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When news broke that Ric Flair wasn't just coming to AEW for a few months to celebrate his buddy Sting's final run as an active professional wrestler but was instead going to be with the company on a two-year deal thanks to an endorsement deal signed with his Woooo! Energy, it turned heads around the professional wrestling world.
Sure, getting paid to endorse a product is nothing new in professional wrestling, as Rey Mysterio had a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch with his face on it around WrestleMania 39, but doing so with a performer like Flair, who may actually have more ill will than good in the corner of the professional wrestling world AEW likes to operate in, is a risky proposition.
Is the decision going to pay dividends for AEW? Only time will tell, but in Eric Bischoff‘s opinion, it's a very good deal for Flair, as he noted on his Strictly Business podcast.
“I’m happy for Ric. Professional wrestling is Ric Flair’s life. Ric Flair left Richard Fleir behind a long time ago, and I’m happy for Ric because Ric loves the business, he loves being around the business,” Eric Bischoff said via Fightful. “It’s good for Ric, it’s really good for Ric. The Wooooo! Energy thing, that’s obviously a great opportunity for the people who are behind Wooooo! Energy to get it some national promotion and exposure. That’s a good thing. It makes it easier for the distributors who are trying to sell that drink and get it into the retail outlets around the country. It’s a win for Ric personally, it’s a win for the people behind Wooooo! Energy, and let’s see what it means to AEW. Time will tell.”
Discussing the multi-faceted nature of the deal, Bischoff compared Flair's signing to the decision to bring “Macho Man” Randy Savage to WCW, where the Slim Jim company was effectively paying his salary via his incredibly lucrative endorsement. If AEW, too, is getting Flair for free, then they may reap a similar benefit.
“If what Sean reported is true, and I believe it probably is, yeah, it’s very similar to what I did,” Bischoff noted. “In Randy’s case, the Slim Jim deal covered 100% of Randy’s salary. It covered all of it, and did for a couple years. I got Randy for free [laughs], and that’s why it’s a win. It’s a win for Ric, it gets him close to a business that is his life, really. It’s in his genetic makeup, his DNA. There’s no denying how much Ric loves the business. So it’s a win-win, and potentially a win-win-win. We’ll just have to wait and see how much of a win it is for the AEW product.”
While getting Savage for free was obviously a benefit for WCW, it's hard to argue that his run under Bischoff even came close to his time in WWE, as it sort of felt like he got forgotten for large sections of time. Maybe AEW will view Flair differently, but if you don't have anything financially invested in a performer, there might not be the same urgency to use them to the best of their abilities… which, then again, might actually be a benefit in the eyes of some AEW fans.
Ric Flair has one majorly unrealistic dream for his AEW run.
Speaking of Ric Flair's addition to the AEW roster, the “Nature Boy” recently stopped by ESPN to discuss his signing and let it be known that, despite his myriad of health issues, he was one goal he hopes to attain in the promotion: Being thrown through a freakin' table.
“But it’s the way I live my life. Truer words have never been spoken. You can’t change who you are and just try to make it. And that last match, I was just so wound up and making sure that I weighed exactly the same thing. I didn’t hydrate; I woke up and I was two pounds heavier. I only ate two egg white bites and a cup of coffee, and I didn’t drink any water or anything. So I just got dehydrated. I’ve learned,” Ric Flair told ESPN.
“But I’m trying to think of anyone who’s anywhere near my age that hasn’t had knee replacements, shoulder replacements, hip replacements, and I don’t have any of that, and I don’t hurt. I’m not real flexible because I’ve torn my rotator cuff three times. But I don’t hurt; that’s the key. So what the h*ll, they want to throw me through a table? I’m up for it.”
Did Tony Khan bring on Flair to throw him through a table? No, he almost certainly did not. Will TK ultimately sign off on Flair going through a table if he really wants to and the story warrants it? If so, let's hope he has a really good insurance policy out, as Flair may truly get his wish to die in, or in this case, around, the ring.
Flair dies on AEW programming and they cut to dominos Picture in Picture
— Soundwave (@LocalSoundwave) November 3, 2023
