WWE HOFer Ric Flair Discusses The Shoulder Injuries He Had And How He Feels Now

Like many of his peers in the bygone era, Ric Flair admittedly worked through a plethora of injuries fearing that, if he were to take time off to heal, a younger wrestler would take his spot on the card. Furthermore, non-guaranteed contracts back then also forced the likes of Flair to constantly stay on the road, as they risked being cut by promoters for no-showing even one event. 

Flair shed light on this mindset on "Everyone Talks to Liz Clamon," revealing that he wrestled with a torn rotator cuff for an entire year in the early 1990s. "You just went through it," Flair said when asked how he wrestled with injuries. "I worked with a torn rotator cuff for over a year. Actually, I tore both [shoulders]. Finally, I got to the point where I couldn't take the pain anymore. Then, I had one [shoulder] operated on and waited four years later to have the other [shoulder] operated on." When asked if Flair sustained the injuries by lifting wrestlers over his head, "The Nature Boy" detailed the two spots that led to his shoulders getting hurt. "One of them was [when] Randy Savage jumped off a top rope, and by accident, hit my rotator cuff. The other one was ... I can't remember ... it was nobody's fault, it was just wear and tear."

Despite nursing all those injuries on the road, Flair considers himself "lucky" and blessed to be as healthy as he possibly can be at age 74. "I'm not hurt anywhere. I'm as flexible as I've ever been. I've got friends that — I just saw Hulk [Hogan] ... I hate to throw his name in there, but he's had 11 back operations, his hips and knees replaced. I can't think of a guy in my timeframe who doesn't have body part replacements."