Weekly Update: NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest

[Baltimore Jack]

Regarding earlier comments about the domed globe belt and other later champions, there were several NWA champs after the domed globe belt was retired. Rhodes won it 1986, Ron Garvin in 1987, Ricky Steamboat in 1989, and Sting in 1990.

During Sting's reign as NWA Champion, WCW changed the name of the title to the WCW title. The NWA title was dormant for roughly a year, until Bill Watts brought it back in 1992, using the Big Gold belt (by now there was another WCW belt) and a tournament was held in Japan, won by Masahiro Chono. Great Muta won it in late 92 or early 1993 at a Tokyo Dome show, and Barry Windham won it in February of 1993 at Superbrawl III in Asheville NC.

Flair won it from Windham a month or so later and it was about that time that the NWA sued WCW for using the title and/or changing the title without board approval and they won in court. The Big Gold belt was then changed to the International title, and it is at this point I consider the NWA title as we knew it (and loved it) dead. Technically, the NWA title today controlled by TNA is that same title, but not in the fans eyes, and I would imagine not in the eyes of those wrestlers who toured 7 nights a week defending that title against different opponents every night.

[Baltimore Jack]

My point in bringing all that up is that it could very well be Barry Windham, and very likely is, which if true, would be great news for FanFest.

[bobbyryates]

Baltimore jack... so i take it that you do not recognize carlos colon, victor jovica, and jack veneno as NWA champions?

[Baltimore Jack]

Of course not. The modern day NWA may recognize them (and I'm not entirely sure they do on all of those) but the NWA board at the time did not, nor did they recognize the Race/Flair changes for Rickard in New Zealand.

Anyone recognizing them later, including the modern day NWA and even Flair and Race themselves, is just revisionist history, plain and simple. They should go ahead and recognize every other switch similar to those (Wahoo in 1984, Rhodes at Starrcade 1985, I'm sure there are countless other examples.)

This is off-topic for this thread so I guess I we should move it to a new thread if we want to discuss it further. It is a favorite topic of mine, and revisionist history is also a sore subject with me (in wrestling or any other arena.)

[slayerfan]

So who is the champion we can look forward to? The anticipation is killing me lol.

[sting]

Who is it?

[ssteward]

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Just kidding

[HardcoreHeroes]

Sorry, guys. It's taken longer than expected to get all the i's dotted and t's crossed. I hope to have the announcement very soon.

Thanks for your patience.

Greg

[stingmark]

admin said:

Sorry, guys. It's taken longer than expected to get all the i's dotted and t's crossed. I hope to have the announcement very soon.

Thanks for your patience.

Greg

I bet I know who it is??


Barry Windham?? ;D ;D ;D ;D

[shockey]

Please be Windham.

Any chance of Piper or Animal being there as well?

[HardcoreHeroes]

shockey said:

Any chance of Piper or Animal being there as well?

Slim and none, and it's not from a lack of trying.

[shockey]

Cool, no prob. Windham being added is awesome!

[MrNWA4Life]

baltimorejack said:

Regarding earlier comments about the domed globe belt and other later champions, there were several NWA champs after the domed globe belt was retired. Rhodes won it 1986, Ron Garvin in 1987, Ricky Steamboat in 1989, and Sting in 1990.

During Sting's reign as NWA Champion, WCW changed the name of the title to the WCW title. The NWA title was dormant for roughly a year, until Bill Watts brought it back in 1992, using the Big Gold belt (by now there was another WCW belt) and a tournament was held in Japan, won by Masahiro Chono. Great Muta won it in late 92 or early 1993 at a Tokyo Dome show, and Barry Windham won it in February of 1993 at Superbrawl III in Asheville NC.

Since the NWA World Title didn't belong to Turner/WCW, they couldn't change it's name. WCW created their own world title and Flair had two titles with one belt representing both. Flair defended the belt against Tatsumi Fujinami in Japan in 1991 and was pinned. WCW's decision was that Flair retained the WCW Title via DQ, but the NWA recognized Fujinami as the new NWA World Champion. The rematch at SuperBrawl saw Flair regain the NWA World Title, which he held until the NWA Board stripped him in September 1991 (after he signed with the WWF).

baltimorejack said:

Flair won it from Windham a month or so later and it was about that time that the NWA sued WCW for using the title and/or changing the title without board approval and they won in court. The Big Gold belt was then changed to the International title, and it is at this point I consider the NWA title as we knew it (and loved it) dead.

What's sad is that the title suffered from being inactive for long periods of time. From the time Flair was stripped in September 1991, it was vacant for 11 months! After WCW left the NWA in September 1993 (which meant Flair got stripped of it again!), it was vacant again for another 11 months. And after Shane Douglas refused the bet (and ECW's imediate withdrawel from the NWA) the belt was vacant again for another 2 months. Just realize that the title and the belt are two different things. Big Goldy was Flair's property (until WCW bought it from him in late 1991), it never belonged to the NWA.

baltimorejack said:

Technically, the NWA title today controlled by TNA is that same title, but not in the fans eyes, and I would imagine not in the eyes of those wrestlers who toured 7 nights a week defending that title against different opponents every night.

I wouldn't speak for the wrestlers. Dory Funk Jr. officiated an NWA World Title change in Japan when Naoya Ogawa made Dan Severn submit. And Dory Funk Jr. actually got a title match when Jeff Jarrett was NWA World Champion.

[MrNWA4Life]

bobbyryates said:

Baltimore jack... so i take it that you do not recognize carlos colon, victor jovica, and jack veneno as NWA champions?

baltimorejack said:

Of course not. The modern day NWA may recognize them (and I'm not entirely sure they do on all of those) but the NWA board at the time did not, nor did they recognize the Race/Flair changes for Rickard in New Zealand.

Anyone recognizing them later, including the modern day NWA and even Flair and Race themselves, is just revisionist history, plain and simple. They should go ahead and recognize every other switch similar to those (Wahoo in 1984, Rhodes at Starrcade 1985, I'm sure there are countless other examples.)

This is off-topic for this thread so I guess I we should move it to a new thread if we want to discuss it further. It is a favorite topic of mine, and revisionist history is also a sore subject with me (in wrestling or any other arena.)

The NWA has not and does not recognize Colon, Jovica, or Venano as a former champion. I'm not sure of the Colon situation but the Venano deal came about when gunshots rang out and Flair got scared and pulled Venano on top of him and let him pin him. The Jovica match ended where Jovica had his feet on the ropes to get the pin, but the ref saw it and immediately reversed the decision. The only switches that the NWA recognizes are the 1984 switch between Flair & Race (done by Steve Rickard without the Board's approval). Howard Brody decided to recognize them in the 90's because quite simply, they happened. The other is the Fujinami & Flair switches in 1991. WCW may not have recognized them, that only means Fujinami isn't considered a former WCW Champion. The NWA recognizes them so that's what counts.