#BLOW UP WRESTLING RING PRO#
Flair, healthy now, believes he was gifted a new chance at life and for him, this match is another opportunity: to depart pro wrestling, the business he left an indelible mark on, on his own terms. Flair will team up with his son-in-law, Charlotte's husband, Andrade El Idolo, to take on Lethal and Jeff Jarrett, a wrestling legend in his own right, in the tag team main event of an independent card in Nashville.įor the past three months, Flair has been preparing for the match in Tampa with Lethal and his strength and conditioning coach, Rob MacIntyre. On Sunday, Flair will perform in what he says will be his last match and his first one since 2011. Flair's style and swagger, complete with expensive suits, robes, eye-catching jewelry and crocodile-skin shoes, have been emulated well beyond the wrestling world. He is a former 16-time world champion and two-time WWE Hall of Famer was the leader of the influential Four Horsemen faction and his classic matches and work on the microphone are lauded as iconic for any generation. It was mind over matter."įlair is one of the greatest wrestlers in the history of the profession, a man whose fame has transcended the business from the 1970s to today, when he is still featured in the music videos of hip-hop artists. "To do what he was doing and to know the wind that it takes and the conditioning and him going at it, I was just like blown away. "That was very much a 'Rocky' moment, seeing my dad like that, pushing so hard," Charlotte said. But in many cases, those are wrestlers in their early 20s, fresh off Division I college athletic teams or experiences in other wrestling schools across the country.Ĭharlotte watched her septuagenarian father execute the drill flawlessly. It's the same exercise trainers at the WWE Performance Center have their young wrestlers execute. "I didn't know whether to cry or be happy." Editor's PicksĬharlotte knows the blow-up drill well. "He was pushing so hard for me," Charlotte told ESPN. A year after that, he underwent four heart surgeries and had a pacemaker installed.įlair told Lethal that he would do the drill, only with double the reps. He told ESPN he was given about a 15% chance to survive. Flair was told to run the ropes, hitting each of them 10 times each, and then lay down on the mat and get up quickly (and technically) 10 times.įlair was five years removed from being on life support for two weeks and intensive care for a month, the result of several devastating health issues. At one point, Lethal called for Flair to do a "blow-up drill" - an exercise designed to test a wrestler's cardio and respiratory system. Petersburg, Florida, gym.Ĭharlotte, Flair's WWE star daughter, was in attendance ringside to watch her 73-year-old father go through the paces. But on that early July day, Flair and Lethal had a visitor at the St. The pro-wrestling legend had been doing private workouts with his trainer, Jay Lethal, for several months.
Ric Flair stepped between the ropes and into the ring at The Wrestling Lab three weeks ago.
0 kommentar(er)
