Wrestling legend Ric Flair may have once commanded the ring – but after the cameras turned off, things “just got out of control.”
Decades of “social” drinking finally caught up with the 16-time pro wrestling world champion this year, landing him in the hospital and near death last month.
“I crashed in an airplane and broke my back, I’ve been hit by lightning,” Flair tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “But this is totally different. Anything I’ve been through before is nothing like this.”
On Aug. 11, the 68-year-old was rushed to the hospital with stomach pains. Within hours, Flair was in the early stages of kidney failure and on the verge of congestive heart failure – the result of years of alcohol abuse.