15. Dusty Rhodes Defeats Ric Flair To Win The NWA World Title
WWE.com
Date: July 26th, 1986 The feud between "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes and "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair was absolutely legendary in the 1980s, and one of the key moments happened at the 1986 Great American Bash event, when they battled inside a Steel Cage. Coming into the event, Flair was having a 793-day reign as the NWA World Champion, thanks to a title change in New Zealand that wasn't officially counted, and that was the longest reign in the title's history in about a decade. Dusty had been the man to end Harley Race's 926-day reign in 1979, and Dusty would be the man to end Flair's reign, as well. It's tough to find a bad match between these two men, and this was no different, as Flair was in his peak of making every opponent look like a billion dollars, and Dusty was in his peak of being the "common man" champion that fans fell in love with. Hot crowd, great storytelling, great storytellers... just a joy to watch. Ending Flair's lengthy reign was just the historic icing on the cake.