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| photo courtesy: wwelivetv.com |
Well this has been quite a day for hospitalization stories.
Monday afternoon it was noted that former DX member X-Pac had been hospitalized over the weekend after his match with Jerry Lynn.
Now, it appears that the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair has suffered the same fate and found himself in a Philadelphia hospital Monday evening.
According to PWInsider.com:
Ric Flair will not be appearing on Raw tonight as he was sent to the hospital due to concern over what we are told is a "blood clot."
Flair did not wrestle as scheduled on a January All Japan show due to a blood clot in his leg. Whether this would be the same clot or not, I cannot confirm but I know that during a recent shoot interview, Flair actually showed off a clot, described to me as looking like an "awful piece of scar tissue."
We are told that WWE medical took a look at Flair's leg this afternoon as he wasn't looking healthy and immediately made the decision to pull from the show and have him looked over at a local hospital in Philly. After being examined in Philadelphia, Flair was advised to return home to Charlotte for further medical treatment.
One person who saw Flair over the weekend noted that he was not looking well at all.
In case you were unaware, Flair was slated to appear on Monday night's Raw as a special guest, which clearly was cancelled after this health issue. Overall, I am hopeful that this will be a wake-up call for the 16-time champion.
The fact is he has had an amazing, legendary run that should have ended more than 10 years ago. However, Flair is pretty resilient and has managed to not only battle his peers from the past, but many of today's top stars as well.
Let's face it, Flair is one lucky man, as he not only survived a plane crash early on in his career, but he also bounced back and became the biggest name in pro wrestling.
Overall, both he and the WWE were fortunate enough to have caught this before having another Jerry Lawler incident. The fact is, this would probably have been worse, because Flair potentially could have been on-air and collapsed in the ring, whereas Lawler was off-camera at the time of his issue and was able to get treatment without affecting the show.
As a Ric Flair fan, I would love to see him be able to sit back and enjoy the legacy that he created without dragging himself out to the ring. To me, he could easily take a page out of "Superstar" Billy Graham's book and strictly do just appearances and signings without appearing on TV or wrestling in a ring.
To this day, Graham continues to do appearances and does not rely on the WWE to dust him off and bring him back out. Yes, he at one time did appearances for the company, but they were off-air. In fact, the last time we saw him on WWE TV was his Hall of Fame induction in 2004.
In the end, all we can do is hope that Flair has a speedy recovery and steps away while he still has his health.
source: bleacherreport.com
