Tony Khan has confirmed who is paying Ric Flair’s salary.
When The Nature Boy signed with AEW it was under a more unique agreement than the majority of the signings for the promotion. As noted in the press release, Ric Flair signed a multi-year deal with AEW and with that came a sponsorship deal with Flair’s energy drink Wooooo Energy.
Shortly after Flair signed, it was reported that the sponsorship would cover Flair’s salary, meaning that Khan would effectively sign The Nature Boy to his promotion for free. In a new interview with The New York Post, Khan confirmed that he is not paying Flair anything as that is at the expense of Wooooo Energy:
“We’re not paying Ric Flair; Ric Flair is essentially paying us,” Khan said. “We’re getting paid by Wooooo Energy for all of his appearances, so we’re collecting revenue from them.”
Flair’s deal is very similar in nature to that of “Macho Man” Randy Savage’s WCW deal in 1994. As Savage was endorsed by Slim Jim at the time, the sponsorship deal covered all of Savage’s WCW salary, meaning that Eric Bischoff signed Randy Savage for free. In the past few weeks, Wooooo Energy has been integrated into weekly programming, with logos seen on the entrance ramp and cans of the drink seen on the announcer’s desk.
Tony Khan Edits Rampage Promo
Despite only being a part of All Elite Wrestling for just over a month, Flair has already hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. During a taping for Rampage, The Nature Boy cut a promo where he asked young and single women to meet him in his hotel room. The line sparked backlash, which Ric Flair responded to by stating he would walk away if he embarrassed Tony Khan with his actions.
As the controversial line was not uttered live, Khan had the option to either let the segment air in full or make some production changes. As was seen on the Rampage broadcast, the controversial line was removed.