26 Times Wrestling Titles Have Been Disrespected

8. Ric Flair Takes The WCW Title To The WWF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ggDRV5Rj4

Forget the "Invasion" angle, for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship had been on WWF television a decade prior to WWF's purchase of WCW.

After a dispute with WCW, Ric Flair, who was at that point the WCW Champion, signed with the WWF, instantly aligning himself with Bobby Heenan and being referred to as "The Real World's Champion".

Flair's issue with WCW was that new the new President, Jim Herd, wanted Flair to take a pay cut, removed him as head booker, and then wanted to change up the Nature Boy's gimmick. Flair wasn't happy with this and would end up getting fired by Herd, even though he was still in possession of the NWA/WCW World Championship.

At that point in time, the World Champion had to put down a reported $25,000 deposit when they won the belt. As Flair had not received this money back, he felt he was perfectly entitled to turn up on WWF TV with the "Big Gold Belt".

In fairness, back when this was happening, the WWF would always pixilate the NWA/WCW World Championship when Flair appeared with it on TV, but everybody knew what title it was... and everyone knew it was a massive FU from both Flair and the WWF to WCW.

 
Posted On: 
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.