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WWE News
WWE News: Updates on status of Ric Flair and King Booker, why they are motivated to walk away Sep 11, 2007 - 1:01:41 PM
Ric Flair and King Booker are still both listed at WWE.com's superstars pages for Smackdown and Raw respectively. PWTorch reported last week that Flair gave his notice several weeks ago. While the two sides continue to try to talk through their differences, as of the past couple days, they had not come to terms yet. Friends of Flair says is set on walking away from the rest of his contract.
The differences included frustration with how he was used, and how promises were broken, and how a proposed storyline for a final run for the gold headed to WrestleMania was changed from how originaly proposed to something much less focused on giving Flair a respectful send-off.
As reported in last week PWTorch Newsletter, Flair is opening up a personal financial service called Flair Finance, based on his learning the hard way about letting finances get out of hand. He is also happier at home with his new wife and doesn't feel the need to be on the road as in the past. He also will want to be visiting his son Reid who will be attempting to walk on the wrestling team at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga this fall. He also enjoys attending his daughters volleyball games at Appalachian State University.
So with enough going on in his personal life and a new business to tend to, he is more ready than ever to walk away from pro wrestling unless WWE creative commits to giving him a respectful retirement run leading up to WrestleMania next year.
King Booker was always willing to walk away from wrestling, and had sworn he would before age 40. Now age 42, and with his wife Sharmell either having finished or nearly finished law school and ready to start that new career, and with he and his brother's Houston-based training school, like Flair, he has a full life waiting for him when he eventually walked away from WWE. Because of the changes in the new Wellness Policy, which includes naming names publicly, he stands a chance of receiving bad p.r. if he happens to violate any policy rules (which now include fines for marijuana).
The word we've received is that he's been asked to take the time of his suspension (we've heard 30 days and 60 days) to consider his future before finalizing his decision to stay or go. Odds seem strong he'll walk away.
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