Lawler instead of Flair as NWA champ?

[tystates]

Discussion topic from a facebook group: What if Jerry Lawler was put in Ric Flair's place to start the 80s as NWA World champion?

(text from a fb group post)

Everyone knows that Ric Flair became the face of the NWA in the 1980s... but what if he wasn't? In fact, what if Jerry Jarrett had succeeded in getting his guy to become the face of the NWA.

Jerry Jarrett saw through Vince Jr almost the moment Vince bought the company from his father. He wanted NWA to expand nationally and reorganize so that they can have a tighter wrestling promotion. He also believed that his guy from CWA was the man who should be champion.

His guy, was Jerry Lawler. While Flair was being talked up, Jerry Jarrett was on the committee pushing for Lawler. Crocket of course refused. Lawler wasn't mid Atlantic, and I think Crocket preffered to have a Mid Atlantic guy as champion.

His politicking did manage to get some matches against Flair, but Jerry Lawler was never able to capture the NWA championship. The events as a whole, including some personal promos led to real heat between Flair and Lawler for a while.

How do you think things would have been different if it was Lawler, not Flair, who was the face of the NWA?

[Pete]

I just can't see Lawler lasting more than a few months on that schedule. The NWA champion schedule broke Brisco and Terry Funk--Flair was not only the ideal option for the decade of the '80s, he seemed to be the only guy who was wired to be the champion long-term.

[Justin Case]

The AWA tried to give Lawler a chance, and it would be almost as close to being an NWA champion that you could get, at the time. That didn't work, so much so that the AWA never recognized him as champion.

One could argue it didn't work because of the whole NWA politics and anger, leading to Lawler not getting along with other promotions and he being a bigger star in Memphis. Or maybe there's another reason?

I believe that Flair was easier to deal with and it showed as he worked everywhere. Promoters liked him, for the most part.

I think the right guy was chosen, even though Flair didn't handle the fame & glory as well as he could have.

[Travis605]

Nov 3, 2021 4:13:36 GMT -5 Justin Case said:

The AWA tried to give Lawler a chance, and it would be almost as close to being an NWA champion that you could get, at the time. That didn't work, so much so that the AWA never recognized him as champion.

One could argue it didn't work because of the whole NWA politics and anger, leading to Lawler not getting along with other promotions and he being a bigger star in Memphis. Or maybe there's another reason?

I believe that Flair was easier to deal with and it showed as he worked everywhere. Promoters liked him, for the most part.

I think the right guy was chosen, even though Flair didn't handle the fame & glory as well as he could have.

The AWA not “recognizing” him isn’t quite true.

At the Superclash event, where the belts (AWA and Workd Class) were unified and became the Unified World Title, Lawler said it’s no longer the AWA world title and wasn’t under direct booking orders from Verne Gagne. He now worked for any promoter like Fritz, Jarrett and even Verne.

This pissed off Verne, which caused Verne to “strip” Lawler of the AWA title, even though he was the Unified champ. Jarrett and world class, rightfully, ignored it and recognized their title as the Unified world title. So basically, it was a meaningless gesture by Verne because the belts were already unified

[Travis605]

Video of Lawler vacating the AWA and World Class belts.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4O5yVjy0cY

[Justin Case]

Yeah, it was a bad dealing, as most of the territory system was back then.

[tystates]

Lawler might have ended up a 26-time NWA world champion, letting someone in every territory at some point for a short time wear the strap.

[TTX]

He'd probably have to wait till 85 but yeah I could see it.

[Justin Case]

It's really hard to say how it would have went. At that particular time, they all were trying to catch up with McMahon. No one could agree on anything. Too much turbulence!