The identity of Danhausen’s mystery partner for his tag team match against The Miz and Kit Wilson at WWE Backlash on Saturday remains officially unknown, but Bryan Alvarez has shared speculation pointing to a familiar celebrity name.
Alvarez wrote to his subscribers on X that while he cannot confirm the information, he is hearing speculation that Jelly Roll will be the mystery partner.
“I can’t confirm this but I am hearing speculation that the mystery partner for Danhausen is, in fact, Jelly Roll, which would make a LOT more sense than an unadvertised PLE appearance by CM Punk.”
The Jelly Roll connection to Backlash runs deeper than a random celebrity booking. Prior to the creative decision being made for Cody Rhodes to defeat Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42, the plan had been for Jelly Roll to team with Rhodes at Backlash in a tag match against Orton and Pat McAfee.
That concept was shelved when the WrestleMania direction changed and Orton subsequently disappeared from WWE programming following the event, having reportedly been dealing with a physical issue heading into the show. Jelly Roll being redirected to a different partner for a different Backlash tag match would repurpose a plan that was already in motion rather than starting from scratch with a new celebrity appearance.
Current betting odds list CM Punk as the favorite at -200 to be Danhausen’s partner, with Joe Hendry at +200, Mr. Iguana at +300, and Jelly Roll at +400.
Ric Flair has spent a lifetime demanding your attention. The sparkly robes. The limousines. The “WOOO.” The Nature Boy built an entire career — a legend — on being impossible to ignore. And now, years after his last match, he’s still at it.
The latest chapter: Flair publicly threatening WWE Superstar Ludwig Kaiser on social media, claiming it got him banned from WrestleMania 42. He later issued an apology, but not before the internet spent a full news cycle talking about him. Mission accomplished?
According to WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long — who worked alongside Flair for years — that’s exactly the point.
“That’s How You Stay Relevant”
Speaking on the Road Trip After Hours podcast, Long didn’t mince words when asked about Flair’s latest blow-up.
“What has he done now,” Long said with a knowing laugh. “That’s how you stay relevant.”
It’s a short quote, but it speaks volumes coming from someone who knows the Nature Boy as well as Long does. This isn’t a man losing his grip on reality. This is a calculated peacock spreading his feathers — the same way he always has.
The Nature Boy Has Always Been This Way
Think about what made Ric Flair, Ric Flair. It wasn’t just the in-ring brilliance — it was the show. The sequined robes that cost more than most people’s cars. The jet-flying, limousine-riding lifestyle that he broadcast to every wrestling fan in America. The promos where he’d scream about being the stylin’, profilin’, kissin’-stealing, wheelin’-n-dealin’ son of a gun.
Flair understood something most wrestlers never do: the character doesn’t clock out when the camera turns off. The Nature Boy is a 24/7 performance, and the controversy, the drama, the outbursts — they’re all part of the act.
He’s been doing this his entire career. The only difference now is that the ring has been replaced by X.
A Man Who Won’t Leave the Spotlight
The backstory to the Kaiser incident traces back to 2025, when Tiffany Stratton made comments during a program involving Charlotte Flair that the Nature Boy took personally. Flair went after Kaiser publicly, WWE reportedly pulled his WrestleMania invitation, and the whole saga played out online in real time — with millions of wrestling fans watching every post.
Whether you find it entertaining or exhausting, one thing is undeniable: you knew about it. You’re reading about it right now.
Teddy Long — a man who spent decades in the business and watched legends come and go — sees it for exactly what it is. Ric Flair isn’t unraveling. He’s working. He’s always been working.
The Nature Boy isn’t done commanding attention. He’s just doing it from a different stage.
Ric Flair has opened up about one of the genuine regrets of his legendary career, acknowledging that the relentless schedule required to stay at the top of professional wrestling came at a steep personal cost.
Speaking on the Thanalysis Show podcast, Flair was asked what advice he would give to those chasing the kind of fame and recognition he achieved. His answer was candid and rooted in something he has carried for a long time.
“I get asked that a lot and it’s easy to say this now but when you want to be the best at something and to be the best, I just had to sacrifice and I — Yes. I regret not spending more time with my children, but I was traveling.”
Flair explained that even the top names in the business during his era were expected to maintain schedules that left almost no room for family life, sharply contrasting with the lighter workloads of today’s performers.
“Even guys that were the world champion we worked every day back then. So you saw your kids in the morning, you saw them lunch, and then you get home at 3:00 in the morning, get up, work out. They’ve already gone to school and you go to another town.”
Flair has four children. His daughter, Ashley, known in WWE as Charlotte Flair, and his son, David, both followed him into the wrestling business. His son Reid died of a drug overdose in March 2013. He also has a daughter, Megan, who gave Ric his first grandchild in 2004.
Ric Flair has publicly apologized to Ludwig Kaiser, walking back his previous comments about the WWE star in a post on X on Monday afternoon.
