WWE: Ranking Ric Flair's 16 World Title Runs - From Worst To Best

12. NWA World Heavyweight Championship/WCW World Championship (7th NWA, 1st WCW, 7th Overall) January 11, 1991 - July 1, 1991 (WCW)/January 11, 1991 - March 21, 1991, May 19, 1991 - September 8, 1991 (NWA)

This reign is the most confusing championship reign in wrestling history, bar none. Never has a reign exposed the business side of wrestling in such a way and none has since. By January 1991, most of the territories under the NWA banner had gone out of business and the NWA existed only in name when Ric Flair beat Sting for the World Championship in East Rutherford, New Jersey that month. After this, WCW began using the term "WCW Champion" while still using the term "NWA Champion" at times, using it interchangeably to refer to Flair at this time as Flair was still recognized as World Champion by both WCW and the governing board of the NWA as WCW still had exclusive rights to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, something WCW would maintain until September 1993. The reign was addled with several controversies starting when Flair suffered a loss via pinfall to Tatsumi Fujinami March 21 in a Champion vs. Champion match held in Japan's Tokyo Dome (Fujinami was the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion at the time). At the time, NWA recognized the title change, however WCW did not and ruled the match a disqualification in Fujinami's favor and as such the WCW strap never changed hands, technically keeping Flair's seventh overall reign as World Champion in tact, and during this time, he was still the WCW World Champion. This would get murkier two months later at SuperBrawl 1 in May when Flair would pin Fujinami to claim the NWA World Championship on the pay-per-view, and remained reigning World Champion in WCW. Neither WWE nor NWA recognize Fujinami's victory over Flair nor the subsequent defeat today, tidying up what was a rather confusing time for the record keepers and record books. However during the actual reign itself, things were very up in the air. True historians will argue that these were his eighth and ninth reigns with the NWA Championship but as none of the promotions concerned acknowledge the change, it is that much easier to gloss over. Things became even more convoluted July 1 of that year when WCW Executive Vice President Jim Herd fired Ric Flair from WCW and stripped him of the WCW Championship putting it on the line between Lex Luger (the eventual winner) and Barry Windham at the Great American Bash 13 days later, with no mention of the NWA World Championship or its status. The NWA still recognized Flair as its champion and would continue to do so until Flair appeared on WWE programming with the NWA World Championship (also known as "The Big Gold Belt") on his waist. After this the NWA did something it had never done before in its more than 40-year history to that point when the board decided to vacate the title. It would be awarded to Masahiro Chono who defeated Rick Rude in the finals in Tokyo 11 months after Flair was stripped of the championship. This was an incredibly historic reign, but when it was all said and done, it did very little to make Flair look like a champion and is more remembered as an example of politics and business in wrestling spilling over onto the screen.