A new report has indicated why Ric Flair might have returned to WWE’s signature opening after he was removed following an episode of Dark Side Of The Ring.
Season three of Dark Side of the Ring featured an episode on the infamous ‘Plane Ride from Hell,’ that took place following the UK exclusive pay-per-view Insurrextion in May 2002. During the flight, several performers were involved in incidents that would result in fines, lawsuits, and, in the cases of Scott Hall and Curt Hennig, releases from the company.
On the September 2021 episode of Dark Side of the Ring, a flight attendant who’d been on duty alleged that she was sexually harassed by Ric Flair on the flight. In the wake of these allegations, the Nature Boy’s merchandise was pulled from WWEShop.com, and his famous “Woooo” was removed from the WWE signature open that plays before the company’s programming. A CarShield ad campaign featuring the WWE Hall of Famer was also paused.
Flair recently returned to the WWE Signature and the WWE Hall of Famer responded to that move indicating he was pleased to be back.
Now Dave Meltzer writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has indicated that WWE feels any heat from the Dark Side of the Ring documentary on Flair is now gone and that’s why he is back:
“Ric Flair was put back in the television show open. The belief is that whatever heat they’d have gotten after Dark Side of the Ring aired (and they took him off) is done. They had already worked with him on the WWE Heels show as well so they were back on good terms. So it was just a matter of when WWE felt the negativity toward him had totally blown over.”
The final match in Ric Flair’s illustrious career is set to take place as part of Starrcast over SummerSlam weekend.