Flair 16-Time World Champion????

[Archangel]

Ric Flair is always announced as being a 16-Time World Champion. By I've counted a total of 19 World Title reigns by the Nature Boy.

1. NWA World Championship won 9/17/81 from Dusty Rhodes
2. NWA World Championship won at Starrcade '83 from Harley Race
3. NWA World Championship won 3/22/84 from Harley Race
4. NWA World Championship won 5/24/84 from Kerry Von Erich
5. NWA World Championship won 8/9/86 from Dusty Rhodes
6. NWA World Championship won at Starrcade '87 from Ronnie Garvin
7. NWA World Championship won at Music City Showdown '89 from Ricky Steamboat
8. NWA World Championship won at 1/11/91 from Sting
9. NWA World Championship won at Superbrawl I from Tatsumi Fujinami
10. WWF World Championship won at Royal Rumble '92
11. WWF World Championship won 9/1/92 from Randy Savage
12. NWA World Championship won at Beach Blast '93 from Barry Windham
13. WCW World Championship won at Starrcade '93 from Vader
14. WCW World Championship won 4/21/94 from Ricky Steamboat
15. WCW World Championship won at Starrcade '95 from Randy Savage
16. WCW World Championship won at Superbrawl '96 from Randy Savage
17. WCW World Championship won at Uncensored '99 from Hollywood Hulk Hogan
18. WCW World Championship won 5/15/00 from Jeff Jarrett
19. WCW World Championship awarded 5/29/00

These don't even count his loss to Midnight Rider or disputed title losses in other countries during his first title reign.

Sources:
Pro Wresting Title Histories: www.wrestling-titles.com
Solie's Vintage Wrestling: www.solie.org

[Nash Diesel]

Whoa, Rugged Ronnie Garvin was NWA WORLD champion? And shit that was around the time he left for the WWF to work as a ref and do that dumbass Greg Valentine feud (although it was the first time I saw the Scorpion Deathlock applied). I wonder if a few of those aren't recognized, but you do mention the ones that are not recognized overseas.

[Mills]

Garvin was a 3rd-4th option to be champ and the others didnt want a very short reign, so they passed.

[Donald]

Makes him an 18 time loser.

[MichaelC]

They don't count the two 90s NWA wins or the Steamboat 94 one as Flair was the champ walking into it, no?

[Nash Diesel]

Just looking at his wiki page, he claims he's a 21-time World champion, and some of those reigns listed above the WWE doesn't acknowledge but they do acknowledge the Carlos Colon title switch....Phantom title changes are dumb and I'm glad we don't see that shit today. I get WHY they used to happen, but it was still dumb. I see Flair going to another country and defending the title no different than him going to territories and defending against the top guy....and winning.

[Archangel]

The title switch with Steamboat in 94 the title was held up at Spring Stampede after a double pin, Flair won a rematch to end the dispute. As far as title changes in other countries I was referring to, in Flair's autobiography he mentions that on one occasion after Roddy Piper interfered on his behalf, guards at ringside began aiming their guns at him. Flair then placed his opponent on top of him and let himself get pinned.

[McBain]

I can't believe Cena is going to top Flair some day. :nono:

[Nash Diesel]

Eh, Flair's probably had quite a few meaningless title runs as well. I would even go as far to say that there are probably people who put Cena above Flair, probably the same way our generation puts certain wrestlers above others from the past with things like "It was a different time back then so Bruno being champ for 8 years doesn't mean he was the greatest champion ever".

[The Rogerer]

How many t-shirts did Flair sell anyway

[The Law]

Okay, so here's what happened: Flair won the WWF Championship twice during his run there in the early 90s. When he came back to WCW they wanted to acknowledge that he had more world championships without acknowledging that he had won the WWF Championship. So they retroactively recognized a couple of his NWA title loss/regains.

The two I see on that list that I don't think count are the 1994 Steamboat win (Flair was champion, there was a controversial finish, he won the subsequent rematch) and the Fujinami one (they did a weird finish where Fujinami beat him, but after throwing him over the top rope. That was a disqualification under WCW rules, but not NWA rules. Flair was both the WCW and NWA Champion at the time, so he lost the NWA Title but not the WCW Title. Except I think they may have played it more as a typical Dusty Finish on the US version of the commentary. Regardless, the whole thing was screwy).

[Judas Iscariot]

Archangel, you need to post more. You could become a World Champion of the wrestling forums.