Ric Flair teamed up with his son-in-law Andrade El Idolo to defeat Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett in what was billed as his retirement match on July 31st, 2022. Due to their memorable rivalry, it was initially speculated that Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat would be a part of the match.
Steamboat revealed to Bill Apter of SportsKeeda that he initially agreed to the match but changed his mind after learning that Flair had a peacemaker after suffering a heart attack and didn’t want to be a part of a match that could cause Flair to die.
“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.”
Last month, Steamboat came out of retirement for a six-man tag team match at a Big Time Wrestling event.
You can check out a clip from the interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
