Exclusive: WWE legend Ric Flair claims ‘influencer talent agency’ duped him into handing over his digital life: lawsuit
Legendary pro wrestler Ric “Nature Boy” Flair is suing a digital talent agency he claims duped him into signing away the rights to his own image and likeness while promising him a six-figure monthly revenue stream that allegedly never materialized.
The 77-year-old Flair, whose real name is Richard Morgan Fliehr, spent four decades “building something… through his body, his blood, his pain, his persona, his craft, and his commitment to excellence at a level that only sixteen world championships can describe,” according to a $10 million lawsuit obtained by The Independent.
But, Flair’s complaint says, FAM Networks, a “cutting-edge talent-first management agency and media company representing some of the most unique and impactful influencers around the world,” pounced on an opportunity to rook the elderly performer out of what was rightfully his.
“What FAM did was simple: it waited until he needed help managing the digital legacy of everything he had built, presented him with a document he was not equipped to understand, told him he had lawyers when he did not, gave him fourteen minutes to read it, and walked away with a perpetual license to his identity,” the complaint contends, adding that the pending legal action is only “the beginning.”
“The Nature Boy is not finished,” the complaint states. “The case has just begun.”
Reached by phone at his home in Hillsborough County, Florida, Fliehr, who last wrestled in 2022, told The Independent that he “wants to bury” the people at FAM Networks, and said he lost out on at least $250,000 in revenues so far.
Messages sent to five different departments at FAM Networks were all returned as undeliverable. A contact form on the company’s website was inoperable on Tuesday; it does not have a publicly listed phone number.
As Ric Flair, Richard Fliehr “electrified arenas across the world,” his complaint explains, calling him “one of the most celebrated, decorated, and recognizable professional athletes in the history of his sport.”
His career transcended the ring and became an indelible part of American pop culture, it goes on.
“A name, a likeness, and an identity that carries commercial value precisely because generations of fans have given it meaning through their devotion,” the complaint states. “That identity – the product of a lifetime of work, sacrifice, and sacrifice again – is what FAM Networks, LLC came for.”
FAM, which maintains offices in New York City and Los Angeles, purportedly defrauded Fliehr by quietly taking control of his social media accounts, recategorizing them to make recovery near-impossible, and milked his persona for profits he never saw.
At 5:57 PM on December 5, 2025, Fliehr opened an email from FAM, which came with a contract attached, according to the complaint, which was filed September 5 in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“At 6:11 PM – fourteen minutes later – he signed it,” the complaint continues. “In those fourteen minutes, without the benefit of legal counsel, without a single attorney reviewing a single word on his behalf, and in direct contradiction of a contractual recital FAM itself drafted declaring that the agreement had been negotiated with counsel, Mr. Fliehr surrendered an irrevocable, perpetual, sublicensable license over his name, image, likeness, voice, accounts, and commercial identity – throughout the universe, without restriction, in all languages, formats, and media now known or later developed.”
FAM “knew he had no lawyer,” the complaint alleges. “FAM wrote the clause saying he did anyway.” (Fliehr has trouble discerning AI-generated content from reality, and often gets confused about things he sees online, according to his daughter Charlotte.)
