The energy drink market is about to be styling and profiling.
Ric Flair, the iconic professional wrestler who remains an indefatigable pitchman, has long been recognized as among the most energetic men in the world.
This remains true even at 74 years old, as he wrestled a match last summer in Nashville, and has embarked upon launching a line of legal cannabis products in partnership with Mike Tyson and the legendary boxer’s business team.
Now, as he continues criss-crossing the country for various promotional appearances, Flair is also branching into the beverage market, with the mushroom-based Wooooo Energy.
Flair told The Post that he was not an energy drink consumer for most of his life.
“Before I got sick about five years ago, I never used to drink energy drinks, besides coffee and Mountain Dew,” Flair said.
The 16-time world champion said that, in recent years, other mass-market energy drinks have given him anxiety or he’s had big crashes, but this was not the case with his own blend.
“This stuff actually lasts all day long. This is the God’s honest truth,” Flair said. “I drank two — one at 3 p.m. and one at 7 p.m. — and at 5 a.m. I was still staring at the ceiling. All it does is make you think!”
One distinction: While Flair has been involved in the legal cannabis industry with the Ric Flair Drip line of products, Wooooo Energy is made with adaptogenic mushrooms, not psychedelic mushrooms.
According to Chad Bronstein, the President and Chairman of Carma HoldCo, the holding company behind Ric Flair Drip and Tyson 2.0, the drink is available online and will soon be in major chain stores.
He said because of the proprietary blend of mushrooms, Flair drinks don’t have the same side effects as other energy drinks where someone may feel jittery after consumption.
“This is a mainstream product,” Bronstein said. “There’s no regulation behind it. You could buy it at any type of grocery or convenience store.”
Flair introduced the drink to Joe Rogan while appearing on his podcast in April, and Rogan took a sip and called it “f–king delicious.”
“Between the energy drink and the weed, Joe was busy for about two-and-a-half hours!” Flair laughed.
The beverages will come in flavors of dragon fruit, lemon, and strawberry banana, and contain 150 milligrams of caffeine with just six grams of sugar.
As far as the branding for the energy drink goes, it’s all pretty self-explanatory.
“Ric is energy in a can,” Bronstein said.
Flair exemplifies this by continuing to show up all over the place in the worlds of sports and entertainment and getting the people going.
Just this week, Blink-182 invited Flair onstage at a concert to fire up the crowd.
In May, the Dallas Stars invited him to a playoff game, he got the whole arena amped up.
“Then they asked to fly him out to the next game,” Bronstein mused.
“When the LA Rams won the Super Bowl, they screamed, ‘Wooooo!’ Stephen A. Smith dressed up as him for the NFL playoffs.
“Ric is known for how he fires people up, and that’s why we created Wooooo Energy — I don’t know anyone with more energy than Ric.”
For his part, Flair not only revels in remaining in the limelight, but he is earning as much as a pitchman as he ever did as a wrestler.
While he declined to get into specific figures, Flair said, “I’m on schedule this year to make more in one calendar year than I ever did wrestling.”