After over a decade away from the professional wrestling ring, Ric Flair decided to have his third and final retirement match in the summer of 2022, taking on the tag team of Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal with his son-in-law, Andrade El Idolo, by his side.
Was the match good? Eh, not really; outside of a very eye-opening faked heart attack spot that made the “Nature Boy's” ringside friends fear that their pal was legitimately going to die inside the ring, the match was totally fine, but considering the former NWA Champion was a septuagenarian with a pacemaker and a history of serious injuries, in the end, everyone left the match unscathed, and that's all that really matters.
… or did they?
Discussing the match in an appearance on the JAXXON podcast, Flair revealed that he actually suffered a heart attack in his match against Double J and Lethal, even if he didn't notice it at the time.
“Oh god, I trained, I got in the best shape I've been in since I was 20 years old. Then I had a heart attack during the match. I had a heart attack in the match. I didn't know myself until about six months ago. I go to the heart doctor every six months because I got the pacemaker, and they put that on me when I was real sick, not because I had a problem with my heart, but they couldn't get over the fact that my heart rate was so low. It was from all those hour-long matches, all their cardio. I used to do 500 free squats every day. 500 free squats, 500 pushups every day. Not every town you went to, not all of them had a gym. So my heart rate was always like 48, and they thought that it was so slow. So they put that on me,” Ric Flair told the JAXXON podcast via 411 Mania.
“Then I went to get what's called a calcium scan, which I never had before, because a couple guys died in our business of heart issues, so it kind of scared me, so I went. I blew a number on that, and the guy, they give you the stress test, shoot with the dye, put you on the treadmill, and it's two days of three hours of testing. This is six months ago, and the guy takes me in. If you look at your heart like a round pie, there's a piece of my heart right here that's gone. The guy said, ‘You've had a heart attack in the last two years.' I said, ‘It never hurt me.' He said, ‘Have you passed out in the last two years?' During my last match, I passed out three times. I thought it was because I was dehydrated. So I went in the locker room with Kid Rock and [Undertaker], I just drank two bottles of Gatorade and went back out to Kid Rock's place all night long. But I had a heart attack. It didn't hurt. I feel great.”
Wow, maybe that heart attack spot wasn't fake after all… or was at least incredibly ironic, considering how the event actually shook out. Still, in the end, Flair survived, and unless he cooks up something wild in AEW – wilder than what he's already done, at least – he probably won't die in the ring, which is very good news for all parties involved.
Will Ospreay reveals his wild Ric Flair story from AEW Revolution.
Speaking of Ric Flair's efforts in AEW, Will Ospreay recently told a very interesting story about taking a particularly brutal turnbuckle spot against Konosuke Takeshita at Revolution and then having to interact with the certified Hall of Famer while in incredible behind pain.
“F**k me, my a** after that match mate. I will say it until the cows come home. That was the most painful thing that has ever happened to me in a match ever. Not enough to stop the match, but my a** was hurting so much, it was flipping blue afterwards,” Will Ospreay explained on AEW Unrestricted via Fightful. “For me, having all that reaction and having all that expectation — even in the pain that I was in going backstage and this giant ice pack and this weird drink that looked like p*ss. But it's so lovely again. Then, laying on the flipping table crying like, ah, my a** hurts so much. I felt somebody grab my hand and go, ‘Mr. Ospreay?' I looked up, and it was Ric Flair, and I was like, ah! Let me stand back up again like, ‘Yes sir?' He was just like, ‘You're everything they've said and more.'”
Could Flair have expressed his appreciation for Ospreay at a better time? For Ospreay, unquestionably, but hey, in the end, he still earned a pretty awesome tip of the cap from an all-time wrestling talent, and that will stick with the “Billy Goat” far longer than the pain he felt on his backside.