Why, yes. That is Ric Flair on the set of WWF's Prime Time Wrestling with Bobby Heenan holding the NWA world heavyweight championship belt. That's perfectly normal behavior. It's not weird at all. IT'S NOT WEIRD. (photo via wwe.com)
1957: In Boston, Massachusetts, Bruno Sammartino defeated Gorilla Monsoon in a Texas deathmatch to retain the WWWF Championship.
1980: In Allentown, Pennsylvania, The Wild Samoans defeat Tony Garea & Rene Goulet to win the vacated WWWF Tag Team Championship.
The title was vacated following Showdown at Shea when Pedro Morales & Bob Backlund won the titles, but were forced to vacate them due to Backlund being the WWWF Champion at the time.
1987: In Columbia, South Carolina, Dusty Rhodes defeated Arn Anderson to win the NWA World Television Championship.
1991: Ric Flair makes his WWF television and in-ring debut. Not at the same time though.
He wrestles two matches for a WWF Superstars taping in Ottawa, Ontairo, Canada, defeating Jim Powers and going to a no contest against Mark Thomas (noted for featuring Vince McMahon’s first ever physical involvement in a storyline).
As Superstars matches are often taped as far as a month in advance, Flair's television debut would occur on Prime Time Wrestling that the same day as the newest client of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
Oh, and Flair just happens to debut with that Big Gold Belt WCW’s been wanting back for two months. The former NWA and WCW world champion was supposed to have a deposit totaling around $38,000 returned to him in exchange for relinquishing the physical belt (that’s a $25,000 deposit mandated by the NWA to prevent their champion from running off to another promotion with the belt, plus interest accrued; Flair accrued $13,000 in interest over his multiple reigns as champion and never cashed out his initial deposit).
Then-WCW president Jim Herd never returned the money (he felt shafted over Flair turning down a low offer to stay with the company, as well as a drastic gimmick change), so Flair kept the belt. In fact, Big Gold made its WWF debut before Flair did, but Flair could not sign with the WWF until September 1, when his no-compete expired. Four days later, Flair officially put pen to paper and joined the company.
As for the belt, WCW eventually got it back, but only after they took Flair and the WWF to court over it. In exchange, Ric got more than the $38,000 that he was owed.
Just a day before Flair’s WWF debut, the NWA finally strips Flair of its world championship (WCW, then a subsidiary of the NWA but also recognizing its own world champions by this time, had done the same back in July after Flair was fired), making one of the most prestigious prizes in all of wrestling vacant for the first time ever. The vacancy would not be filled until nearly a year later when Masahiro Chono won the NWA world title by winning New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Climax tournament.
On the same set of tapings, Sgt. Slaughter began his transition back to being a patriotic babyface. A year prior, Slaughter was portrayed as an Iraqi sympathizer. Though he won the WWF Championship at the 1991 Royal Rumble, the use of a very real war for storyline purposes angered many, and Slaughter himself dealt with death threats.
His pleas for forgiveness live on in wrestling lore with his memorable olive branch to fans: “I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!” Fans would take Slaughter back with open arms, but he would never reach the heights of his WWF title run, or even five years prior to that when Slaughter was a semi-regular character on the GI Joe animated series.
The same set of tapings would produce another series of vignettes where former Intercontinental and Tag Team Champion Tito Santana took up bullfighting. At the end of the series of vignettes, he would be simply known as El Matador. He too would never reach the heights of his previous runs. He wrestled as the El Matador gimmick until leaving the WWF in August 1993.
2000: In Mississiauga, Ontario, Canada, Rhino defeated Kid Kash to win the ECW World Television Championship.
He would be the last man to hold the title as the company officially shut down a few months later.
2003: At a Smackdown taping in Birmingham, Alabama, Eddie Guerrero defeated John Cena in a parking lot brawl.
On the same show, Stephanie McMahon and Brock Lesnar went to a no contest when Kurt Angle interfered.
2006: CZW presented Down with the Sickness 4-Ever: A Tribute to Chris Cash II at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eddie Kingston defeated Chris Hero to win the CZW Championship. On the same show, Sonjay Dutt defeated Sexxxy Eddie to win the CZW Junior Heavyweight Championship.
2007: TNA presented No Surrender from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando.
The show featured Kurt Angle defending all of TNA's titles as he had won them the previous month in a winner take all match against Samoa Joe. And the in-ring debut of Adam "Pacman" Jones.
Team Pacman (Adam Jones and Ron Killings) defeated Kurt Angle and Sting to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship. Jones did nothing in the match outside of getting the winning pinfall on Sting. Angle turned on Sting, leading to Pacman getting the victory. The reason Jones couldn’t get physical: court order. Adam, who had been suspended for the entire 2007 season due to repeated violations of the NFL’s personal conduct policy, had a restraining order issued against him by the Tennessee Titans prohibiting him to engage in any physical contact of any kind.
Rhino defeated James Storm.
Robert Roode defeated Kaz.
Jay Lethal defeated Kurt Angle to win the TNA X Division Championship.
Chris Harris defeated Black Reign in a No Disqualification match.
A.J. Styles and Tomko won a tag team gauntlet match to earn a TNA World Tag Team Championship match at Bound for Glory. Other teams included The Voodoo Kin Mafia (B.G. James and Kip James), The Latin American Exchange (Homicide and Hernandez), Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon), The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley), Triple X (Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper), Sonjay Dutt and Petey Williams, Serotonin (Raven and Havok), Eric Young and Shark Boy, and Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave.
Christian Cage defeated Samoa Joe by disqualification.
Kurt Angle defeated Abyss to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
2012: TNA presented No Surrender from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando.
The show centered on determining who would face the TNA World Heavyweight Champion at Bound for Glory.
Jeff Hardy defeated Samoa Joe in a Bound for Glory Series semifinal match.
Bully Ray defeated James Storm in a Bound for Glory Series semifinal match.
Miss Tessmacher defeated Tara to retain the TNA Knockout Championship.
Zema Ion defeated Sonjay Dutt to retain the TNA X-Division Championship.
Rob Van Dam defeated Magnus.
Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Kazarian) defeated A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship.
Jeff Hardy defeated Bully Ray to win the Bound for Glory Series and a TNA World Heavyweight Championship match at Bound for Glory.