Unrecognized Title Switches??

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

I read a lot about "unrecognized" title switches back in the old days of wrestling. Things like, "so and so beat so and so, but the title switch was not acknowleged by the NWA"

 

How does that work in a sport that's scripted? Was it just part of a storyline? Was it a booking mistake? What's the deal?

[Guest DeputyHawk]

usually a dispute between promoters. the nwa was always made up of lots of individual promoters and territories who could rarely agree on anything, hense the occasional title switch which hadn't been approved by all members and had to be retracted after the event to preserve the unity of the organisation as a whole.

[Guest bort]

the rockers had an unrockinzed tag title run, they beat the hart foundation just as jim neighart was leaving the wwf, the ring turnbuckle broke midway through tha=e match and that was the reason i have heard for it not being reconized, not long after the match jim was back in the wwe

[Guest DeputyHawk]

that was a different situation, it was a scheduled title change they ended up bailing out on because the rope broke and it would have looked sloppy on tv. wrestling journalists broke the story of the switch having taken place, but 'officially' it never happened because it never aired on TV.

 

other reasons are if a switch happened overseas to generate publicity, it wouldn't be officially acknowledged at home such as race-flair in new zealand in 84 (i think) and sting-vader in england in 93.

 

but by 'the old days', i think parka meant way back when there were promotional disputes aplenty within the nwa (such as the phantom buddy rogers switch which kick-strated the wwwf).

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Actually the Race/Flair was one that I noticed.

[Guest Ace309]

As a tangent, I was always a fan of negative-day title reigns.

[Guest DeputyHawk]

such as?

[Guest Mad the Swine]

WCW recognized Flair-Race (1984) after 1993. It's actually not on the list of reigns recognized by the WWE.

 

Fujinami-Flair (1991) is recognized occasionally. WCW initially didn't recognize any switch, though it was splashed all over the place in Japan. WCW did briefly recognize it after 1993, but I don't think they did at the end. WWE doesn't include it.

 

Flair-Jack Veneno (1982?) was not recognized outside of Veneno's territory. Flair was wrestling in Santo Domingo in front of a pretty hot crowd. Piper was a second for Flair and really stirred them up worse. As a result to escape rioting fans, Flair supposedly let Veneno pin him. After several hours of being trapped in the building with fans wanting and/or trying to kill them, they were able to get out.

 

Flair-Victor Jovica (1982?) was in Trinidad and also far from recognized. I've never seen accounts like I've seen for the Veneno match, but it supposedly was similar in nature.

 

Though early wrestling titles were far from unified, the biggest version of the World Title also had its problems with switches.

 

John Olin claimed the belt after a match with Joe Stetcher in 1916. Ed Lewis defeated Olin and subsequently switched the title a couple of times with Wladek Zbyszko.

 

Earl Caddock, who defeated Stecher (who still claimed the belt), later defeated both Zbyszko and Lewis to settle the issue. The title mess after Olin's victory (and the logically named Olin line) was recognized in some areas.

 

Up until Lou Thesz began unifying some belts (the band of promoters in the NWA had a rule that allowed for only one champion amongst them), there were a lot of different champions recognized in a lot of different areas as world championships.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

I'm surprised that modern-day phantom title switches are not recorded on these history lists, for example, the false Jericho win and the two false Benoit wins from 2000. It's no less noteworthy than "Greg Valentine was given the WWF Title by accident by a dazed referee" (the stupidest false switch IMO).

[Guest drdrainoscott]

I always thought that the phantom switches were to make people think that anything could happen on house shows, and therefore increase attendence. Maybe I'm wrong...

 

What is the Valentine switch you speak of?

[Guest HellSpawn]

This is a reminding...

Jericho's title.

IT NEVER HAPPENED !

 

hahahaha j/k

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Officially, the match in which the Rockers won the titles was declared a no contest. They were originally only going to be transitional champions anyways to get the tag titles on Power & Glory (who would then drop the titles to LOD ar Wrestlemania VII).

 

After Neidhart resigned, they decided to go from Harts-Nastys-LOD instead. Jack Tunney then made a special announcement on WWF TV that aired wherever it was that the switch took place, explaining that the match didn't count and the Harts remained as tag champs.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Did WCW ever recognize Benoit's first TV Title win over Booker T in 1998?

[yankovic fan 0]

I kind of miss tuning in and hearing that a title changed hands at a house show.

 

I think of the time the Steiners and Money Inc. swapped the title 3 times in the course of a week in 93 or 94.

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

The most famous negative title reign was the Freebirds one from 1991 in WCW. They dropped the belts to the Steiners at a t.v. taping that took place BEFORE they won the belts from Doom at a ppv. There's a few others from WCW around the same time period.

[Guest Ace309]

When I was about eight, right before the Wrestlemania where Flair and Savage faced off, Flair wrestled Roddy Piper in a cage match at the Niagara Falls Civic & Convention Center. I swear it was promoted as a WWF World Title match on the local-show segments. Roddy won the match, and I could swear he was announced as the new WWF Champion, but obviously nothing ever came of it.

[Guest nWoScorpion]

I dont remember what year it was (1993 I think) but WCW was stupid enough to tape 6-8 months worth of storylines at once, which meant everoyne knew who was going to win what title when just about.

 

Stupid WCW.

 

I remember readin in WWF Magazine about the Steiners/Money Inc title switches, and marked out because I don't think they aired the Steiners winning them on TV.

[Guest Ace309]

My favorite title switch of all time was Men on a Mission winning the Tag Titles from the Quebecers because Mabel fell on Jacques and Jacques was physically unable to kick out.

[Guest alfdogg]

Did WCW ever recognize Benoit's first TV Title win over Booker T in 1998?

Yes they did. When Booker beat Scott Steiner at Uncensored in 99, he held up six fingers signifying his sixth TV title. I looked in the PWI almanac and found six reigns, included in those were four different house shows when Benoit and Booker hotshotted the titles back and forth, followed the night after those by Booker jobbing it to Fit Finlay of all people.

[Guest The Hollywood Fashion Plate]

My favorite title switch of all time was Men on a Mission winning the Tag Titles from the Quebecers because Mabel fell on Jacques and Jacques was physically unable to kick out.

I didn't know the story behind that 2-day title reign. Thanks for enlightening me!

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Here's one I wonder about...

 

Why, up until recently (according to now dead site WWFTitleHistories.com) did they ignore the fact that Antonio Inoki defeated Bob Backlund for the championship?

 

Any special reason for that?

[Guest Boo_Bradley]

Cause Inoki was meaningless to the WWF after 1984

[cawthon777 0]

The only reason for the Inoki title win was to help make a name for New Japan, much as Giant Baba's NWA title win gained recognition for All Japan.

 

Back in 93, Bagwell & Scorpio held the tag titles for 20 days (albeit they continued to lose to the Nasty Boys in house shows during that time) yet their win was not televised until the day before Halloween Havoc when they dropped them back to the Nastys. I've always found that hilarious.