The idea to bring Ric Flair back to WWE TV was first presented in a creative meeting a few weeks ago and approved just a little over a week ago heading into the Judgment Day PPV. It was said to be both a combination of Flair offering his services to the company via text messages sent to Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis along with falling TV ratings for Raw that pushed it forward.
While some believed Triple H was going to be brought back earlier with the absence of Shawn Michaels, the belief is that bringing Flair back will give them enough time to up the star power until Triple H is brought back to TV. Where they intend to go with Flair’s character remains to be seen as a variety of scenarios are possible including Orton punting Flair in the head to setup Triple H’s return or a possible Batista heel turn using Flair if that is a direction the company would like to go.
As plans stand right now, Flair will be working for WWE without a contract in pretty much the same capacity he had been doing leading into WrestleMania 25. Where it leaves Flair with Ring of Honor remains to be seen. He publicly stated that one of the main reasons he even agreed to appear for the ROH was to set the stage for his son Reid. However, ROH is not interested in using Reid at the moment following his recent arrest for heroin possession. Flair is still scheduled for future ROH dates and it was pretty clear that WWE was not happy with him appearing for the company as they just made their TV debut on HDNet.
Believe it or not, Flair is currently in negotiations with a series of promoters to wrestle a total of 30 matches on several different tours starting in late July through March in Europe, South Africa, China and Egypt. Those close to Flair have overheard him saying that it was simply too much for him to turn down for what is being offered for the tour. Flair has stated that the people putting the tour together are people he has worked with doing autograph sessions and has had good experiences with them. Some have questioned the idea of running this international tour unless Flair was to go up against some top name talent that would be available considering they would need to gross a serious amount of money to make it successful. While nothing has been finalized, Flair is said to be seriously considering the offer.