Most of you have probably read or hear about the scathing expose on Grantland.com covering Ric Flair and his decades of legal woes. Believe it or not, it gets better. Flair is now threatening to sue over something written in the story, ironically also written by Flair himself in his autobiography.
I say it all of the time when it comes to Flair and it is true, he is the gift that keeps on giving to bloggers. As a pro wrestler, I love the guy. He is one of my top favorites of all time. But even as a big fan, it is impossible to ignore the reputation he has earned outside of the ring. You know, the one for being a lying, womanizing, con-artist, abusive, sexually harassing, broke, questionable (I am being kind) father and husband who has become more of a disgrace than legend in recent years. Yep, that one.
[adinserter block=”2″]Originally I wasn’t even going to blog on the Grantland.com story because quite frankly, it stood on its own. But this latest turn of events deserved some real estate on the Camel Clutch Blog. Today, Ric Flair finally responded to the story and he is upset. Flair is disputing one, yes only one claim by Shane Ryan. Flair is upset over Ryan’s claims that Flair has a condition called alcoholic cardiomyopathy, a disease caused by years of alcohol abuse which often leads to heart failure.
Flair’s attorney (I hope he was paid upfront after reading Ryan’s piece) released a statement today threatening a lawsuit over this claim. Flair’s representatives told TMZ.com, “While the information gleaned from courthouse records may be credible, Mr. Fliehr is currently evaluating his legal options with respect to falsehoods in the story, specifically the untrue statement that he suffers from alcoholic cardiomyopathy.”
That is all well and good but there is only one problem as one of my favorite blogs Cagesideseats.com points out. Flair actually admitted to having the disease in his own autobiography.
“Through my many years of partying, I also developed something called “alcoholic cardiomyopathy,” a weakening of heart muscles,” Flair stated on page 304. “I first detected that there was something wrong when my heart began skipping beats. I went to a cardiologist friend who told me that when your heart pumps, it expands to a rubber band. But mine was doing it too much. Initially, I thought that steroids might be responsible, but the doctor dismissed this theory. My heart was fluttering from thirty-five years of hitting it hard.
It’s the part of the price of being Ric Flair. In exchange for the glory and the good times, I acquired a heart condition, self-esteem issues, and cataracts from tanning beds-and very nearly wrecked my marriage to a great woman. But incredibly, I remained ageless in other ways. And in 2002, at nearly fifty-three years old, I was about to see if I could show a new generation of fans what they missed in the 1970s and 1980s.”
The whole passage can be read online.
[adinserter block=”1″]I don’t know what is worse for Flair. Coming out only denying ONE allegation in a story that claims Flair did everything from rip off unsuspecting investors, gigged himself when his wife called 911 on a domestic disturbance, almost got kicked out of his house recently for being behind on rent, being millions of dollars in debt over the last few decades to the government, exposed himself to a stewardess, owed money to his lawyers, set up an illegal money business in North Carolina, and bilked home contractors out of thousands of dollars to name a few or actually threaten to sue for a claim that he admitted to in his own book?
It is obvious what is going on here. Flair is desperately worried that he won’t be allowed to wrestle again with his condition, and rightfully so. It will be really hard for any major pro wrestling company to justify booking Flair in a match (and yes he is booked in the next TNA Wrestling pay per view main event) knowing about his disease, which he likely never failed to mention when he signed with the company. The company could put themselves at great risk for allowing Flair to wrestle knowing what they do now.’
And for a guy who is in more debt than you can imagine, Flair is likely hoping to wrestle until he takes his last breath.
Woooo!
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Who knows if the medical condition still exists, even if he did have it at the time of his book release. I mean, the WWE denied Nigel McGuinness a job for a medical condition in 2009, but they let Flair wrestle in 2008, and there's no way the doctors didn't scrutinize Flair's health given his age. All that said, Flair's objection to the article is weak.
Clearly:)
If all that stuff in Grantland is true, then Flair seems to have gotten the short end of the stick more times than not. I doubt a man of his reputation would try and scam other people willingly and with malice…seems like he received some awful financial advice, and through many different avenues tried to make up that money but failed time and time again.
As for the marriages, you can't really speculate with that stuff, instead opting to acknowledge that it's a two way street. It would seem obvious that after thee failed marriages he would stop trying.
In the end it just seems like several adults making very bad decisions and having to deal with the consequences later on. No one forced those people to loan Flair money, and no one forced Flair to keep changing up life insurance policies.
Poor crazy bastard. If only he could have separated Flair from Fliehr (yeah I stole that, but it was a good line).
Terri is right on, I completely forgot about the racial slur stuff. Again, accusations HE DIDN'T DENY!!!!!!!!!!!
Allegations mean not proven – that's why they're called allegations. Nobody is saying that Ric Flair is a saint, but I'm more inclined to believe him over the bitter, soon to be ex-wife. After all, he wanted the divorce. She didn't.
Flair even used some of those slurs in that horrible angle between Triple H and Booker T leading to WM XIX.
I don't recall Flair using any slurs during that angle. That was all Hunter and if you ever read Flair's book or paid attention to some of his interviews, you would know that he's far from being racist.
I was nauseated by the ex wife (Elizabeth) saying he used racial slurs towards her friends in her allegations in the divorce papers. THAT ALONE made me lose respect for Flair. The rest as Eric and other have point is just nasty. Using friends, and taking money from people only to not pay it back? Good Lord.
But he had great matches with Ricky Steamboat and Barry Windham, that should matter more than anything else right Terri?:)
"The gift that keeps on giving." Really, Eric??? I guess it makes you feel good to kick somebody when he's down. As a longtime Ric Flair fan who has been following his story, I'm worried about him. If you were a true fan like you claim to be, you'd be worried too. Instead, you continue to trash him in your blog. You, Eric Gargiulo, are a heartless piece of sh*t. I suppose you'll be doing a happy dance if he ends up killing himself which, as sad as it is to think about, just might happen if things don't get better. But why should you care? It'll be just another opportunity for you to bury him.
Ha! Really? You do know that I didn't write that story on Grantland.com? What about the contractors and lawyers and poor people he ripped off? What about the women he ran around on and abused? Believe me, I won't be doing a happy dance. I have no rhythm.
But you re-posted it, so clearly the heat now rests with you. Clearly…
@XDustin, very well said, and I agree. He is second only to Hogan in the a$%-clown bunch who should have left wrestling 15 years ago.
Outside of Hogan and Flair, only Scott Hall is more pathetic. Sad to say, once great careers will be tarnished by their latter years and choices.
Hogan and Flair should have left the ring 15 years ago? Man, I guess you really hated that whole nWo angle then, huh?
While I'll admit both shouldn't have been wrestling within the past five years, Hogan and Flair have been good upper management characters and provided a nice bridge for older fans who "don't get this new wrestling thing."
I am 44, so I am an old guy. Yes, the NWO was unique until Hogan put his mark all over it….and ruined it. The ran out most of the younger guys like Konnan because of their egos and not wanting to put people over….like Goldberg when Nash beat him as booker. What the NWO turned into was a joke.
I hate to break this to you, but Konnan's ego is not much better than Hogan's. While he may have been somewhat humbled in WCW, in Mexico, where Konnan is a star, his ego is on the same level as Hogan's, if not worse.
I will say Hogan should have left 13 years ago. While the initial nWo run was great-and Hogan definitely contributed to its greatness, by the time 1998 started, it had already run its course due to bad booking, egos getting in the way of good business and the fact that the group went from an exclusive club for legitimate stars in the business to a group including damn near half the WCW roster.
Ric Flair is a reprehensible human being. He can cheat the American government, and myriad other parties out of millions of dollars, despite supposedly being more than capable of fending for himself financially. I mean this is the kind of "human" being who would brag about having toilet paper made out of gold. He should die in prison. I may seem a bit harsh but he doesn't have any redeeming qualities.
How do you know that Ric Flair is a reprehensible human being? Do you know him personally? I remember Blackjack Mulligan saying once that he worries about Ric because he's too nice, too trusting of people. Mulligan was right. Ric has been cheated out of money by business partners & financial advisors & raped financially by two of his ex-wives. True, Ric likes nice things. Who doesn't? He also tries to please everyone. Family. Friends. Fans. Promoters. His fellow wrestlers. He always says yes when he should say no. He tries to be the Nature Boy 24/7 because that's the guy everyone thinks is cool. The life of the party. The guy that buys everyone drinks at the bar. He wants that love, adoration, and approval.
Ric is a victim of people w/ no qualms about taking advantage of someone so fragile. He needs people around him who truly care for him, not enablers or leeches. The poor guy could use some counseling to fix whatever is broken inside of him. As for him "cheating the American government," he had accountants who were supposed to be handling that – you can guess what happened there.
I hope that everything turns out for Ric. I want him to be okay.
Thanks for stopping by but I also think Ric Flair is a reprehensible human being. Read the Grantland.com article. He ripped off dozens of people of thousands upon thousands of dollars. It is documented in court papers which makes it a fact. He hasn't denied ANYTHING in that article other than his disease.
Sorry but ripping hard working people off of thousands of dollars is pretty reprehensible in my book.
Maybe you should lend him a few bucks since you think he is such a victim and see how that goes?
And, in spite of being in all of this trouble, he continues to spend thousands dining out, getting renovations to his home he clearly has no intention of paying for.
Put me in the "great entertainer, but reprehensible" group. It's over man, get your house in order. NO ONE envies you now, and those that did in the past should take a loot at themselves!
While they are few and far between, there are some wrestlers who can walk away gracefully. Steve Austin, Booker T, Bret Hart and (to a lesser extent) Mick Foley have all been able to walk away. While the last three have had a match here and there, for the most part, they have remained retired. In Flair's case, not only is he hanging on to past glory, but he also needs the money. On top of that, Flair doesn't know how to do anything else. He's been doing nothing but wrestling practically his entire life. There is no back-up for Flair. Now, while some wrestlers have made money elsewhere by making investments in various projects, this isn't an option for Flair. Why? Because he's proven time and time again that he has no idea how to invest money. Everything he has ever invested in has failed miserably. Going even further, as a result of all of these failed business ventures and other things, Flair has chronic problems with the IRS. The only reason he got out of the hole with them in 2002 is because Vince McMahon picked up the tab for him (which was somewhere around 3 million dollars). Honestly, had Vince not done that for him, he'd probably be in prison as a tax cheat.
Much like Eric, I've been a fan of Flair's for as far back as I can remember. However, it's becoming harder and harder to respect the man, both inside the ring and out. Outside the ring, name any or all of the reasons Eric mentioned (and then some). Inside the ring, Flair is a shell of his former self. He is a broken-down, defeated old man who, like I said, is still trying to cling to better days gone by. Watching him at nearly 70 years old try to go through a match is sad and painful to watch. Honestly, he reminds me of Mickey Rourke's character in "The Wrestler", but unlike the movie, this is real life for Flair.
How does alcohol wreck the heart before the liver in some people? That's what I wanna know. It's like some sort of limousine driving screwdriver audible. We really should have been worried when he was claiming he had more cars than we had friends.
Sad. I mean. Just sad. Are just about all of these wrestlers nuts? The Hardys, Helms, Flair, Hogan…….? I mean, good grief. What IS it about this business that makes them good coocoo for Coco puffs? Geez