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While this week’s Charlotte Flair news has been mostly unfortunate details about the extent of her current injury, today brought a much more upbeat report. Fightful Select (subscription required but well worth the $5) says that Flair has “agreed to a contract extension with WWE” that is “a huge money increase over her last contract, and one of the highest-paid deals to a woman in WWE history.”
As the most decorated woman in WWE history (and one of the most decorated wrestlers ever, full stop), it’s not hard to see why the company would want her to stick around. Flair brings a level of star power that simply isn’t easy to find, and at age 37, she should be able to keep performing at a level at or very close to her prime for at least a few more years.
Beyond that, though, if Flair’s deal does indeed come with a big raise, it’s a promising sign that top talent will continue to be compensated accordingly now that WWE is part of a larger corporate entity under Endeavor. That wasn’t necessarily guaranteed: Endeavor has owned UFC since 2016, and that company has been repeatedly criticized for the perception that it doesn’t pay its MMA fighters enough.
WWE has a number of main event-caliber stars who are said to be on contracts that expire soon, including Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch and Drew McIntyre. There are other factors that are important to talent besides money — Rollins and Lynch have been very vocal about how they can’t see themselves working anywhere else — but the simple fact that AEW exists as a well-financed alternative means WWE can’t afford to lowball the people they’d be better off keeping.
Paying Flair suggests it won’t. It also suggests opening the pocketbook won’t be an obstacle when it comes to acquiring top free agents like Kazuchika Okada if Triple H and Nick Khan think it makes sense.
So while fans can be happy that the Queen is getting what’s rightfully hers, it can also be seen as an indicator that others will too, and that’s a very good look for WWE as it heads into 2024.
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