How did the Big Gold Belt get back in WCW?

[Instant Classic]

I know it came to WWF when Flair brought it over, but how did it get back in to WCW?


Also what did Flair do with the Big Gold Belt when he brought it over to WWF?

[The Lach is very tired]

On Flair's DVD he said he brought it over coz he paid a $25k deposit for the belt (as was the normal thing at the time) & when he left WCW refused to pay it back. But then he eventually settled on money owed with I think Jim Herd (WCW VP).

When he had it in WWF he proclaimed himself the real World Champion & carried it with him to the ring. Although I'm pretty sure it had to be blurred out on TV.

[Instant Classic]

Oct 8, 2013 4:29:14 GMT -5 The Lach is very tired said:

On Flair's DVD he said he brought it over coz he paid a $25k deposit for the belt (as was the normal thing at the time) & when he left WCW refused to pay it back. But then he eventually settled on money owed with I think Jim Herd (WCW VP).

When he had it in WWF he proclaimed himself the real World Champion & carried it with him to the ring. Although I'm pretty sure it had to be blurred out on TV.

When did he stop carrying it around?

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Oct 8, 2013 4:42:59 GMT -5 Instant Classic said:

Oct 8, 2013 4:29:14 GMT -5 The Lach is very tired said:

On Flair's DVD he said he brought it over coz he paid a $25k deposit for the belt (as was the normal thing at the time) & when he left WCW refused to pay it back. But then he eventually settled on money owed with I think Jim Herd (WCW VP).

When he had it in WWF he proclaimed himself the real World Champion & carried it with him to the ring. Although I'm pretty sure it had to be blurred out on TV.

When did he stop carrying it around?

By the 91 Survivor Series at least, he's wearing a WWF tag team belt. You can see the WWF logo on the strap "fall" outside of the censorship.

[GuyOfOwnage]

The last recorded appearance of the Big Gold Belt in the WWF was prior to a title match against Hogan at an MSG house show on November 15th, 1991. Survivor Series took place on November 27th, by which point he was using the old WWF tag belt, so it's safe to say that somewhere within that 12 day period, Flair reached some sort of settlement with WCW.

[Smiley Smile]

Interestingly, after the Big Gold Belt was returned to WCW, the WWF made a clone of it to use on TV in place of the real belt that had been returned. The time it took to be made necessitated the use of the censored tag team title belt that Flair briefly used. Unfortunately, the settlement between the WWF and WCW stipulated that the WWF couldn't use a similar-looking title belt in its place, so the new belt disappeared from TV almost instantly.

[James Fabiano]

FWIW, Big Gold returned to WCW TV at the Great American Bash '92, where Bill Watts announces the NWA singles tournament and removes the Ric Flair nameplate from the belt.

[Deleted]

Oct 8, 2013 4:29:14 GMT -5 The Lach is very tired said:

When he had it in WWF he proclaimed himself the real World Champion & carried it with him to the ring. Although I'm pretty sure it had to be blurred out on TV.

Not at first (definitely never before he appeared when Heenan was carrying it around) but a few weeks after his debut they started blurring it when WCW spoke up.

[Super Nintenjoe KBD]

Looking back it's still so trippy to see the belt in WWF at the time. Im a big mark for stuff like this, crossovers, invasions, continuity between promotions, etc.

[Instant Classic]

I'd love to see the NWA title on WWE tv. IMO the best looking title of all time.

[mrjl]

when WCW stopped the WWF from using that belt Vince should have called up the NWA and worked out a deal

[willywonka666]

So basically, Vince got Flair to do what he was afraid Bret Hart would do in 97, got pissed at what Medusa did(minus the trash part) and he had tried to get Harley race to do in 83.

[Todd Pettengill]

Oct 8, 2013 21:34:51 GMT -5 willywonka666 said:

So basically, Vince got Flair to do what he was afraid Bret Hart would do in 97, got pissed at what Medusa did(minus the trash part) and he had tried to get Harley race to do in 83.

Madusa put the WWF Women's Title in a garbage can on WCW programming.
Bret was screwed to prevent a similar situation.


Is different than:



The World Heavyweight Champion, Ric Flair struts out on WWF programming & shows his NWA belt respect (despite the TV blurring). And, wins the WWF Title in a matter of Months.



-Vince never shit on the NWA title.
-Bischoff with Madusa proved that he in fact was willing to shit on a WWF Championship.

[MolotovMocktail]

Oct 8, 2013 14:58:02 GMT -5 Instant Classic said:

I'd love to see the NWA title on WWE tv. IMO the best looking title of all time.

It has been. Dan Severn brought it with him during the NWA Invasion angle of 1998.

[SOR]

That Madusa angle that Todd mentioned would be pretty cool though, Watching it live I mean.

