Ring Of Honor Suing Ric Flair

[Turd Ferguson]

Ring of Honor filed a lawsuit against Ric Flair this past Thursday in Bucks County, PA, alleging Flair owed the company over $40,000. The lawsuit stems from Flair failing to live up to his contracted obligations as the "ROH Ambassador" on ROH on HDNet tapings and ROH live events.

ROH's lawsuit alleged that Flair was originally signed to make five appearances at ROH house shows for $10,000 an appearance. Flair failed to appear at a scheduled ROH event on Montreal In July 2009 and has, to date, failed to return his $10,000 payment for that event.

The lawsuit also alleged that Flair only attended one ROH on HDNet Television Taping after coming to terms with the group to appear in an authority figure role. Flair appeared at one taping and the next set, made a brief announcement to the live crowd that he was resigning the commission due to his relationship with WWE. The lawsuit noted that Flair was paid $35,000 for the TV appearances and only made one appearance.

At the time, the belief was Flair intended to use ROH as a place where his youngest son Reid could work. Those plans were stalled when Reid was arrested on several drug charges last year.

ROH officials declined to comment on the suit.

Flair wound up being a giant waste of money for the company. Chances are that Ric doesn't have the money that he bilked from the company anymore either. He's not exactly smart with it, and chances are that he's just getting by financially.

Hopefully ROH gets the money back somehow. It's pretty rotten of Flair to commit to all of these appearances, get the money up front, and not deliver.

If ROH gets the money, then in the end, they still come out pretty well with all the autograph tickets that they sold, as well as tickets from people who probably went just to see Flair.

There's a lot of goodwill for the company that's built up when they book guys like Bret Hart and Bruno Sammartino to appear. They probably should stick to guys who aren't going to leave the company high and dry when it's time to deliver though. Flair, given his money and family issues, was a good bet to fuck over the company, and he did.

 

[Schizophrenic]

I love ROH but it was a DUMB buisness move to give him all the money up front with his history of not being the best with money and his past of signing with whomever throws a buck his way. I agree that ROh should be given the money back but they have no one to kick but themselves.

 

[Deexter Jorgan]

Aparently he did the same thing to Highspots the company he did his shoot interview with,they paid him a high amount to promote the dvd as well as to do the interview, flair failed to show up and promote the DVD, he instead gave them the first NWA title he won as good will that they would get their money back.

Instead he failed to pay up and they put the belt on auction, Ring of Honor should have known from this incident, Flair at the moment is interested in money thats it and will do anything to get it, the guy has a shed load of bills to pay and wives to support but wont work the WWE schedule in order to get that money, will he end up screwing over TNA i dont know, IMO he needs to wake up and pay back his creditors or make a deal to sort his situation with ROH.

Money makes the world go round but you cant screw people to get what you want otherwise youll end up regreting it, he may ruin this for his kids wrestling futures.

 

[Trill Co$by]

Highspots sponsors me with new gear every month

Anyway... Flair did screw ROH over and he needs to pay the money back, or at least go do another appearance. And it's not like he can't do that, he is signed to an open contract with TNA after all.

 

[Ty Burna]

My biggest thing was, did ROH really even need to bring Flair in, at all? His presence didn't increase ratings nor did it increase the quality of the show. He wasn't wrestling and all he was doing was an authority figure role. I"m sorry but Flair isn't that great at putting over young talent, and ROH wasn't any different. When he came out to announce shit the few shows he was on, he seemed to beg for the spotlight far more than the actual men wrestling. Jim Cornette is a far better authority figure and it shows now that he's back with ROH.

So from that perspective, that was a horrible investment on ROH's part to bring Flair in, and I hope they can somehow recoup that money they lost. Financially they're not well off so that $40,000 would be a boost to their pockets. Flair didn't live up to his contract so he should have to pay the money he accepted for future bookings.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

My biggest thing was, did ROH really even need to bring Flair in, at all? His presence didn't increase ratings nor did it increase the quality of the show. He wasn't wrestling and all he was doing was an authority figure role. I"m sorry but Flair isn't that great at putting over young talent, and ROH wasn't any different. When he came out to announce shit the few shows he was on, he seemed to beg for the spotlight far more than the actual men wrestling. Jim Cornette is a far better authority figure and it shows now that he's back with ROH.

So from that perspective, that was a horrible investment on ROH's part to bring Flair in, and I hope they can somehow recoup that money they lost. Financially they're not well off so that $40,000 would be a boost to their pockets. Flair didn't live up to his contract so he should have to pay the money he accepted for future bookings.

The way I think ROH looked at it was that they'd promote Flair being at their shows via the Internet and radio promotion. In theory, it's a good idea. A few friends of mine went to ROH back when it was in Boston because of Bret Hart being there and signing autographs before the show. Bret was on the radio that morning on the sports station here, which a lot of people listen to. It gets word of mouth of the product out there. Anyway, they hadn't even watched wrestling in a few years and were going to check it out just for a chance to meet Bret. They told me that the autograph line for Bret was huge that night. So they figure that they have a draw like that in Flair, and it gets people checking out their product and following it, it's an investment for the future. They also start making that money back early with the tickets sold for both the autograph event and the actual ticket sales for the show.

If Flair lived up to his end of the bargain and made appearances, then the investment is well worth it. Instead, Flair screwed the company for the Hulkamania Tour and TNA.

ROH is a small company, but it's not like they're nearly bankrupt. They just signed Davey Richards to an exclusive contract. With him running his own company, they undoubtedly had to give him a huge offer to get him to drop that to work for ROH exclusively.

 

[Ty Burna]

The way I think ROH looked at it was that they'd promote Flair being at their shows via the Internet and radio promotion. In theory, it's a good idea. A few friends of mine went to ROH back when it was in Boston because of Bret Hart being there and signing autographs before the show. Bret was on the radio that morning on the sports station here, which a lot of people listen to. It gets word of mouth of the product out there. Anyway, they hadn't even watched wrestling in a few years and were going to check it out just for a chance to meet Bret. They told me that the autograph line for Bret was huge that night. So they figure that they have a draw like that in Flair, and it gets people checking out their product and following it, it's an investment for the future. They also start making that money back early with the tickets sold for both the autograph event and the actual ticket sales for the show.

If Flair lived up to his end of the bargain and made appearances, then the investment is well worth it. Instead, Flair screwed the company for the Hulkamania Tour and TNA.

ROH is a small company, but it's not like they're nearly bankrupt. They just signed Davey Richards to an exclusive contract. With him running his own company, they undoubtedly had to give him a huge offer to get him to drop that to work for ROH exclusively.

From that perspective I can agree with you. The problem is that they were doing all their tapings in the New York area, which has a big ROH following as it is. So the need for having Flair to draw a crowd wasn't needed, and HDNet isn't in enough homes to make that much of a ratings impact either. I definitely understand ROH's thinking in bringing in a legend, they've done it before with the likes of Foley and Ricky Steamboat. It brings a sort of legitimacy to the company being there, but I think with Flair the benefits weren't reaped as much as they company had hoped for.

ROH probably isn't doing as bad as everyone thinks, but for a smaller company like that, $40k isn't anything to laugh at. I am glad they are starting to sign their workers to exclusive contracts, that should help level out the exodus of talent they've been experiencing lately.