Ricky Steamboat Says He Backed Out Of Ric Flair’s Last Match After Learning Flair Had A Pacemaker

On July 31, Ric Flair wrestled in his advertised last match, teaming with Andrade El Idolo to defeat Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett. 

Ricky Steamboat was originally planned to be part of the match, but didn’t end up wrestling at the event. Steamboat is considered one of Flair’s greatest rivals and their series of matches in the 80s and 90s are considered some of the best in wrestling history. 

Speaking to Bill Apter of Sportskeeda, Steamboat explained why he opted out of Flair’s last match. 

“Initially, when Conrad (Thompson), who is the promoter, when we talked, I drove to Nashville and we had a sitdown. I was still training pretty good and feeling pretty good, and I said ‘okay.’ We hadn’t signed or sealed the deal on the money part of it, but what put the nail in the coffin is, about a week after that, I found out that Flair was wearing a pacemaker. All these years and I never knew. I immediately said, ‘I don’t think I want to do this.’ I don’t want my legacy to be that I was in the ring if 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 I said ‘no,’ but this the first time I’m coming public with this. I didn’t want to throw Conrad or Flair under the bus, so I threw me under the bus. It’s like one of those old-time boxers, they get in the ring and after about the third round, when his legs are gone, everyone is sitting there saying, ‘he should have stayed retired.’ I used me as the reason,” said Steamboat.

Though Steamboat was not part of Flair’s last match, Steamboat took part in what could be his last match on November 27, 2022 at Big Time Wrestling when he teamed with FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) to defeat Brock Anderson, Jay Lethal & Nick Aldis. 

After his last match, Flair revealed that he passed out twice due to dehydration. You can find his full comments by clicking here. 

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