Mr. Ludwig Kaiser @wwe_kaiser– I Never Implied That You Couldn’t Work, Or Didn’t Have Talent. I Actually Understand That You Are Doing Really Well With The Undertaker’s Promotion. I Am Sorry That I Got Upset. I Am Naturally Very Protective Of My Daughters As I Am Sure As You Grow… pic.twitter.com/wKGuEws42H
“Mr. Ludwig Kaiser, I never implied that you couldn’t work, or didn’t have talent. I actually understand that you are doing really well with The Undertaker’s promotion,” Flair wrote. “I am sorry that I got upset. I am naturally very protective of my daughters as I am sure as you grow older, you will be too.”
Flair continued: “I apologize for anything I said about you personally. It was not about your professional skill which I have heard is very good.”
What Led to the Apology
The apology comes weeks after Flair revealed that a confrontation with Kaiser was the reason WWE did not invite him to WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas. Flair previously admitted to threatening Kaiser, saying his protective instincts as a father got the better of him. WWE reportedly responded by pulling his WrestleMania invitation.
The reference to Kaiser “doing really well with The Undertaker’s promotion” is a nod to WWE AAA, where Undertaker is heavily involved behind the scenes and Kaiser, well…
Flair’s decision to issue the public apology suggests an effort to mend fences, both with Kaiser personally and potentially with WWE as the company moves forward after WrestleMania season.
WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair was not invited to WrestleMania 42 this past weekend, and he has now revealed the reason why.
The 16-time world champion explained that a threatening phone call he made to Ludwig Kaiser roughly a year ago led to WWE keeping him away from the event.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani, ‘Nature Boy’ said that the incident stemmed from comments made during the heated feud between Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton ahead of WrestleMania 41. Tiffany made remarks about Charlotte’s real-life divorces, and ‘The Queen’ responded on television by suggesting Kaiser had been in her DMs.
Phone Call Led to WrestleMania Ban
‘The Nature Boy’ confirmed that WWE made the decision not to extend an invitation to WrestleMania 42 as a direct result of the phone call. He acknowledged that his actions crossed a line with the company.
“I didn’t get invited to WrestleMania this year. I threatened to beat up Tiffany Stratton’s boyfriend last year and I wasn’t allowed to go. A 24-year-old kid, threatened, by a 76-year-old man, and I can’t go to WrestleMania. Are you kidding me? That English kid. He’s going to go as far in wrestling as a gnat. He’ll be a fly on the wall in a year,” Flair said.
Ric Flair said he was angry over remarks made by Tiffany and claimed the comments weren’t genuine. He ended by mocking the Kaiser’s career and called him a “punk.”
“They had that thing where Tiffany made smart remarks about Ashley’s divorces, which we both know she’s not smart enough to have written, somebody gave her the script. He implied that he wouldn’t ‘bum one’ off Ashley. Okay, I need your number, and I got it, because I can get anyone’s number that I want any minute of any day.
I called him and said, ‘When I see you, I’m going to beat the sh*t out of you.’ He went like a little b*tch, told Hunter, and I wasn’t allowed to go. He’s going to really go far in the business. A 76-year-old tells a 24-year-old kid that he’s going to kick his ass and where is he now? Is he even on the roster? Little punk,” Flair said.
WrestleMania 42 took place this past weekend without the Hall of Fame legend in attendance. The two-night event featured multiple championship matches and marquee bouts across both Raw and SmackDown brands.
Charlotte Flair has opened up about the emotional cost of spending nearly a decade trying to live up to one of professional wrestling’s most iconic last names.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, the multi-time Women’s Champion reflected on the personal toll of striving for public perfection while privately dealing with her own struggles throughout her WWE run.
“The pressure of being Ric Flair is like unimaginable. And so for me from 2015 to 2024 what was hurting me was trying to be perfect in the public eye when I was going through so many battles of my own. I mean everyone has battles, so I’m not any different, but I think that was the sacrifice for me is like trying to be so perfect all the time and it lost who I was as a person,” Flair said.
The weight of the Flair name has followed her throughout her career, with every performance measured against the legacy of her father, a 16-time world champion widely considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Charlotte has spoken previously about the complicated dynamic of that inheritance.
Flair is currently heading into WrestleMania 42, where she will team with Alexa Bliss to challenge for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on Night One on April 18 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Ric Flair has reversed course on his public callout of WWE, posting a video on Wednesday that struck a different tone from the statement he made just one day earlier. Where his Tuesday post accused the company of trying to destroy his legacy after blocking his Roots of Fight partnership, his follow-up opened with gratitude and closed without a single grievance directed at WWE.
“It’s the Nature Boy. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Roots of Fight for letting me represent them over the years. Pretty cool to have. I think I represented it well,” Flair said in the video posted to his Twitter account.
Flair then addressed his change of heart directly, acknowledging that the initial frustration had cooled. “I’m not even mad at the people who took it away from me. I was at first, but I understand business, and business comes first,” he said. “And you always want to think they’ll make an exception, but sometimes exceptions can’t be made.”
