thesquaredcircle

I was 11 when it happened, and like this article states, it was a huge loss for the industry. The effects of this could even be felt in my family and we lived thousands of miles from the NWA territory. My aunts stopped watching, and even my mom stopped asking about the organization(she would later glom on to Steamboat  ). The guy was on the verge of superstardom, and given the right push, could have become a mainstream icon like Hogan.

This tragedy permanently altered the war between WWF and NWA. It caused NWA to take a few steps back when going back simply wasn't an option when Mcmahon is your competition.

I GUARANTEE if Crockett and Dusty could go back and do it all over again, they put the world title on Magnum in summer 85 and Flair gets buried. Would have worked out if the accident never happens. There were shitloads of heels for Magnum to feud with during a long title reign that could have coincided with Hulkamania.

Nikita Koloff
Tully Blanchard
Arn Anderson
Abdullah the Butcher
Bruiser Brody
Lex Luger
Barbarian
a few rematches with Flair
Jimmy Garvin
Dr Death Steve Williams
Hawk or Animal

list goes on.....



In hindsight, the continuous Flair title reigns never made any sense. He was a heel. A loved heel obviously, but it simply wasn't good enough when Hulkamania was running wild all over the globe. NWA was its only legit competition, and having Flair come out during Saturday and Sunday programs doing promos while wearing suits but only wrestling at house shows was a HUGE blunder. I can literally count on the fingers of one hand(with fingers to spare) how many times Flair wrestled on TV shows during the 80s.

He simply wasn't a champion to be represented week in and week out, yet Crockett and Dusty made sure to have everything revolve around him. Even when Flair dropped the belt, he was still champion because he won it back within a week or two and the title picture NEVER revolved around anyone but Flair. ****, when he dropped it to Dusty in 86, no one even got to see Dusty as champ because by the next Saturday night show, Flair already had the belt back. When he lost it to Von Erich in 84, Flair won it back in days. When he lost it to Garvin, Garvin went months without defending it, and his first title defense was a loss to Flair at Starrcade 87. It made the NWA unable to escape the small potatoes vibe it always had even though millions watched it on tv.

I'm not knocking Flair. He's actually my all time favorite wrestler, and can work a crowd unlike any other. No one will ever rival his in ring presence or his amazing promos. My point is that he never should have been allowed to dominate the NWA like he did when there was major talent sitting there idle needing a title run that would have really put the spotlight on the NWA.

Magnum TA- Obvious reasons stated above. He could fill an arena with wrestling purists, kids, and thousands of women. Crockett is a **** idiot.

Nikita Koloff- Its a travesty he never had a world title run. He should have won this belt twice- Bash 85 and Starrcade 86, both matches resulting in DQs. That main event at Starrcade 86 along with Magnum's accident were the first nails in the coffin for NWA, and Crockett was also losing tons of money by this point, and I doubt it was a coincidence. You simply do not set up a long feud with Koloff if you're gonna refuse to not only NOT give him the belt, but refuse to let either actually win the matches.

Nikita was the biggest heel of that decade, and became one of the most popular faces that decade, yet never held a single worlds title.