This State Wants To Give WWE Legend Ric Flair A Major Honor

A group of North Carolina state senators proposed a bill named after 16-time WWE World Champion and Hall of Famer, Ric Flair, on Monday. 

The proposed "Ric Flair Act," filed as Senate Bill 404 and sponsored by Democrat Senator Jay Chaudhuri alongside Republican Senators Danny Britt and Ralph Hise, seeks to "remember iconic combatants through fostering learning, awareness and interest in rassling" via the General Assembly of North Carolina's enactment of a $500,000 appropriation from the General Fund to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources for the 2025-2026 fiscal year to "study the feasibility of establishing" a professional wrestling museum in the state.

If the bill is passed as law, which the senators are hoping to make effective July 1, 2025, then the Department is compelled to reports its findings and recommendations to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources. 

Chaudhuri told "WRAL" that the bill "celebrates cultural and historic ties to North Carolina" and that he had grown up watching professional wrestling broadcast on the network in Raleigh. "Our shared cultured heritage in this stage is college basketball, NASCAR and professional wrestling," he said. "Professional wrestling still hasn't gotten the recognition it deserves."

Flair addressed the bill on X, writing, "I am honored and humbled that the North Carolina Senate has introduced The Ric Flair Act for the creation of a pro wrestling Hall of Fame museum! Wooooo!"

Flair was famously billed from Charlotte, North Carolina, throughout his decades of wrestling, debuting in 1972 and last wrestling his "Last Match" in 2022 – though he has continually flirted with the idea of returning to the ring. He was last seen on TV with AEW, debuting in October 2023 as a "gift" to the retiring Sting, and thus continued to appear on TV accompanying "The Icon" and promptly fading after his retirement in March 2024. Flair is considered controversial for his alleged sexual deviance in the infamous "Plane Ride From Hell" incident in 2002, and generated a lot of criticism for AEW after signing.