Ric Flair addresses negative feedback about him returning to the ring

As previously noted, Ric Flair officially confirmed that he will be coming out of retirement for a match on July 31st in Nashville which is the day after Summerslam in the same city. The match will be part of the Starrcast V event.

During his podcast, Flair talked about his decision to wrestle again…

“I just want to address a few things that I think people need to hear about. I would say it’s 70% positive. But for the 30% of people that are worried about me getting in a ring and wrestling again, first of all, I assure you that I’ve been in the ring a lot more than I’ve shown on social media. I have to get quicker. I have to get faster. I’m in better shape now because I train with Rob, John Cena’s personal trainer, than I’ve ever been in my life in terms of cardio. I’ve never been a cosmetic wonderboy so I am going to wear a shirt, but I can assure you that in two and a half months, I will put on a clinic of what real wrestling should be about. I’m never going to be able to do a moonsault. God bless those that can. For the other people that don’t follow social media to understand, you don’t see how much money I make from Cameo. That alone I can live on for the rest of my life. I just made a commercial for Carshield. My life is good. I don’t need the money, but baby, I do like the glory. I’m never going to walk away from it. If I have a chance to get myself over, I’m going to do it. That’s what I’ve been doing my whole life. You don’t understand. If I can crash in that airplane with a pilot killed and two guys are paralyzed and get back on another plane and fly six months later, you could do anything. So I almost died four years ago. I got a pacemaker. I almost died of a blood clot. I had four heart operations in seven weeks. I’m good to go. I will decide on when I want to go. So this is not about the money. This is about me doing what I’ve done my whole life. I watch wrestling every day because I love it, and I respect the guys in it.”

“Everybody’s got a different opinion. So I follow one heart doctor that I have the most confidence in, the guy I like the most. I called him and said I wanted to do this. The only thing I was worried about was getting in with a pacemaker. He said, ‘Ric, there’s enough scar tissue around that thing now that I believe it’ll hold. If you want to do it, do it.’ That was the answer. That was the only concern. The other concern, which I haven’t had in a long time, would have been when I get dizzy because of the equilibrium issue that I have with the inner ear problem, but I haven’t had that since I wrestled Edge in a ladder match. So, just a couple of concerns, but I’m not afraid of it. I have more self confidence, which is important for me personally, than I had when I wrestled Shawn, especially because this will be a tag match format.” (quotes courtesy of WrestlingNews.co)