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Who was the "Real World Champion"

5K views 23 replies 24 participants last post by  NotGuilty 
#1 ·
in 1991 when Ric Flair arrived to WWF, he showed up with the WCW World Heavyweight championship belt. Proclaiming he was the real worlds champion over Hulk Hogan. But Hulk was at the time on his 3rd title reign as WWF world heavyweight champion.

Who did you think was the "Real World Champion"?
 
#6 ·
Flair.

Bias aside, Flair was technically the WCW and NWA World Champion, having just regained (or retained, depending on how you view the switch) it against the IWGP Champion. And I think the whole dynamic of that/those belt(s) being regularly defended in Japan like that raises it's legitimacy, in terms of being a World Title. Flair, up until that point, had made a career out of going any and everywhere to defend his World Title. To me, that's the epitome of a World Champion.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Here is the bottom line. The NWA Champ was always the real World Champ until the WCW stuff happened. Fact is anyone who actually knows wrestling history knows that the WWF was not even considered the second most important title until the mid-80's.

So when Flair left for the WWF..

Popular opinion and culture sided with the WWF........ seriously 89 was the NWA's last gasp.

Hogan was the real world champ. Flair was the greatest wrestler in the world but not the champ.

But the WWF was never the most prestigious champ till Hogan came along....never. It was one of the most prestigious territories.
 
#5 ·
I love Hulk but I was a WCW guy and Flair has always been my fav. That ending said, even as a kid I had enough common sense to know that if the two fought for the title that Hogan would have won since he's the WWF guy.
 
#7 ·
Larry Zbysko. He never lost the AWA World Title. You could also argue it could be Undertaker as he beat Hogan and somehow Hogan got a rematch just a few days later at a one time only Tuesday PPV. (side not I was there the night Undertaker beat Hogan. Good times.) However if you wish to stick to the two, Flair or Hogan, it has to be Flair. Hogan lost to Undertaker and should not have got the belt back so quick and he ended up losing it quick as it was. Flair had beat Tatsumi Fujinami, a Japanese wrestler, to make him a REAL WORLD champion.
 
#12 ·
That's not true. Up until 1982 the WWWF/WWF was a part of the NWA. The NWA world Title was the main title world wide while the WWF Title as considered a regional title.

Also it wasn't until 1987 that the WWF title was even considered a World Title by Pro Wrestling Illustrated the leading publication of Pro Wrestling back in the day.
 
#16 ·
I think you have possibly identified the "most grey" period there was between the nwa and wwf titles. All through the 80's and before the nwa was the title.

But by 1990 the momentum from the wrestlemania's and Hulk was swinging it the other way.

If you were to ask me the world champ was nwa anytime before 1988. 88-92 it was both , and then 92-96 it was all wwf
 
#19 ·
Honestly, I loved flair, he was the REAL world heavyweight champion, WWF was kind of cartoonish in the 80s, but WCW is where the tough wrestlers were at, WWF was sports entertainment, WCW was Pro Wrestling, but flair was truly a WCW guy, at least in that time period, hogan was the WWE guy, he wasnt the number 1 in my opinion, but like him or not he was THE guy,
 
#21 ·
Hulk Hogan was a household name; the biggest star in the biggest wrestling organization in the world. People who didn't even watch wrestling (or even remotely care about wrestling) knew Hulk Hogan. That said, I wish that the question had been answered at Wrestlemania VIII. Looking back, I'd like to have seen a Wrestlemania card with Ric Flair (World Heavyweight Champion) against Hulk Hogan (WWF Champion) as the main event (Flair wins the match, Warrior returns and fends off a Mr. Perfect and Ric Flair double team).
 
#22 · (Edited)
Traditionally up until WWE National Expansion in the 1980s as another poster has already alluded to, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship was technically a regional world title. The NWA World Title had been historically the most prestigious world heavyweight championship even over the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. However, by 1991 as has already been basically pointed out that the WWE was the top wrestling organization in the world with the biggest media presence and audience in the world. The overall mainstream culture equated the WWE with wrestling. And in this world whether fair or not perception is everything in many cases. Even though the WWE was cartoony Hogan was basically billed as the most dominant wrestler.

I think the question comes down to this premise-If we looked at things from a 1991 point of view and what was actually transpiring in the wrestling world does anyone feel that any promoter would at that time have Flair went over Hogan cleanly by pinfall or submission??

While from a technical historical perspective the NWA Title was more important than the WWE title and Flair is literally a top ten wrestler of all time regardless of promotion-I think a good argument could be made that Hogan was such an everything in the world of professional wrestling at that time that he himself gave astronomical prestige to the WWE title. In other words Hogan at that time gave the WWE title its prestige even though the NWA/WCW was more wrestling oriented and not as cartoony in nature.

I just can't see any promoter(including hypothetically the WCW in 1991) in 1991 having Flair go over Hogan cleanly and thus by that point I think the perception could validate Hogan as the true world heavyweight champion at that time.
 
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