NWA Title in WCW ’92-93

Scott,

What was the deal with Bill Watts bringing back the NWA Title to WCW, and then having a guy from Japan like Chono win in in 1992? Did WCW have any say on who won the tournament? When Windham won the title from Muta at Superbrawl III, did he know at the time that he was going to drop it to Flair? It seemed that angle was planned from the start.

Also why did the NWA pull away from the Big Gold Belt when Rick Rude won the title from Flair at Fall Brawl ’93? Why didn’t they approve of Rude as champion, since he was one of the best guys around at that time?

​WCW had very little say in the initial title change, as it was mostly New Japan’s call and thus you got Chono. It wasn’t until they got the belt on Flair that WCW basically gained control of booking the belt, and yes the plan was to get it on Flair all along. Both WCW and the NWA wanted Flair as the champion. It wasn’t that they disapproved of Rude as such, it was that they REALLY wanted Flair as the champion and WCW seemingly wanted to prove who was really in control. It was a giant mess all around and everyone basically acted like children. By the time of the controversy in 93, the NWA was falling to pieces anyway. There’s a whole fascinating recounting of the story in Tim Hornbaker’s book about the NWA and no one comes off looking particularly good.​