He closed by thanking Roots of Fight and looking ahead rather than back. “Roots of Fight, thank you for the honor and privilege of representing you, and I look forward to seeing the next member of a great team.”
The turnaround from one post to the next is stark. His Tuesday statement included financial reveals, references to Tony Khan, and a direct accusation that WWE was trying to diminish what he had built. None of that energy carried into the follow-up.
Whether cooler heads prevailed privately or something changed behind the scenes in the intervening 24 hours, the public dispute between Flair and WWE appears to be over for now.
Ric Flair went public with an issue he had with WWE fter learning the company had blocked his involvement with Roots of Fight. The WWE Hall of Famer took to Twitter to blast the decision, detail his contributions to the company over decades, and level a direct accusation at WWE’s leadership about their treatment of him.
Flair opened his post by addressing the block directly before cataloging his accomplishments under the WWE banner. He pointed out that he is the only wrestler ever featured on ESPN’s 30 for 30 series and noted that he has been ranked among the top 25 athletes of all time. He also referenced his Emmy-nominated WWE documentary, stating he “should have won but I lost to a team not an individual.”
From there, Flair turned to his championship history and his financial dealings with the company, offering details that made the post notably candid. Despite holding 21 world championships throughout his career, he noted that he “always played by your rules and kept it at 16,” a reference to WWE’s official recognition of his title reigns.
He also addressed a past financial obligation with the company directly. “Paid Vince McMahon back 800k when he said he would forgive it. I honored it,” Flair wrote, making clear that he fulfilled commitments even when given the option to walk away from them.
Flair was equally direct about his financial independence from WWE, listing revenue streams that exist entirely outside the company. He stated that he still earns $1 million from Ryan Fiterman at Fiterman Sports and $500,000 from Ric Flair Drip.
He also thanked AEW President Tony Khan by name, a pointed signal that he maintains meaningful relationships with WWE’s primary competitor and has options beyond anything WWE controls.
“What more of my legacy do you want to destroy WWE? You all grew up loving me and I set the bar. Now you are trying to kill me and diminish my legacy,” Flair wrote. He closed with defiance rather than conciliation. “Thank you, but it ain’t happening. Nice try. LFG!”
I Woke Up This Morning To Find Out That I’m No Longer Allowed To Be With @rootsoffight Per @WWE. Let Me Think- I’m The Only Wrestler To Ever Be On 30 For 30 & Ranked In The Top 25 Of All Time, An Emmy Nominated Documentary-Courtesy Of The WWE, Which I Should Have Won But l Lost… pic.twitter.com/1VP8cxSz4o
Ric Flair spent over five decades at the top of professional wrestling, but in a new interview on the Legally Goff Podcast, the 16-time world champion pulled back the curtain on the business side of the industry — and the picture isn’t pretty.
Despite WWE recently selling for $9 billion, Flair made clear that the people who built that value were never protected by the kind of labor structures taken for granted in every other major American sport.
“We’re self-employed,” Flair said. “They take care of you if you get hurt in the ring, but if you have an issue outside of the ring, you’ve got to buy your own health insurance.
There’s no union, which is unheard of for a billion-dollar company. I mean, they just sold the WWE for $9 billion.”
WWE’s standalone value was estimated at $9.3 billion at the time of the TKO Group merger with the UFC in 2023.
As of early 2026, TKO President Mark Shapiro stated that WWE alone is now worth $20 billion
Flair lived that reality firsthand. From 1983 to 1985, he had just 17 days off over a three-year stretch, wrestling over 300 nights a year with no guaranteed contract and no safety net. His own accountant couldn’t make sense of it.
“My accountant said, ‘How can you have down that you wrestled 418 times? It’s only 365 days in a year,’” Flair recalled. “And I went, ‘Your honor, I went twice on Saturday and twice on Sunday.’”
The Belt Was a Bargaining Chip
Without union protections, leverage was personal — and Flair wasn’t shy about using what he had. When WCW executive Jim Herd refused to pay out a $43,000 deposit owed to him, Flair took the most dramatic exit possible.
“I told Jim Herd, ‘You can have the belt — give me a check for 43 grand,’” Flair said. “He said, ‘F*** you.’ And I said, ‘F*** me? F*** you. Watch this.’ So I called Vince. I said, ‘Are you really coming?’ I said, ‘I’ll send you the belt right now.’ I walked on TV with their belt — the real world champion.”
It was a power move only possible because Flair was the rare performer whose drawing power gave him individual leverage. For everyone else, he acknowledged, the structure offered little recourse.
“Choreographed But Real”
Flair also pushed back on the perception that wrestling’s predetermined outcomes somehow reduce the physical danger — a misconception that, he argued, obscures why labor protections matter in the first place.
“It’s choreographed but it’s real,” he said. “And if they don’t think so — seven broken necks in the last five years. Seven broken necks, to the point where only one guy is paralyzed. Other guys can’t wrestle anymore because of broken necks.”
Flair himself had five and six in his neck cracked during a DDT, describing it as the worst pain he’d ever felt. The physical toll of a career in wrestling is real — it’s the financial and institutional protections that have historically been absent.
A Business Without a Safety Net
Flair noted that guaranteed contracts didn’t arrive until the 1990s, and that the independent contractor classification that defined the business for decades persists to this day for most talent.
In every other major North American professional sport, a revenue-generating athlete of Flair’s stature would have been covered by a collective bargaining agreement, a pension, and health benefits.
In wrestling, they had none of that. What they had was the gate.
“Every time they wanted me to drop it to somebody else, they didn’t draw, and then they said, ‘Give it back to Flair, he sells it out.’ I had no problem dropping it and I had no problem getting it back.
Some guys really struggle with that, because once they’ve had it. Even for a couple of months, I’ve seen it destroy some guys’ careers.”
Ric Flair has shut down speculation about a potential return to the ring, emphatically declaring on social media that he will never wrestle again.
The 76-year-old WWE Hall of Famer took to Twitter on February 6 to clarify comments he made during a virtual signing with K&S WrestleFest one day earlier, where he discussed the possibility of facing fellow legend Ricky Morton.
\”First, Let Me Clear Something Up! I Will Never Wrestle Again,\” Flair wrote, before promoting an upcoming appearance in Charleston, South Carolina. \”I\’m Heading To Flair Country. Charleston, South Carolina Get Ready! The Nature Boy And @FitermanSports Are Taking Over @SpookyEmpire This Weekend!\”
First, Let Me Clear Something Up! I Will Never Wrestle Again. I’m Heading To Flair Country. Charleston, South Carolina Get Ready! The Nature Boy And @FitermanSports Are Taking Over @SpookyEmpire This Weekend! If You Want To Be The Best, You Gotta Be With The Best! Come See Me… pic.twitter.com/pkzh8aXgyu
During Thursday\’s virtual signing, Flair had revealed that someone wanted him to wrestle Morton and admitted he was \”thinking about it,\” though he noted they were \”way off on financial terms.\”
The Nature Boy explained that having a potential match would give him motivation for his gym workouts, saying, \”Sometimes I need something to motivate me, man. Just to go to the gym every day for nothing is…\”
The comments quickly went viral, prompting concern from fans and even Flair\’s daughter Charlotte, who quote-tweeted the news with a firm \”Absolutely not.\”
The Retired Nature Boy
Flair last competed in July 2022 at an event billed as \”Ric Flair\’s Last Match\” in Nashville, Tennessee, where he teamed with Andrade El Idolo to defeat Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal. The match drew controversy after Flair revealed he passed out multiple times during the bout due to dehydration.
The 16-time world champion has retired from wrestling multiple times throughout his career, most famously at WrestleMania 24 in 2008 following his emotional match against Shawn Michaels. However, financial needs led him back to the ring for runs in TNA and eventually the 2022 comeback.
In 2025, Flair battled several health issues including skin cancer and a rotator cuff injury, though he announced last July that he is now cancer-free.
With Thursday\’s clarification, Flair appears to have firmly closed the door on any future in-ring appearances, choosing instead to focus on personal appearances and autograph signings.
The Nature Boy took to X on Monday to finally comment on negative reviews of his cameo appearances. While not naming anyone, the 16-time world champion said that \’the person\’ who is unhappy with their purchase can get a refund through his law firm:
\”I Wouldn’t Want Anyone To Have A Bad Experience As They Keep Pouring In. So To Make Things Right, I Am More Than Happy To Reimburse The Person That Seems To Be Unhappy With Their @Cameo. Please Reach Out To My Law Firm In Boston- Hartman Law. I Apologize For Not Addressing This Sooner.\”
I Wouldn’t Want Anyone To Have A Bad Experience As They Keep Pouring In. So To Make Things Right, I Am More Than Happy To Reimburse The Person That Seems To Be Unhappy With Their @Cameo. Please Reach Out To My Law Firm In Boston- Hartman Law. I Apologize For Not Addressing This… pic.twitter.com/vnQTB9mo56
This reaction comes almost a month after stories of Flair\’s disappointing cameo appearances became a topic of discussion, based on the negative reviews on his profile.
The most famous of these stories included a woman spending almost $1,000 for a cameo for her brother\’s wedding, only for Ric to send a drunken video asking the groom, \’Why would you get married, motherf*cker?,\’
Another complaint noted that they paid $600 to get a Christmas wish for their father, named Buff. Instead, Flair kept calling him Barf and read the instructions word for word without putting any effort.
The overall rating for Ric Flair remains high, however, so it\’s unlikely that these stories will affect his popularity on the platform.
Boxing legend Mike Tyson and wrestling icon Ric Flair have filed a massive $50 million lawsuit against former executives of their cannabis company Carma, alleging fraud, embezzlement, and racketeering.
The 76-page complaint, filed December 17 in U.S. District Court in Illinois and obtained by Front Office Sports, names Chad Bronstein, Adam Wilks, Nicole Cosby, and James Case as defendants. Bronstein previously served as Carma’s president and chairman and is now co-founder of Hulk Hogan’s Real American Freestyle wrestling promotion. Wilks served as CEO, while Cosby was chief legal and licensing officer.
According to the lawsuit, the defendants engaged in a “brazen RICO conspiracy involving criminal wire fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, and extortion” that enriched them “to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.” The suit alleges Bronstein and Wilks “treated CARMA as their own personal piggy bank, using more than $1 million to pay for unauthorized personal travel on private jets, costs associated with Bronstein’s personal yacht, renovations to Bronstein’s personal residence, a mortgage payment for Wilks’ personal residence.”
The defendants’ attorneys strongly denied the claims. Jonathan Cyrluk, representing Bronstein and Cosby, called the complaint “fiction dressed up as a lawsuit,” adding his clients “won’t be bullied and are prepared to knock out this meritless lawsuit in court.” Terry Campbell, Wilks’ attorney, dismissed the allegations as “without substance,” calling the suit “an attempt to spit out an earful of salacious headlines.”
Carma and LGNDS distribute the Tyson 2.0 and Ric Flair Drip cannabis brands. This lawsuit follows a previous July 2025 case where Carma sued Bronstein and Cosby over alleged misappropriation of information related to Hogan’s Real American Beer brand.
Ric Flair has issued a new statement on X following Hulk Hogan\’s widow Sky publicly refuting his claim that \”street drugs\” contributed to the WWE legend\’s death.
\”Okay Sky! I Got Bad Information According To You. I Should Have Never Mentioned It,\” Flair wrote. \”Let\’s Just Move Past This And Concentrate On His Legacy. Period, End Of Story. Let\’s PRESERVE HIS LEGACY Rather Than Dwell On Any Negative Energy. I Repeat- Hulkamania Forever!\”
The post comes hours after Sky spoke to TMZ Sports, flatly denying Flair\’s account. \”That didn\’t happen at all,\” she said when asked about the Nature Boy\’s claims that Hogan turned to street drugs after doctors stopped prescribing pain medication.
Sky also disputed Flair\’s assertion that he spoke with Hogan the day before his death, explaining that the Hulkster was under constant care at Morton Plant Hospital in Florida during his final days. She noted the only medication changes came following Hogan\’s neck procedure to protect his lungs. Two additional family sources corroborated her account.
The controversy began when Flair appeared on the Doubl3 Coverage podcast last week and claimed he spoke to Hogan the day before he died. \”I shouldn\’t say this, but what killed him was street drugs,\” Flair said at the time.
The family reportedly holds no ill will toward Flair, acknowledging the two icons were close friends for decades, but wanted the record set straight. Flair previously spoke about his bond with Hogan and even attended his funeral alongside Vince McMahon.
WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair has issued a new statement on his official Facebook page, addressing the controversy surrounding his recent comments surrounding the death of fellow icon Hulk Hogan. Flair recently claimed that Hogan had turned to “street drugs” after being cut off from prescribed pain medications, prompting backlash.
Flair’s comments initially surfaced during an appearance on Doubl3 Coverage, where he discussed Hogan’s long struggle with chronic pain following numerous surgeries. Flair said Hogan’s debilitating health led to an increased reliance on pain medication and eventual desperation when doctors could no longer prescribe stronger doses under medical guidelines.
Flair recalled his final conversation with Hogan and describing the pain he says the WWE icon was living with in his final days. Flair said, “I talked to him the day before he died. I shouldn’t say this, but what killed him was street drugs, when the doctor wouldn’t prescribe anymore. He was in so much pain. Then he had a neck surgery and it got infected, so back in the hospital. Imagine 10 back surgeries, two knees, two hips, all this. And then when the doctor would not prescribe any more pain medicine, they just couldn’t do it, all due to conscience, right? So they went and got the drugs off the street. His body just said, ‘You know what? Bingo, I can’t do it anymore.’”
Flair clarified that he did not intend to demean Hogan or his legacy, explaining that his information came directly from Hogan’s family members. The Nature Boy emphasized that he was only repeating what he had been told and expressed regret if his comments were misunderstood.
“There seems to be some controversy over my remarks that street drugs killed Hulk Hogan,” Flair wrote. “I was only repeating what I know to be a fact through family members… This was not an attempt to demean Hulk Hogan or his legacy. I have always referred to him as one of the two biggest stars in the industry, alongside Steve Austin. Hulkamania forever.”
The longtime friends shared decades of history as rivals and legends within WWE. Flair continues to honor Hogan’s contributions, calling him a “friend and a man I respected.”
Ric Flair was advertised to appear at the AEW Dynamite: Blood & Guts special in Greensboro, NC, on November 12, but fans watching the broadcast were left wondering where he was. While his legendary rival Ricky \”The Dragon\” Steamboat appeared on the show for a segment with FTR and Stokely Hathaway, Flair\’s appearance was limited to an off-air segment for the live crowd before Dynamite began.
