WWE Passed On New Ric Flair Deal

Ric Flair reached out to WWE before signing with AEW.

A little over a week after making his AEW debut on Dynamite, Ric Flair has signed a new multi-year deal with the promotion. The deal is said to be for two years.

The announcement was made on November 2nd and will see Flair’s Wooooo! Energy become the official energy drink of AEW. It’s unknown as to whether the new agreement will lead to regular appearances on television, but the WWE Hall of Famer has hinted that his debut as a gift to Sting wasn’t just a one-off.

Speaking in a new interview with Marc Raimondi for ESPN, Flair revealed that he actually approached WWE first about a new partnership. However, he claims that due to the recent merger with UFC, the sports entertainment “moved past” his proposal.

“Here we are today, marching on, making headway, going national with AEW. Out of courtesy, we ran it by WWE, and they have so much going on, it’s no fault of anybody. With the merger and so much going on, they moved past it. It was no disrespect to us, they just weren’t doing anything at the time.

I ran it by Tony Khan, Tony called me, I put Chad [business partner Chad Bronstein] on the phone, and here we are,”

When Did Ric Flair Last Appear For WWE?

During a different interview, Ric Flair said there’s no bad blood between himself and WWE, and no one has said anything negative. While the two sides have endured something of a strained relationship in the past, Flair repeatedly went public with his love and support for Vince McMahon when the Executive Chairman ‘retired’ after being engulfed by a sexual misconduct scandal.

Flair made his most recent on-screen appearance the night before WrestleMania 39, where he inducted the Great Muta into the WWE Hall of Fame.

H/t to Fightful