Ricky Steamboat was originally set to compete in Ric Flair’s last match, but he opted out of it instead.
“The Nature Boy” returned to the ring on July 31, and he teamed up with Andrade El Idolo to face Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal. The match got plenty of publicity and was a divisive topic in the wrestling world.
In an interview with Bill Apter of Sportskeeda, Steamboat discussed his decision to back out of the match. He noted that he initially agreed to participate in the bout, but he changed his mind when he found out that Flair had a pacemaker. The WWE Hall of Famer stated that he didn’t want to be associated with the match if anything went wrong.
“Initially, Conrad [Thompson], who’s the promoter, when we talked, I drove to Nashville, and we had a sitdown. It was Conrad and his wife, and then 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 about a week after that, I found out that Flair was wearing a pacemaker. All these years, I never knew. and I immediately just 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. So I’ve done some interviews after that, when they found out that I said no. But 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, everybody’s sitting there saying, ‘Man, he should have stayed retired.’ So I used me as the reason.”
Steamboat later wrestled at Big Time Wrestling: Return of the Dragon on November 27; there, he teamed up with FTR to defeat Brock Anderson, Nick Aldis, and Jay Lethal.
Flair previously described how he passed out twice due to dehydration during his last match. Check out his comments here.
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