The Nature Boy opened up on the time he got super faded with Iron Mike in the Hamptons during his appearance on the "This Past Weekend" podcast with Theo Von ... explaining he wanted to go hit for hit with Tyson, and it ended up being a huge mistake.

In fact, Flair -- who spent 11 days in a medically induced coma in 2017 -- compared his high to his medical emergency ... admitting, "I actually thought I died."

Naitch said once he got back to his room, he wasn't able to move ... so he kept asking those around him to squeeze his hand, and everything was in a delayed process.

"I said to myself ... 'Did I die? Have I just died?'" Flair told Von. "I feel like I did when I was in my coma. But I can think, and I don't think I could think when I was in my coma. That's the way I was talking to myself."

Luckily, Ric finally snapped out of it around 3 AM ... and he had to call someone on the phone to make sure he was still kickin'.

Ric and Mike are partners in the weed biz now ... and they've never shied away from sharing footage of their smoke sessions in the past.