Backstage Report On Ric Flair's Status With AEW

In October 2023, AEW President Tony Khan announced that he had a special surprise for Sting ahead of The Icon's pending retirement at Revolution 2024, with the surprise turning out to be none other than "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Due to their extended history, Flair promised to be by Sting's side on his road to retirement, which he did, as he appeared on a number of episodes of AEW television, and was present for Sting's final match at Revolution. However, after taking a superkick from The Young Bucks, he hasn't been seen since, leading some to wonder where Flair is.

According to Fightful Select, it seems that Flair's days in AEW are over. Per Sean Ross Sapp, Flair hasn't been seen at any AEW events since Revolution and isn't being factored into any creative plans for the future, having not been brought up in conversation for some time. When it was announced that Flair had signed a multi-year deal with AEW, part of the deal was for his energy drink, Woooo! Energy, to be featured heavily on AEW programming as the official energy drink of the company. With Flair seemingly no longer in AEW, that partnership has effectively finished, with the deal basically paying for the appearances Flair made there.

Flair's signing was met with a lot of backlash from fans on social media due to details of his checkered past coming to the forefront in recent years. The most notable being the episode of Vice TV's "Dark Side of the Ring" that focused on the infamous "Plane Ride from Hell," in which the flight attendant interviewed for the show described Flair being sexually aggressive toward her, as well as exposing himself to her and everyone else on the plane.