Ric Flair having one more match

[Callum1993]

From Cultaholic:

Following reports over the weekend that Ric Flair was training for an in-ring return, the 73-year-old has confirmed he is indeed making a comeback for one final match. 

In an announcement today, it was revealed Flair will return to the ring on July 31 at an independent wrestling event from the Nashville Fairgrounds. Billed as from Jim Crockett Promotions, the event 'Ric Flair's Last Match' will be produced by Thuzio, a Triller company, and air on FITE. 

"I'm going to walk that aisle, one last time to prove once and for all, that to be the Man, you've got to beat the Man," Flair said.

Flair's opponent will be revealed at a later date. 

July 31 will be Flair's first match in 11 years. He last performed inside the squared circle on a September 2011 show from TNA Wrestling against Sting. Flair has gotten physical inside the squared circle since then, most recently at AAA TripleMania in August of 2021 when he accompanied Andrade El Idolo to the ring for his match against Kenny Omega.

 

Rumours it’s going to be him and FTR against the Rock and Roll Express and someone else. Can’t see it ending well 

 

[The Gaffer]

Ah good, the Ric Flair is a Twat thread is a go. 

[FLips]

Has there been anyone else in wrestling so unable to let go of the past and move on?
His TNA run was sad but you could at least make the stretch to say "Well he got to go out on his own terms against one of his greatest rivals" but the man is 73 years old and he's wrestling in a fairground in Nashville.
It can't be for the money because it's booked by his son in law who you can't imagine would look at a pathetic old man like Flair and make him work for it, and it can't be because he thinks he can still go because the man is a sack of old saggy bones. What purpose does this serve other than to fill a huge depressing void in his life? Miserable. And you know he's going to come off the top.

[CleetusVanDamme]

I'm impressed he stuck to this retirement for over a decade, and that Green Lantern Khan managed to resist throwing enough money at him to do it in AEW.

FTR surely have to question getting involved in a match with a 73 year old alcoholic. This could go very wrong.

Edited June 7, 2022 by CleetusVanDamme

[Infinity Land]

8 minutes ago, FelatioLips said:

Has there been anyone else in wrestling so unable to let go of the past and move on?
His TNA run was sad but you could at least make the stretch to say "Well he got to go out on his own terms against one of his greatest rivals" but the man is 73 years old and he's wrestling in a fairground in Nashville.
It can't be for the money because it's booked by his son in law who you can't imagine would look at a pathetic old man like Flair and make him work for it, and it can't be because he thinks he can still go because the man is a sack of old saggy bones. What purpose does this serve other than to fill a huge depressing void in his life? Miserable. And you know he's going to come off the top.

Jerry Lawler is still active on the indies. He's younger but still born in the same year.

Terry and Dory Jr into their 70s. 

Mil Mascaras kept active into his 70s.

I'm sure there are plenty of other examples but those spring to mind. It's no answer as to why they do it, but Flair's certainly not the only one that can't let go.

 

[wordsfromlee]

1 hour ago, Callum1993 said:

"I'm going to walk that aisle, one last time to prove once and for all, that to be the Man, you've got to beat the Man," Flair said.

Surely all that walking down the aisle is the reason he needs the money in the first place.

[Thunderplex]

Was it the Nashville Fairgrounds that Terry Funk had his (not quite) final match with Bret Hart?

[The Reverend]

1 hour ago, Thunderplex said:

Was it the Nashville Fairgrounds that Terry Funk had his (not quite) final match with Bret Hart?

It was at the Tri-State Fairgrounds in Amarillo

[simonworden]

It depresses me that his 3 "final matches" (not the consecutive last 3) have gone from 70,000ish to the impact zone to that dump TNA used for a couple of years.

 

I'm not surprised Conrad is promoting this. He probably couldn't give a toss about Ric's health over making a few dollars on the side. He's probably got Ric mortgaged up to the eyeballs too.

[air_raid]

8 hours ago, FelatioLips said:

Has there been anyone else in wrestling so unable to let go of the past and move on?

Terry Funk had his first retirement match in 1983, 14 years before his retirement match with Bret in 1997, - a retirement which lasted 11 days - which was a full 19 years before his final announced retirement and a full 20 years before his last match. Terry Funk was retiring for 34 years, which is longer than most wrestlers get to wrestle.

[Infinity Land]

5 hours ago, simonworden said:

It depresses me that his 3 "final matches" (not the consecutive last 3) have gone from 70,000ish to the impact zone to that dump TNA used for a couple of years.

 

I'm not surprised Conrad is promoting this. He probably couldn't give a toss about Ric's health over making a few dollars on the side. He's probably got Ric mortgaged up to the eyeballs too.

Ric Flair "Hey Conrad, I need a new podcast host"

Conrad "I like it, love it, but here's the thing. How about one last match?"

[69MeDon]

It's not just about his age. Doesn't he have a pacemaker fitted? Didn't he have alcoholic liver failure relatively recently? Wasn't he in a coma?

Tony Khan should under no circumstances allow FTR to be be stood in the ring while Ric Flair dies, caught on hundreds people's video footage.

[BomberPat]

Story is that it's Ric Flair & FTR vs. Rock N Roll Express & Ricky Steamboat - the Express are on their own retirement tour, so I wonder if this will act as their last one too, or if they continue to milk it a little while longer.

13 hours ago, CleetusVanDamme said:

I'm impressed he stuck to this retirement for over a decade

He was in WWE for most of that decade, and they were never going to let him wrestle. If the Dark Side of The Ring stuff hadn't kicked off, I could have seen AEW bringing him in to manage Andrade, but I doubt they'd have had him wrestle. 

13 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

Jerry Lawler is still active on the indies. He's younger but still born in the same year.

Terry and Dory Jr into their 70s. 

Mil Mascaras kept active into his 70s.

I'm sure there are plenty of other examples but those spring to mind. It's no answer as to why they do it, but Flair's certainly not the only one that can't let go.

Even aside from gimmicks like Mae Young "wrestling" LayCool so that they could say she'd wrestled in X number of decades, there's a few people who wrestled in their 70s - Jimmy Valiant's final match was last year, aged 78. Ox Baker and Killer Kowalski both wrestled at 80, Gypsy Joe, Adrian Street, Johnny Saint and Lou Thesz were all in their 70s in their last matches. Canek is working AAA's big shows this year, and he's 69. I don't know how many of them were alcoholics who were on dialysis a few years earlier. 

[chokeout]

Even if you ignored the alcohol and his age, It blows my mind he can even move, there can't be many more (if any) people alive that have actually taken more bumps than him. I know a lot of his matches were built around smaller bumps and the figure four but He was coming off the top onto that hip for decades. He should have be in a far worse state years ago. 

[Infinity Land]

24 minutes ago, 69MeDon said:

Tony Khan should under no circumstances allow FTR to be be stood in the ring while Ric Flair dies, caught on hundreds people's video footage.

Seems happy enough with Jay Lethal training with him still.