Ric Flair © vs Carlos Colon – WWC
NWA World Heavyweight Title Match
01/06/1983
During the 70s and the 80s, the touring NWA Champion was an integral part of the territorial system that had been established to divide up the regions within the United States. The chosen wrestler, whilst also spending time with his home promotion, would travel around the NWA affiliated territories, defending the belt and drawing in larger crowds as fans wanted to see them in action, or to see them get beaten by one of the local heroes. The NWA Champion was often a wrestler who could handle themselves in legitimate physical action, if not someone with a genuine wrestling background – due to the importance of the NWA Title as a commodity, it wouldn’t do to leave you belt on someone who couldn’t handle a potential double cross.
Though relative distance through time is a factor, Ric Flair feels as if he is prototypical ‘touring champion’. Flair would go everywhere and anywhere, with a desire to make everyone who stepped into the ring with him look like a million dollars. When champion, his schedule was ridiculous as he would wrestle nearly every night, often to time limit draws. Within these matches, Flair knew exactly how to give his opponent enough to make any victory seem earned and valuable to the champion.
Considering the rich lineage of the NWA World Heavyweight Title and the often stoic booking of the title (many reigns up to and including the 80s were over a year long), the Alliance wouldn’t be above the odd hotshot title victory to add legitimacy to a wrestler, or to create a sense of ‘anything could happen’ surrounding the areas the champion toured in. One of these times was in 1983, with Ric Flair taking on Carlos Colon in WWC.
As well as being the prototypical touring champion, Ric Flair was also the king of the phantom title change. At least three times, Flair lost his NWA World Heavyweight Title in a title switch that never saw recognition by the NWA officially. In 1982, a rabid Dominican Republic crowd forced Flair’s hand (if stories are to be believed), leading to Jack Veneno becoming the new NWA Heavyweight Champion. A ‘refusal’ to defend the title out of his home country did for Veneno’s title reign, and the belt was handed back to Ric Flair without any official record within the title lineage.
Even with the benefit of hindsight, Carlos Colon’s victory over Ric Flair in Puerto Rico feels different. Colon was a legend that transcended Puerto Rico, and felt a legitimate enough contender to the richest prize in the sport at the time. Also, very few people walked into Puerto Rico and defeated Carlos Colon; it just wasn’t the way things were done.
To have Flair lose to Colon, subsequently losing the title, before regaining the title a couple of weeks later seemed beneficial for all – Colon was able to dine out on being the former NWA champion if he saw fit, Flair got the rub of another title victory further down the line (even if it was somewhat unofficial), WWC, and by proxy the NWA, made a tonne of money.
The reign lasted seventeen days only – Flair won back the title on the 23rd of January in a show in Miami, Florida. This was not the last time Flair dropped the belt unofficially either. The following month, Victor Jovica from Trinidad defeated Flair, only for the result to be changed three days later due to the use of the ropes to gain leverage in the winning pinfall. Finally, Harley Race and Flair traded the title back and forth in shows encompassing New Zealand and Singapore, decisions seemingly made to give the newer markets something special without devaluing the title all that much.
