This Day in Wrestling History, July 14, 1991, saw Lex Luger with his first world championship when he defeated Barry Windham in a steel cage match to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
It also marked WCW’s first event following the unexpected departure of their sitting champion, Ric Flair. Whether he quit or was fired depends on who is speaking, and it was over a contract dispute.
In fact, Flair would appear in WWE with the championship belt, the Big Gold Belt, since he was owed the deposit for the belt and he even on WWE TV with the belt.
Wasn’t Vince upset about his talent doing this years later?
Anyway, throughout the show fans chanted “We want Flair!” and it can be argued that the wrestlers’ performances were lacking in many ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCFmthaSZo4
Vacant title
With the WCW championship open, the had to pick the next champion and Luger got his chance.
Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the following excerpt.
“I was scheduled for a steel-cage match…for the final blowoff between Ric Flair and me. This title match had been years in the making.
“Unbeknownst to us, Ric was embroiled in a contentious contract battle with WCW officials. Talks continued up to the day of the match, with the WCW brass still holding out hope that they’d be able to keep Flair in their stable. Unfortunately, Ric walked. We had to go to a contingency plan. Barry Windham was stepping in as the number two contender to face me for the now vacant World Heavyweight Title.
“’If you wrestle Barry and cheat to win, you will be our heel champion. We’ve flown in former world champion Harley Race to be your manager. I’ll have Harley slide the belt under the cage at the end of the match, and I want you to use Harley’s finish — the piledriver — on Barry on top of the belt. And one more thing. At the end of the match, don’t hold the belt up. Ric took the belt with him when he left, and we didn’t have time to make a new one.’, booker Dusty Rhodes explained.
“They had slapped a makeshift belt together and wanted to be sure the ringside photographers didn’t take a picture of me holding up a phony belt. I found it all pretty humorous; after years of such a buildup, at the last moment we were all scrambling around like the Keystone Cops. Despite all the last-minute problems, the match went just as planned and I left with the title.” – Lex Luger, Wrestling With The Devil book.
There are opportunities all around us, and it’s always a great story to hear how someone is able to step in and take advantage of their opportunities, and while This Day in Wrestling History has a difficult backdrop, it was still a great moment for Lex Luger.
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