For much of the afternoon of Monday, July 18th, 2022, WWE fans were abuzz with a rumor that maybe, just maybe, A.J. Styles would be announced as the final opponent of Ric Flair at his end-of-the-month event being advertised as his “Final Match.”

Would it actually happen? Would Vince McMahon actually allow one of his contracted performers to wrestle outside of the promotion in order to put over one of his Hall of Famers at a show that he wouldn't make a penny off of? Or would his daughter Stephanie, WWE's current CEO and Chairman of the Board, overrule her father and allow the well-traveled professional to take the ring against one of the best to ever do it? Before landing in WWE, Styles was a fixture of TNA, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and dozens of other indie promotions the world over and had actually shared the ring with Flair on three occasions when they were both wrestling for Jeff Jarrett's company. If anyone could coax one final match out of a 73-year-old man with well-documented health problems, surely it would be Styles, right?

Well, unfortunately, that isn't the case; though we don't know if he was actually approached about the match, let alone if WWE turned the deal down, the “Phenomenal One” won't be appearing at Ric Flair's final match at the end of the month.

Fortunately, Flair actually did land a different current member of the WWE Universe to be in the match, with said performer having to pull double-duty that weekend, as he's also scheduled to appear in the ring and SummerSlam.

Buckle up folks, for these nuts are about to get slapped.

Flair is set to wrestle his former foe, boss, and WWE co-worker in his final match.

Jeff Jarrett might just have the strangest career in professional wrestling history.

He's won 28 different championships, wrestling in many of the biggest promotions in wrestling history, from WWF to WCW, Lucha Libre AAA, PWG, and even GCW, and through it all has consistently found ways to put himself over even if it didn't always make him the most popular dude in the locker room.

The founder of TNA back in 2002, Jarrett booked himself to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on six different occasions from November 2002 to October of 2006, including a final run that lasted an astounding 570 days and though he stopped being a full-time competitor shortly thereafter, he still found ways to remain relevant in the wrestling ring, including winning the AAA Mega Championship twice, first in 2011 and then in 2018, and even found himself in GCW earlier this year in a very unusual yet weirdly captivating feud with the Bussy duo of Allie Katch and Effy that say the “Man in Black” smash guitars over his would-be foes.

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Ric Flair, Lakers' LeBron James

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Nick Aldis with a text bubble reading “There’s a lot of TNA fingerprints on WWE” with the TNA Wrestling logo as the background.

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While the feud ultimately ended with a whimper, as Jarrett beat Effy at The Wrld On GCW in what was supposed to be the first match of a longer program before dipping back to WWE to serve as the company's Senior Vice President of Live Events, Double J kept himself in the news one way or another ever since, both through his work as a podcaster and with his scheduled appearance at SummerSlam, where he's scheduled to serve as the guest referee for the Money in the Bank rematch between The Usos and The Street Profits.

If that was that, then that would be that, but Jarrett's SummerSlam weekend is going to be a good bit more involved, as he has officially been booked for Ric Flair's final match alongside Jay Lethal in a tag team bout that will also feature Flair's son-in-law Andrade El Idolo fighting alongside the “Nature Boy.”

Sidebar: Has any other wrestler ever done a WWE Pay-Per-View and then wrestled on an indie show all in the same weekend? Certainly not since they started calling them “Premium Live Events.”

So yeah, in quite possibly the weirdest news you will read all day, Ric Flair ultimately did secure the services of a performer currently contracted to the WWE alongside his one-time boss, a TNA foe, and the husband of his daughter Ashley “Charlotte Flair” Fliehr. Though Double J is noticeably younger than Flair and can still go in a throwback, old-school grappler sort of way, watching him referee for the Usos and the Street Profits on a Saturday and then wrestle “The Nature Boy” the very next day will certainly be surreal, especially when you consider he's just four years older than Chris Jericho, who was also rumored for the match. Huh, maybe that is the weirdest piece of information you will read all day.