Eric Bischoff weighs in on AEW signing Ric Flair.
The Hall of Famer spoke about the Nature Boy’s new venture during a recent edition of his Strictly Business podcast. Easy E admits that he is happy for Flair and thinks it will give his energy drink great exposure on AEW programming.
I’m happy for Ric. Professional wrestling is Ric Flair’s life. Ric Flair left Richard Fleir behind a long time ago, and I’m happy for Ric because Ric loves the business, he loves being around the business. It’s good for Ric, it’s really good for Ric. The Wooooo! Energy thing, that’s obviously a great opportunity for the people who are behind Wooooo! Energy to get it some national promotion and exposure. That’s a good thing. It makes it easier for the distributors who are trying to sell that drink and get it into the retail outlets around the country. It’s a win for Ric personally, it’s a win for the people behind Wooooo! Energy, and let’s see what it means to AEW. Time will tell.
Bischoff later comments on the length of Flair’s deal and the report that came out stating that his sponsorship deal was paying for most of his salary.
If what Sean reported is true, and I believe it probably is, yeah, it’s very similar to what I did. In Randy’s case, the Slim Jim deal covered 100% of Randy’s salary. It covered all of it, and did for a couple years. I got Randy for free [laughs], and that’s why it’s a win. It’s a win for Ric, it gets him close to a business that is his life, really. It’s in his generic makeup, his DNA. There’s no denying how much Ric loves the business. So it’s a win-win, and potentially a win-win-win. We’ll just have to wait and see how much of a win it is for the AEW product.
It was later revealed that Flair’s deal with AEW is for two years. You can read details about that here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)