Worse interim NWA World Heavyweight Champion?

[Jimmy]

Rich won the belt just so that they could do a bigger crowd days later when Harley Race won it back.


Kerry, while talented, simply won the title because his brother had just died.


Garvin won the title because Flair needed to win it at Starrcade 87.

Which, by whatever measure you choose, do you feel was the worst?

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

It's kind of a hard pick, though the guys themselves are not to blame.

Rich was, pardon the pun, on fire and looked like a top star for years to come. The short reign seemed to really hurt his momentum. I think it was Ric Flair who mentioned that immediately after this, one of the heels in Georgia went on TV and in his promo said something like, "Wow, you were the champion for a few days. That's awesome, man, you couldn't even keep it a week." The promoter apparently got pissed, but the damage was apparently done. Rich went on to do great stuff in Memphis, but never really regained his momentum.

Kerry's was a similar situation. Obviously, he was a huge star in Texas and had the look and natural charisma to appeal elsewhere. He and David had both been chasing the belt (with David obviously in the lead) before David's death. Then he wins the belt in this hugely emotional setting at Texas Stadium...and loses it back in Japan shortly after. Gary Hart, who despite his differences with Fritz was "Uncle Gary" to the Von Erich boys, said he talked with Fritz that day at Texas Stadium. Fritz told him Kerry was getting the belt and Gary asked "For how long?" When Fritz told him, Gary said it was the worst thing they could do to him, that after all this build with David and Kerry and the emotion of David's death, for him to finally win it and then immediately lose it would be seen as a disappointment to the fans. Fritz got pissed at him, but it's hard to say Gary wasn't right.

With Garvin, people tend to forget how over he was in the promotion's southeastern base. I think the run could have worked (it was short, but not just a few days or a couple weeks) if they had stayed in the southeast and actually had challengers for Garvin. They were dead set on keeping him and Flair apart until Starrcade, and since their typical model was the heel champion Flair being chased, they didn't have a lot of options for other heels to challenge for the belt. So for the most part...none did. Then he dropped the belt back to Flair in Chicago, a town more likely to cheer Flair to begin with.

It's hard for me to say one was worst because all 3 were basically put into horrible situations.