Ric Flair is returning to the ring during SummerSlam weekend in July on a card called Ric Flair’s Last Match.
Flair has a pacemaker in his chest after nearly dying five years ago. It’s rational to conclude the 73-year-old legend should never wrestle again given his age and what his body has endured.
On his To Be The Man podcast, Ric said he appreciates fan concern over his health, but he’s fully capable of doing one more match. Here’s how he explained it, courtesy of the transcription from WrestlingNews.co:
“I just want to address a few things that I think people need to hear about. I would say it’s 70% positive. But for the 30% of people that are worried about me getting in a ring and wrestling again, first of all, I assure you that I’ve been in the ring a lot more than I’ve shown on social media.”
“I have to get quicker. I have to get faster. I’m in better shape now because I train with Rob, John Cena’s personal trainer, than I’ve ever been in my life in terms of cardio. I’ve never been a cosmetic wonderboy so I am going to wear a shirt, but I can assure you that in two and a half months, I will put on a clinic of what real wrestling should be about.”
I find it extremely difficult to believe that Flair is in the best cardio shape of his life. I hear variations of this “best shape of my life” talking point all the time in Spring Training from baseball players in their late 30’s, and it rarely turns out to be true. And they don’t have pacemakers in their chest.
Ric continues on, explaining that his return to the ring is not about the money.
“...you don’t see how much money I make from Cameo. That alone I can live on for the rest of my life. I just made a commercial for Carshield. My life is good. I don’t need the money, but baby, I do like the glory. I’m never going to walk away from it. If I have a chance to get myself over, I’m going to do it. That’s what I’ve been doing my whole life.”
“If I can crash in that airplane with a pilot killed and two guys are paralyzed and get back on another plane and fly six months later, you could do anything. So I almost died four years ago. I got a pacemaker. I almost died of a blood clot. I had four heart operations in seven weeks. I’m good to go.”
“I will decide on when I want to go. So this is not about the money. This is about me doing what I’ve done my whole life.”
Flair finishes by saying he got the approval to wrestle from his favorite heart doctor:
“So I follow one heart doctor that I have the most confidence in, the guy I like the most. I called him and said I wanted to do this.”
“The only thing I was worried about was getting in with a pacemaker. He said, ‘Ric, there’s enough scar tissue around that thing now that I believe it’ll hold. If you want to do it, do it.’ That was the answer. That was the only concern.”
“The other concern, which I haven’t had in a long time, would have been when I get dizzy because of the equilibrium issue that I have with the inner ear problem, but I haven’t had that since I wrestled Edge in a ladder match. So, just a couple of concerns, but I’m not afraid of it.”
“I have more self confidence, which is important for me personally, than I had when I wrestled Shawn, especially because this will be a tag match format.”
Are you buying what Ric Flair is selling about being “good to go” for one more pro wrestling match? Let us know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
Loading comments...