Ric Flair Reveals Why He Left WWE For AEW

AEW

With Ric Flair now officially All Elite, the 16-time world champion has now revealed some of the reasons why he left WWE.

Making his AEW Dynamite debut on October 25, the Nature Boy was revealed as Tony Khan’s special surprise gift for The Icon Sting as he walks the road to his in-ring retirement at AEW Revolution 2024.

While Flair noted in his first promo that he would be alongside Sting for this final run it was unclear what the details of Flair’s agreement with the company were.

However, as was announced yesterday, November 2, Flair has signed a two-year deal with AEW, one which will also see Flair’s Wooooo! Energy also become the exclusive energy drink of AEW.

Following the announcement Flair appeared on the GabbyAF podcast with Gabby LaSpisa and would reveal how the deal came about, as well as why he was no longer signed with WWE.

Flair said:

“I’ve been friends with Tony (Khan) for a long time. I think we talked about me going to work there a couple times, but I was so involved with WWE.

“Obviously more involved because of my daughter working there. But, I don’t work for them anymore. (I’m not there for) a number of reasons, none of them are negative.”

“I just wanted to be able to do my outside activities. The (WWE) contracts are really confining and they pay everybody a lot of money so they’re pretty much going to have the right to do what they want to do.

“I just didn’t agree with the formula, the philosophy.”

Flair would then discuss how his AEW debut came about before also discussing how WWE may have taken the news:

“When Tony called me and said, ‘What do you think about coming because of Sting announcing his retirement?’ and being part of it all. ‘I’d love to.’

“I don’t think — as a matter of fact, I don’t think anybody’s upset about it, but WWE,” Flair stated. “I was hoping I wouldn’t come off of the opening, and I didn’t, so… (laughs)

“I think at this point in my career, people just want for the first time, that I’m happy. And I am. I love Sting, one of my closest and best opponents ever.

“Just to be working with him — we started working together in 1987, 88. First Clash of Champions, there’s a lot of history.”

“And then there’s Tony Schiavone, who I’ve known for 40 years. It was a pretty surrealistic moment for me. TBS is where I made my name.”

Despite being happy with his switch Flair did recently reveal that he had made a pitch to WWE before joining AEW, with full details on this found here.

For all the latest AEW news of Flair’s arrival and more follow this link here.

Transcript courtesy of WrestleZone

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• Ric Flair
• AEW
• wwe

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