Ric Flair question

[Bob Schlapowitz]

I've heard, (don't know if it's true) that when Flair came into the WWF in 1991 as "The real World Champion" and they would blur out the belt on TV, that it wasn't actually the WCW belt, but in actuality it was a WWF Tag Team belt.Is this true?

If so, wouldn't the live audience notice that Flair was holding a WWF Tag team Belt?

[Hassan bin Sober]

It was the actual NWA/WCW World Heavyweight belt. However WCW would threaten legal action against the WWF and got the belt back. It was during this time that Flair then had no choice but to replace it with a WWF tag belt. To hide the fact that it was not the same belt they blurred it out on TV. As far as I know they did not originally blur out the actual NWA/WCW belt though they may have done so when showing those clips later on. I do know that they don't blur them now that the WWE owns WCW and the belt.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

I remember looking at a wrestling magazine not long after they started blurring the belt and seeing a picture of Ric Flair and thinking "He's not been tag champs with anybody, why's he wearing a tag team belt?"

Years later I found out why.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

When he debuted, he definately showed the real belt. Actually, the belt appeared before Flair did, as Heenan had it on Superstars for a while beforehand.

[Cactus Jack]

They blurred out the actual belt whenever showing clips of it, but I'm not sure whether they do now since they own the copyrights to WCW.

[willywonka666]

I didn't know they used the tag belt-at first they used the real thing, then later blurred it out after WCW threatened them-had no idea about the tag belt though, I wasn't watching it as much by that point

[Turd Ferguson]

Question:

bobschlapowitz said:

I've heard, (don't know if it's true) that when Flair came into the WWF in 1991 as "The real World Champion" and they would blur out the belt on TV, that it wasn't actually the WCW belt, but in actuality it was a WWF Tag Team belt.Is this true?

If so, wouldn't the live audience notice that Flair was holding a WWF Tag team Belt?

Answer:

lariatoooooooooooo said:

WOOOOOOOOOOO!

[BlackJackRobby]

I still remember that as a kid, going OMG that is it. He is coming and Hulk will get his.

Which is strange because I was a huge Hogan mark.

[Big BosskMan]

I remember seeing Flair and Heenan with the real NWA title on WWF television for a week or so, then they started pixelating the belt out (which was, by then, an old WWF tag belt because of legal actions).

[Hiroshi Hase]

As others have mentioned, the NWA belt was on TV and it wasn't blurred out for at least a month or two before WCW took action against Flair, so he ended up wearing a WWF Tag belt to the ring which they tried to blur out but Flair would move around so quickly, that you'd actually see it was a tag belt.

[Cheeba]

I loved this period of time in WWE history. You had the Flair/Piper fued which was pretty hot, not to mention the Savage/Roberts feud which was off the charts. The LOD were the tag champs and were fueding with The Natural Disasters. Good stuff.

[Jock Ass]

Didn't Flair actually own the belt, as the NWA and Turner were switching over to WCW at the time (something about a $25,000 deposit)?

[molson5]

Before Flair debuted, here's Heenan clearly holding the WCW belt:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtLuNhZntcM

This was, of course, crazy, crazy stuff at the time - not only was the WWE acknowledging a rival company, but they were actually putting over the importance of it's top championship.

[Mozenrath]

scorpio1976 said:

Didn't Flair actually own the belt, as the NWA and Turner were switching over to WCW at the time (something about a $25,000 deposit)?

Yep. WCW eventually had to buy it back from him to end an angle they totally brought on themselves.

And that, my friends, along with Alundra Blayze, is why the Montreal Screwjob. This is what could of happened to WWF. They did the same thing, so why wouldn't WCW want to?