Ric Flair’s AEW debut was Tony Khan’s gift to Sting

The Nature Boy will be with his old friend until he retires next year… or if Christian Cage has his way, next month at Full Gear.

• By
  
  Sean Rueter
  
• on October 25, 2023 9:15 pm

Even before last Wednesday when Sting announced he’ll be calling it a Hall of Fame career after next year’s Revolution PPV, the accolades were pouring in for The Icon.

Post-announcement, the biggest one promised to be from his boss at AEW. Word was Tony Khan would be presenting Sting with a historic gift on the Oct. 24 Dynamite, something that had never happened to “a wrestler in pro wrestling”.

Sting came out with his protege Darby Allin (with his probably fractured shoulder in a sling). The Stinger thanked the crowd in Philadelphia, and Allin — who he called the best tag partner he’s ever had.

The 64 year old then thanked TK, which led to Tony Schiavone asking for the microphone back. The voice of AEW spoke on behalf of his boss, thanking Sting for his contributions to AEW and to the history of wrestling on TBS. And that was a segue to a gift that lived up to the hype… the man who wrestled Sting for 55 minutes on the Superstation back in 1988, when Clash of Champions went opposite WrestleMania IV, Ric Flair.

Flair talked about his history with Sting, and put him over as the nicest man he’s ever met. He plans to stick around for rest of the Stinger’s run, all the way to March 2024 when he says goodbye for sure.

It was a nice moment, be a shame if a certain Father Figure were to ruin it…

Christian Cage whipped Philly into a frenzy with his insults of Ric Flair (my favorite was saying that Khan’s gift to Sting was “basically a suit, some gold chains, and a black liver… great gift”). But he was mostly here to take aim at Sting & Allin for getting in his business again last week. The TNT champ doesn’t want to wait until Revolution to end Sting’s career. So at Full Gear, he challenged Stinger & Darby to get a partner for a trios match.

Seeing as having it be Flair would, as Christian points out, not really be a sound strategic decision, we’re guessing that spot will go to Adam Copeland. But we’ll learn more about that soon enough. Like in the next segment, when fka Edge tried to insist he still won’t fight his old partner, and got an earful about it from The Icon.

We’ll see if that leads where we think it’s leading. For now, what do you think about The Nature Boy’s arrival in AEW?

Get complete results and coverage of everything on tonight’s Dynamite here.

Read more