In response to the allegations made on Dark Side of the Ring, Ric Flair broke his silence regarding the accusations and issued the following statement:

“Every person that I’ve worked with, from my lawyer to my publicist to my wife has said to not post a response; but I’ve never 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.”

Thursday’s episode of Dark Side of the Ring featured the infamous “Plane Ride From Hell,” a transatlantic flight in 2002 that saw intoxicated wrestlers brawl with each other mid flight, pull pranks and reportedly harass the flight attendants onboard.

Flight attendant Heidi Doyle was onboard the flight and she alleged that Flair forced her to touch his penis.