Ricky Steamboat Explains Why He Backed Out Of Ric Flair’s Final Match

People often joke that no way stays retired forever in wrestling and for years Ric Flair teased a potential return to the ring. It finally happened back in July when he teamed up with Andrade El Idolo to defeat the team of Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal.

Originally it seems that Ricky Steamboat was in talks to be part of the match, but he recently explained to Bill Apter of Sportskeeda that he backed out of the bout after he learned about Flair’s pacemaker.

“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.”

Ricky Steamboat recently returned to the ring at a Big Time Wrestling event last month where he teamed with FTR to defeat Brock Anderson, Jay Lethal and Nick Aldis.

H/T Fightful