10 Super Rare Times WWE Promoted Rival Titles

8. Ric Flair Moves To New York

Mickie James
WWE.com

The guttural howl one imagines emerged from Vince McMahon's office the night Alundra Blayze dumped the WWE Women's Championship in a bin on Nitro makes for the sort of mind scenario that could power a private plane.

Not least because of the raging, rampant hypocrisy of it all.

Yes, Eric Bischoff was more than keen to break a few old unwritten rules as the Monday Night Wars kicked off, but very few of them were ones that hadn't been tampered with before. Especially when it came to belt stuff.

WWE tried to have their cake and eat it with the signing of Ric Flair in 1991, particularly because they could use the inanimate object he was synonymous with before they got the 'Nature Boy' himself. Bobby Heenan parading the belt around was inspired - he championed it, but nobody was seen as sleazier than 'The Brain'.

An ingenious way to bury-but-not-really-honest the other side's richest prize, Flair's incredible WWE Championship-winning promo at the Royal Rumble several months later only heaped more dirt on the iconic strap.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett