Ric Flair has apologized for an interaction he had with Chris Kanyon in 2006 following this week's Dark Side of the Ring covering the late wrestler.
Dark Side of the Ring returned earlier this month and made waves almost instantly. Heidi Doyle, a flight attendant working on the Plane Ride From Hell, recalled an interaction between herself and Ric Flair during which she claims The Nature Boy forced her to touch his naked body. One week later, and another moment from Flair's past has resurfaced through Dark Side of the Ring.
The Howard Stern Show
This week's episode covered the life and career of Chris Kanyon. Most notably, the late wrestler's battles with bipolar disorder and coming to terms with his homosexuality. Dark Side showed footage from the Howard Stern Show in 2006, at which time Kanyon was appearing as a regular. Kanyon took a call from Flair who was under WWE's employ at the time.
Kanyon had previously claimed on the show that he was fired by WWE for being gay. Flair called in to refute those claims, telling Kanyon he was fired because he couldn't cut it at wrestling's top table. The back and forth went on for 20 minutes and according to those close to Kanyon, hurt him more than he let on as Flair was one of his heroes.
Flair Apologizes
Shortly before this week's Dark Side aired, Flair issued a statement on Twitter. “Breaks my heart to hear later on that he took this so hard. Calling into guests that were seen as “hostile” to WWE was part of the job then,” Flair tweeted, adding that there's no way he could have known if a wrestler was ever released based on their sexuality.
In a follow-up tweet, Flair says he was simply following the company line, and although he didn't think Kanyon was a good enough wrestler to be in WWE at the time, he loved him as a person. Flair's appearance on the Howard Stern Show actually came after one by John Cena who said the same things as he did about Kanyon. Kanyon wasn't on the show the day that Cena was a guest, so it's unclear whether he was hit as hard by what he said compared to when Flair echoed the sentiment.