Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
In the wake of Ric Flair's retirement at Wrestlemania 24, which crushed the soul of poor Dave Batista, I thought about doing this column, but there was so much talk about Flair going on at that time that I decided to wait and let things die down before throwing out my thoughts on this much-debated topic. Â
How many World Title reigns does Ric Flair really have? This seems like it would just be a matter of counting, but really gets a lot more complicated than that. A lot of his title wins may or may not count depending on your point of view. Flair himself has gone on record as saying he goes with the 16 reigns he's generally credited with, but let's see if we can make a liar out of Ric Flair, shall we?
The Ones That May Count
1.Defeated Dusty Rhodes for the NWA World Title on 9/17/81 in Kansas City, Missouri
This was the one that started it all. Flair was a multi-time United States and World Tag Team Champion, and with this victory he climbed to the top of the mountain for the first time and started a feud with a man he would wrestle many times during his time with the NWA Title. Â
2.Defeated Carlos Colon for the NWA World Title on 1/23/83 in Puerto Rico Â
On 1/6/83, Flair was defeated by Carlos Colon in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Though Flair did win a rematch with Colon, Colon's title win was not recognized by the NWA, and Colon was never officially acknowledged as World Champion. However, there was a title loss and a win.
3.Defeated Harley Race for the NWA World Title at Starrcade 83 on 11/24/83 in Greensboro, North Carolina
Before Flair came along, Race had been the man the NWA World Title had been built around through most of the late 70s. When Flair won the title from Rhodes, it marked the first time in years that Race hadn't won the title back from the man who had taken it from him, and Race was out to prove that his best days weren't behind him. Of course they were, but he did succeed in defeating Flair for the title and reigned for several months before dropping the title back to Flair in a steel cage in the main event of the first Starrcade.
4.Defeated Harley Race for the NWA World Title on 3/23/84 in Kallang, Singapore
This was part of a back and forth switch during a tour of the Pacific that both men were on, and was done without the knowledge or approval of the NWA Board Of Directors, who were irate when they found out about the double switch because Race might have decided not to drop the title back to Flair. While it's true that Flair couldn't have beaten Race in a shoot, they were both professionals and understood the idea behind switching the title overseas in an attempt to do business. This switch was largely ignored for many years afterward, though it was finally acknowledged by the NWA in the late 1990s.
5.Defeated Kerry Von Erich for the NWA World Title on 5/24/84 in Yokosuka, Japan
I think we're all familiar with the tragic tale of the Von Erich family. The first death was that of David Von Erich, who was being groomed to one day be the NWA World Champion, and when he died, it was a major blow not only to the family, but also the business of World Class Championship Wrestling. The David Von Erich Memorial Parade Of Champions was held, with Kerry defeating Ric Flair to win the NWA Title in the main event in honor of his brother's unfulfilled legacy. Unfortunately for the Von Erichs, this title reign was done entirely as a courtesy to the Von Erich family, and there were never any plans for Kerry to be a long term champion. Flair regained the title mere weeks later.
6.Defeated Dusty Rhodes for the NWA World Title on 8/9/86 in St Louis, Missouri
This was another short term title switch, as Dusty had defeated Flair to win what turned out to be his final NWA World Title in a cage match during the Great American Bash tour in 1986, but much like Von Erich, there were never any plans for Dusty to hold the title for long. Flair regained the title days later.
7.Defeated Ronnie Garvin for the NWA World Title on 11/26/87 in Chicago, Illinois
Once again, Flair had been planned to regain the title before he had even lost it to Garvin. In this case, they wanted Flair to drop the title to someone to build a feud in which he would eventually regain the title at Starrcade. I've heard many stories over the years about why Garvin was the one they chose when there were many other choices that would have probably worked out better, but for whatever reason, they settled on Garvin, who became one of the most forgettable NWA World Champions ever. The result of their rematch, in a cage at Starrcade, was a foregone conclusion because nobody seriously expected any other result than Flair regaining the title, and the crowd was totally behind Flair during the match and popped huge when Flair scored the fall. The Garvin experiment was a dismal failure.