\”The Nature Boy\” has since taken to social media to explain his absence, revealing he is \”nursing a rotator cuff injury\” which forced him to leave the show early.
In his post, Flair apologized to the fans and AEW President Tony Khan for his early departure:
“I Want To Apologize To Everyone For Having To Leave The @AEW Show Early Last Wednesday Due To My Rotator Cuff Injury. I Appreciate @TonyKhan Giving Me The Opportunity To Be On The Show. It Was Nice Catching Up With All The Great Talent And Ricky Steamboat. I Look Forward To Being Invited Again. After I Have My Shoulder Healed Up, I Will Be Back Up & Running. I Just Want You All To Know That I Would Never Disappoint You Intentionally.”
I Want To Apologize To Everyone For Having To Leave The @AEW Show Early Last Wednesday Due To My Rotator Cuff Injury. I Appreciate @TonyKhan Giving Me The Opportunity To Be On The Show. It Was Nice Catching Up With All The Great Talent And Ricky Steamboat. I Look Forward To Being… pic.twitter.com/sxGkBmRcET
AEW apparently had to make changes to Blood & Guts special due to Ric Flair.
The Nature Boy was in attendance for tonight\’s Dynamite tapings from First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. He made an appearance for the live crowd before the show and thanked Tony Khan for inviting him to the event.
Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer provided an update on this Flair sighting. He reported that the Hall of Famer was originally expected to be a bigger part of the night and was scheduled to make a TV appearance as well.
According to the wrestling journalist, the plans were shuffled because Ric Flair was dealing with a recent rotator cuff tear. He was in \’a ton of pain\’ and left not long after greeting the crowd.
While the 16-time world champion could not make an appearance on the Blood & Guts Dynamite, there was a segment on the show featuring another legend in Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat.
Steamboat even mentioned Flair as his #1 nemesis before being interrupted by FTR. The whole thing turned physical after a tense verbal exchange, leading to Brodido making the save for the wrestling veteran.
The report does not provide any more details on when Ric suffered the injury or what the original plan for him at the show was. With his name being mentioned, however, it\’s not hard to imagine that he had a role in the segment with Ricky Steamboat, which was nixed.
Stay tuned to SEScoops for an update on Flair\’s health.
AEW Dynamite: Blood and Guts took place on November 12, from the First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. Before the show, fans were treated with an appearance from North Carolina\’s very own Ric Flair who was grateful for the opportunity.
In footage recorded by a fan at the event, Flair spoke about North Carolina being \’Flair Country.\’ Standing alongside Tony Khan, the two-time WWE Hall of Famer was grateful that he could appear.
\”Flair Country! Mr. Khan, thank you for inviting me. AEW\’s got a special product and any time I can make an appearance with Tony and the guys, man, I\’m so honored… We appreciate you. Lot of history, I started here in 1974. You guys are just as good and loud, and the greatest wrestling fans in the world. Thank you very much.\”
Flair debuted in AEW in October 2023 on Dynamite, marking his first appearance on TBS since the March 21, 2001, episode of WCW Thunder. The following month, it was announced that Flair had signed a multi-year contract with the promotion. Flair would appear regularly as part of Sting\’s retirement tour.
Flair appeared in May of this year as part of a tribute to Steve \’Mongo\’ McMichael. It remains to be seen if or when Flair will appear for AEW again, but the Nature Boy certainly received a warm welcome from his fellow Carolinians at AEW Dynamite: Blood and Guts.
Ric Flair’s reputation as a “party animal” during his heyday is well-earned, according to fellow former wrestler Barry Darsow. Speaking on The A2theK Wrestling Show, Darsow—known to fans as Demolition Smash and Repo Man—recalled what a typical night out with The Nature Boy was like.
\”Oh my gosh! It\’s not an easy night, let\’s put it that way. When you go into a bar, you better be ready to drink some beer. And it didn\’t matter how many people were in there, Ric was the party.\”
Flair was never one to hold back when it came to spending money to make the night unforgettable. While many wrestlers on the road tried to save their earnings, the two-time WWE Hall of Famer was known to spend freely—often on complete strangers.
\”It\’d be nothing for him to spend 3-4-5,000 dollars and buy the bar everything. I don\’t know how he did it. I hung around him a lot and he was a character.\”
According to Darsow, Flair’s presence could turn any bar into a full-blown celebration, especially when he was back home in North Carolina.
\”Especially where he was from down in North Carolina where we lived. Everyone knew him and everything. So it was just a party everywhere you went.\”
Now 76 years old and long removed from his days as NWA World Champion, Flair’s wild nights are behind him. Still, the memories—and the legend of The Nature Boy’s larger-than-life lifestyle—remain unforgettable to those who were there.
Shawn Michaels has reflected on one of his most famous matches.
