Ric Flair issues statement regarding Dark Side of the Ring; Flair removed from WWE TV and WWE Shop –

WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair took to Twitter on Monday afternoon (see below) to issue a statement regarding the allegations from the “Plane Ride From Hell” Dark Side of the Ring episode that aired last Thursday on Vice TV. 

Flair was accused by flight attendant Heidi Doyle of exposing himself to her, pushing her up against the back door of the plane and Flair grabbing her hand and putting it on his genitals. Flair has denied all the claims.

The Car Shield commercial ads that have featured Ric Flair has been put on pause. Flair has appeared in the spots with other professional wrestling stars, including NXT 2.0 Superstar LA Knight and AEW’s Peter Avalon.

The further fallout from the Dark Side of the Ring episode for Ric Flair is that he has now been removed from the signature opening of Monday’s episode of Raw.  It’s likely he has also been removed from all the signature openings that will include NXT, SmackDown and pay-per-views.

According to PWInsider, WWE has also removed the very first episode of their animated series WWE STORY TIME, which featured Flair telling the story about the time he flew to Honolulu to defend “the world title” in 1986.  In the story, Flair bragged about how six of the flight attendants convinced him to strip down and wear his robe.  He claimed “I don’t wear anything under my robe” and proceeded to single out the head fight attendant because of her ample breasts.

The report also noted that Ric Flair-related merchandise has been removed from WWEShop.com, and searching for his name comes up with no results.

Below is Flair’s complete statement regarding the “Plane Ride from Hell” allegations. 

“Every person that I’ve worked with has said to not post a response; but I’ve never run from past behaviors before and I’m not going to start now.

I want to clarify a few things:

About four years ago, I gave ESPN full access to my life for a “30 for 30” special. They covered taxes, financial issues, adultery, divorces, the passing of my child and drinking/partying AT LENGTH.

Rory Kamp, desperate to matter for another 15 minutes, did an interview about it this morning. When Rory’s lips are moving, he’s typically lying, but one part of what he said was the God’s honest truth:

“I’d never heard that he had forced someone to touch his genitals,” Karpf admitted.  “Everything with Ric that was construed as negative I tried to address in the 30 for 30. His drinking, his philandering, his adultery, his money problems, there’s quite a bit, but never, at least in the people that I spoke to, no one ever brought up that he would force himself on somebody.”

I allowed my personal life and the lives of my wife and children to be turned upside down for one reason: Whether it’s good or bad, even the really bad, the truth has to matter. Even in wrestling.

My issues have been well documented over my 40+ year career. The impact of drinking too much (which nearly killed me 5 years ago) has been told time and time and time again. The reason Rory (or anyone else for that matter) never heard stories of me forcing myself on ANYONE is simple: it never happened.”