8.Defeated Ricky Steamboat for the NWA World Title on 5/7/89 in Nashville, Tennessee
Of course everybody's heard about the classic Flair-Steamboat series from 1989, and this was the third of those three matches. Flair had Steamboat brought in to the NWA specifically to work a title program with him because Flair had worked with Steamboat many times before and he thought they had great chemistry and could have some classic matches. He was right, as they went on to have the feud Ricky Steamboat is most known for despite the many other great performances he put on over the course of his career. Flair beat him clean in the end, and the series came off so well that when they shook hands after the match, it had actually turned Flair face before Terry Funk even got in the ring to attack Flair.
9.Defeated Sting for the NWA/WCW World Title on 1/11/91 in East Rutherford, New Jersey
Now here's where things begin to become a little tricky. Though the title Flair beat Sting for was still being referred to as the NWA World Title or simply "The World Title", WCW had arbitrarily designated January 1, 1991 the official beginning point for their own unique history separate from the NWA. Though it might seem like a simple enough point to say that WCW had never officially crowned its own champion separate from the NWA's and therefore Flair only won one title here, the situation becomes a little murkier when we get to...
10.Defeated Tatsumi Fujinami for the NWA World Title on 5/19/91 in St Petersburg, Florida
This is where the NWA-WCW Title situation gets a little fuzzy. Flair had lost a World Title match to Tatsumi Fujinami in Japan shortly before this and, in a move that confused the hell out of everyone, the NWA ruled that Fujinami officially had defeated Flair and was now the NWA World Champion. Problem was, WCW did not recognize the Fujinami victory and declared that Flair was still the WCW World Champion. This could be be pointed to as the official beginning of the WCW World Title separate from that of the NWA. The situation was thought to be taken care of when Flair beat Fujinami in a rematch to regain the NWA Title and re-unify the two titles, but just months later he was fired by WCW and stripped of the WCW Title, which was then given to Lex Luger in July. However, the NWA continued to recognize Flair as the champion until he made his WWF debut in September, further dividing the two titles.
11.Won the WWF World Title in the Royal Rumble on 1/19/92 in Albany, New York
This was a major deal not just because Flair won the title in one of the biggest matches on the WWF's yearly calendar, but also because he became only the second man to hold both the NWA/WCW and WWF Titles. It was a major statement that Flair had the confidence of Vince McMahon to carry his company in much the same way he had Jim Crockett's confidence in the 80s, but it would be only a two and a half month title reign before he was defeated by Randy Savage at Wrestlemania 8.
12.Defeated Randy Savage on 9/1/92 in Hershey, Pennsylvania
Flair regained the title from Savage here thanks to outside interference from Mr Perfect and Razor Ramon, but this reign would be a short one because he had inner ear problems that were affecting his equilibrium. It was decided that he would drop the title, and he put over Bret Hart in Canada to give Bret his own first of seven World Titles. Only about three months later, Flair would be gone from the WWF and headed back to WCW.
13.Defeated Barry Windham for the NWA World Title on 7/18/93 in Biloxi, Mississippi
When he returned home, Flair got right back into the title hunt against former friend/foe/friend/foe Barry Windham, who by this point was the NWA Champion and firmly on the foe side. Flair had Windham in the figure four, but basically won on a fluke because Windham had his shoulders down while he was reaching for the ropes, and was counted down before he had any idea what was happening. This was officially recognized by WCW at the time as his tenth World Title, but it may not have been. We'll debate that later.
14.Recognized as first WCW International World Champion in 9/93
Once again, Ric Flair was the NWA World Champion after defeating Windham, and once again he had recognition pulled when WCW withdrew from the NWA in September of 1993, making Flair the only man to be stripped of the NWA World Title twice. To cover this up since Flair still had the belt, WCW created a new title to take the NWA Title's place in storylines (mostly because they already had months of footage in the can of guys carrying around a big gold belt), and so the WCW International World Title was created and portrayed as equal to the WCW World Title in stature. This is, of course, entirely debatable.
15.Defeated Vader for the WCW World Title on 12/27/93 in Charlotte, North Carolina
Absolutely undisputed. Flair pinned Vader clean in the middle of the ring in front of his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina in the main event of Starrcade 93. Great match, especially impressive given their total clash of styles.
16.Defeated Ricky Steamboat to win the vacant WCW World Title on 4/21/94 in Atlanta, Georgia
This one is often forgotten or completely disregarded. Flair and Steamboat renewed their long standing rivalry in the main event of Spring Stampede 94 for the WCW World Title, and the match ended when all four shoulders were on the mat and the ref had no choice but to count both men down. In the ensuing controversy, Flair voluntarily relinquished the WCW World Title pending a rematch a week later, and then Flair won the rematch clean and was once more the champion.
17.Defeated Sting for the WCW International World title on 6/23/94 in Charleston, South Carolina
Remember that weird International World Title WCW created when they lost the rights to the NWA Title? Well, this is where it was written out for good as WCW World Champion Flair defeated International World Champion Sting to unify the titles. He lost the combined title to Hulk Hogan a month later and, for the first time since winning his first World Title, it would be more than a year before Flair held another World Title.
18.Defeated Randy Savage for the WCW World Title on 12/27/95 in Nashville, Tennessee
This was immensely satisfying for me personally because, much to my dismay, Flair had returned from retirement in mid-1995 and immediately began losing to anything that moved, including his own former flunky Arn Anderson. When it was announced that Flair was part of a three way #1 contender's match at Starrcade 95 with Sting and Lex Luger, nobody thought for a second that Flair would win that match, much less win the title. He did end up winning that three way and wouldn't you know it, thanks to copious amounts of outside interference from the Horsemen, Flair defeated his old rival Savage to once again strap the Big Gold Belt around his waist.
19.Defeated Randy Savage for the WCW World Title on 2/11/96 in St Petersburg, Florida
Flair and Savage did a second switch where Savage defeated Flair on an episode of Monday Nitro and then lost the title back to Flair in a cage a month later at Superbrawl, thanks to interference from his ex-wife Elizabeth. Flair held the title for about another two months before losing to the Giant, and this time it would be over three years before he regained the title.
20.Defeated Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Title on 3/14/99 in Louisville, Kentucky
This was a title win I was especially happy to see because I never thought I'd ever see Flair defeat Hogan in a high-profile main event. Regardless of how overbooked the finish was, Ric Flair defeated Hulk Hogan to win the World Title, and that's all you need to know.
21.Defeated Jeff Jarrett for the WCW World Title on 5/15/00 in Biloxi, Mississippi 22.Awarded WCW World Title on 5/29/00 in Salt Lake City, Utah
I'm going to group the last two together because they're tied together. Jeff Jarrett was the WCW World Champion and made an impromptu challenge to Ric Flair. Flair accepted and beat Jarrett for the title, then had it stripped of him by Vince Russo and returned to Jarrett. Jarrett then lost the title again days later to Kevin Nash, and then just days after that, Nash returned the title to Flair because he felt Flair had been unjustly robbed of the title he won in a perfectly clean manner. Flair then went on to lose what turned out to be his final World Title back to Jarrett later that night.
The Ones That Don't Count
Now, before we go deciding which of those 21 reigns should or should not be recognized as World Title wins, here's a few hiccups in Flair's early championship career that I'm certainly not going to count. The first three happened during his first World Title reign after he defeated Dusty Rhodes in 1981:
-On 2/9/82 in Miami, Florida, Flair was pinned in a title match by the Midnight Rider, who was actually Dusty Rhodes under a mask. Problem was, Rhodes was suspended at the time and was wrestling under the mask to circumvent the suspension, so when NWA President Bob Geigel approached him and ordered him to either unmask or give up the title, Rhodes handed the title back and it was returned to Flair.
