Ric Flair Debuts On AEW Dynamite, Reunites With Old Rival Sting

Sting received his retirement gift from Tony Khan on "AEW Dynamite" Wednesday night, which turned out to be the AEW debut of "The Nature Boy" himself, Ric Flair.

Last week, after Sting told the world that the last match of his illustrious career would take place at AEW Revolution 2024, it was announced that Tony Khan had a gift for the legendary wrestler, to be unveiled on this week's episode. After a brief conversation between Sting, Darby Allin, and Tony Schiavone, Flair's iconic music hit, and "The Dirtiest Player In The Game" made his way down to the ring to the surprise and delight of the Philadelphia crowd. Getting on the mic, Flair and Sting hugged, and Flair said he wanted to "ride it out with you," presumably referring to this final run of Sting's career. It's unclear whether that means Flair will be a regular on AEW programming going forward.

The segment was later interrupted by Christian Cage, Luchasaurus, and Nick Wayne, and a six-man tag was set up for AEW Full Gear on November 18. From the segment, it didn't seem as though Flair, who supposedly wrestled his final match last year, would be Sting's and Allin's partner, but it also wasn't explicitly stated that he wouldn't be. However, Sting and Allin approached Adam Copeland backstage later in the broadcast, who has also been engaged in a storyline with Cage — though thus far, Copeland is still refusing to fight his old friend.

Flair and Sting had an acclaimed rivalry over the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a feud that would carry over to WCW and even, eventually, to Impact Wrestling in 2011.