10 Wrestlers Who Refused To Drop Titles
1. Ric Flair Takes The WCW Championship Hostage
Ric Flair's first run with WCW/Jim Crockett Promotions was nothing short of extraordinary, but he had a huge falling out with WCW President Jim Herd in 1991. Coupled with other issues, being asked to take a substantial pay cut turned out to be the last straw for The Nature Boy. Flair turned down all of Herd's proposals, including a few pitches to drop the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
Jim Herd fired Ric Flair and vacated the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, but the latter was still recognized as the NWA World Heavyweight Champion and was in possession of the Big Gold belt.
Back in the day, the NWA required the wrestler selected to be World champion to put down a security deposit of $25,000, which Flair had also made. However, since Flair didn't get the deposit back after his termination, he proved why he was The Dirtiest Player in the Game by taking the belt hostage with him to WWE.
He made his WWE debut on an episode of Superstars in September 1991 with the Big Gold belt, claiming to be the real World champion. He held on to the title belt until he settled with WCW to receive his security deposit with interest.