On May 6, 1984 at the David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions Kerry Von Erich pinned "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in-front of 32,000 people at Texas Stadium to capture the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
David had unexpectedly died just three months prior in Japan at only 25 years old. Many believed that David would one day win the world championship and that Kerry was given then honor as tribute to David.
I was just 5 years old when Kerry won the title, but when I got older I watched this match and from what I understood after Von Erich won the championship he lost it back to flair a few days later. Similar to Ronnie Garvin I never knew that Kerry defended the title, but he did.
From what I could find during his eighteen day reign he defended the title thirteen times in three different territories against six different opponents.
WCCW: World Class Championship Wrestling
CWF: Championship Wrestling from Florida
AJPW: All Japan Pro Wrestling
May 7, 1984 WCCW Fort Worth, Texas
defeated Terry Gordy
May 8, 1984 WCCW Muskogee, Oklahoma
defeated Terry Gordy
May 11, 1984 WCCW Sportatorium
defeated "Nature Boy" Ric Flair
I think this match is special because the Sportatorium in Dalls was the center on the Von Erich wrestling universe and for Kerry step into the ring as the NWA Champion. You can find this match on the WWE network in the vault section on the May 26, 1984 episode of World Class Championship Wrestling.
May 12, 1984 WCCW San Antonio, Texas
defeated "Nature Boy" Ric Flair
May 13, 1984 CWF Ocala, Florida
wrestled Mike Rotundo to a draw
May 13, 1984 CWF Orlando, Florida
defeated Billy Graham
May 14, 1984 CWF West Palm Beach, Florida
defeated Ron Bass by disqualification
May 14, 1984 CWF Fort Myers, Florida
defeated Billy Graham
May 16, 1984 CWF Miami, Florida
defeated Billy Graham by disqualification
May 18, 1984 CWF Lake City, Florida
defeated Billy Graham
May 19, 1984 CWF Tampa, Florida
defeated Ron Bass by disqualification
May 22, 1984 AJPW Tokyo, Japan
wrestled Jumbo Tsuruta in a 2 of 3 falls match to a draw at one fall each
You can find this match on you tube and it's a pretty high quality.
May 14, 1984 AJPW Kanagawa, Japan
defeated by "Nature Boy" Ric Flair 2 falls to 1 to win the Championship
Thank you to Cage Match for the results and full credit to the photographers who took the photos.
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Wrestlers in those days worked ridiculous schedules... Ric Flair lived and breathed that life. Every promo..."Jet Flying, Limousine Ridin.."
ReplyDeleteListen to some of the podcasts by Jim Cornette to see just how grueling the NWA travel was in the 80's.
I was recently looking at NWA Title defenses by year on Cagematch and in the early 80's Flair had over 200 every year. Just crazy!
ReplyDeleteFlair saying kerry missed his 1st defense is dishonest
ReplyDeleteOr it’s true
DeleteIt is a shame that there are no copies of any of the Kerry vs Billy Graham matches. That would have been fun to watch. Lost forever I suppose.
ReplyDeleteLake City is my home town never knew Superstar and Kerry wrestled here it would've been a small show Lake City wasn't very big in 1984 lol.
ReplyDeleteSo many matches that ended without a clear victory unfortunately
ReplyDeleteI think that the date that Flair regained the belt is wrong.
ReplyDelete