5 | 26.08.2020 | DanTalksRasslin | 7.0 | A belt born of confusion - as I understand it, when Ric Flair left WCW with the NWA World Title in 1991, WCW created their own new World Heavyweight Title, and when Flair returned with the Big Gold Belt, he was recognized as both WCW and NWA World Champ with the Big Gold Belt representing both. But in 1993, when WCW withdrew from the NWA, Rick Rude was scheduled to defeat Flair for the NWA Title. The match and title change went ahead, but since WCW no longer had the rights to the NWA name, the title Rude won was claimed as the title of a fictional subsidiary, "WCW International. " The International World Heavyweight Title briefly coexisted with the regular World Heavyweight belt, and during its existence the International belt racked up an impressive title history with actual international legitimacy (as Rude traded the belt with Hiroshi Hase in NJPW), but it ultimately became superfluous and understandably was soon unified with the regular WCW World Heavyweight Title. |