WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair breaks silence about Dark Side of the Ring
WWE Hall of Famer, ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair, has broken his silence following the controversial airing of Dark Side of the Ring last week.
The episode focused on the infamous ‘Plane Ride From Hell’ that took place in 2002, following the conclusion of WWE’s tour in Europe.
Dark Side of the Ring focused on the antics of the unruly wrestlers, who were intoxicated during the flight, including Ric Flair’s alleged sexual harassment of a female flight attendant.
A number of former superstars were interviewed about the subject including Justin Credible, Rob Van Dam, and Tommy Dreamer, with the latter seemingly defending Flair’s actions. Dreamer was suspended the day after the airing of the show by his employer, IMPACT Wrestling.
The 16-time world champion issued a statement on Twitter, which read “Every person that I’ve worked with, from my lawyer to my publicist to my friends have said not to post a response; but I’ve never run from past behaviors before and I’m not going to start now. I want to clarify a few things: About four years ago, I gave ESPN full access to my life for a “30 for 30” special. They covered taxes, financial issues, adultery, divorces, the passing of my child, and drinking/partying AT LENGTH.
Rory Kampf, desperate to matter for another 15 minutes, did an interview about it this morning. When Rory’s lips are moving, he’s typically lying, but one part of what he said was God’s honest truth: I’d never heard that he had forced someone to touch his genitals,” Karpf admitted. “Everything with Ric that was construed as negative I tried to address in the 30 for 30. His drinking, his philandering, his adultery, his money problems, there’s quite a bit, but never, at least in the people that I spoke to, no one ever brought up that he would force himself on somebody.”
I allowed my personal life and the lives of my wife and children to be turned upside down for one reason: Whether it’s good or bad, even the really bad, the truth has to matter. Even in wrestling.
My issues have been well documented over my 40+ year career. The impact of drinking too much (which nearly killed me 5 years ago) has been told time and time and time again. The reason Rory (or anyone else for that matter) never heard stories of me forcing myself on ANYONE is simple: it never happened. (h/t Wrestling Inc.)
It is notable that Flair did not apologize for his actions at any point during the statement. WWE has also recently removed an episode from their Story Time archives on Peacock and the WWE Network, which narrated Flair naked on a plane with a number of flight attendants.
Ric Flair’s actions are still under the microscope
There’s been a few grumblings in the wrestling business that Ric Flair’s future in the business is now in doubt. Even though these actions occurred in 2002, it is still damning that such a thing ever happened, and seemingly was allowed to happen. Sadly for Flair, times have changed, and 2021 is a different time, and behavior like that is not to be tolerated. It seemingly didn’t help that wrestlers like Tommy Dreamer were defending his actions. Whether we see ‘The Nature Boy’ on our screens remains to be seen, because it is likely now that only focus will be on one thing.
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