Today In Wrestling History 7/1: Ric Flair Fired By WCW, Ultimate Warrior Takes WWF Beef Public, More

* 29 years ago in 1986, Jim Crockett Promotions kicked off the first annual Great American Bash Tour with a show at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While the Great American Bash name was first used the previous year, it was just for a one-off show in Charlotte. For 1986, there would be a tour of large stadiums with the most loaded cards of the year that also included concerts, usually featuring name country music singers. The Bash would be supplemented by the Rock 'n' Roll Express Summer Sizzler Tour, which would hit the usual stops in the Crockett territory.

In Philly, there was a near disaster, as Commissioner James J. Binns of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission nearly shot down the show over the quantity of blood in the Indian Death Match where Wahoo McDaniel defeated Jimmy Garvin. At the time, there was speculation that Bins had ulterior motives, but the fact is that Wahoo got a piece of his blade stuck in the scare tissue in his forehead, and Binns was there to see this. The following year, when there was an effort being made to dissolve the commission (with Rick Santorum acting as the WWF's lobbyist!), Binns told the Philadelphia Inquirer that "It was I and no one else who stopped the wrestlers from cutting themselves. Some of these guys have foreheads that look like raised atlas maps."

* 24 years ago in 1991, WCW fired Ric Flair, their reigning world heavyweight champion, after they couldn't come to terms on a contract extension. WCW wanted to cut Flair's pay in half from $700,000/year to $350,000/year, and Flair was having none of that. It didn't help matters that he was set to drop the title to Lex Luger at the Great American Bash pay-per-view largely because Luger was getting $800,000/year and WCW brass, including Executive Vice President Jim Herd, felt they needed to justify the contract. Before the decision was made to fire Flair, he was asked to come to the TV tapings that night in Macon, Georgia to drop the title to Barry Windham (to transition to luger) with the idea that he wouldn't deny Windham the title reign, but they ended up firing him anyway.

A couple things ended up complicating the whole matter. First, Flair was still the NWA World Heavyweight Champion. WCW's own title had just been created at the beginning of the year (when WCW finally made the decision to use the WCW branding consistently on TV), with Flair and Sting the only champions so far. The NWA title also changed hands with each switch, though the titles were briefly separated earlier in the year with Tatsumi Fujinami officially holding the NWA title after the disputed finish with Flair at the Tokyo Dome earlier in the year. This meant that if Flair wanted to, he could go to the remaining NWA member promotions as champion with the title that everyone knew as the real title.

Flair also owned the physical belt (the iconic "big gold belt"). First of all, it had been something of a gift from Jim Crockett Jr. in the first place. Second, after Herd was named NWA President, he refused to refund Flait's deposit that the NWA World Heavyweight Champion puts down on the belt. That's how the belt ended up on WWF television...but not as the NWA title, because the WWF wasn't about to rejoin the NWA. But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

* 19 years ago in 1996, after a few days of The Ultimate Warrior no-showing scheduled WWF house show bookings, he started to take his dissatisfaction with the company public, issuing this statement on one of America Online's message boards:

Since my return at WrestleMania in March there has from day one been contractual discussion for one reason?Titan Sports has not made the finalization of my contract a priority, yet I have fulfilled all aspects of the agreement we do have. Although the rumors speculate my recent no-show at the listed venues is contractually related? the truth is my father passed away. If resolving my personal issues and protecting the way I choose to believe puts me in the WWF doghouse as stated on the money-making 1-900# line?then so be it, bow-wow and kiss my ASS.

Always Believe
- Warrior

That same day he also gave similar (though not always as...spirited) accounts to Prodigy's Bob Ryder and on his own Warrior Whereabouts 1-900 number hotline, as well as adding that he didn't appear because his father had passed away. He maintained he told everyone in the WWF that he needed to talk to. While Warrior's estranged father had in fact passed away, Warrior was already engaged in a dispute with the WWF going back before the no-shows. And had refused to give money to his sister for the funeral expenses, something he could easily afford.

At the licensing fair in New York (where companies with intellectual property to license show their stuff to anyone who might want to license it) in late June, Jim Bell, the head of licensing (who later went to jail for taking kickbacks), realized there was no Warrior presence at the WWF booth. To solve the problem, he put up some stickers that had the Warrior logo and his new "Always Believe" catchphrase that he had just trademarked a few weeks earlier. On the same day where Warrior tried to control the narrative with the internet posts and hotline update saying the no-shows were about his father's death, Warrior sent a letter to the WWF attempting to fine them $25,000 for unauthorized use of "Always Believe."

It was the beginning of the end...