Challenging SCOTT STEINER's authority
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: 555 Centaur Dr.
Re: When did the WWF/E World Title surpass the NWA/WCW World Title in prestige?
When I was growing up being the WWF Champion was being THEE champion to me. I didn't really consider the NWA Champion the world champion. When it came to WCW I didn't take that title seriously until Ric Flair returned from the Fed and won it back.
I think after learning more about the history of the titles the NWA strap took a huge hit when Flair left and didn't lose the belt on the way out. So when Flair won the WWF Championship in a way he was still World Champion even though he wasn't recognized and it put the WWF title on the same wavelength because Flair hadn't lost the NWA title.
So it seems like Flair was the conduit for transferring the prestige of the NWA to WWF. Once that happened I can't really see how WCW ever had a more prestigious championship than the Fed.
When it comes to lineage I think the WCW title benefitted from the lengthy NWA affiliation so it wasn't damaged that much when Flair left because it still had 50+ years of relevance.