Hypothetically lets say you're watching TNA Impact this week and AJ Lee randomly debuts and dumps the WWE Diva's Championship in the trash can right on TV. It'd be nuts.

The Flair thing is cool as well. Must of been really weird for fans of both companies at the time.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Oct 9, 2013 9:32:36 GMT -5 SOR said:

That Madusa angle that Todd mentioned would be pretty cool though, Watching it live I mean.

Hypothetically lets say you're watching TNA Impact this week and AJ Lee randomly debuts and dumps the WWE Diva's Championship in the trash can right on TV. It'd be nuts.

The Flair thing is cool as well. Must of been really weird for fans of both companies at the time.

In the UK around that time we used to get WCW on late-night TV, but it was usually months behind, so for a while Flair was on both WCW and WWF TV at the same time.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Oct 8, 2013 22:01:21 GMT -5 Todd Pettengill said:

Oct 8, 2013 21:34:51 GMT -5 willywonka666 said:

So basically, Vince got Flair to do what he was afraid Bret Hart would do in 97, got pissed at what Medusa did(minus the trash part) and he had tried to get Harley race to do in 83.

Madusa put the WWF Women's Title in a garbage can on WCW programming.
Bret was screwed to prevent a similar situation.


Is different than:



The World Heavyweight Champion, Ric Flair struts out on WWF programming & shows his NWA belt respect (despite the TV blurring). And, wins the WWF Title in a matter of Months.



-Vince never shit on the NWA title.
-Bischoff with Madusa proved that he in fact was willing to shit on a WWF Championship.

Both were done with the intention of undermining the opposition and devaluing one of their belts, in the case of Medusa, it was the (then largely defunct) women's belt, and in the case of the WCW belt, while they didn't crap on the belt Flair was holding, they certainly were trying to undermine WCW and their current champion, Lex Luger.

Still amuses me that people give Ric Flair a pass because Jim Herd was mean to him, while Bret deserved everything he got because... reasons.

[The Gambler Fan]

I give Ric Flair a pass because he basically owned the belt. He put a $25,000 deposit on the belt and when he wanted the money back the NWA refused to give him the money. He felt like he owned the belt so he brought it with him to the WWF. Bret Hart did not put a deposit on the WWF title. Therefore, the WWF world title was owned by the WWF not Bret Hart.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Oct 9, 2013 15:00:11 GMT -5 The Gambler Fan said:

I give Ric Flair a pass because he basically owned the belt. He put a $25,000 deposit on the belt and when he wanted the money back the NWA refused to give him the money. He felt like he owned the belt so he brought it with him to the WWF. Bret Hart did not put a deposit on the WWF title. Therefore, the WWF world title was owned by the WWF not Bret Hart.

Ah, so that makes undercutting Lex Luger and intentionally trying to harm WCW a-okay. Bret did not own the WWF title, nor did WCW, the WWF had the likeness of the WWF belt copyrighted and would have sued WCW so fast had they put it on WCW TV so Turner legal would never had allowed it, much like the situation with Mike Awesome the ECW belt... and that's ignoring the fact Bret didn't want to leave, let alone leave as champion, he was leaving because the WWF could no longer afford his contract and wanted to drop the belt to anyone but Shawn which was within his legal right to do as those were the terms Vince agreed to when negotiating his departure.

[Porky's Butthole]

Oct 9, 2013 12:01:41 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

Oct 8, 2013 22:01:21 GMT -5 Todd Pettengill said:

Madusa put the WWF Women's Title in a garbage can on WCW programming.
Bret was screwed to prevent a similar situation.


Is different than:



The World Heavyweight Champion, Ric Flair struts out on WWF programming & shows his NWA belt respect (despite the TV blurring). And, wins the WWF Title in a matter of Months.



-Vince never shit on the NWA title.
-Bischoff with Madusa proved that he in fact was willing to shit on a WWF Championship.

Both were done with the intention of undermining the opposition and devaluing one of their belts, in the case of Medusa, it was the (then largely defunct) women's belt, and in the case of the WCW belt, while they didn't crap on the belt Flair was holding, they certainly were trying to undermine WCW and their current champion, Lex Luger.

Still amuses me that people give Ric Flair a pass because Jim Herd was mean to him, while Bret deserved everything he got because... reasons.

I don't see it as them undermining WCW or its title. The entire time, Flair was running around saying he was the REAL World's Champion. In essence, he was saying that he, the WCW Title and WCW as a whole were better than WWF. He was negating the importance of WWF and its titles, saying that where he came from had superior wrestlers and such. And THEN, he backed it the f*** up by winning THEIR title.

So no...I don't see how they were trashing WCW in this instance.

And as for Bret and the Screwjob...f*** him. He refused to lose in Montreal. That'd be like Daniel Bryan refusing to lose in Tampa. f*** that.