
WWE legend Ric Flair, 76, shares major update on skin cancer battle after surgery
The WWE legend, 76, sparked fears last month when he announced that he was battling the disease for a second time, before pulling out of a scheduled meet-and-greet in Mississippi roughly a week later.
At the end of June, he told fans that surgery was 'coming up' while asking them to keep him in his prayers and sharing a photo of his stomach - which appeared to have a number of sutures in from previous treatment.
And roughly three weeks later Flair has confirmed that op was a success, meaning he has beaten skin cancer again.
The 'Nature Boy' took to Instagram to share a photo of himself sporting bandages on his forehead and left arm in a medical facility and wrote: 'Thank You Academic Alliance In Dermatology! I'm Now Cancer Free! WOOOOO!'
Fans flooded the comments with tributes to Flair, including one who wrote: 'Thank God!!!! Diamonds are forever, and so is Ric Flair'.
The WWE legend sparked fears last month by announcing he was battling the disease again
'To many more healthy years, Naitch!! WOOOO,' said another.
'Let's gooooo!! Keep Going Naitch,' posted a third.
While one simply commented: 'WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!'
Flair is widely considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time with his daughter, Charlotte, following in his footsteps.
He first declared that he would be retiring in 2008 after losing to Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 24 but has continuously returned to WWE in rare appearances.
In the years since, Flair has tragically suffered with a number of significant health issues.
In 2017, he was in a coma for 11 days and reportedly near death after his intestine ruptured.
Flair had been hospitalized with stomach pains and just a few hours later suffered early stages of kidney failure. He also came close to congestive heart failure as a result of alcohol abuse.
Despite his family being told he only had a 20 percent chance of surviving, Flair eventually recovered after being placed into a medically induced coma and having an obstructed piece of bowel surgically removed.
The 'Nature Boy' is widely considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time
In 2019, he was rushed to the emergency room after reportedly suffering a 'very serious' medical emergency. He later underwent successful heart surgery at the Atlanta hospital.
Boasting 16 WWE world championship titles, Flair cemented himself as one of the greatest icons of the ring. He is also the only WWE superstar to have been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice.
He rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with the WCW and the WWF (now the WWE), and he ultimately headlined WrestleMania VIII in 1992.
Flair continued to wrestle well into his 60s and recently made an appearance at 2019's WrestleMania 35.
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The Independent
14 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘Happy Gilmore' became a cult comedy. 29 years later, Adam Sandler is swinging again
'Happy Gilmore' was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. 'Why don't you bring a friend?' his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who'd later turn professional. 'He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far,' Sandler recalls. 'So when I started becoming a comedian and me and (Tim) Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality.' 'Happy Gilmore,' released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following 'Billy Madison.' Sandler was just exiting 'Saturday Night Live.' Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the 'Herlihy Boy' sketch.) 'We had just done our first movie, 'Billy Madison,' and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie,' says Herlihy. 'So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'' 'Happy Gilmore,' released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. 'A hop, skip and a hit,' as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like 'Are you too good for your home?' plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, 'Happy Gilmore' didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. 'A one-joke 'Caddyshack' for the blitzed and jaded,' wrote EW. 'To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly,' wrote The New York Times. ''Happy Gilmore' tells the story of a violent sociopath,' wrote Roger Ebert. He called it 'the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes.' 'Happy Gilmore' was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the U.S. and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. 'I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie,' says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in 'Uncut Gems.' 'It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies.' Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' which Netflix will debut Friday, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the summer. Avoiding a comedy sequel curse Sandler was well aware of the checkered history of comedy sequels. Movies like 'Zoolander 2' and 'Anchorman 2' have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, 'Caddyshack' — so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy — spawned 1988's woebegone 'Caddyshack II.' 'If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that,'' Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. 'There was no moment we went 'Aha.' It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out.' In 'Happy Gilmore 2,' co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. 'We thought it could be fun to write something like that' says Sandler. 'It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business.' Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since 'Happy Gilmore.' Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. 'We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man,'' Sandler says. 'We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone.' 'It made a little more sense than 'Billy Madison,'' says Herlihy, 'but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing.' A supporting cast of PGA winners Cameos, of course, were a major part of 'Happy Gilmore.' (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try 'the Happy Gilmore.' 'I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5% thinking, 'Maybe this will work,'' says Herlihy, laughing. 'I played with Bryson (DeChambeau) like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous,' adds Sandler. 'He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'' It's possible that 'the Happy Gilmore' will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. 'When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not,'' Sandler remembers. 'Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard. It gives you more momentum. You turn your hips faster. Maybe it's a good thing.''


Daily Mail
15 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Wendy Williams drops bombshell on guardianship as lawyer vows to sue over 'incarceration' and 'misdiagnosis'
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Daily Mail
15 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Jon Stewart branded a cowardly woke hypocrite for being meek as kitten during chat with MAGA billionaire
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