Ric Flair will compete in his final pro wrestling match at the Ric Flair’s Last Match event on Sunday at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. His tag team bout with Andrade El Idolo, Jey Lethal and Jeff Jarrett marks the first time “The Nature Boy” has been in the ring since 2011 and many fans have wondered aloud if the entire event is some sort of cash grab. Conrad Thompson, Flair’s son-in-law and the show’s promoter, pushed back against that idea while on The Battleground Podcast.
“Here’s the thing for me. As we’re recording this, The Rolling Stones are touring. Why? A lot of people who are against the idea of Ric wrestling say, ‘Oh, he must need the money.’ Y’all reckon Mick Jagger needs money? No, Ric could comfortably retire just on his Cameo earnings, much less, he is the highest autograph circuit rate of anyone. I know there was a big uproar recently about another star who’s in that business now, and people said, ‘Can you believe they charged that much?’ For Ric’s, it’s almost double. So he’s fine. This is more about the glory, and he wants to be on that stage and walk that aisle and be Ric Flair one last time,” Thompson said. “Given the fact that since he wrestled last, he lost his son, and he nearly lost his life, and man, what’s wrong with being Ric Flair one more time? I’m all for it, his doctor’s for it, he feels like he can do it, he’s comfortable, his doctor’s comfortable. Let’s go, man. We’re gonna have some fun July 31 at Ric Flair’s Last Match.”
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“I think it’s his call. I know that there was a couple of pretty vocal people who tried to motivate local municipalities and things like that to get them to stop this. But the reality is, it’s up to Ric. This is America, this is what we do. What’s the difference between some of these touring acts who are all over the world and playing their ass off and losing 12 pounds of sweat a night and all this, performing their shows, and Ric doing his thing? It’s a tag match, guys. If you’re expecting a five, six, or seven star affair, Kenny Omega, AJ Styles, Bryan Danielson hard-hitting, that’s not what this is gonna be. You know what this is gonna be? Fun,” he added.
The card will feature wrestlers from almost every major wrestling promotion in the world, including WWE, AEW, ROH, Impact Wrestling, New Japan, MLW, the NWA and Lucha Libre AAA. Stay tuned for live coverage of the event