-In 9/82, Flair defended the title against Jack Veneno in the Dominican Republic, and though Flair was either booked to go over or go to a time limit draw (depending on who's telling the story), the crowd rushed the ring to celebrate with the hometown hero who had just won the title, and Flair slipped out of the ring and left to avoid a problem. They had a rematch where Flair was supposed to go over to regain the title from Veneno, but Flair was worried about the crowd rioting if Veneno didn't walk out of the building with the title. He made an executive decision on the spot and let Veneno beat him so he would get out of the building in one piece. The title was later returned to Flair with no explanation and the switch was never recognized in the United States.
-On 2/8/83, Flair was defeated by Victor Jovica in Couva, Trinidad. This is a bit of a cloudy situation because nobody seems to know for sure whether or not Jovica ever lost the title back to Flair or if the entire situation was ignored and Flair simply had the title handed back to him. Like the Veneno Incident, Jovica's win was never recognized or acknowledged by the NWA, and Flair's title reign was considered uninterrupted after having the title returned to him.
-The fourth incident, which occurred during the reign after Flair defeated Kerry Von Erich in Japan in 1984, saw Dusty Rhodes fight off interference from the Four Horsemen and pin Flair to win the NWA World Title in the main event of Starrcade 85. The problem here is that the fall was counted by a second ref after the first took a ref bump, and upon discovering what happened, the original official reversed the decision and gave the title back to Flair. After this and the Midnight Rider incident, it's pretty easy to see where the Dusty Finish got its name.
So why am I not recognizing these breaks in Flair's title reigns? The reason is that even though Flair did lose each of those matches, the NWA did not recognize them and returned the title to Flair each time. Since Flair didn't have to defeat anyone to get the title back and instead simply had the title handed back to him, as far as I'm concerned the original decisions were overturned. Yes, Flair lost the matches and this might upset any Caribbean fans who have "NWA WORLD CHAMPION VICTOR JOVICA" t-shirts, but officially speaking, those title losses never happened.
Sorting It All Out
Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program. We're going to take this step by step. First, we're going to take the ones that are absolutely indisputable. Numbers 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 18, 19, and 20 all occurred completely without incident for a starting total of twelve.
Current Tally: 12
Now we're going to look at the disputed title wins and I'll give my personal view of whether they count or not. Â
2.Defeated Carlos Colon for the NWA World Title on 1/23/83 in Puerto Rico Â
Unless you're doing some digging, you're probably not going to know about this switch. Carlos Colon is never referred to by anybody as a former NWA World Champion. However, he did defeat Flair, held the title for over two weeks, and then lost the title back to Flair. There is a traceable lineage, the matches did happen, so this title win does count. Â
Current Tally: 13
4.Defeated Harley Race for the NWA World Title on 3/23/84 in Kallang, Singapore
This was ignored for years by the NWA despite nearly everyone else acknowledging that it happened. The NWA finally relented and now recognizes this title switch. Race defeated Flair, Flair in turn defeated Race to regain it. It counts.
Current Tally: 14
9.Defeated Sting for the NWA/WCW World Title on 1/11/91 in East Rutherford, New Jersey
I think this one is less a matter of whether or not it counted as much as it is of how many it counted for. WCW officially existed by the time Flair beat Sting, but had yet to recognize a title separate from that of the NWA. I say that since there was no separate recognition at that point, it only counts as one title win.
