Flair’s “Last Match” took place in July of 2022, he found out in late 2023 that he’d suffered a heart attack during the match.
At the vibrant age of 73, Ric Flair decided to close out his illustrious career with a bang. “Ric Flair’s Last Match” was centred around the close of the career of ‘The Nature Boy’. The main event of the show saw Flair team with real-life son-in-law Andrade to take on the team of ‘Double J’ Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal. At one point in the main event, Flair was being worked over on the outside as it suddenly seemed Flair was suffering from chest pains while selling on the outside.
Flair was a recent guest on the JAXXON PODCAST, where he mentioned that he did indeed have a legitimate cardiac situation during the match. He revealed that he went to a heart doctor in late 2023 and underwent various tests, which determined he indeed had suffered a heart attack sometime in the past two years.
“Yeah, I trained (for my last match), 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. I used to do 500 free squats every day. 500 free squats, 500 push-ups every day. Because not every town you went to, these little towns, (not) all of ‘em had a gym, right? Or I would do the deck of cards or I would do step-ups on a chair. So my heart rate was always like 48. It drove people nuts that it was so slow. So they put that on me and then I went to get what’s called a calcium scan which I’d never had before, because a couple of guys died in our business of heart issues so, it kind of scared me so I went and I blew a number on that and the guy, you know, they give you the nuclear stress test, shoot you with the dye, put you on the treadmill, everything, right? So it’s two days of three hours of testing and this is six months ago. 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 (he laughed). They’re gonna say, there he is. Get that little son of a b*tch up out of here.”
-Ric Flair
Flair currently resides amongst the ranks of All Elite Wrestling. He was most recently involved in the leadup to ‘The Icon’ Sting’s retirement and his subsequent last match.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Ric Flair as soon as we hear more.
H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
