Ric Flair teamed up with his son-in-law Andrade El Idolo to beat Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett on July 31st, 2022, in what was advertised as his retirement match. It was originally rumored that Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat was going to be part of the match due to their memorable rivalry.
While speaking to Bill Apter of SportsKeeda, Steamboat revealed that he originally agreed to the match but decided against it once he learned that Flair had a peacemaker after suffering a heart attack and didn’t want to be part of the match that may cause Flair to pass away.
“Well, initially, Conrad [Thompson], who’s the promoter, we talked, and I went to Nashville, and we had a sit-down, and it was Conrad, his wife, and me and my wife, Sandy. I was still training pretty good and feeling pretty good. So I said okay, and we hadn’t signed or sealed the deal on the money part of it. But what put the nail in the coffin was a week after that when I found out Flair was wearing a pacemaker. All these years, I never knew, and I immediately just said, ‘I don’t think I wanna do this.’ I don’t want my legacy to be I was in the ring when he happened to pass away or something went wrong. I didn’t want that.
I’ve done some interviews after that when they found out that I said no, but this is the first time I’ve come public with this. I didn’t want to throw Conrad or Flair under the bus, so I threw me under the bus even when I was talking with you that I’m not the guy that the fans remember me by….I used me as the reason.”
Steamboat came out of retirement for a six-man tag team match at a Big Time Wrestling show last month. Check out the clip here:
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit WrestleBinge by Sportskeeda with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
