At WrestleMania 41, John Cena defeated Cody Rhodes for the undisputed WWE championship, winning his “record-breaking” 17th world championship. According to WWE, the previous record was held by Ric Flair, who they recognize as a 16-time champion.
Cena, who has christened himself the “Last Real Champion,” plans on retiring with the Undisputed WWE Championship — ending the great lineage of the title held by the likes of Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, and, yes, Ric Flair.
While Cena won all 16 of his world championship titles in the WWE, Flair’s success spanned multiple promotions — from the NWA, to WCW, to the then-WWF, and back to WCW.
It’s no secret to fans in the know, though, that Flair isn’t actually a 16-time world champion.
When Flair won his final world championship in WCW, on May 29, 2000, WCW recognized Flair as a 16-time world champion. So, when Flair returned to the WWF, they simply continued referring to him as a 16-time champion.
So, the obvious question is: how many world championships has Ric Flair actually won?
Deep dive
Flair himself has stated that he’s a 21-time champion. If you peruse Wikipedia, you may find as many as 25 world championships.
What’s the true number?
Ric Flair won his first NWA world heavyweight championship in 1981, when he defeated Dusty Rhodes in Kansas City.
According to the NWA, Flair’s first reign lasted 631 days. Therein lies our first conundrum.
Due to the bizarre nature of professional wrestling, the line between fact and fiction is easily blurred. During Flair’s first recognized title reign, he actually lost the title three times. The first was to the masked Midnight Rider (Dusty Rhodes) on Feb. 9, 1982. His second loss was to Jack Veneno in the Dominican Republic, on Sep. 7, 1982. He suffered his third loss to Carlos Colon in Puerto Rico, on Jan. 6, 1983.
In the case of his loss to Midnight Rider, the NWA president, Bob Geigel, overturned the decision, after the Midnight Rider refused to unmask. In the case of his losses to both Veneno and Colon, both were simply ignored, and the titles were quickly returned to Flair.
The NWA recognized Flair’s first title reign as ending on June 10, 1983, to Harley Race. Flair recaptured the title on Nov. 24, 1983, at the inaugural “Starrcade.”
While Flair’s reign is recognized by the NWA as lasting 164 days, he actually lost the title to Harley Race in New Zealand, on March 20, 1984. Flair regained the title three days later in Singapore, and held the title for another 44 days.
This marked Harley Race’s eighth and final reign as an NWA world heavyweight champion. Considering that Race is often cited as an eight-time world champion, it only seems right that we include this title change.
Flair held the title four more times, between May 24, 1984, and May 7, 1989, all of which are recognized by the NWA; defeating Kerry Von Erich, Dusty Rhodes, Ron Garvin and Ricky Steamboat.
During his fifth recognized title reign, having defeated Ron Garvin, Jim Crockett’s Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling was purchased by Ted Turner, transforming the Carolina-based promotion into World Championship Wrestling (WCW). However, the company continued to recognize the NWA world heavyweight championship as its top title.
Flair’s sixth recognized title reign ended at the “Great American Bash” on July 7, 1990, when he was defeated by Sting.
Sting held the title 188 days before Flair defeated him on Jan. 11, 1991 at a house show.
This title win marked an inflection point in WCW history.
Historically, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) was simply a governing body, composed of smaller, regional member promotions. A select few of those promoters were the ones who determined the NWA world heavyweight champion.
By 1991, WCW had become an entity unto itself, with its interests monopolizing the NWA. To create a more distinct brand, WCW began to interchangeably refer to the NWA world heavyweight championship as the WCW world heavyweight championship — while continuing to use the same famed “Big Gold Belt.”
Here lies our second issue: was Flair’s seventh recognized reign different from his first reign as the WCW world champion? Fundamentally, it was one title reign, with WCW not distinguishing between the two reigns.
Here’s where the matter is even further complicated:
On March 21, 1991, WCW co-promoted a joint show with New Japan Pro-Wrestling called “Starrcade in Tokyo Dome.” Flair faced IWGP heavyweight champion Tatsumi Fujinami. During the match, referee Bill Alfonso was left unconscious, prompting NJPW referee Tiger Hattori to finish officiating the match.
According to WCW, Fujinami was disqualified while Alfonso was unconscious. However, according to NJPW, Flair was pinned by Fujinami, and lost the NWA world heavyweight championship. While WCW didn’t acknowledge the title change, NJPW did. And, so did the NWA.
Flair and Fujinami had a rematch on May 19, 1991, at “Super Brawl I.” In America, the match was billed as Flair defending the WCW world heavyweight championship against Fujinami. In Japan, the match was billed as a unification bout, between Flair’s WCW title and Fujinami’s NWA title.
Ultimately, Flair won the match and, according to the NWA, recaptured the NWA world heavyweight championship.
On July 1, 1991, Flair was stripped of the WCW world heavyweight championship when WCW’s executive vice president, Jim Herd, terminated his contract. The NWA didn’t recognize the end of Flair’s reign until Sep. 8, 1991, when he officially signed with the WWF.