The WWE Hall of Famer recently had an interview with Chris Van Vliet. He talked about things such as his early career in wrestling, when he first started feeling like a star, working with Bret Hart and more.
During the interview, Michaels also discussed one of his most famous matches against Ric Flair at WrestleMania 24. The bout was the latter\’s WWE retirement match and has been included in the list of the 50 greatest WrestleMania matches by the company.
HBK first discussed the emotional ending of the bout and told the story of how the finish came to him just days before the match:
\”That might have been a week out, waking up in the middle of the night and just having this, whatever you want to call it, a flow of consciousness about the end of the match and what it ended up being. I was writing it down, and I came to the end, it’s stuff that sounds like it’s a movie scene, and the little tear drops on the paper. I’m like, Oh my goodness.\”
Many people believe that Flair disrespected the emotions of the fans by choosing to wrestle again under the TNA banner after his WWE sendoff. Shawn Michaels talked about this notion and claimed that atleast on the day off the match, the emotion they showed was real:
“It was real that day, because he was weeping the entire time, and almost the entire match, but especially at that part. He knew it was the end, he knew it was the end of the match. I know people, they’ll even say, oh, you’re gonna wrestle again, not at that moment. Everybody was so invested in that, because for that moment in time, to us, it was real.\”
Ric Flair would end up wrestling 16 matches for TNA during his stint with the company between 2009 to 2011. He had a second retirement match at an independent event in 2022.
WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels discussed the challenge of transitioning from performer to coach during his Nightcap appearance, revealing why natural talent often struggles with instruction.
\”What came easy is hard. Those that can do, those that can\’t teach, you did because you could do. Now, how do you show patience, show grace, and say, \’What came so easy to Shawn Michaels? What was a God-given gift? How do I convey that?\’\” Michaels explained.
The NXT leader emphasized timing as wrestling\’s most crucial yet unteachable element.
\”The hardest thing for us is a very natural feel and also as you gentlemen know you almost can\’t teach timing. Timing is something that our business as yours sort of hangs on.\”
Changing Wrestling Culture, Finding Fulfillment
Michaels expressed determination to improve wrestling\’s working environment for future generations.
\”We want the culture of our business to be different and to be more positive than it was when we got into it. We want to leave it better off than the way we came into it,\” he stated.
His role at the WWE Performance Center focuses on developing complete performers rather than just athletes. Through repetition and mentorship, Michaels helps translate raw talent into television-ready superstars.
Physical Sacrifice for the Craft
Despite his legendary status, Michaels paid dearly for his in-ring career. \”I have had my back fused. I\’ve had my shoulder replaced. I got two knees that I\’m getting replaced in probably a month. And I wouldn\’t change it for anything in the world,\” he revealed without regret.
His dedication extended to an exhausting schedule that few modern performers could match.
\”When I worked on the road, we did 286 days. When I got a part-time schedule, it was 150 days… I enjoyed every minute.\”
Perfect Retirement Timing
Michaels found peace in his final match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25.
\”I had a match… with Undertaker WrestleMania 25 in Houston that made me feel so peaceful in a way that I\’d never felt after a match in my entire life,\” he reflected. \”I was able to leave, as they say, on a high note… I\’ve never looked back and regretted it.\”
The wrestling legend found fulfillment in developing others after his own career concluded.
\”I do one thing well in this lifetime and it\’s wrestle. I\’m able to use that gift to give other young men and women… the opportunity to have the amazing life that I\’ve been given through this line of work.\”
Shawn Michaels responded humbly to Ric Flair recetly declaring him the greatest all time.
\”Ric Flair says your understanding of the moment and the timing and the theatrics of it… there\’s no one close to Shawn Michaels. He\’s the greatest,\” Shannon Sharpe quoted, adding \”That\’s no disrespect to Hogan. That\’s no disrespect to anyone… But Shawn Michaels is the greatest wrestler.\”
Michaels accepted the compliment graciously while maintaining perspective.
\”It\’s the greatest compliment a guy could have to even be in the conversation,\” he replied, acknowledging the significance of Flair\’s endorsement.
Ric Flair weighed in on recent wrestling controversies, from viral backstage incidents to potential legend returns, in his latest interview with eScapist.
Missing Context in Raja Jackson Incident
Regarding the viral Raja Jackson attack on Syko Stu that shocked the wrestling community, Flair suggested crucial context may be missing from public accounts.
I\’m very close to Rampage and I tried calling him, but obviously he wasn\’t taking calls,\” Flair revealed. \”You never know the extent of what happened if you weren\’t there. We\’re probably missing several key components to what happened.\”
The Nature Boy emphasized his own approach to in-ring discipline: \”I\’ve never lost my cool in the ring. I\’ve had to punch some guys back like Vader, just because he was always trying to rough me up. One punch and then everybody calms down, smooth it over.\”
Jericho Return Unlikely
When addressing persistent speculation about Chris Jericho\’s potential WWE return, Flair expressed doubt that Y2J would receive the farewell treatment given to John Cena. \”Of course I do hope he gets one final run, because Chris Jericho has meant a lot to the business. But I don\’t think he\’ll get it,\” he stated. \”I would doubt very seriously if he\’d get the kind of deal that John Cena got.\”
Flair also briefly addressed the recent passing of Hulk Hogan, choosing to focus on positive memories rather than engaging with circulating rumors.
