In one of the worst kept secrets in pro wrestling, but it's now official. The Ric Flair-WWE relation is officially over, as the company announced it via its website early Tuesday morning. Naturally, this will result in all the Ric Flair-AEW rumors.

For now, per the company's release:

We have come to terms on the release of Ric Flair as of today, 8/03/2021.

This is sort of the new normal in the WWE. Recently, the company decided to get rid of Bray Wyatt for “budgetary” reasons. Before that, a ton of big and profitable names were also released, leading to speculation over the idea that Vince McMahon is trying to put the company in the green as humanly possible so he could sell it.

On the flip side, Ric Flair is no spring chicken. Maybe he just wants to go home, as most are claiming he asked for his release from the company as opposed to the company wanting him gone.

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Ric Flair with a text bubble reading “You’re one of the best in the world!” next to Will Ospreay with the AEW logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Ric Flair and the Young Bucks on the left, Sting on the right with a text bubble reading “Why Ric?” with the AEW logo as the background.

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All of that being said, given other news of Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson) and CM Punk heading to an upstart rival promotion, a Ric Flair-AEW pairing is something that company might want to do, even if it's only a one-off type of deal to show up the WWE.

Anyway, this sadly marks the end of an era of Ric Flair in a major promotion. Maybe he does wind up with AEW and all that, but with John Cena returning to WWE television, it is more than likely that McMahon and company will make sure he finally ends up with more world titles than Flair.