Thankfully, Flair’s run in the WWF is fairly straightforward.
Ric Flair won his first WWE championship (then known as the WWF world heavyweight championship) at the “Royal Rumble” in 1992.
He lost the title 77 days later to Randy Savage at “WrestleMania 8,” before recapturing it on Sep. 1, 1992.
When Flair left WCW in 1991, he famously took the “Big Gold Belt” with him to the WWF, which symbolized both the NWA and WCW world championships. According to Flair, the $25,000 deposit he made to win the belt was never returned to him, so he kept it as collateral.
In the meantime, WCW was in need of its own championship belt, so they commissioned a new WCW world heavyweight championship.
Eventually, WCW and Flair came to an agreement regarding the original “Big Gold Belt” in 1992 — marking its return as the NWA world heavyweight championship.
When Flair eventually returned to WCW in February 1993, it didn’t take long for Flair to return to his winning ways.
On July 18, 1993 at “Beach Blast,” Flair defeated then-NWA world heavyweight champion Barry Windham to recapture the “Big Gold Belt.” At the time, Big Van Vader was the WCW world heavyweight champion.
According to our scoreboard, this would be Flair’s 11th reign as the NWA world heavyweight champion. However, on Sep. 1, 1993, WCW finally withdrew from the NWA — forcing the company to abandon the NWA world heavyweight championship once and for all. However, WCW retained the “Big Gold Belt.”
WCW’s solution was to create a new world championship. Enter the WCW International world heavyweight championship.
WCW International was the fictitious subsidiary of WCW. For those who are familiar with NJPW, think about the International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP), which acts as NJPW’s fictitious governing body.
Like the NWA world heavyweight championship that preceded it, WCW could use the WCW International world heavyweight championship overseas as a secondary world title.
Flair was the inaugural WCW International world heavyweight champion, with his reign officially beginning when he defeated Barry Windham at “Beach Blast.”
On Sep. 13, 1993, Flair was stripped of the NWA world heavyweight championship — leaving the title vacant. However, Flair’s reign as the WCW International world heavyweight champion lasted until “Fall Brawl” on Sep. 19, 1993; when Rick Rude defeated Flair for the title.
Afterwards, Flair set his sights on the WCW world heavyweight championship, defeating Vader at “Starrcade” on Dec. 27, 1993.
Flair held the title until “Spring Stampede” on Apr. 17, 1994 — when his match against Ricky Steamboat ended in a double-pinfall. Flair was forced to vacate the title, but recaptured it several days later on “WCW Saturday Night” in a rematch against Steamboat. It’s worth noting that the WWE recognizes this as one continuous reign, as opposed to the title having been vacated after “Spring Stampede.”
At “Clash of the Champions XXVII,” Ric Flair put his WCW world heavyweight championship on the line against Sting and his WCW International world championship, in a title unification match. Flair won the match, becoming a two-time WCW International world heavyweight champion. WCW opted to move forward with the “Big Gold Belt” as their flagship title, which had previously represented the WCW International world championship.
Does Flair’s second reign as the WCW International world heavyweight championship count, if the title was dissolved immediately after he captured it? Seems dubious.
Flair’s next five reigns are fairly straightforward. From Dec. 7, 1995, to May 29, 2000, Flair defeated Randy Savage twice, “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan and Jeff Jarrett to win the WCW world heavyweight championship.
In a creative move that was entirely indicative of WCW’s quality in 2000, Flair’s last title was actually given to him by Kevin Nash on an episode of Monday “Nitro.”
What’s the final tally?
It’s difficult to gauge which championships the WWE actually recognize.
According to the WWE’s own website, Ric Flair is a seven-time WCW world heavyweight champion and a two-time WWE champion. The other seven of his supposed 16 championships are nebulous.
The problem is that some of Flair’s title reigns can be difficult to discern. So, I’ve been forced to take some liberties here.
The NWA overturned Midnight Rider’s victory over Flair, so although Wikipedia lists it as an unrecognized reign, it shouldn’t be admissible. However, his unrecognized victories against Jack Veneno, Carlos Colon and Harley Race should. The titles did technically change hands, even if they weren’t authorized by the NWA.
The WCW International world heavyweight championship is another lost piece of this puzzle. The WWE doesn’t recognize the existence of the short-lived title, so it’s largely been lost in the conversation. Flair was the first and last WCW International world heavyweight champion, which was recognized as a legitimate world championship. However, should his second reign be factored into the grand total, when the title was essentially dissolved into the WCW world heavyweight championship? I don’t think so.
So, with all of that said, here’s the grand total:
| PROMOTION | RECOGNIZED BY WWE | UNRECOGNIZED BY WWE | COMBINED |
| NWA | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| WWF | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| WCW | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| WCW International | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 16 | 7 | 23 |
There you have it. Ric Flair is a 23-time world champion.
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