Ric Flair delivered scathing critiques of today\’s wrestling generation while rejecting recent comparisons to current stars in an exclusive interview with eScapist.
Flair Rejects Gunther Comparisons
When asked about Bret Hart\’s recent comparisons between Gunther and himself, the Nature Boy quickly dismissed the notion. \”If you\’re comparing him to me, come on, there\’s levels to the game,\” Flair stated. While acknowledging Gunther\’s impressive look and facial expressions, Flair made it clear he hasn\’t watched enough to warrant such comparisons to his legendary career.
Modern Wrestling Lacks Fundamentals
The 16-time World Champion was particularly critical when discussing Karrion Kross\’s recent WWE release, pointing to a fundamental problem he sees plaguing modern wrestlers.
\”The problem today with a lot of the guys is they can do all this fancy sh*t, but they don\’t have any fundamentals,\” Flair explained. \”They can\’t punch, they can\’t kick. They can\’t remember to work their way to the center of the ring. They don\’t know where to go, they don\’t have facial expressions.\”
The Nature Boy\’s comments suggest a growing disconnect between veteran perspectives and modern wrestling\’s athletic evolution.
However, Flair had nothing but praise for Logan Paul\’s rapid development under Shawn Michaels\’ guidance, crediting the Hall of Famer\’s training methods for the celebrity wrestler\’s success.
The wrestling world lost Hulk Hogan in July 2025 at the age of 71, marking the end for arguably the industry\’s biggest star. Few people knew Hogan better than fellow wrestling icon Ric Flair, who has opened up about his thought process since his death.
In a conversation with Clay Edwards, Flair commented on the death of Hogan. Not only does the two-time WWE Hall of Famer miss his friend, but it has left the older Flair anxious for his own future.
“When Hogan went, it kind of gave me anxiety ‘cause I’m 5 years older than he is.”
Flair attended Hogan\’s funeral, the Nature Boy added, a solemn affair that featured a guest list including Vince McMahon and his family. While Flair and Hogan battled several times on TV, the pair were never as hostile as some fans believe.
“People always wanted to paint us as enemies, but we were actually very, very close friends. Hulk lent me money when Reid was sick… One of the first to visit me when I was in the hospital with a 2% chance of living.\”
At 76 and having faced several health battles of his own, Flair is well-aware of his own mortality. For the wrestling legend, the death of his friend isn\’t just a loss, but a sad reminder of his fleeing time.
Wrestling legend Ric Flair delivered an emotional response to Hulk Hogan\’s sudden death during his appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, revealing his own fears about mortality.
Hogan, 71, died from cardiac arrest at his Florida home on July 24, sending shockwaves through the wrestling world.
\”I think he just got tired. 11 back operations, hip replacements, now a neck surgery… How much can your body take?\” Flair said during the interview.
"I think he just got tired. 11 back operations, hip replacements, now a neck surgery… How much can your body take?
We've all put ourselves in ridiculous positions in the business, but I mean, I'm 5 years older than Hulk, and I don't hurt at all.
The Nature Boy, who at 75 is five years older than Hogan was at his death, acknowledged his own mortality concerns.
\”We\’ve all put ourselves in ridiculous positions in the business, but I mean, I\’m 5 years older than Hulk, and I don\’t hurt at all. I\’ve had some serious health issues, but I don\’t have an ache or pain in my body… Of course, it gives me anxiety that I could be next.\”
Flair\’s vulnerability offers a rare glimpse into wrestling\’s aging superstars mindset. His comments highlight the ongoing health struggles that have plagued many wrestlers from the golden era.
The wrestling community continues to mourn Hogan\’s passing, while Flair\’s honest reflection serves as a sobering reminder of the physical sacrifices made by the sport\’s biggest stars.
Flair also discussed his own legacy in relation to Hulk’s, conceding that Hogan and Steve Austin are the two biggest stars in the history of the business.
WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair has shared fantastic news with the wrestling world, announcing on Tuesday that his recent battle with skin cancer has been successful and he is now officially cancer-free.
In a post on his Twitter account, Flair thanked his medical team and celebrated the positive news. The announcement comes after Flair recently underwent surgery and had stated he had one more procedure remaining.
“Thank You Academic Alliance In Dermatology! I’m Now Cancer Free! WOOOOO!” Flair wrote.
This was Flair\’s second bout with skin cancer in the last three years and is the latest in a series of significant health issues he has overcome. Even while dealing with his recent diagnosis, \”The Nature Boy\” showed his trademark fighting spirit, recently posting a video of himself successfully completing a 3-minute plank challenge.
