit: WWETopics: Stone Cold, Steve Austin, WWE News, WWE
