Today In Wrestling History 8/3: Ric Flair Sued, WWF Mixing With Other Promotions In 19855, & More
* 30 years ago in 1985, Polynesian Pacific Pro Wrestling held the famous Hot Summer Night Card at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii, which drew 12,553 fans. The Hawaii territory is pretty fascinating historically. In its '60s heydey, you had a mix of the big local names like King Curtis Iaukea and "Handsome" Johnny Barend, wrestlers who would make less money to live in Hawaii for months, and talent on the way to or from tours of Japan and Australia. This meant they had super loaded shows, tons of great interviews, etc.
In 1985, it was different. There was no full-time territory. Ed Francis had sold it years earlier to Peter Maivia, and his wife Lia took it over when he died. When they ran shows, it was usually a mix of subpar local talent, Japanese names, and yes, guys going to or returning from a Japanese tour. Interesting, but not usually much to write home about. This show, however, was different.
On one card in the middle of a wrestling war, you had wrestlers from the WWF, NJPW, Jim Crockett Promotions, Championship Wrestling from Florida, and more. One match even mixed talent from non-friendly promotions (WWF and NJPW were still working together), as Andre the Giant (WWF), Angelo Mosca (Crockett's local promoter in Toronto), & Steve Collins (PPPW) defeated King Kong Bundy (WWF), Mark Lewin (CWF), & Kevin Sullivan (CWF). This type of thing didn't exactly happen often.
* 19 years ago in 1996, NJPW held the second day of that year's G1 Climax tour at Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo. In addition to the namesake tournament, the first round of the J-Crown tournament to unify eight junior heavyweight titles concluded on the undercard.
First, UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Champion Shinjiro Ohtani dethroned NWA World Welterweight Champion Negro Casas to unify their titles and move on to face Ultimo Dragon in the semifinals. The UWA closed in 1995, so then-champion Gran Hamada took the title to NJPW as a secondary junior heavyweight title, while Casas's NWA belt was a long-standing top title in Mexico. Casas was always one of the best luchadores at adjusting to the Japanese style (well, he was and still is one of the best luchadores in general, so it's only natural), while Ohtani was approaching his peak as a great junior heavyweight wrestler, so this was really good. Either this or Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Ultimo Dragon Dragon was the best match of the first round depending on personal preference.
The other first round match saw WWF Light Heavyweight Champion El Samurai defeat WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Champion Gran Hamada. Yes, that WWF. The title was created in 1981 when the WWF, UWA, and NJPW had a close relationship, primarily as a belt for Perro Aguayo to hold. Later, Villano III dominated the title after the WWF pulled out. In 1995, Aero Flash was the last champion when the UWA closed, and he took the title to Japan, losing it to The Great Sasuke, who lost it to Samurai. The WWA here is the Tijuana-based WWA. This was a very good match, but the best was yet to come in the tournament.
* 5 years ago in 2010, Highspots sued Ric Flair over having not repaid loans in full. Essentially, what Highspots would do is loan Flair money and then use an appearance they'd have booked anyway to get the money back. They'd also book appearances to other promoters and collect the fee instead of it going to Flair. In the middle of all this, Highspots took possession of Flair's "domed globe" NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt, which he was given as a gift when the famous "Big Gold Belt" was commissioned in 1986.Highspots said it was as collateral, Flair's side said it was just to be responsible for taking it to Flair's appearance.
Eventually, Flair stopped doing appearances for Highspots before the loan had been repaid, and he wasn't paying Highspots cash, either. Highspots announced that they were selling the belt, which was expected by collectors to fetch at least $75,000. That stalled out when it turned out Flair had offered up the belt and other collectibles as collateral for a loan from a plumbing and heating valve company first. Flair's side claimed it wasn't an actual loan, just a way to protect the items during his divorce, as his wife had sold at least one of his ring robes to a fan without his permission.
They settled in April 2011, Then Flair didn't pay, and was held in contempt of court. The settlement was paid before Flair would have had to go to jail.It wasn't exactly clear where the money came from, but the blt was in WWE's posession for Fan Axxess 2012 and now sits in Paul Levesque's office. It's never actually been determined if WWE fronted the money for Flair or if there were other transactions that led to paying the settlement money and the eventual sale of the belt to WWE.