THE REST OF WRESTLING HISTORY: Flair goes to the WWF.

[It's...Baylariat!]

Once again, I come back with a moment in time that was a bombshell to say the least. This was one of the biggest moves in pro wrestling history and one of the dumbest moves ever allowed by a wrestling promotion. It was Ric Flair leaving World Championship Wrestling for the World Wrestling Federation.

THAT in itself is massive. I can remember the first time I found this out. I was about 9 years old. I had Wrestling Challenge on my local TV station Saturday Morning before USWA wrestling came on...with Jerry Lawler. The end of that Wrestling Challenge is burned into my subconscious. It was Jim Neidhart, Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan standing in front of the camera. And here it is...

[YOUTUBE]RtLuNhZntcM[/YOUTUBE]​

That's right, that's the WCW World Heavyweight Title on WWF programming. That in itself is a story which I will go into shortly, but I'm going to tell you about the story of a man named Jim Herd. Who's he you may ask? Well, he's the reason Flair jumped ship to the Federation.

See, in the late 80's/early 90's, Jim Crockett decided to sell the assets of World Championship Wrestling to Ted Turner, owner of TBS, which was broadcasting NWA programming for years and years. So Ted Turner owned the flagship of the NWA. What would he do with it? Well, he'd have a carousel of inept wrestling promoters and businessmen to come in and try to run things. His worst mistake was hiring Jim Herd, who was a regional manager of Pizza Hut in the midwest. No joke. He knew dick about wrestling and this would be proven as time went on.

One of the first bright ideas from Herd was to...wait for this... change the gimmick... of the Nature Boy Ric Flair. That's right. Fuck 20 years of history and world title reigns, lets repackage Flair into a character similar to Spartacus. FUCKING SPARTACUS! He even made Flair cut his hair, which he actually did to a point. But as far as him changing his character, Flair wasn't having any of it. So he decided that he was done with the WCW and Jim Herd. Herd didn't care. He let him walk. One small problem though, Herd. See, Flair owned the belt. What happens is that you pay a deposit on the belt from your gate receipts or PPV buys and keep the belt as if it's yours. Flair paid his deposit in full and owned the belt. Herd was not aware of this. Hence is why you seen Bobby Heenan holding the WCW World Title on a WWF program. Flair owned it.

But at the time, the NWA was also the governing body and the belt was still considered the NWA Worlds Title, too. So the NWA filed a cease and desist order on Flair and the WWF to not use the belt on their programming. Well, for a while, it didn't work. On live shows, Flair still had the belt. But eventually, Flair got his deposit back, and Flair gave the belt back to the WCW. This was a seriously strange time in wrestling. NO ONE had ever seen a champion from a major promotion jump ship to another rival promotion. It would compare to AJ Styles showing up on RAW Monday Night with the TNA World Championship.

So during this time, Flair was in the WWF and was billed as the Real Worlds Champion. Of course, some guy who said prayers and ate vitamins was the WWF Champion. Think his name was Logan...Coogan... oh, it was HULK HOGAN! Yea, Hogan was it in pro wrestling. Drawing huge money, being the face of his company and wrestling in general. But here came his competition in Ric Flair, a man who's beaten them all, and did it wrestling 60 minute matches and being a bloody mess, as opposed to winning with a damn leg drop and posing for 10 minutes. Oh well. Flair and Hogan was obviously being billed for a Dream Match at Wrestlemania. Why not? The WWF had the two biggest wrestlers in the world at the time. Why not put them together? Well, politics.

See, Hogan was in creative control and determined where his character was to go. And he sure as hell wasn't dropping the belt clean to Flair. And Flair didn't want to be beat clean at Wrestlemania over Hogan. So there was an impasse, and eventually, Hogan was stripped of the WWF Title and the belt was put on the line at the Royal Rumble, which to this day is the only time that's ever happened. Flair won the Rumble, went on to Wrestlemania to fight Macho Man Randy Savage. Hogan was stuck with Sid Vicious. Good enough for him.

So there you have it...the REST of Wrestling History.

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

I actually remember that episode of Wrestling Challenge as I was watching it, as well. It was basically a bombshell, and letting that bomb go off at the end of the show for a coming teaser was brilliant. Sure way to get people to tune in to see what was going to happen in the coming weeks.

Classic Bobby Heenan in that segment. I miss that guy so much. If only he could have truly managed Flair. Unfortunately, his neck was in such awful shape at that point, it made it an impossibility. And we had to settle for Mr. Perfect instead. Big step down from Heenan, unfortunately.

 

[Tenta]

Simply enough, it would take WCW signing Hulk Hogan to recover from this.

Think about that for a second: To recover from the embarrassment of this situation, WCW had to hire the biggest name in professional wrestling. And even then, The WCW World Heavyweight Title was still tarnished. That should say everything about the lasting effect of this moment in history.

Though it was poorly booked, I still see how much this damaged WCW. This led to Jim Herd's firing, and thank God, because Jim Herd was running the promotion into the fucking ground. If he was kept any longer, it's doubtful WCW would have been alive much longer, and even more doubtful the wrestling boom of the 90s would hit. I don't want to dramatize it this much, but this was huge. This could have been the final nail in WCW's coffin. Fortunately, Vince and his booking completely ruined that chance, and WCW was allowed second life.

Again, sad to see, but it was very historic in its own right.

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

This was truly one of the biggest "what ifs" in WWF history. What if Hogan/Flair actually would have happened here...when both were at their primes, and neither had anything to lose or gain? When Hogan/Flair happened at BATB...Hogan had to win. Why would Hogan go to WCW to lose? That put Flair at a major disadvantage to Hogan. However, with flair coming in hot and Hogan still having mega-authority over what happened on a day-to-day basis, both were at more of an even playing field in WWF. It could have been huge.

 

[Lancer]

When this happened, I was a huge Hogan and WWF mark. Flair's existence was completely unbeknownst to me, as well as the significance of that big gold belt. Flair and the NWA / WCW were known in my family as "the other wrestling." To take a line from Sidious, we were WWE Shareholders, you could say. I even got a awesome poster of Sting with pink face paint on, and I was like "who the hell is this?"

So being the Hogan mark that I was, I cheered for Hogan and booed Flair. That's another thing that makes Flair such a remarkable performer. He could jump ship from one promotion to another, get in a legal battle over the belt, enter into a whole new locker room and creative system, and hop right into a rivalry with the biggest star in that promotion, let alone the planet....and not miss a beat.

It took me years to realize and appreciate the significance of Hogan and Flair in the same company...and also shake my head at the waste of such an opportunity.

 

[Undercurrent]

The fact he brought along the World Title with him to the WWF was completely and utterly disrespectful. Mind you he wasn't exactly treated like gold in WCW, but only a mark would bring it along to get themselves over.

Ric Flair made little impact in the WWF during his first tenure there. Many would argue against that statement but the so called "greatest wrestler of all time" only lasted a few years with the top company. Truth be told his run was extremely disappointing. Even if he did square off against Hogan at a Wrestlemania, I would imagine very little would change. The fact he reluctantly dropped the belt to Bret at an untelevised house show still leaves a sour taste in my mouth. What a mark.