Ric Flair feels a top AEW star would have been "huge" if he had signed with WWE in his prime

Wrestling legend Ric Flair has lavished praise on a current AEW star by stating that, during their prime, they would have been a huge success in WWE.

The star in question is Sting, who has been with All Elite Wrestling since December 2020, where he aligned himself with Darby Allin, who he has been mentoring ever since.

Sting's debut came as a shock to everyone as he famously retired in 2016 following a career-threatening injury that cut his WWE run short. After his retirement, The Icon was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Speaking on his "To Be The Man" podcast, Ric Flair was asked what would have happened had Sting joined WWE in his prime and The Ultimate Warrior went the other way to Jim Crockett Promotions. Flair had a lot of kind words for the AEW star, but not many for the Warrior.

"Sting would have been huge, Hellwig would not have worked in JCP, probably not a day. Like do you see Jim Hellwig getting along with Ole Anderson? Like I’m going to be honest, Harley Race? I don’t think so. Sting would have been huge either way, and was, and is. I’m just saying that because Jim was hard to do business with, like that wasn’t a word—like when he didn’t want to do the favor in—and he held them up somewhere."

Flair talked about how the business operated back in the day:

"what do you think Harley Race would have done in that situation? He’d walk over in the locker room and kick him and beat him up so bad and he’d throw him out of the door and tell him not to come back. That’s just what would happen. That’s the way the business was back then. Jack Mulligan, can you imagine that? I can’t fathom that, I just can’t," said Ric Flair [50:00-51:11]

Sting was one of the pillars of Jim Crockett Promotions and WCW during the 80s and 90s, becoming one of the greatest wrestlers of all time during his outstanding run.

Ric Flair and Sting famously wrestled on the first and last episodes of WCW Monday Nitro

The "Nature Boy" has always had a lot of respect for Sting, as he is one of the few people who could match his level of quality in the ring. This led to Ric Flair symbolically passing the torch to the Stinger at the 1990 Great American Bash event, where Sting beat Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

Due to how synonymous they were during their time in WCW, it was only right that they both played a huge part in the beginning and end of the company's flagship show, Nitro.

Sting defended the WCW United States Championship against Ric Flair on the debut episode of Nitro in 1995, with the two crossing paths multiple times in the years that followed. The final Nitro in March of 2001 saw the end of their legendary rivalry.

The two legends only had one more televised match following the final Nitro, that being on the September 15th, 2011 edition of TNA Impact, where Sting picked up the victory.

Do you think Sting would have been a success in WWE during his prime? Let us know in the comments section down below!

Please credit "To Be The Man" and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling when using quotes from this article.