Ric Flair, 77, Hospitalized After A Fall Outside A Tampa Restaurant

Ric Flair was taken to hospital on Friday after falling outside a Wagamama restaurant in Tampa, Florida, cutting his head and his eye, TMZ reported. The fall came hours after the 77-year-old wrestling legend announced that a blood clot in his leg had forced him to cancel a scheduled appearance in Seattle.

According to TMZ, Flair had been at the restaurant on Friday morning when he got up, left his phone and his drink behind and walked across the street, where he suddenly fell. Photographs obtained by TMZ showed him lying on his back surrounded by medical staff, and being loaded into an ambulance. The Sun reported that his eye was bleeding extensively and that there were fears he had suffered a concussion.

Hours earlier, Flair had told fans he could not make the Seattle trip. “My Doctors Have Limited My Travel To 3–4 Hours. Seattle Falls Outside That Range, And As Disappointed As I Am, I Have To Put My Health And Recovery First,” he wrote. “Blood Clots Are Extremely Serious And Can Be Life-Threatening.” Fox 13 reported that he also said he was scheduled to undergo a procedure on the affected vein and was following his doctors’ advice.

Flair was treated at Tampa General Hospital until about 4:30 a.m. on Saturday. Later on Saturday, he posted a photograph of himself wearing a patch over his right eye and thanked “all the Tampa General Hospital staff and doctors that put up with me until 4:30am.” “Thank You All For The Messages And Prayers! I Will Get Back To You Each Individually As I Get Stronger,” he wrote. “I Appreciate You All And Thank You For Everything You Did For Me! I Am Focused On My Healing And Recovery Right Now. I Will Be Okay!”

His daughter, WWE wrestler Charlotte Flair, posted an update of her own on X on Saturday: “Not my dad telling the doctor he fell bc of warrior dropping him on his head … (p.s. he’s going to be okay).”

In his update, Flair also addressed posts that had appeared on his Facebook page while he was in hospital, saying he no longer owns the page and apologizing for inappropriate posts on it, Parade reported.

The leg clot had already cost Flair one major appearance this year. In August, he missed the Cauliflower Alley Club’s 60th reunion in Las Vegas, where he was to be honored with the Iron Mike Mazurki Award; Jerry Lawler and Jimmy Hart accepted the award on his behalf and Flair joined by video, saying, “I have a blood clot in my leg, so I can’t travel the five or six hour trips that it takes to go to get there,” Sportsnaut reported. Days later, he flew to Philadelphia for a signing, posting that “a little blood clot is not going to keep me from coming to Philly.”

Flair’s recent medical history, as reported by Sportsnaut, includes a series of emergencies. In August 2017, he was rushed to hospital with severe abdominal pain; he had suffered a ruptured intestine, kidney failure and heart failure, was placed in a medically induced coma, had part of his bowel removed and a pacemaker inserted, and his family was told he had about a 20 percent chance of survival. In May 2019, he was hospitalized again in Atlanta due to ongoing health complications and underwent a heart procedure in which he received a new pacemaker and had a blood clot treated. He returned to the ring for his final match in July 2022, and said in 2024 that he had suffered a heart attack during that match without realizing it, learning of it only after a doctor’s visit and tests in late 2023. In 2025, he announced that he was battling skin cancer for the second time in about three years, and in July of that year he announced that he was cancer-free following treatment.

Flair, known as “The Nature Boy,” is a 16-time world champion and one of professional wrestling’s most recognizable figures, with a career spanning decades and prominent runs in WWE and World Championship Wrestling, Fox 13 noted. The Sun noted that he is a two-time WWE Hall of Famer.

Sources: TMZ; People; Fox News; Fox 13 Tampa; The Sun; Parade; Sportsnaut.