PicoBlog

On the night before Thanksgiving 2023, I attended AEW Dynamite. It’s become my annual tradition to go to that show because it usually falls a few days after my birthday and I love a Chicago trip.

The first year I went I had one of my best live wrestling experiences, I sat in Chicago and watched as CM Punk battle MJF on the mic for the first time.

The second year The Elite had a memorable match with Death Triangle in their Best of Seven series and Chris Jericho versus Ishii was very, very good.

But this year the atmosphere was completely different. It isn’t anything to do with CM Punk, he wasn’t there in 2022 either. Dynamite now feels different, the crowd has dwindled, and the company’s vibes are off.

Nothing exemplifies this more than having the cartoon face of Ric Flair staring at me throughout the whole show, flogging his ‘energy’ drink.

In October Ric Flair made his debut for AEW to loud online backlash from fans.

Tellingly, the legend didn’t get a ‘Ric Flair is All Elite’ graphic nor a welcome tweet from Tony Khan. It was as if they didn’t want the replies.

Soon after his debut, it was reported that Flair’s salary was being paid by the Wooooo! Energy company, which I guess means he at least isn’t stealing a cheque from a young wrestler.

Flair was brought in for the road to Sting’s retirement, putting a damper on what should be a celebration of a great wrestling career. Instead of being excited for Sting’s final few months, we’re now talking about Flair’s ghoulish presence on AEW TV.

Tony Khan is a huge wrestling fan, we all know that. He’s also a Flair fan, just like Triple H, but Paul’s probably had enough experience to know that Flair isn’t worth the trouble any more.

During the tapings of this week’s Rampage Flair was given a live mic, where he used one of his old lines: “18-28 no boyfriends no husbands meet me at my hotel room.”

Once that got out on X fans were quick to react. ‘But it’s what he used to say!’ some argued. To which I answer, ‘I don’t care.’ This man doesn’t even have the sense or decency not to say a line like that when he’s been accused of sexual assault.

Then we had his Instagram post. Flair, turning on the waterworks in capitalised text, offering himself as the great martyr for men who have finally been called out for their bad behaviour.

“I appreciate everything, Tony Khan, but I’m more than willing to walk away if I am embarrassing you and your company,” he wrote.

That’s the most generous offer Flair’s ever made in his career.

But while AEW hid from addressing Flair’s hiring and the concerns around it, we had wrestlers taking his bait and jumping to his defence.

We had Steve Austin and Titus O’Neil among the names and two AEW talents who really should have known better.

Chris Jericho the man who narrated the Dark Side of the Ring episode that included Heidi Doyle’s harrowing testimony told Flair: “Don’t listen to the online assholes champ. You’re f*ckin Ric Flair. Do what you want. F*ck em…”

“Do what you want,” is a choice phrase to use towards a man accused of sexual assault or, it would be, if Chris thought Flair did anything wrong.

If you were wondering why Jericho had no problem narrating that DSOTR episode it’s because he didn’t see Flair’s ‘cancellation’ coming, he was just telling some fun road stories from the boys (remember when we all appointed him to ‘forgive’ Tommy Dreamer?).

Or perhaps Chris just means Flair should continue inviting much younger women to his hotel rooms, cause that’s cool.

Flair was also supported by Ryan Nemeth. Nemeth previously wrote a short film titled Heel which, in his words, “Is based on disturbing events that a lot of people have been privy to in wrestling.

“Over the past summer, that became very public with the #SpeakingOut movement,” he said at the time of the film’s release.

“It was pretty awesome to see people speaking out get so much support this summer, but it sucks that sexual assault exists at all within wrestling. I hope that HEEL serves as a catalyst to keep this conversation open and keeps people talking.”

The open conversation that Ryan would like to have doesn’t include speaking about Flair. He’s just too much of a legend.

But hey why do I care? Why do I care that Flair is on AEW TV? Why does it matter that he’s (potentially) just hanging around for a few months as Sting heads towards retirement?

I guess it’s because AEW was meant to be better.

I started watching wrestling a long time ago. Ric Flair was on Nitro with Miss Elizabeth at his side against Randy Savage. Then we moved into the Attitude Era with puppies and pudding matches, we then got Divas matches with their time being cut, and then, decades too late, we got the Women’s Revolution.

But still, WWE was a company owned by a man with numerous accusations against him that were out there a long time before the Wall Street Journal started investigating. But that was the price you had a pay as a woman who loved wrestling right? Support Vince McMahon’s company and feel a bit dirty while you do it.

Then this new company came along. It came along for the fans who wanted an alternative. The ones who ‘put their money where their mouth is’ and bought NJPW World when Jericho did Wrestle Kingdom. The ones who ‘put their money where their mouth is’ when The Elite created All In.

The ones who kept putting ‘their money where their mouth is’ when Kenny Omega announced AEW was here to change the world.

This is not about the change in creative direction in AEW, that’s for another time, but this company, an American wrestling company challenging Vince McMahon felt like they were going to be different and do better.

Do better for women and everyone else whom wrestling has marginalised and let down over the years.

It felt like the sleaze and shame of the past wasn’t going to exist here.

The day even came when Vince had to step down from WWE. Not too long ago we had Tony Khan on X alluding to the allegations against Vince and then, in one fell swoop, the moral high ground was lost.

I’m not saying AEW was perfect before they hired Ric Flair, they weren’t. Flair is not the only person in the company you can find an allegation against.

But bringing in Flair has to be one of the most unnecessary Ls a wrestling company has ever taken. I do believe that Ric Flair, the in-ring performer, is one of the greatest to ever do it but that does not give him a pass.

We will never move forward if we keep giving ‘legends’ a pass on everything. You should always have to work to keep the respect you once earned.

Flair has nothing to offer AEW. He can’t promo any more, he’s hopefully not going to wrestle, he surely can’t be an ambassador figure like Paul Wight, and he has never acted unselfishly in his life. All he has brought the company is bad press.

Tony knew well enough after DSOTR came out not to bring him in, so what changed? I guess he thought we all had very short memories.

Now Tony Khan, a billionaire, has to ask himself, was it worth it? Was it really worth giving up the goodwill AEW had, the moral high ground, just to have Flair on TV? Was it worth the negative attention, was it worth the microscope AEW has put itself under?

I once told someone in wrestling I was considering getting out of the business because, as a woman, I couldn’t win and no matter how hard I tried I always felt pushed aside for the men in my field, especially when it came to AEW.

They told me the right thing to do was to keep going and fight to make wrestling better for women. Turns out, like many men before, that person wasn’t willing to help.

I’ve asked Tony Khan twice now about women’s voices being heard in AEW and I’m not sure he’s ever fully understood the question. This whole situation tells me the answer is no.

I didn’t write this to burn down AEW, I wrote this because I’ve never believed in something more than this company and I’m sad that it has come to this.

So now as I get ready to hit publish I can imagine the dudes who will tell me to shut up cause Ric Flair’s a legend, and I’m just another woman complaining on the internet.

However, I shall choose to take some advice from Chris Jericho and not listen to the online assholes because I’m fucking Stephanie Chase and I do what I want. Fuck em.

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