WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair Announces His Return to Pro Wrestling
Ric Flair is returning to the ring for one more match. According to ESPN, the WWE Hall of Famer will compete in a match at the Nashville Fairgrounds on an independent card on July 31. The match will stream on FITE TV and it will be Flair's first match since Sept. 12, 2011, when he took on Sting at Impact Wrestling.
"I'm going to walk that aisle one last time to prove once and for all that to be the Man, you've got to beat the Man," Flair said in a statement to ESPN. It is not clear who will be Flair's opponent on July 31, but the event takes place on the day after WWE's SummerSlam, which takes place at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.
The independent card which Flair will perform on July 31 will start at 6:05 p.m. local time which is similar to the start times of Jim Crockett Promotions and WCW from the 1970s to the 1990s. This comes after Flair was seen training with AEW star Jay Lethal who also competed in Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling where he and Flair had a memorable segment.
Flair made his pro wrestling debut in 1972 and quickly became one of the more popular names in the sport. In his career, Flair won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship 10 times, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship event times and the WWF (WWE) World Heavyweight Championship twice. Flair is also a founding member of the stable of The Four Horsemen, which also included Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard. Flair is actually a two-time member of the WWE Hall of Fame as he was inducted individually in 2008 and again in 2012 as a member of The Four Horsemen.
In an interview with talkSPORT in 2020, Flair shared an interesting opinion about his career. "I was average at best, but if you guys think it was great then I can live with that," he said at the time. "I didn't think it was great, the emotion was at a very high level because it was real. All the things I went through, where I was so demoralized, I'm over it all now and I couldn't be happier. I'm just happy, married to a beautiful woman that supports me through anything, my life could not be better."