6 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (October 25 - Results & Review)

1. Sting's Gift

Assessing Ric Flair's involvement in pro wrestling in 2023 puts you in the position of one of the characters from the beloved children's book "We're Going On A Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen. For the uninitiated, a Father and three children go hunting for a bear and encounter obstacles such as mud and snow with the familiar refrain of "we can't go over it, we can't go under it, oh no, we have to go through it".

What happened on television was that old friends were reunited, Flair's general demeanour provided an easy target for a heel, and the wrestling show moved forward as they always do. But that's just going over it. Flair could have been part of AEW (or a more regular fixture in WWE) for a while and wasn't. We can't just brush off why that was. We can't just go under it. Oh no! We have to go through it.

Dark Side Of The Ring's exceptional Plane Ride From Hell retelling rightfully reframed what Ric Flair did on that flight for what it was - an alleged sexual assault. This also shone a very different light on countless similar tales, once told with wide-eyed reverence from his peers/biggest fans. The burden of truth is one of many Flair walks around carrying in 2023, and the usage of him has that too. Tony Khan's recent X posts made reference to similar allegations against Vince McMahon, and he'd outright banned Hulk Hogan for his own prior (very different) controversies.

Every fan will have their own opinion on this (or equally won't, and that's just as relevant), but interest in reality while watching fiction can diminish quicker than the initial backlashes themselves. Tony Khan can pick and choose his causes and ethical codes, but he does so knowing that some pushback will - and should - come from it. All of this is about as far away from anything you want to consider when six people are cutting promos about pretend fighting, but it's what happens when figures such as Flair have the door opened back up.