Today’s “Hidden Gems” review showcases a classic matchup for the NWA World Title between champion Ric Flair against Barry Windham. It takes place in Fayetteville, North Carolina on January 20, 1987. A little unknown history about this match: It wasn’t advertised locally. This was a TV taping for Crockett Promotions’ two syndicated programs, NWA Pro and WorldWide Wrestling. The only advertised match for the card was Ric Flair vs. Brad Armstrong! Yes, really…
We open with footage from Ric Flair’s Starrcade ’85 entrance. Flair lost the NWA Title to Dusty Rhodes at Starrcade, nine days ago. To the standard open…
Tony Schiavone & David Crockett are our hosts once again this week. They let us know the big Superstation Championship Challenge Series (SCCS) will be a six-man tag: Tully Blanchard & the Andersons vs. Billy Jack Haynes, Magnum T.A. and Sam Houston. They run down all the title changes from Starrcade (five of them). David mentions the new NWA World champion when Tony cuts him off and says we’ll talk about that later on. Sounds like Dusty’s title reign is in doubt…
Thanks to Scott’s awesome Observer recaps, there has been a lot of talk on the Blog of Doom about the bewildering decision by the NWA to put the title on Ronnie Garvin in 1987. I thought a historical perspective might shed some light on the state of Jim Crockett Promotions at the time, why this was such an atrocious idea, and what the WWE should learn from it.