A few months back, we almost lost the Nature Boy Ric Flair. He was hospitalized with kidney and heart problems and was put in a temporary coma and underwent major surgery to have part of his colon removed. Flair is on the road to recovery, but it will take some time. He has claimed to have given up drinking, which he said led to his health scare.
We only have fragments of how that time was for Flair and his family. On a recent episode of Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast, Ric’s daughter Charlotte opened up about the ordeal and told this bittersweet story of her father’s first steps of recovery.
Transcript via Prowrestling.net.
When he was first taken off the machine and the doctors wanted to have him walk around, obviously he needed help and support but he didn’t even know who I was, and he was just pushing the walker and quoting numbers of towns from shows in the ’80s. I was like, that’s great he can quote me the numbers from a show in Chicago in the ’80s but he doesn’t know who I am?
Being the Nature Boy is deeply ingrained in him.
So, he is pushing the walker with the nurses and he is pushing and pushing and then he just stops and starts strutting in the ICU. He doesn’t know who I am, isn’t really talking but just does the strut and I was just like this isn’t real.
But it was wrestling that brought them back together.
When his 30 for 30 comes out in November, you will realize wrestling is my dad’s first love and that’s what he lives for. That’s why I think we are so close because now I am in the industry that he loves so much so I get it, I get wanting to be the main event every night.”
Ric Flair’s Memory And Love of Wrestling
That is powerful. Ric Flair loves wrestling and it is so much a part of who he is that it is the only thing he can remember. That’s both powerful and sad. He truly loves wrestling and everything it has done for him. We love him too. But you have to think that it hurt Charlotte that her father couldn’t remember her.
I remember when my grandfather was diagnosed with dementia. There was a light in his eyes that was gone. He looked at me like I was a stranger. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Thankfully Ric was able to overcome his memory issues. From what I understand, after surgery and anesthesia, you can suffer memory problems and lapses. Once when I awoke from a surgery I went on a rant about how we needed to beat up Marty Turco, the then-goalie of the Dallas Stars.
Memory is a fickle thing. Ric has a long way to go. I hope his life is on the straight path to peace and recovery. I hope Charlotte can make more wrestling memories for her father.
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