photo courtesy: tmz.com |
PWInsider.com reported the following Friday afternoon:
Reid Flair, the youngest son of WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair, has passed away, PWInsider.com has sadly confirmed. He was only 24 years old.
Reid was seen in the latter days of WCW, where both he and his father had their shaved in an angle by Vince Russo. He later began training as a pro wrestler under Bobby Eaton and George South, but personal issues, including a heroin arrest, sidetracked what was expected to be instant stardom for Reid, who had an excellent amateur pedigree.
At one point, he was slated to debut with Ring of Honor when the promotion was owned by Cary Silkin, but the arrest caused ROH to back off on those plans. That led to the beginning of the end of their relationship with Ric Flair.
Since then, there had been talk of Reid going to WWE developmental and the company had taken a look at him, but didn't sign him to a contract. He had worked in All Japan this past January and was slated to make appearances with Ric this weekend in Maryland.
Sadly, this news comes on the heels of Ric Flair being hospitalized prior to a scheduled Raw appearance earlier this week. As of this report, there has been no announcement revealing what has caused this tragedy. However, I am certain that an official statement from the family will come out letting fans know what happened.
Overall, the 25-year-old seemed to have a promising career ahead of him. As the article noted, he recently replaced his father at an All Japan card, where he faced The Great Muta in a tag-team match. Even though "The Nature Boy" was unable to compete he was in his son's corner for the bout.
Ultimately, Reid had his share of demons. In 2007 he was arrested on an assault and battery charge. Then in 2009 he was arraigned twice, the first time was for a DUI, followed by a heroin arrest based off of a car accident that revealed he was driving with a revoked license. Since then, he had been off of the police radar and seemed to straighten out his life.
In the end, this has been a rough week for the Flair family, and we can only hope that things pick up from here.
Update: Numerous reports, including The Los Angeles Times, indicate that Reid Flair was 25 at the time of his passing.
source: bleacherreport.com