Ric Flair Clarifies Earlier Comments About Chris Kanyon Ahead Of Dark Side Of The Ring

By Sai Mohan

The latest episode of Dark Side of the Ring focuses on the life & career of the late Chris Kanyon, who struggled with depression and bipolar disorder before taking his life in 2010. Prior to his death, Kanyon said in several interviews that he was released by WWE in 2004 because he was an openly gay wrestler.

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The DSOTR episode references what two-time WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair said during Kanyon's 2006 appearance on The Howard Stern Show. Calling into the show, Flair stated Kanyon was not good enough to be in the WWE and his release had nothing to do with his sexual orientation.

As expected, the resurfacing of Flair's comments are causing a lot of backlash on social media. Many fans are bringing up how Kanyon told RF Video that he contemplated suicide after the Howard Stern appearance, mostly because he looked up to Flair as his hero and idolized The Nature Boy. Kanyon also helped train David Flair in WCW.

Earlier on Thursday, Flair issued the following statement via 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. 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.

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The latest DSOTR dropped Thursday night on Vice TV. You can see below for a preview of the episode, along with Flair's tweets on Kanyon.

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