UWF "phantom title" comment in 1986 episode

[James Fabiano]

I just read a review of a UWF end-of-year/Christmas recap show from 1986. In it, Bill Watts makes a crack about phantom title switches involving guys who never wrestled. What was he talking about?

Keep in mind the time frame. End of 1986. Closest thing I thought of was Bockwinkel being given the AWA title, but that was more like Hansen getting stripped. RnR/Rude-Manny was months away. The Intercontinental thing was old news. What could it be then?

[cjh]

Watts was referring to how Black Bart "won" the WCCW Championship in September 1986.  Chris Adams left the company while still champion, so Bart showed up as the new champion one day with the claim that the title change happened in "a recent match out on the west coast."