The Tragic Life and Times of Ric Flair

#5 The death of his son

Reid, pictured far right, followed in his family's footsteps.

Reid Flair was the youngest of Flair's four children. Like David and Ashley before him, Reid was also pursuing a career in pro wrestling.

Could you blame him?

His father was arguably the greatest wrestler of all time and he practically grew up in and around wrestling rings. Not to mention that his older brother also had television time as a wrestler in WCW in the late 1990s.

Although he was clearly interested in a future in pro wrestling, he had inner demons that would plague him for most of his life. He was first arrested in 2007 after being charged with assault and battery. He posted bail and avoided jail time.

His second arrest came in March of 2009 for driving while impaired. He was again released on bail but would be arrested not a month later in April. This time, however, things were much more serious.

Firstly, he crashed his car. Secondly, the police found black tar heroin in his car, an arrest that carried felony charges. Wikipedia claims he was officially charged with driving while impaired (again), possession of drug paraphernalia and driving with a revoked license.

Luckily or maybe unluckily, he was released on $15,000 bail. He probably didn't learn any lessons through his arrests since he was consistently released on bail. If that wasn't enough, he allegedly overdosed twice in 2011.

Ric would go on to reveal in his 30 for 30 documentary on ESPN that Reid was released by WWE because he failed two drug tests while under contract. His troubles ultimately came to an end in on March 29, 2013, when Reid was found dead in a hotel in North Carolina.

His cause of death was initially due to another overdose. He was 25 years old. The toxicology report states that his death was caused by an overdose of heroin as well as having a mix of tranquillizers, clonazepam and alprazolam in his system.

Reid's death would be used in a Raw storyline two years later between Charlotte and Paige. It was seen as many as distasteful, but it wasn't the first or last time WWE would use someone's death in a storyline.