“I Got Beat Up My Whole Life” – Ric Flair On His Final Match

Ric Flair has opened up on wrestling his final match, stating how his opponents have never worked the calibre of opponents he got beat up by his “whole life”.

In what is one of the most anticipated encounters of the year, WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair is slated to return to the ring for one last match next weekend. ‘The Nature Boy’ will team with his son-in-law Andrade El Idolo to face Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal on 31 July, the day after WWE SummerSlam.

Many have criticised Ric Flair for returning to the ring from the moment it was announced this past May. Although he had wrestled since his WrestleMania XXIV sendoff, he hadn’t done so in over a decade, last facing Sting in September 2011. Why, exactly, now was the right time for him to return is anyone’s guess.

Ric Flair discussed the match, which was announced this past Monday, on his To Be The Man podcast. The 16-time World Champion addressed whether this would be Jeff Jarrett’s last match too, alongside why he isn’t fearful of what could go wrong:

“I don’t know about that. I mean, once again, I’m not, I’m taking nothing away from Jeff’s talent or his ability or skill. He’s a really, really good worker, a really good performer. I wish him nothing [but] the best but I can tell you this, two of us are going to make it out of there and two of us are not. I’ve been carried out of a lot of places, I’m not afraid of it.

When you’ve been where I’ve been, you don’t deal with the word fear. Fear is stuff that is anticipating something that you haven’t already experienced. So I’ve been dead, I’ve been in an aeroplane crash, I got nothing to lose. I got my family there. I will be clawing and biting and scratching, and there’d be no rules.”

Ric Flair continued, questioning what the outcome will be for his opponents post-31 July before expressing how his past feuds made him ready for this match:

“What are they going to say to their family? What are they going to say when they walk out of there covered in blood? Where’s Jay’s career gonna go? Where’s Jeff’s gonna go? What’s he gonna say on his podcast next week? Think about it. What’s your, what are you going to talk about? I got beat by the old man. God damn. Where do you go from there?

If I get beat, I get beat. I got beat up my whole life by the legacy guys like Bruiser Brody and Harley Race. He’s never worked with guys like that. They didn’t do the Tennessee territory.”

Ric Flair recently confirmed that he’s carrying an injury going into the match, suffering from plantar fasciitis in his right foot, but he’ll compete regardless. Additionally, the robe he’s planning to wear for the occasion is said to be an exact replica of the robe he wore when Flair first became ‘The Nature Boy’ decades ago.