Backstage news regarding Ric Flair signing a contract with AEW

As previously noted, Ric Flair has signed a multi-year contract with AEW. Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com noted the following regarding Flair signing with the company…

“Flair signed a two-year deal with AEW, which was actually two different deals. The original deal was a sponsorship deal for his ‘Whooooo!’ energy drink as the official energy drink of AEW. They had attempted to make a deal with WWE for the drink but WWE already had an energy drink deal in place, so they went to AEW and got the deal done.”

According to Meltzer, AEW President Tony Khan then spoke with Flair “very late in the game” about potentially becoming a television character. Flair’s second deal was reportedly closed just one day before he made his debut on Dynamite. It’s believed that Flair’s debut was kept a secret from almost everyone backstage.

Fightful Select reported that Flair’s deal is “very similar to that of Randy Savage’s to WCW [with Slim Jim] in the mid-1990s, where part of getting Flair was also procuring a deal with the energy drink that would cover a significant portion, if not all of Flair’s salary in All Elite Wrestling.”