Tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite featured a follow-up to last week when Sting announced his retirement match will take place at Revolution next year, likely in March. It was an emotional decree, and in the wake of it, AEW President Tony Khan made his own announcement: that he had a gift for The Icon. Earlier today, Tony Schiavone said on AEW Control Center that the present would be “historic.” When the time came, Tony Schiavone, who was interviewing Sting in the ring, brought out Khan’s gift on behalf of the owner: “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
Complete with his signature entrance music; Flair walked to the ring to a massive ovation from the Philadelphia fans. Once in the ring, he embraced his long-time friend and reminisced about the first WCW Clash of Champions, which went head-to-head with WrestleMania. On that show, the two men went 55 minutes, and Flair noted Sting “Never took a deep breath; he lived up to the potential.”
Flair went on to call Sting one of the best guys in the business and one of the nicest people he has ever known. When he got the invitation from Khan to be a part of tonight, he said yes, of course. Beyond that, he says he wants to stick around, and it sounds like he wants to ride out the rest of Sting’s career with him on AEW TV.
Following the interaction, AEW TNT Champion Christian Cage came out onto the stage and delivered a series of classic lines like, “If there were a God, Ric Flair would have been dead 20 years ago.” He also took shots at the two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee’s pacemaker, among other dark jabs. In the end, Sting and Darby Allin agreed to a tag team match against Cage and Luchasaurus at Full Gear.
Ric Flair parted ways with WWE a few weeks before Dark Side Of The Ring did an episode focused on the infamous Plane Ride From Hell. In the episode, a flight attendant accused Flair of forcing her to touch her penis and broke down over the trauma due to the incident. Flair has denied the allegations.