Paid Members gmoney Posted March 24, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 24, 2021 It's not really the same title, and I'm pretty sure they never announced it as such. The only place I can see them talked about as one title is Wikipedia. This is from the Observer at the time the old belt was sent back to WWF. Quote The most ambitious attempt in recent wrestling history to create something close to a unified champion, the J Crown, has now fallen by the wayside with the announcement by New Japan Pro Wresting on 11/5 that they were going to return six of the seven J Crown title belts held by Shinjiro Otani and would retain only the company's traditional IWGP junior heavyweight title belt. The decision was eventually going to happen at some point as when all the belts were unified at the G-1 Climax tournament in August of 1996, the promise was made that eventually New Japan would return the belts to their original promotion. Thus far, the only one of the original eight belts that was returned was the WAR International junior heavyweight title which Jushin Liger, when he held the J Crown, returned earlier this year to WAR in losing to Yuji Yasuraoka on a WAR show. The timing of it came largely due to the World Wrestling Federation publicizing in Japan that the WWF light heavyweight title, which was one of the seven belts, was not recognized by the promotion since it was creating its own title with the same name. With the WWF wanting both its light heavyweight and junior heavyweight (a title not part of the J Crown and one that hasn't been recognized in Japan for a decade) belt back, New Japan decided to return the titles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The King Of Swing Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 Another interesting scenario is champions dropping their title at tapings but continuing to defend it on the house show circuit, until the switch aired. I want to say that it happened with Tito Santana and Ricky Steamboat's IC title reigns in 86 and 87 but might be wrong. Wasn't there also a mental situation in WCW surrounding the tag titles? Something like a second title change being recorded before the first had even taken place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 29 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said: Another interesting scenario is champions dropping their title at tapings but continuing to defend it on the house show circuit, until the switch aired. I want to say that it happened with Tito Santana and Ricky Steamboat's IC title reigns in 86 and 87 but might be wrong. Wasn't there also a mental situation in WCW surrounding the tag titles? Something like a second title change being recorded before the first had even taken place. Involved The Nasty Boys didn’t it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted March 24, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 24, 2021 Freebirds I think, though it probably happened more than once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 24, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 24, 2021 31 minutes ago, gmoney said: It's not really the same title, and I'm pretty sure they never announced it as such. The only place I can see them talked about as one title is Wikipedia. That's fair, but either way, because it's a title they did set up, they basically rendered everyone who'd won it phantom champions, either as previous holders of the belt TAKA won, or as holders of a previously-existing belt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted March 24, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 24, 2021 The Luger deal in 1994 was in an era where they used to tape three weeks of the weekend TV at a time and have a week or two of lag (so they didn't tape an episode and get it to air that same week). That often meant the first episodes of Superstars and Challenge after a PPV had been taped weeks beforehand, so they often had to find a way round who held the belt. IIRC, they did a similar deal with Warrior in SummerSlam 89 where he "won" the title from Rude early in a taping, defended it against a jobber in a match taped for TV, then Tunney announced the title victory had been overturned. Similar thing with the "Kane the Undertaker" matches recorded before his Survivor Series 90 debut but aired afterwards (and they sloppily didn't edit it to the new name.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 24, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 24, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, The King Of Swing said: Wasn't there also a mental situation in WCW surrounding the tag titles? Something like a second title change being recorded before the first had even taken place. 35 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said: Involved The Nasty Boys didn’t it? 33 minutes ago, gmoney said: Freebirds I think, though it probably happened more than once. The Freebirds lost the belts to the Steiners on a TV taping six days before they won them from Doom on a PPV. They reigned for -6 days. The Nasty Boys confusion probably comes from the notorious run in 1993 where they filmed shows a ludicrous amount in advance and over the course of four days in July numerous different holders of titles were filmed, including the Nasty Boys wearing the belts that they wouldn’t win from The Horsemen until September.... while the actual tag champs were still The Hollywood Blonds. As well as showing Flair and Rude both wearing the NWA/“big gold” belt, Steven Regal as TV champion etc, and some ringside interviews including such nonsense as The Blonds discussing their quest to regain tag belts they hadn’t lost yet, and Smithers telling Regal he’ll beat him for the TV title at Halloween Havoc, despite the champion in reality and on TV that had aired being Mr Wonderful. Heads were probably spinning that week, and not just from Space Mountain. Edited March 24, 2021 by air_raid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronSheik Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 9 hours ago, theringmaster said: It was done the same night, he got the belt celebrated with it and then a second referee came out and the match got restarted Holy fuck, you learn something new every day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Impact Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 7 hours ago, MEGABUCKS said: I remember at one of the house shows in the UK sometime in 2004, Shelton Benjamin beat Randy Orton for the IC title. I think they then either restarted the match or the decision was reversed I saw this at the Birmingham NEC I'm sure, we lost our shit at first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 23 minutes ago, Mark Impact said: I saw this at the Birmingham NEC I'm sure, we lost our shit at first. Yeah I was at that. Was it the one where HBK and Flair had a match and Flair got his arse out for some of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Impact Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 2 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said: Yeah I was at that. Was it the one where HBK and Flair had a match and Flair got his arse out for some of it? Yeah that was it, HHH v Benoit was the main. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members unfitfinlay Posted March 24, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 24, 2021 Another weird quirk about the Nasty Boys thing was that some of their pre-taped promos were with the NWA Tag belts, not the WCW ones. The Blondes held both when the promos were filmed, and Knobbs and Sags had obviously just picked up a pair at random. Of course then WCW left the NWA before the promos aired. So not only were they doing promos as Champions before they won the titles. They were doing it with belts that they never ever won. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 24, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 24, 2021 One thing I often forget about the NWA split is that the Alliance were pissed off not because WCW made Rick Rude win the belt without getting their blessing first, but that they did those tapings showing him as champion before seeking their blessing. But hey, good for the NWA. Who needs Ric Flair fighting for your world title on PPV when you can have Dan Severn in front of fifty people in Bumfuck, MS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshC Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 Think Kerry made some shots as IC champ in 1990 after he'd already dropped it back to Mr. Perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The King Of Swing Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 Pro wrestling title histories have always fascinated me. Remember hearing about the following incident years ago and decided to see if footage exists. And it does. WWF title held up following an odd finish in a 1981 match between Bob Backlund and Greg Valentine. Seemed like Backlund was a bit of a title reign shenanigan magnet. I believe Backlund beat Valentine in a rematch to "reclaim" the title and like with Inoki in 79 his reign wasn't officially interrupted. Apologies is already mentioned, the Backlund/Inoki matches are actually on njpwworld. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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