Current Tally: 15
10.Defeated Tatsumi Fujinami for the NWA World Title on 5/19/91 in St Petersburg, Florida
This is probably going to be one of the toughest ones. Ric Flair was no longer the NWA Champion after losing to Fujinami, there's no contesting that. Ric Flair was recognized as WCW Champion coming out of the match, there's no contesting that. But since we're only recognizing him as the NWA Champion before the Fujinami match, are we considering him to have been awarded the WCW World Title upon his defeat by Fujinami and therefore be credited with an additional title reign which is then further added to when he regains the NWA Title from Fujinami? Here's how I look at it: WCW recognized him as champion before the loss to Fujinami, and they recognized him after the match, so no extra title there. As far as I'm concerned, it's one title splintered into two. However, by splitting that one title into two, Flair did earn another title reign when he defeated Fujinami to regain the NWA Title.
Current Tally: 16
13.Defeated Barry Windham for the NWA World Title on 7/18/93 in Biloxi, Mississippi
Much like the victory over Sting, the question here is not whether it happened, but what it counts as. There is one school of thought that says since WCW was recognizing their own title as a World Title, this should not count as a World Title win because you can only have one World Title in a promotion. In the years since, WWE has disproven this three times over. Besides, promotions do occasionally host matches for titles of other promotions, and that is how Iook at this. The NWA and WCW were two separate organizations at this point, each of which recognized a World Champion. Therefore, this is another World Title for Flair.
Current Tally: 17
14.Recognized as first WCW International World Champion in 9/93
Flair was stripped of the NWA Title and awarded this title, but does it count as a World Title win? I'm tempted to say yes, but the fact of the matter was that this title was only created because they had footage of a belt that needed a name, and it became a secondary title. No World Title recognition, no credit.
Current Tally: 17
16.Defeated Ricky Steamboat to win the vacant WCW World Title on 4/21/94 in Atlanta, Georgia
Here's how I look at it: even though all four shoulders were down and the match could be viewed as being a draw, the fact of the matter is that Flair's shoulders were counted down. He was pinned in a title match and should therefore lose the title. Whatever happened with the title after that, the fact is that Flair was pinned and lost the title at Spring Stampede and regained it in the rematch with Steamboat.
Current Tally: 18
17.Defeated Sting for the WCW International World title on 6/23/94 in Charleston, South Carolina
The first question of whether this should count as an additional title reign or not since Flair was already WCW World Champion is a moot point. If we didn't give the International Title recognition as anything other than a secondary title the first time around, then no World Title win this time either. Sorry, Charlie.
Current Tally: 18
21.Defeated Jeff Jarrett for the WCW World Title on 5/15/00 in Biloxi, Mississippi
To me, this situation is identical to the Midnight Rider/Dusty Rhodes losses and the three Carribean title losses. Flair defeated Jarrett, Russo overturned the decision and returned the title to Jarrett, who then went on to lose the title to Kevin Nash days later. Officially, this reign never happened.
Current Tally: 18
22.Awarded WCW World Title on 5/29/00 in Salt Lake City, Utah
This one, on the other hand, did happen. Jarrett was the WCW World Champion and Kevin Nash defeated him for the title. no dispute. Nash handed the title to Flair, who then lost it in a regulation match later that night to Jeff Jarrett, a different person than the guy who officially preceded him as champion. The only questionable part of this is that Nash handed the title to Flair, but there's a traceable lineage from Jarrett to Nash to Flair and back to Jarrett, and since WCW was happy with Jeff Jarrett winning the WCW World Title by defeating Ric Flair, then I'm happy too.
Final Tally: 19
So there you have it, according to the Official Gregory Honay World Title Counting Algorithm, Ric Flair is an 19-time World Champion, giving him two more than the currently recognized 16. The interesting thing is that, in a few cases, I'm probably recognizing different title wins than WWE is, but Flair still comes out ahead in the end. I suppose if you want to count everything on the list, Ric Flair could be said to have held as many as 26 World Titles, which is a staggering number when you consider that the next closest runner-up would be Hulk Hogan with a mere twelve.
In any event, this was a lot of fun and I'd like to hear what you readers think, so send your thoughts on what does and does not count, or anything else I may have forgotten, to gregoryhonay@yahoo.com.
