In July 2022, WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair had another retirement match...though we expect this one to stick seeing as the Nature Boy is now 75.
Teaming up with real-life son-in-law Andrade El Idolo, Flair defeated Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett during Jim Crockett Promotions' "Ric Flair's Last Match" event, and it was quite the spectacle (both in good and bad ways).
Flair wrestled with a pacemaker, prompting concerns he might die in the ring. At one point, he faked a heart attack and has since blamed his troubling appearance on dehydration.
Now, though, he's claiming to have suffered a legitimate heart attack during the bout.
"Yeah, I trained. I got in the best shape, ever since I was 20 years old, and then I had a heart attack during the match. I had a heart attack during the match. A lot of people didn’t [know]. I didn’t know myself until about six months ago because I went and got a - I go to the heart doctor like every six months because I’ve got the pacemaker, right? And they put that on me when I was real sick, not because I had a problem with my heart, but because they couldn’t get over the fact that my heart rate was so low, but it was from all of those hour-long matches and all that cardio."
"The guy takes me in and if you look at your heart like a round pie, there’s a piece of my heart right here, this big, it’s black, it’s gone. The guy said, ‘You’ve had a heart attack in the last two years.’ I said, ‘I never hurt.’ He said, ‘Have you passed out in the last two years?’ And during my last match, I passed out three times, and I thought it was because I was dehydrated."
"So I went in the locker room, I was with Kid Rock and Taker. 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, no, none. I feel great, that’s my problem. I’m sure I’m just gonna fall off a chair one day [Laughs]. They’re gonna say, there he is. Get that little son of a b*tch up out of here."
With any luck, the Nature Boy's last match really was exactly that because he does risk dying if he continues getting physical within the confines of the squared circle.
Flair hasn't appeared on WWE programming since last January and appears to have fallen out with the company. As a result, he signed with AEW last year and was a big part of Sting's retirement tour before his career ended at AEW Revolution.
You can watch the full interview in the player below.