Ric Flair Turned Down “Illegitimate Son” Storyline In WWE

Ric Flair has done many things during his WWE career, but one thing he flat out refused to do was let himself be in a Vince McMahon-style illegitimate son storyline.

Flair had two stints in WWE: one from 1991 to 1993 that saw him famously win the WWE Championship in the 1992 Royal Rumble; and a second one from 2001 to 2009 that saw him play different roles ranging from reluctant veteran forced to return to the ring to wise teacher to younger stars.

Flair’s original return to in-ring competition in 2002 was spurred by the Undertaker doing anything he could to goad Flair into fighting him, which included ‘Taker attacking Flair’s son David. But that wasn’t the only storyline that WWE had in mind regarding Ric Flair and his progeny.

In an interview with WSI, Val Venis discussed how Shane Sewell, a man he tagged with while touring the indies and Puerto Rico, was going to be introduced to WWE audiences as Ric Flair’s storyline son

However, Flair refused the storyline because he didn’t want such a storyline to affect his relationship with his real sons David and Reid.

From what I understand, and I don’t know the whole truth, that storyline was being built up, then was presented to Ric, and Ric said he couldn’t do that to his own sons, his own real sons, and the whole thing got canned.”

Additionally, Venis noted that the background for this character would be that he was the child that never got any support from his father, be it emotional or financial.

“Shane was the guy that never got child support. They were gonna do the whole illegitimate Ric Flair child thing. They kept presenting this character to me, then, of course, I was gonna come in, and once they get into an angle, I was supposed to come in and help Shane win the match and eventually move into an angle with Flair with their angle.”

What happened to Ric Flair’s sons?

Ric Flair’s oldest son David wrestled on and off for a decade, and mostly participated in storylines involving his farther before retiring from wrestling completely in 2009.

Reid, who actually started wrestling a few months before David, spent many years wrestling on the independent circuit before tragically passing away from a drug overdose in March 2013.

h/t Sportskeeda