Ric Flair Recently Discovered That He Suffered a Heart Attack During Retirement Match in 2022

Ric Flair wrestled his final retirement match two years ago. After initially calling it a career at WWE WrestleMania 24 following a loss to Shawn Michaels, Flair returned to the ring just one year later for a series of matches against Hulk Hogan. Come 2010, Flair had signed with TNA and went on to work 12 matches with the company , including singles bouts against Kurt Angle, Jay Lethal , and Sting. Flair remained retired for the next decade. When 2022 rolled around, Flair began flirting with a return to the ring and eventually made it official at Ric Flair 's Last Match , an independent event centered around the Nature Boy's farewell.

The match, a tag bout pitting Flair and his son-in-law Andrade El Idolo against Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett, drew both criticisms and concerns . The then-73-year-old Flair showed his age early, and even appeared to suffer a stroke when the action spilled to the outside.

"I had a heart attack during the match," Flair confirmed to the JAXXON Podcast . "A lot of people didn't (know). I didn't know myself until about six months ago. I go to the heart doctor like every six months because I've got a pacemaker. They put that on me when I was real sick, not because I had a problem with my heart."

Flair revealed that when he went in for testing six months ago, the doctors discovered that he had suffered a heart attack at some point in the past two years.

"The guy takes me in. If you look at your heart like a round pie, there's a piece of my heart right here, this big, it's black, it's gone. The guy said, 'You've had a heart attack in the last two years,'" Flair recalled. "'Have you passed out in the last two years?' During my last match, I passed out three times, and I thought it was because I was dehydrated."

Flair is currently signed to AEW on a multi-year deal . He was brought in during Sting's retirement tour, backing up his longtime friend during various matches over a five-month stretch. Sting retired at AEW Revolution in March, and Flair has not been seen on AEW programming since. He remains tied to the company in the form of his Wooooo! Energy drink, the official energy drink of AEW.