Last night’s Dark Side of the Ring episode on ViceTV focused on the life and career of the late Chris Kanyon. WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair took to Twitter before the episode aired and addressed previous comments he had made to Kanyon.
Before taking his own life in 2010, Kanyon had stated that WWE released him in 2004 because he was an openly gay pro wrestler. It was mentioned in DSOTR how Flair called into Kanyon’s 2006 appearance on The Howard Stern Show and said Kanyon wasn’t good enough to make it in WWE, and that his release had nothing to do with being gay.
Flair, who is still receiving a lot of backlash for last week’s DSOTR episode on WWE’s infamous “Plane Ride from Hell” in 2002, began receiving social media criticism for the Kanyon comments yesterday. It was brought up how Kanyon told RF Video that he contemplated suicide after the Stern appearance as he looked up to Flair before then.
Flair re-posted a link to a recap of the Stern appearance and issued a statement last night.
“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. I should not have said that nobody had ‘ever’ been released; there’s no way I could have known that for sure. I was holding the company line. Love is love is love is love and everyone should be able to love whoever and however they choose without fear of reprisal. I wasn’t a huge Kanyon fan as a worker; but Chris Klucsarits was a hell of a good guy,” Flair wrote.
You can see Flair’s full tweets below. The DSOTR episode on Kanyon can be viewed now on ViceTV.
Follow Marc on Twitter at @this_is_marc. Send any news, tips or corrections to us by clicking here.