10 Oldest First-Time WWE World Champions

2. Ric Flair - 42 Years, 10 Months, 25 Days

Aj Styles Ric Flair
WWE.com

In May of 1991, Ric Flair was at odds with WCW President Jim Herd. Despite Flair's success, Herd thought that the multi-time champion's character had grown stale and that he wasn't of the same value to the promotion that he been earlier. He wanted Flair to take a pay cut, shave his head, and change his ring name to "Spartacus." Flair refused, so despite the fact that he was the WCW and NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Herd fired him.

WCW's loss turned into WWE's gain. Flair still had the physical NWA Title belt in his possession and began appearing with it on WWE TV, calling himself "The Real World's Champion." Needless to say, this was a dream storyline for WWE, and they pushed him to the moon. At the 1992 Royal Rumble, Flair entered the titular match and won it, capturing the vacant WWE World Championship in the process. It was surreal for longtime fans.

Flair would rack up two reigns as WWE World Champion before leaving the company in early 1993 and returning to WCW.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013