[quote name='mykevermin']Oh, Jesus; this confounds even me. He first became champion after Turner bought Jim Crockett promotions and renamed it World Championship Wrestling (up until that point, "World Championship Wrestling" was the name of the NWA program on TBS).
The NWA, however, was a collectivity of regional promoters; the NWA and WWF/WWWF titles were, I believe, the most prestigious belts because they were defended over a large number of regional promotions (NWA more). Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes and the like would work as the NWA champ for a spell, then move onto another region, and so on, taking the belt with them. It was a symbol that "Mr. Big
ing Deal" was coming to your town. It was Black Sabbath coming to your town, with local acts opening up for them - you came out to see the show when the champ came through.
Short story long, the NWA kept the NWA belt after WCW came into being (keep in mind, when WCW became WCW, it was no longer associated with the NWA). The NWA title shrunk in presitge and was defended around various smalltime promotions in the northeast in the early-mid 1990s. Remember Shane Douglas, the birth of ECW, and the "Night the Line Was Crossed"? He won a tournament to become the NWA champion, then tossed the same belt Sting now has to the ground, symbolically burying the past.
So, the NWA never went away, it just fell into obscurity. I *think* (and may be wrong) that the belt we know as the "big gold belt" was introduced by WCW as their new world heavyweight championship as they ceased being the NWA. It wasn't used until the Flair/Sting feud of the early 1990's. Again, my memory is really hazy here.
It doesn't help that Flair took off for the WWF with the belt. WCW panicked and gave Ravishing Rick Rude a WCW tag title, calling it the "WCW Championship." Later, after Ric finished his cup of coffee with McMahon, he came back to WCW with the big gold belt, and they had the "WCW Champion" (Rude, or Vader, or Ron Simmons, or someone) and the "World Heavyweight Champion" (Flair) at the same
ing time. Very confusing.
Anyway, after Shane Douglas killed what was already dead (the NWA belt and legacy), it sunk even lower, being defended in shithole northeast wrestling promotions. IIRC, Steve Corino was the NWA champion for a number of years after ECW folded, and he was in between stints in Japan.
EDIT: Jeff Jarrett (I think) came to the WWF in 1996-7 as the NWA champion during a stupid
ing NWA/WWF angle with Jim Cornette at the forefront. Remember the "New Midnight Express"?
Shit, if you really want to follow title histories, the AWA title is still out there. I think Evan Goddamned Karagias might have it.
It's interesting to consider pro wrestling title histories. If you recall Ultimo Dragon's 8 or 9 lightweight titles that he held simultaneously, one of them was the old WWF Light Heavyweight championship; the WWF stopped defending and tracking it, and it made its way to Japan, where he won it (this is an earlier title than the one they brought back in the mid 90's to hype TAKA Michinoku). Funny seeing a WWF title on WCW TV back then. I wonder why they never sued.[/quote]
impressive. youve earned yourself a clap
wiki says:
The current champion is
Sting, in his second reign. He defeated
Jeff Jarrett with the
Scorpion Death Lock at
Bound for Glory 2006. The last day Sting held the NWA world heavyweight title was on January 11, 1991 when he lost to Ric Flair. That means Sting went 15 years, 9 months and 11 days. That would round out to approximately 5510 days since he last held the belt. That’s the longest time span between title reigns in NWA history.
Ric Flair7
*May 7, 1989
Nashville, TN
Sting1
July 7,
1990Baltimore, MD
); wikipedia has more.
