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WCW legend Ric Flair will have many fond memories of his days on the Turner Networks. Whether it be the heyday of Monday Night Wars on TNT or every Saturday night on TBS in the now famous timeslot of 6:05, Flair is no stranger to drawing big ratings on Turner's channels.
This is something that AEW is trying to accomplish with their 2022 schedule. Their flagship Wednesday night live show Dynamite has recently moved to TBS, while their second show Rampage occupies a Friday night timeslot of 10pm ET on TNT.
Throughout 2022, AEW is aiming to put on an extra four Saturday night specials on TNT. These events would pay homage to the "Clash of the Champions" events held by the NWA and WCW in the 80s and 90s. The first of these events was AEW's "Battle of the Belts," an event that Ric Flair didn't even know was happening.
Speaking on the most recent episode of his podcast "Wooooo Nation Uncensored," when asked what he thought of the AEW show and if it compared to the "Clash" events that he was a part of, Ric Flair had this to say:
"I have to be honest with you, I didn’t even know about it.".
The Saturday night special drew 704,000 viewers in total, a sharp drop from their regular viewing figures on Dynamite, where AEW usually touches the one million viewer mark.
Battle of the Belts had a unique moment in AEW history
TNT champion Cody Rhodes was forced to withdraw from the card due to coming into contact with a family member who had contracted COVID-19. Instead, AEW chose to make its own piece of history by crowning the first interim champion in company history.
Sammy Guevara bested Cody's older brother Dustin Rhodes to become the Interim TNT champion. Guevara has already defended his title once since winning it on January 7th, and will be hoping to unify the belts with Cody in the near future.
Cody will make his return to AEW TV on this week's edition of Dynamite. There is no news as to what the nature of Cody's return will be about. Will it be about a unification match with Guevara? Will he address his recent contract situation? The only way to find out is by tuning into AEW Dynamite this week.
