Ric Flair Calls Pro Wrestling 'The Most Insensitive Business In The World'

Ric Flair has been in the pro-wrestling industry for half a century. He has witnessed the best and worst the business has to offer, including how injuries are handled.

Flair was blown away by how the NFL dealt with the Damar Hamlin situation during "Monday Night Football" on January 2, as the league called off the game after the Buffalo Bills player suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle. On "The Hall of Fame podcast," Flair discussed how differently the wrestling industry would respond to a similar situation.

"The other night we witnessed a real tragedy with a football player, and the NFL made the most awesome call I've ever seen watching the NFL," Flair said. "They stopped the game .. and they actually gave that young man so much respect and his family, and they made themselves look good. In our business, when guys are jumping off a goddamn top rope on tables, ladders, chairs, somebody gets hurt, show goes on. It's the most insensitive business in the world."

The most extreme and infamous example of pro wrestling' insensitivity was when Owen Hart tragically died when a stunt went horribly wrong during a WWE pay-per-view, and WWE made the decision to continue the show. Flair, however, doesn't solely put the blame on wrestling executives for the way the industry operates; he said the wrestlers, himself included, also play a role in it. Flair remembered people in the back wanting to unionize and walk out, but that didn't happen out of fear of losing their jobs.

"We would've been replaced, number one. Then blackballed, number two," Flair said. "Don't think you can't be replaced. Everybody could be replaced. It's our own fault we don't have that. But I mean, it's not one person that makes these decisions. We have ourselves to blame for it."