Ric Flair Says He Had A Heart Attack During His Final Match In 2022

A couple years back, at the ripe old age of 73, Ric Flair decided to come out of retirement and wrestle “one last match” because he wasn’t happy with the way his career had ended. Literally everyone thought this was a terrible idea at the time, even though he was cleared by doctors and kept insisting he was in the best shape of his life (yeah, right).

When it came time for the match, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) arranged for a tag team match so that Ric Flair didn’t have to exhaust himself too much. Even still, his performance was so bad. He looked exactly like what he was – a 73-year-old man who had no business being anywhere near a wrestling ring. They even worked a heart attack spot into the match, which was a bit crass but that’s pro wrestling for you.

Turns out though, according to Ric Flair, he did suffer a heart attack during that match, but didn’t quite realise it at the time. Here’s what The Nature Boy told the JAXXON Podcast:

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. — 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 —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.”

Incredible. How do you pass out three times during a match, and not get yourself checked out immediately afterwards? He thought he was just dehydrated!

It’s just a shame Ric Flair didn’t stay retired after his initial retirement match at Wrestlemania 24 – where Shawn Michaels superkicked him into oblivion. That was the perfect way for the Nature Boy to go out, but I guess he wasn’t satisfied with it for whatever reason. Never forget: