The Brain Busters was the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) name for the professional wrestling tag team of Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard . Anderson and Blanchard adopted this name after joining the WWF in 1988 after leaving Jim Crockett Promotions , where the two men had wrestled as part of The Four Horsemen stable and had won the NWA World Tag Team Championship twice. As a team, Anderson and Blanchard are regarded by WWE as three-time world tag team champions, having won the WWF Tag Team Championship during their time in the WWF.
150-840: Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard were founding members of the Four Horsemen, and often teamed up for six and eight man tag team matches with Ric Flair and Ole Anderson . Blanchard was the number two heel in the NWA, behind only NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair , winning the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship , the NWA National Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Television Championship . Meanwhile, Anderson
300-740: A Wrestle Association R event in Yokohama , Japan; the match ended in a draw. Flair's second reign ended when he lost the title to Bret Hart on October 12 at a house show . Flair teamed with Razor Ramon to take on Savage and Perfect at the Survivor Series in November 1992. Flair appeared in the Royal Rumble in January 1993, then lost a Loser Leaves the WWF match to Mr. Perfect on
450-762: A custom championship belt was created for Flair. Flair lost the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in Detroit to Ron Garvin on September 25, 1987. Garvin held the title for two months before losing to Flair on November 26, 1987, at WCW's first pay-per-view event, Starrcade , in Chicago. In early 1988, Sting and Flair fought to a 45-minute time-limit draw at the first ever Clash of the Champions . On February 20, 1989, at Chi-Town Rumble in Chicago, Ricky Steamboat pinned Flair to win
600-597: A figure four leglock at Slamboree 1995 . On April 29, 1995, Flair wrestled Antonio Inoki in front of 190,000 spectators in Pyongyang , North Korea at the May Day Stadium in a losing effort under a joint show between New Japan Pro-Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling . The event was broadcast on August 4, 1995, on pay-per-view under the title of Collision in Korea . In the fall of 1995, Flair began
750-430: A multichannel television platform using their electronic program guide , an automated telephone system, or through a live customer service representative . There has been an increasing number of pay-per-views distributed via streaming video online, either alongside or in lieu of carriage through television providers. In 2012, the popular video sharing platform YouTube began to allow partners to host live PPV events on
900-588: A no disqualification match to win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship on December 26. The following day, Flair lost the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship to Wahoo McDaniel in a no disqualification match. In the midst of his tag team championship reign, Flair defeated Rufus R. Jones to win his second Mid-Atlantic Television Championship on April 4, 1977. On May 8, Flair and Valentine lost
1050-561: A triple threat match that also involved Kane ), with the help of the other members of Evolution. In January 2004 at the Royal Rumble , Flair and Batista successfully defended the World Tag Team Championship against the Dudley Boyz in a tables match , and World Heavyweight Champion Triple H fought Shawn Michaels to no contest in a Last Man Standing match , thus retaining the championship. Flair and Batista lost
1200-468: A "cousin" ) in attacks against Dusty Rhodes, Magnum T.A. and Sam Houston . A few weeks later, the Andersons interrupted Houston's match against Tully Blanchard and the three villains combined to rough up the youngster. Shortly thereafter, Flair, Blanchard and the Andersons formalized their alliance, calling themselves The Four Horsemen , with Blanchard's manager J. J. Dillon also coming on board. Upon
1350-852: A 10-minute draw while adopting the ring name Ric Flair. During his time in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), Flair had matches with Dusty Rhodes , Chris Taylor , André the Giant , Larry Hennig and Wahoo McDaniel . Flair made his first appearances in Japan in 1973 with International Wrestling Enterprise (IWE) as part of a working agreement between the IWE and AWA promoter Verne Gagne. He competed in IWE's "Big Summer Series" throughout June and July, facing opponents such as Animal Hamaguchi , Great Kusatsu, Katsuzo Matsumoto, Mighty Inoue, and Rusher Kimura . In 1974, Flair left
1500-550: A PPV service for its ExpressVu television provider known as Vu! in 1999. Home Theatre was later acquired by Shaw Communications ; after gaining permission to operate nationally, it re-branded as a white-label PPV known internally as Shaw PPV in December 2007. In 2014, due to Bell Media 's majority ownership of Viewers Choice because of its acquisition of Astral, and because both Bell and Rogers now ran their own in-house PPV operations (Vu! and Sportsnet PPV ), Viewers Choice
1650-417: A cap on what we can make. But the promoters and fighters insist on pay-per-view because that's where their greatest profits lie." "It's a big problem," Greenburg continues. "It's getting harder and harder to put fighters like Manny Pacquiao on HBO World Championship Boxing. If Floyd Mayweather beats Oscar, he might never fight on HBO World Championship Boxing again. But if HBO stopped doing pay-per-view,
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#17327809771251800-649: A career spanning over 50 years in 6 decades. He is noted for his tenures with Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE ) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Much of his career was spent in JCP and WCW, in which he won numerous titles. Since the mid-1970s, he has used the moniker "the Nature Boy". A major pay-per-view attraction throughout his career, Flair headlined
1950-937: A daughter who died shortly after. At the time of his adoption (arranged by the Tennessee Children's Home Society as part of Georgia Tann 's infant trafficking scandal) his adoptive father was completing a residency in obstetrics and gynecology in Detroit, Michigan . His adoptive mother worked for the Star Tribune . Shortly afterward, the family settled in Edina, Minnesota , where the young Fliehr lived throughout his childhood. After ninth grade, he attended Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin for four years, where he participated in wrestling , football , and track . After high school, Fliehr briefly attended
2100-806: A few months off afterwards before returning to WCW television in January 1995 for an interview at Clash of the Champions XXX . After attacking Hogan at Superbrawl V , Flair also began appearing as a part-time manager for Vader , who was engaged in feud with Hogan, and developed a short-lived angle where he was "possessed", even attacking his old WWF opponent Randy Savage at the first Uncensored . He soon afterwards returned to wrestling (explained on-air by having Flair nag Hogan for months until Hogan and Savage both petitioned WCW management to let Flair come back). Upon returning to wrestling, Flair quickly revived his 1992 feud with Savage, but this time also got Savage's father Angelo Poffo involved after he put him in
2250-592: A finishing move. The Brain Busters made their pay-per-view (PPV) debut at the 1988 Survivor Series in the 10 team tag match, where they eliminated the Hart Foundation , before being eliminated via double disqualification with the Rockers . This led to a match with the Rockers on WWF Superstars of Wrestling where both teams were again disqualified before the match could even get started. This kicked off
2400-713: A five-match series under Marquess of Queensberry Rules , which aired on WCW Worldwide between April 30 and May 28, in which Flair won the series, with 2 wins, 1 loss, and 2 draws. In June 1994 at Clash of the Champions XXVII , Flair defeated Sting in a unification match, merging the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and solidifying his heel turn after his alliance with Sherri
2550-471: A gross revenue of $ 222 million. In October 2016, it was reported that 42% of the UFC's "content revenue" in 2015 came from pay-per-view buys, followed by U.S. and international media rights. In 2018, UFC 229 would pull an all-time record for the promotion, with estimates indicating that the event attracted nearly 2.4 million buys, breaking the 1.65 million buy record set by UFC 202 . In March 2019, as part of
2700-401: A joint venture of Astral Media , Rogers Communications , and TSN . Western International Communications operated a separate service in the west initially known as Home Theatre; it was later rebranded as Viewers Choice under license. Viewers Choice Canada was a partner in a French-language PPV service known as Canal Indigo , which is now entirely owned by Videotron . Bell Canada launched
2850-485: A larger contract with ESPN for media rights in the United States, it was announced that future UFC pay-per-views will only be sold to subscribers of the network's streaming service ESPN+ . Professional wrestling has a long history of running pay-per-view events. WWE (then WWF) launched its first pay-per-view event in 1985 with its annual flagship event WrestleMania and has run numerous others throughout
3000-464: A match at Starrcade between Bischoff and Flair in December 1998, which Bischoff won after interference from Curt Hennig, a former member of the Four Horsemen. The following night in Baltimore on Nitro , Flair returned and threatened to leave WCW, demanding a match against Bischoff for the presidency of the company. The match was made, and despite the nWo interfering on Bischoff's behalf Flair won and
3150-462: A match at the Royal Rumble on January 20, 2002 in a Street Fight , where Flair defeated McMahon. Flair also wrestled The Undertaker at WrestleMania X8 on March 17 where Flair lost. The "co-owner" angle culminated in early 2002, when Flair controlled Raw and McMahon controlled SmackDown! On the May 13 episode of Raw , Flair challenged Hollywood Hulk Hogan to a no disqualification match for
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#17327809771253300-857: A red hot series of house show matches. One match in particular on January 23, 1989 at Madison Square Garden was rated as one of the 50 greatest matches in the Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 10th anniversary issue, where the Brain Busters narrowly defeated the Rockers as Anderson held down Marty Jannetty's leg as Blanchard pinned him. The teams wrestled to a double countout on the March 11, 1989 Saturday Night's Main Event XX . The Brain Busters made their first and only WrestleMania appearance at WrestleMania V against former WWF Tag Team Champions Strike Force . After an even start,
3450-544: A return to the WWF on November 19, 2001. Flair reappeared on Raw following the end of the " WCW/ECW Invasion " that culminated in a "Winner Take All" match at Survivor Series on November 18 won by the WWF. Flair's new on-screen role was that of the co-owner of the WWF, with the explanation that Shane and Stephanie McMahon had sold their stock in the company to a consortium (namely Flair) prior to purchasing World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). Flair's feud with Vince McMahon led them to
3600-473: A rigorous physical therapy schedule, however, and he returned to the ring just three months later, where he resumed his feud with Wahoo McDaniel over the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship in January 1976. The crash did force Flair to alter his wrestling technique away from the power brawling style he had used early on to one more focused on grappling, which led him to adopt the "Nature Boy" gimmick he would use throughout his career. Flair would ultimately lose
3750-585: A short feud with Arn Anderson, which culminated in a tag match that saw Flair turning on Sting to reform the new Four Horsemen with Flair as the leader, Arn Anderson, Brian Pillman, and Chris Benoit as the members. With the new Four Horsemen, Flair won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship two more times before the nWo invasion storyline began in WCW, with the first one being in December 1995 at Starrcade , where Flair defeated Lex Luger and Sting by countout and then defeated Savage after all three Four Horsemen members ran to
3900-546: A singles match, then lost to Tenryu in a two-out-of-three falls match . Flair triumphantly returned to WCW as a hero in February 1993. As a result of a "no-compete" clause he was initially unable to wrestle, so he hosted a short-lived talk show in WCW called A Flair for the Gold . Arn Anderson usually appeared at the bar on the show's set, and Flair's maid Fifi cleaned or bore gifts. Once he returned to action, Flair briefly held
4050-532: A stable of followers which included Roddy Piper , Arn Anderson and the Jersey Triad to keep things in order. Flair's reign as president came to an end on the July 19 episode of Nitro , when he faced and lost to Sting for the position. During the course of the match, Sting had Flair in his Scorpion Death Lock, but with the referee knocked unconscious, no decision could be reached. A returning Eric Bischoff came to
4200-589: A steel cage match to win his third United States Heavyweight Championship on April 1, 1979. During this time, Flair began feuding with the original "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers , due to Flair referring to himself as "The Nature Boy". The rivalry concluded in a match between the two at Battle of the Nature Boys on July 8, in which Flair defended the United States Heavyweight Championship against Rogers. Rogers put Flair over in
4350-953: A streaming service. Per nations with Pay-Per-View or PPV system in South América: In Argentina , Torneos y Competencias is a producer and sports events organization that are broadcasts live main matches of Argentine Soccer in four categories on TyC Sports , TyC Max (six channels), TyC Sports 2, TyC Sports 4 and TyC Sports 5. In Brazil , in the soccer main matches of Serie A (Six games per matchday) and Serie B (Four games per matchday) in two categories of Brazilian Soccer are broadcast live on Premiere FC and SporTV . The Serie C Championship are broadcast live on SporTV with two games per matchday in Pay TV. In other sports are broadcast live on NBB TV (Exclusive channel of Brazilian Basketball League in Premium system). In Chile ,
4500-413: A success that Viacom themed its annual report for that year around it. Viacom marketing director Pat Thompson put together the fight, and subsequently put together additional PPV fights, wrestling matches, and even a televised Broadway play. After leaving Viacom, Thompson became head of Sports View and produced the first pay-per-view football game on October 16, 1983: a college football game between
4650-570: A television broadcast signal. The field tests conducted for Phonevision lasted for 90 days and were tested in Chicago , Illinois . The system used IBM punch cards to descramble a signal broadcast during the broadcast station's " off-time ". Both systems showed promise, but the Federal Communications Commission denied them the permits to operate. Telemeter , an experimental coin-operated pay-per-view service, had
Brain Busters - Misplaced Pages Continue
4800-465: A time limit draw), and when the PPV payouts were given out, it was discovered that Dillon who was their manager received 3 times the payout of the 2-time World Tag Team Champions. This was the last straw for Blanchard, who saw this as an insult and immediately prepared to give his notice. Meanwhile, on camera, the champions had begun a feud with NWA United States Tag Team champions The Midnight Express , with
4950-677: A trial run in Los Angeles in 1952 and Palm Springs, California from 1953 to 1954, featuring first-run movies and live sporting events, until a lawsuit from a local drive-in and other issues forced it to shut down. The service then set up an experimental run in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke , Canada in 1959, free from American antitrust laws and outside of the FCC 's juridiction. Programming initially consisted essentially of first-run movies and fictional series. In 1961, Telemeter signed deals with
5100-794: Is broadcasting martial arts events organized by the world's most prominent fighting organizations, such as the UFC , K-1 , HBO Boxing , Dream, Glory WS, World Series of Boxing etc. and its pay-per-view service covers the Balkans region. Sky Deutschland , accessible in Germany, Austria and partially in Switzerland, provided nine PPV-Channels called "Sky Select", where their regular Pay-TV customers can see movies or various sports events such as boxing or soccer. As of 1. October 2020 only sport and wrestling events remained on PPV as movies were changed towards
5250-408: The American Wrestling Association (AWA). Ric Flair Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Richard Morgan Fliehr (born February 25, 1949), known professionally as Ric Flair , is an American professional wrestler . Regarded by multiple peers and journalists as the greatest professional wrestler of all time, Flair has had
5400-612: The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom , which prevented any attendance of the matches). However, the matches proved unpopular, with team supporters' groups urging fans to make donations to charity instead, and the Premier League announcing that it would allocate the extra matches among its existing rightsholders (TNT and Sky, as well as Amazon Prime Video and BBC Sport , with some on free-to-air TV) through at least
5550-882: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a double title match on the WCW/New Japan Supershow at the Tokyo Dome . Fujinami beat Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but later lost the title at WCW's SuperBrawl I on May 19, 1991, in the United States. In August 1995, while under WCW contract, Flair participated in the G1 Climax tournament in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he beat Shiro Koshinaka , drew Masahiro Chono , and lost to Keiji Mutoh. On July 17, 1996, Flair challenged Shinya Hashimoto for
5700-662: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship in All Japan against the likes of Genichiro Tenryu , Riki Choshu , Jumbo Tsuruta , Harley Race , and Kerry Von Erich . On October 21, 1985, Flair wrestled Rick Martel in a double title match where he defended the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and challenged for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship , but the match ended in a double countout. As All Japan withdrew from
5850-603: The NWA World Tag Team Championship . On October 20, Flair lost the United States Heavyweight Championship to Ricky Steamboat. On March 30, 1978, Flair and Valentine were stripped of the World Tag Team Championship by NWA management due to continuously ending their matches via disqualification. On April 9, Flair defeated Mr. Wrestling in a title versus hair match to capture his second United States Heavyweight Championship. On October 30, Flair and John Studd defeated Paul Jones and Ricky Steamboat to win
6000-511: The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in the late 1980s, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) began a working agreement with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). In 1989, the working agreement led to a feud between Flair and Keiji Mutoh , who was wrestling under The Great Muta gimmick , in the United States for WCW. On March 21, 1991, Flair defended the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and challenged Tatsumi Fujinami for
6150-583: The Toronto Argonauts football team and the Toronto Maple Leafs to broadcast away games; wrestling was also featured. Some original programming, such as a 1962 Bob Newhart stand-up comedy special, thought to be the first filmed pay-per-view television special were produced at Telemeter's Bloor Street studio and several Broadway shows and an opera performance were also broadcast. At its peak, 5,800 households were subscribed but
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6300-537: The Undisputed WWE Championship . Flair would later lose the contest before moving onto a rivalry with Stone Cold Steve Austin . At Judgment Day on May 19, Flair teamed with Big Show and lost to Austin in a two-on-one handicap tag team match. On the June 3 episode of Raw , the feud between Flair and Austin would escalate after Austin defeated Flair in a singles contest. After Austin abruptly left
6450-544: The University of Minnesota . A successful amateur wrestler in his teens, Flair trained as a professional wrestler with Verne Gagne . He attended Gagne's first wrestling camp with Greg Gagne , "Jumpin ' " Jim Brunzell , The Iron Sheik and Ken Patera at Gagne's barn outside Minneapolis in the winter of 1971. On December 10, 1972, he made his debut in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, battling George "Scrap Iron" Gadaski to
6600-469: The University of Tennessee and the University of Alabama from Birmingham , Alabama . Sports View played a role in building pay-per-view networks, and became the early pioneer in developing TigerVision for Louisiana State University , TideVision for Alabama and UT Vol Seat for Tennessee. Sports View also produced the Ohio State - Michigan football game for pay-per-view in November 1983. In 1985,
6750-864: The WCW United States Heavyweight Championship and WCW World Tag Team Championship . He then completed WWE's version of the Triple Crown when he won the WWE Intercontinental Championship , after already holding the WWF Championship and the World Tag Team Championship . Fliehr was born on February 25, 1949, in Memphis, Tennessee . His original parents were Luther and Olive Phillips, the latter of whom
6900-507: The WWF Championship that same night. WCW sued Flair in an attempt to reclaim the championship belt, but Flair claimed otherwise due to a loophole in NWA policy; at the time he first became champion, the NWA required all of the wrestlers that it selected to be world champion to put down a security deposit of $ 25,000, which, in effect, resulted in the belt being leased to any wrestler who held it. The NWA, in usual cases, would return
7050-684: The class of 2008 for his individual career and again with the class of 2012 as a member of The Four Horsemen , he is also a member of the NWA Hall of Fame , the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame . Flair is officially recognized by WWE as a 16-time world champion ( 8-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion , 6-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion , and two-time WWF Champion ), although
7200-421: The domain name payperview.com, which redirects to the WWE Network website. With the rise of direct broadcast satellite services in the 1990s, this meant more services exclusively for DBS users appeared. DirecTV had Direct Ticket (which, in addition to movies and special events, also included PPV sports packages, most notably NFL Sunday Ticket ), while Dish Network had Dish On Demand . PrimeStar , on
7350-510: The 1960s and 1970s, with " The Rumble in the Jungle " fight drawing 50 million buys worldwide in 1974, and the " Thrilla in Manila " drawing 100 million buys worldwide in 1975. Closed-circuit television was gradually replaced by pay-per-view home television in the 1980s and 1990s. The Zenith Phonevision system became the first home pay-per-view system to be tested in the United States. Developed in 1951, it used telephone lines to take and receive orders, as well as to descramble
7500-498: The 325,000–450,000 range. Pay-per-view fights in that range almost always generate more money for the promoter and fighters than HBO wants to pay for an HBO World Championship Boxing license-fee. In May 2007, the junior middleweight boxing match between Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. on HBO PPV became the biggest-selling non-heavyweight title fight, with a little more than 2.5 million buyers. The fight itself generated roughly $ 139 million in domestic PPV revenue, making it
7650-507: The AWA for Jim Crockett 's Mid-Atlantic region in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), debuting on May 13, 1974, by defeating Abe Jacobs . Shortly after his debut, Flair won his first championship in the promotion, by teaming with Rip Hawk to defeat Bob Bruggers and Paul Jones to win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship . After a lengthy title reign, Flair and Hawk lost the titles to Paul Jones and Tiger Conway Jr. on December 6. Brute Bernard substituted for an inactive Hawk during
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#17327809771257800-428: The Brain Busters dominated the ex-champions as Rick Martel walked out on Tito Santana and he was brutalized and beaten after a spike piledriver and eventually pinned. After their WrestleMania win, the Brain Busters finally got to face the WWF World Tag Team Champions Demolition and defeated them by disqualification on the May 27, 1989 Saturday Night's Main Event XXI . The Brain Busters defeated Demolition for
7950-437: The Champions I live on TBS and the challengers upset the Horsemen, when heel miscommunication caused Anderson to get hit by a chair from Horsemen manager J. J. Dillon , and pinned by Luger. Arn and Tully regained the titles less than a month later on April 20, 1988 when Barry Windham turned on his tag-team partner and joined the Four Horsemen. The duo would mainly defend the titles against various combinations of teams between
8100-479: The February 20 episode of Raw , Flair lost the Intercontinental Championship to Shelton Benjamin , thus ending his reign at 155 days. Flair took some time off in mid-2006 to rest and marry for the third time and he returned in June to work a program with his real-life rival Mick Foley that played off their legitimate past animosity. Flair defeated Foley at Vengeance in a two out of three falls match , then at SummerSlam in an "I quit" match . Subsequently, he
8250-442: The February 7, 2005 episode of Raw , broadcast from the Saitama Super Arena in Japan, Flair lost to Shawn Michaels in a singles match. In February 2008, Flair wrestled Mr. Kennedy in the Ariake Coliseum and William Regal in the Budokan Hall , both under the stipulation that he would retire if he lost. In September 2002 at Unforgiven , Triple H defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Rob Van Dam . During
8400-402: The Heenan Family ). It was commonplace for the WWF at this time to assign wrestlers to some sort of gimmick, or new identity. Aside from the Brain Busters team name, Anderson and Blanchard were allowed to keep their names and ring persona. The only changes Arn and Tully made to their style were pointing to their heads to show they were smarter than everyone else and the use of a spike piledriver as
8550-593: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort in NJPW. Flair signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in August 1991. His arrival was hyped by Bobby Heenan , beginning with the August 11 episode of Wrestling Challenge . On the September 21 episode of Superstars , Flair debuted in WWF with the Big Gold Belt , calling himself " The Real World's Champion ". Led by his "financial adviser" Bobby Heenan and his "executive consultant" Mr. Perfect , Flair repeatedly issued challenges to WWF wrestlers like "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan . His first match with
8700-423: The Intercontinental Championship against Triple H at Taboo Tuesday in a steel cage match, which was voted as such by the fans. Flair later lost to Triple H in an acclaimed Last Man Standing non-title match at Survivor Series , which ended their feud. At the end of 2005, Flair had a feud with Edge that culminated in a WWE Championship Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match on Raw in early 2006, which Flair lost. On
8850-444: The January 25 episode of Monday Night Raw . Flair had a verbal agreement with Vince McMahon with the condition that if he wasn't going to be used in a main event position and had an offer to go elsewhere, he would be released from his contract. He opted to leave WWF when he was going to be moved to a mid-card position and Bill Watts offered to come back to WCW. Flair then fulfilled his remaining house show commitments and took part in
9000-408: The Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship, but lost the titles back to Jones and Steamboat, five days later on November 5. After retaining the title against several challengers including Blackjack Mulligan and Jimmy Snuka , Flair lost the United States Heavyweight Championship to Steamboat on December 17. Flair would then come up short against Steamboat in several title challenges, before defeating him in
9150-400: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship for a tenth time after defeating Barry Windham at Beach Blast before WCW finally left the NWA in September 1993. At Fall Brawl , Flair lost the title, now rebranded the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship , to "Ravishing Rick" Rude . At Starrcade in 1993, Flair defeated Vader to win the WCW World Heavyweight title for the second time. In
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#17327809771259300-410: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Flair in 1983, but Flair regained the title at Starrcade in a steel cage match . Officially, Flair won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship eight more times. Flair lost the title to Race and won it back in the span of three days in New Zealand and Singapore in March 1984. At the 1st David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions at Texas Stadium , Flair
9450-399: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship. This prompted a series of rematches, where Steamboat was presented as a "family man" (often accompanied by his wife and young son), while Flair opposed him as an immoral, fast-living "ladies man". Following a best-of-three falls match with Steamboat that lasted just short of the 60-minute time limit (and ended with a disputed finish where Steamboat retained
9600-399: The Rumble at number 28 and won. Triple H tried to persuade Batista to challenge the WWE Champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield of SmackDown! rather than for his World Heavyweight Championship. This involved Triple H plotting a feud between JBL and Batista, showing JBL badmouthing Batista in an interview and staging an attack on Batista with a limousine designed to look like Layfield's. The scheme
9750-498: The United States Heavyweight Championship, defeating him to win the title for a fourth time on April 20, 1980. Flair lost the title to his former tag team partner Greg Valentine on July 26. Flair defeated Valentine in a lumberjack match to win his fifth United States Heavyweight Championship on November 24. On January 27, 1981, Flair lost the title to Roddy Piper in a title versus title match, where Flair's United States Heavyweight Championship and Piper's Television Championship were on
9900-562: The WWE in June while in a program with Flair, a match was hotshotted between Flair and McMahon for sole ownership of WWE, which Flair lost after interference from Brock Lesnar on the June 10 edition of Raw . At King of the Ring on June 23, Flair defeated Eddie Guerrero in a singles match after Guerrero and Chris Benoit would interrupt Flair's speech regarding losing his position as WWE co-owner; afterwards, Guerrero would lock Flair in his own signature figure four leg lock with help from Benoit. Flair's rivalry with Lesnar would continue into
10050-405: The WWF and NWA World Tag Team Championship. It also was the first time a title changed hands in a two-out-of-three falls match where one of the decisions ended in a disqualification. After then defeating The Hart Foundation in a non-title match at SummerSlam , they then lost the titles back to Demolition on October 2, 1989, in an equally controversial fashion as Blanchard, who was the illegal man,
10200-449: The WWF's "Winter Tour '93" of Europe. He made his last appearance with the WWF on February 11, 1993, before returning to WCW. In April 1992, Flair toured Japan with the Super World of Sports (SWS) promotion as part of an agreement between the WWF and SWS. In his first bout, he teamed with The Natural Disasters to defeat Ashura Hara , Genichiro Tenryu , and Takashi Ishikawa in a six-man tag team match . He went on to defeat Tenryu in
10350-416: The WWF, he was still recognized as the NWA World Heavyweight Champion until September 8, when the title was officially vacated. While working for Jim Crockett Jr. 's Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (MACW), Flair began working tours for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). On April 27, 1978, Flair challenged for the NWA United National Championship in a losing effort. Throughout the 1980s, Flair defended
10500-427: The WarGames match at Fall Brawl when Luger submitted to the impostor Sting's Scorpion Deathlock . In October 1996, two developments occurred that affected the Four Horsemen when Jeff Jarrett came over to WCW from the WWF, and expressed his desire to join the Horsemen as he immediately gained a fan in Ric Flair, much to the chagrin of the other Horsemen. Flair finally let Jarrett join the group in February 1997, but
10650-420: The World Tag Team Championship back to Andersons in a steel cage match. A few days later, on May 15, Flair received his very first opportunity for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Harley Race . Race retained the title after the match ended in a double count-out. Flair would lose the Mid-Atlantic Television Championship to Ricky Steamboat on June 15, beginning a lengthy and historic rivalry between
10800-470: The World Tag Team Championship on February 16 edition of Raw to Booker T and Rob Van Dam . At WrestleMania XX , Evolution defeated the Rock 'n' Sock Connection ( The Rock and Mick Foley ) in a 3-on-2 handicap match. The following week on Raw during the 2004 WWE draft lottery , Flair and Batista defeated Booker T and Rob Van Dam to win their second and final World Tag Team Championship, but they lost
10950-626: The act by slamming the cage door onto Flair's head. In April 1998, Flair disappeared from WCW television, due to a lawsuit filed by Eric Bischoff for no-showing a live episode of Thunder on April 9, 1998, in Tallahassee, Florida . After the case was settled, Flair made a surprise return on September 14, 1998, to ceremoniously reform the Four Horsemen (along with Steve McMichael , Dean Malenko , and Chris Benoit ). Flair feuded with Bischoff for several months afterward. Flair repeatedly raked Eric Bischoff's eyes during this feud. This culminated in
11100-532: The cable industry adopted satellite technology and as flat-rate pay television services such as Home Box Office ( HBO ) became popular. While most pay-per-view services were delivered via cable, there were a few over-the-air pay TV stations that offered pay-per-view broadcasts in addition to regularly scheduled broadcasts of movies and other entertainment. These stations, which operated for a few years in Chicago, Los Angeles and some other cities, broadcast "scrambled" signals that required descrambler devices to convert
11250-501: The channel DigiGold. In France , launched in the late 1990s, Canalsat (Ciné+) and TPS (Multivision) operate their own pay-per-view service. While CanalSat holds the rights to live soccer matches for France's Ligue 1, TPS had the rights for Boxe matches. In 2007, Multivision service ceased by the end of TPS service which merged with Canalsat. Nowadays, Ciné+ is the only existing pay-per-view service in France. In Croatia , Fight Channel
11400-425: The deposit and any interest that may have accumulated upon the conclusion of the wrestler's championship reign. They did not do this for Flair before he was terminated by WCW, and since the money was still owed to him by the NWA upon his signing with the WWF, Flair believed that the title belt had become his personal property to do with as he pleased. At the 1992 Royal Rumble , Flair won the namesake match to claim
11550-418: The double main event at WrestleMania VIII . In the storyline, Flair taunted Savage by claiming that he had a prior relationship with Savage's wife, Miss Elizabeth . Savage defeated Flair for the title at WrestleMania. In July 1992, as Savage prepared to defend the title against The Ultimate Warrior at SummerSlam , Flair and Mr. Perfect sowed distrust between the two by suggesting that they would back one or
11700-473: The duo were successful in defeating the team of Triple H and Jericho. At Unforgiven on September 22, Flair was unsuccessful in capturing the WWE Intercontinental Championship in a singles contest against Jericho. Under the WWE banner, Flair toured Japan periodically between 2002 and 2008. He successfully defended the World Tag Team Championship with Batista against The Dudley Boyz twice in February 2004. On
11850-529: The end of 2020, as it had done during the conclusion of the previous season. In Canada , most specialty television providers provide pay-per-view programming through one or more services. In all cases, prices typically range from around C$ 4.99 (for movies) up to $ 50 or more for special events. Initially, there were three major PPV providers in Canada; Viewers Choice operated in Eastern Canada as
12000-792: The exclusive rights of Chilean Soccer are owned by TV Fútbol and broadcast live on a channel called Canal Del Fútbol ( The Soccer Channel ), also known CDF . Sports Field S.A. has exclusive rights to games on the Chilean professional basketball league, which are broadcast live vía CDO (Premium Signal). In Paraguay , the Teledeportes producer business have exclusive rights to broadcast live main matches of Paraguayan Soccer in four categories vía Tigo Max and Tigo Sports. Teledeportes have live broadcast of Paraguayan Basketball League broadcast Tuesday at 9:00 pm on Tigo Sports (K.O 21:15) and Wednesday at 8:55 pm on Tigo Max (K.O 21:10). In Uruguay ,
12150-407: The expansion of pay-per-view "the biggest economic issue in boxing", stating "I can't tell you that pay-per-view helps the sport because it doesn't. It hurts the sport because it narrows our audience, but it's a fact of life. Every time we try to make an HBO World Championship Boxing fight, we're up against mythical pay-per-view numbers. HBO doesn't make a lot of money from pay-per-view. There's usually
12300-609: The experiment was not a success and shut down operations on April 30, 1965 with only 2,500 subscribers. One of the earliest pay-per-view systems on cable television , the Optical Systems-developed Channel 100 , first began service in 1972 in San Diego , California through Mission Cable (which was later acquired by Cox Communications ) and TheaterVisioN, which operated out of Sarasota , Florida . These early systems quickly went out of business, as
12450-451: The federation more or less immediately after the pay-per-view and returned to the NWA in December. However, the NWA refused to rehire Blanchard when news of his failed drug test became known, thus ending the Brain Busters for good. Tully Blanchard would renegotiate a new contract with NWA a few months later, but ultimately declined what he considered to be a very low offer (reportedly half of a previous verbal agreement), and instead signed with
12600-545: The fight. A major pay-per-view event occurred on September 16, 1981, when Sugar Ray Leonard fought Thomas "Hitman" Hearns for the World Welterweight Championship . Viacom Cablevision in Nashville , Tennessee – the first system to offer the event – saw over 50 percent of its subscriber base purchase the fight. Leonard visited Nashville to promote the fight, and the event proved such
12750-507: The first pay-per-view boxing card held in Puerto Rico . Pay-per-view has provided a revenue stream for professional wrestling circuits such as WWE , Impact Wrestling , All Elite Wrestling (AEW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Ring of Honor (ROH) and Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA). WWE chairman and chief executive officer Vince McMahon is considered by many as one of the icons of pay-per-view promotion. McMahon owns
12900-406: The first pay-per-view cable channels in the United States – Viewer's Choice (now In Demand ), Cable Video Store , First Choice and Request TV – began operation within days of each other. Viewer's Choice serviced both home satellite dish and cable customers, while Request TV, though broadcasting to cable viewers, would not become available to satellite subscribers until the 1990s. First Choice PPV
13050-487: The first time since 2002 before going on to win the Intercontinental Championship from Carlito at Unforgiven , and the group was dissolved. Triple H returned at the "Homecoming" episode of Raw on October 3 where he was to team with Flair in a tag team match against Carlito and Chris Masters . After winning that match, Triple H betrayed Flair and attacked him with a sledgehammer. Flair retained
13200-505: The following month. In the Elimination Chamber match at New Year's Revolution , Batista, Orton and Triple H were the last three remaining in the match. Orton eliminated Batista with a RKO and Triple H pinned Orton with Batista's help to win the title. Triple H suggested that Batista not enter the Royal Rumble match , wanting the group to focus on Triple H retaining the title. At the Royal Rumble , Batista declined, entered
13350-410: The following years, Flair established himself as the promotion's main franchise in the midst of emerging competition from Vince McMahon 's World Wrestling Federation (WWF). An unsanctioned title loss took place on January 6, 1983, to Carlos Colón Sr. in Puerto Rico . Flair recovered the championship belt in a phantom change seventeen days later not officially recognized by the NWA. Harley Race won
13500-492: The group proceeded to attack Orton. At Unforgiven , Triple H beat Orton to regain the World Heavyweight Championship, with help from Flair, Batista, and Jonathan Coachman . Orton's feud with Evolution continued until Survivor Series where Triple H, Batista, Gene Snitsky , and Edge were defeated by Orton, Maven , Chris Jericho, and Chris Benoit in a Survivor Series match for control of Raw over
13650-430: The group's inception, it was clear that The Four Horsemen were unlike any villainous alliance that had ever existed, as the four rule breakers immediately used their strength in numbers to decimate the NWA's top fan favorites (most famously a vicious beatdown to Rhodes with a baseball bat in a parking lot) while controlling the majority of the championship titles. By 1986, wrestling promoter Jim Crockett had consolidated
13800-893: The late 1980s when companies such as Viewer's Choice, HBO and Showtime started using the system to show movies and some of their productions. Viewer's Choice carried movies, concerts and other events, with live sporting events such as WrestleMania being the most predominant programming. Prices ranged from $ 3.99 to $ 49.99, while HBO and Showtime, with their event production legs TVKO and SET Pay Per View, would offer championship boxing matches ranging from $ 14.99 to $ 54.99. ESPN later began to broadcast college football and basketball games on pay-per-view through its services ESPN GamePlan and ESPN Full Court , which were eventually sold as full-time out-of-market sports packages . The boxing undercard Latin Fury , shown on June 28, 2003, became ESPN's first boxing card on pay-per-view and also
13950-524: The line. Despite being the first to bleed, Flair won the match by pinfall thanks to the bias of the referee Charles Robinson , who counted Hogan out. As on-air WCW President, Flair began abusing his power much like Bischoff had, favoring villains over fan favorites and even awarding the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship (which was vacated by Scott Steiner due to injury) to his son David and resorting to whatever means necessary to keep him as United States Heavyweight Champion. Flair eventually formed
14100-421: The line. The United States Heavyweight Championship's current owner WWE does not recognize the title exchange with Greg Valentine and recognizes Flair's reign uninterrupted from April 20 to January 27. Flair would face Piper in various rematches for the title throughout the year but failed to regain the title. On September 17, 1981, Flair beat Dusty Rhodes for his first NWA World Heavyweight Championship . In
14250-431: The match, Flair came down to the ring and grabbed the sledgehammer from Triple H and teased hitting him before hitting Van Dam, allowing Triple H to get the win, turning him heel in the process and accompanied Triple H to the ring as his manager. Shortly after, Batista moved from SmackDown! to Raw and Flair also began accompanying him to the ring while continuing to second Triple H. In June 2003 at Bad Blood , Flair
14400-495: The match, leading to Flair retaining the title and cementing his place as the new "Nature Boy" of professional wrestling. A month later, on August 12, Flair teamed with Blackjack Mulligan to defeat Baron von Raschke and Paul Jones to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship. Flair and Mulligan lost the titles back to Raschke and Jones on August 22. Flair would then begin feuding with Jimmy Snuka over
14550-577: The match. They were immediately challenged by The Road Warriors to a title match at Starrcade '87 in the LOD hometown of Chicago . Despite a hostile pro LOD crowd, the Horsemen retained the titles on a reverse decision. The Horseman would next receive a stiff challenge from ex-Horsemen Lex Luger , and longtime Horseman rival Barry Windham , who were dubbed the Twin Towers. The teams met at Clash of
14700-556: The month of July with Lesnar picking up wins over Flair in a singles match on the July 1 episode of Raw and in a tag team contest on the July 15 episode of Raw . Flair then became involved in a short-lived rivalry with Chris Jericho , leading to Flair defeating Jericho at SummerSlam on August 25. Flair was granted a World Heavyweight Championship match against Triple H on the September 2 episode of Raw , which he lost. Later on that same night, Flair would team with Rob Van Dam as
14850-932: The most lucrative prizefight of that era. The record stood until 2015 before it was broken by Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao in a fight dubbed as the "Fight of the Century" on May 2, 2015, which generated 4.6 million ppv buys and a revenue of over $ 400 million. The leading PPV attraction, Floyd Mayweather Jr. has generated approximately 24 million buys and $ 1.6 billion in revenue. Manny Pacquiao , ranked second, has generated approximately 20.1 million buys and $ 1.2 billion in revenue. Oscar De La Hoya , has "sold" approximately 14 million units in total, giving $ 700 million in domestic television receipts and stands third. In fourth place in buys, Evander Holyfield has achieved 12.6 million units ($ 550 million); and at fifth, Mike Tyson has reached 12.4 million units ($ 545 million). Ross Greenburg, then president of HBO Sports, called
15000-523: The number of his world championship reigns varies by source, ranging from 16 or 17 to 25. He has claimed to be a 21-time champion. He was the first holder of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship (which he also held last). As the inaugural WCW World Heavyweight Champion, he became the first person to complete WCW's Triple Crown , having already held
15150-645: The number of pay-per-view boxing events significantly increase and currently all of the UK's top fights are only available via pay-per-view. Broadcasters (most notably PremPlus ) have abandoned their aspirations to introduce PPV into other sports markets following poor interest from the public. In October 2020 during the 2020-21 season , the Premier League experimented with PPV telecasts of football matches not selected for broadcasts by its main rightsholders (which are usually blacked out 3:00 p.m. kickoffs, amid
15300-611: The other Horsemen often took the lead in the war against Scott Hall , Kevin Nash , and Hollywood Hulk Hogan , whom Flair immediately challenged for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at the Clash of the Champions XXXIII , but won only by disqualification. In September 1996, Flair and Anderson teamed with their bitter rivals, Sting and Lex Luger , to lose to the nWo (Hogan, Kevin Nash , Scott Hall , and an impostor Sting ) in
15450-496: The other during their match. They actually attacked both Savage and Warrior, resulting in the latter winning by countout, and injured Savage's knee, an injury that Flair exploited to regain the title in a match with Savage three days later on September 1 in Hershey, Pennsylvania , which aired on the September 14 episode of Prime Time Wrestling . On September 15, 1992, Flair defended the WWF Championship against Genichiro Tenryu at
15600-1014: The other hand, utilized pre-existing services like Viewer's Choice and Request TV (as it was owned by a number of major cable providers), though promotional material bannered all PPV services under the name of PrimeCinema . In 2006, HBO generated 3.7 million pay-per-view buys with $ 177 million in gross sales. The only year with more buys previously, 1999, had a total of 4 million. The former record fell in 2007 when HBO sold 4.8 million PPV buys with $ 255 million in sales. BY 2014, HBO had generated 59.3 million buys and $ 3.1 billion in revenue since its 1991 debut with Evander Holyfield-George Foreman. 1999 differed radically from 2006: 1999 saw four major fight cards: De La Hoya-Trinidad (1.4 million buys), Holyfield-Lewis I (1.2 million), Holyfield-Lewis II (850,000) and De La Hoya-Quartey (570,000). By contrast, only one pay-per-view mega-fight took place in 2006: De La Hoya-Mayorga (925,000 buys). Rahman-Maskaev bombed with under 50,000. The other eight PPV cards that year all fell in
15750-492: The others did not want him, and in July 1997 was ultimately kicked out of the group by Flair himself, who had enough of the instability Jarrett's presence caused the Horsemen. Flair also feuded with Roddy Piper , Syxx , and his old nemesis Curt Hennig in 1997, after Hennig was offered a spot in The Four Horsemen only to turn on Flair and The Four Horsemen at Fall Brawl in September 1997, in which Hennig punctuated
15900-578: The platform. Events distributed through PPV typically include boxing , mixed martial arts , professional wrestling , and concerts. In the past, PPV was often used to distribute telecasts of feature films, as well as adult content such as pornographic films , but the growth of digital cable and streaming media caused these uses to be subsumed by video on demand systems (which allow viewers to purchase and view pre-recorded content at any time) instead, leaving PPV to focus primarily on live event programs and combat sports. The earliest form of pay-per-view
16050-593: The premier annual NWA/WCW event, Starrcade , on ten occasions, while also co-headlining its WWF counterpart, WrestleMania , in 1992 , after winning that year's Royal Rumble . Pro Wrestling Illustrated awarded him their Wrestler of the Year award a record six times, while Wrestling Observer Newsletter named him the Wrestler of the Year (an award named after him and Lou Thesz ) a record eight times. The first two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee, first inducted with
16200-430: The promoters would simply do it on their own [like Bob Arum did with Cotto-Malignaggi in June 2006] or find someone else who will do it for them." Former HBO Sports President Seth Abraham concurs, saying, "I think, if Lou (DiBella) and I were still at HBO, we'd be in the same pickle as far as the exodus of fights to pay-per-view is concerned." The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a mixed martial arts promotion,
16350-457: The promotion even further, despite the fact that Flair was still a top draw. According to Flair, Herd also proposed changes in his appearance and ring name (i.e. by shaving his hair, wearing a diamond earring and going by the name Spartacus ) in order to "change with the times". Flair disagreed with the proposals and two weeks before The Great American Bash , Herd fired him and vacated the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. While Flair had left for
16500-499: The promotion saw him wrestle Mark Thomas to a no contest on the September 28 episode of Superstars by provoking Piper to attack him, and Flair then attacked Piper with the Big Gold Belt and a chair. His first televised win in WWF occurred on the September 29 episode of Wrestling Challenge by squashing Jim Powers . Flair wrestled a team led by Piper at Survivor Series in November and helped The Undertaker defeat Hogan for
16650-627: The reunited Mega Powers. Afterwards, Flair went on to win the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship and there were also changes in the Four Horseman in 1996, as Brian Pillman left WCW and Steve "Mongo" McMichael became the fourth member. Once again as a top fan favorite , Flair played a major role in the New World Order (nWo) invasion storyline in late 1996 and throughout 1997. He and
16800-520: The ring and Arn Anderson knocked out Savage with brass knuckles, thus allowing Flair to pin Savage to win the match and the title. Afterwards Savage won the title back on Nitro after Starcade, but Flair won the next match at SuperBrawl VI to regain the championship. During the feud, Savage's manager Miss Elizabeth turned against him and became Flair's valet. Together with Woman and Debra McMichael they would escort Flair to his matches until Miss Elizabeth
16950-411: The ring and began ordering the timekeeper to ring the bell, which he eventually did, awarding the match and the presidency to Sting (who promptly gave it up upon receiving it). Flair won his last world titles in his career by winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship twice during 2000, the company's last full year of operation. When WCW was purchased by the WWF in March 2001, Flair was the leader of
17100-407: The ringside area. The Brain Busters won the second fall, after which Heenan fired them during a backstage interview. The Rockers would go on to win the third and final fall of the match. On the day of the 1989 Survivor Series , Tully Blanchard failed a drug test and the lack of a suitable replacement saw him replaced by Heenan who would wrestle for the first time since WrestleMania V. Arn Anderson left
17250-623: The service had 2.12 million subscribers. Since the beginning of 2022, WWE has ceased using the term "pay-per-view" and replaced it with "Premium Live Events" in promotional materials, to emphasize their carriage via subscription platforms. WWE had also begun to phase out WWE Network in some markets in favor of agreements with existing streaming services, including its U.S. agreement with Peacock . Other major organizations such as World Championship Wrestling , Extreme Championship Wrestling , TNA , Ring of Honor , and All Elite Wrestling have also run pay-per-view events. In 1999, Woodstock 1999
17400-704: The signal into standard broadcast format. These services were marketed as ON-TV . The first home pay-per-view cable television broadcast was the Floyd Patterson vs. Ingemar Johansson rematch in 1960, when 25,000 TelePrompTer subscribers mailed $ 2 to watch Patterson regain the heavyweight title. The third Patterson–Johansson match in 1961 was later viewed by 100,000 paid cable subscribers. Muhammad Ali had several fights on early pay-per-view home television, including Cassius Clay vs. Doug Jones in 1963, and Sonny Liston vs. Cassius Clay which drew 250,000 buys on cable television in 1964. Professional boxing
17550-679: The spring of 1994, Flair began a tweener turn and started another feud with longtime rival Ricky Steamboat and challenged Steamboat to a match at Spring Stampede which ended in a no contest from a double pin, causing the title to be held up. Flair then defeated Steamboat in a rematch to reclaim the held-up title on an episode of WCW Saturday Night. The WWE does not count this victory as a new title win. Flair then challenged Col. Robert Parker to wrestle one of his men at Slamboree , which turned out to be Barry Windham , whom Flair defeated, afterwards he quietly turned heel and took Sherri Martel as his manager. He would also wrestle Lord Steven Regal in
17700-663: The storyline being that Anderson and Blanchard considered the Midnight Express to be ungrateful punks who weren't on their level. The Midnight Express won the titles from the Horsemen on September 10, 1988, as both Blanchard and Anderson gave their notices to Jim Crockett Promotions , ending the original Four Horsemen and according to Blanchard, it was the end of an era. The duo made their debut late in October 1988, as " The Brain Busters ", due to being under management of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan (and, by default, members of
17850-593: The surprise addition of longtime rival Sting, to combat Funk's J-Tex Corporation . This led to an "I Quit" match at Clash of the Champions IX: New York Knockout which Flair won. Flair then kicked Sting out of The Four Horsemen upon his challenge for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, resulting in a revived feud between the two. On July 7, 1990, Flair dropped the title to Sting at The Great American Bash . After being unmasked as The Black Scorpion at Starrcade in 1990, Flair regained
18000-503: The title back to McDaniel on May 3, 1976. However, three weeks later, Flair regained the title by defeating McDaniel in a rematch on May 24. The title exchange with McDaniel continued as Flair lost the title to McDaniel in a steel cage match on September 11. On October 16, Flair defeated McDaniel in a title versus hair match to regain the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship. During this time, Flair teamed with Greg Valentine to defeat The Andersons ( Gene Anderson and Ole Anderson ) in
18150-638: The title defense. Flair would then capture his first singles title on February 9, 1975, by beating Paul Jones for the Mid-Atlantic Television Championship . After holding the title for six months, Flair lost the title back to Jones on August 8. During the same time, Flair began feuding with Wahoo McDaniel over the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship . After coming up short in several title opportunities, Flair finally defeated McDaniel for
18300-492: The title from Sting on January 11, 1991. Subsequent to this title win, Flair was recognized by WCW as the first WCW World Heavyweight Champion , though he was still also recognized as NWA World Heavyweight Champion. On March 21, 1991, Tatsumi Fujinami defeated Flair in a match in Tokyo at the WCW/New Japan Supershow . While the NWA recognized Fujinami as their new champion, WCW did not because Fujinami had backdropped Flair over
18450-515: The title in a title vs. hair match on September 20. On October 4, 1975, however, Flair's career nearly ended when he was in a serious plane crash in Wilmington, North Carolina that took the life of the pilot and paralyzed Johnny Valentine (also on board were Mr. Wrestling , Bob Bruggers, and promoter David Crockett ). Flair broke his back in three places and, at age 26, was told by doctors that he would never wrestle again. Flair conducted
18600-479: The title) at Clash of the Champions VI: Ragin' Cajun on April 2, Flair regained the title from Steamboat on May 7, 1989, at WrestleWar in a match that was voted 1989's " Match of the Year " by Pro Wrestling Illustrated . On July 23, 1989, Flair defeated Terry Funk at The Great American Bash , but the two continued to feud through the summer and eventually Flair reformed The Four Horsemen, with
18750-400: The titles in a rematch on July 18, 1989 in a two out of three falls match . After losing the first fall, by pinfall, the Busters won the second fall, via disqualification, and won the third fall, with a distraction from Bobby Heenan and a steel chair thrown in from André the Giant, the Brain Busters ended Demolition's then-record-breaking 478-day title reign and became the first team to win both
18900-472: The titles to World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit and Edge on the April 19 episode of Raw . At SummerSlam , Orton pinned Benoit to become the new World Heavyweight Champion and the youngest World Champion in WWE history to date. On the episode of Raw the night after SummerSlam, Batista hoisted Orton on to his shoulders in what appeared to be a celebration, but following the thumbs down from Triple H,
19050-500: The top rope in a violation of WCW rules. On May 19, 1991, Flair defeated Fujinami at SuperBrawl I in St. Petersburg, Florida to reclaim the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. In the spring of 1991, Flair had a contract dispute with WCW president Jim Herd , who wanted him to take a substantial pay cut. Flair had resigned as head booker in February 1990 and Herd wanted to reduce Flair's role in
19200-620: The trio of Sting , Nikita Koloff and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams . Things began to sour behind the scenes for the champions, as the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) launched its first-ever uninterrupted pay-per-view, The Great American Bash , promoters were attempting to draw a large gate and, according to the DVD Ric Flair and The Four Horsemen , Blanchard had suggested a rematch with the Road Warriors, but instead they were booked against Sting and Koloff, (whom they wrestled to
19350-748: The two. On June 30, Flair and Valentine defeated Dino Bravo and Tiger Conway Jr. to win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship. On July 29, Flair defeated Bobo Brazil to win his first NWA United States Heavyweight Championship in Richmond, Virginia . Flair and Valentine lost the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship to Paul Jones and Ricky Steamboat on August 22. Flair would defend the United States Heavyweight Championship against numerous challengers, including Steamboat, whom he wrestled in several matches, such as title versus title match for Flair's title and Steamboat's Mid-Atlantic Television Championship. On October 30, Flair and Valentine defeated The Andersons to win
19500-564: The vacant WWF Championship. Flair entered as number three in the Rumble match and lasted 60 minutes, last eliminating Sid Justice with help from Hulk Hogan, who had been eliminated by Justice seconds earlier. In February 1992, Flair faced the Intercontinental Champion Roddy Piper in a series of inconclusive title-versus-title matches . Randy Savage then challenged Flair for the WWF Championship as part of
19650-480: The various NWA member promotions he owned into a single entity, running under the banner of the National Wrestling Alliance. Controlling much of the traditional NWA territories in the southeast and Midwestern United States, Crockett looked to expand nationally and built his promotion around Flair as champion. During this time, Flair's bookings as champion were tightly controlled by Crockett, and
19800-473: The villainous group called the Magnificent Seven . Flair lost the final match of Nitro to Sting, recreating the second match of Nitro in 1995. Nevertheless, Flair has repeatedly stated in various interviews how happy he was when WCW finally closed down, although at the same time the fact that many people would lose their jobs saddened him. After an eight-month hiatus from wrestling, Flair made
19950-429: The years. Although it still offers its events via traditional PPV outlets, they have also been included at no additional charge as part of a larger, subscription-based streaming service known as WWE Network . The service also includes original programming (such as documentary-style series and other wrestling programs) and an on-demand archive of events and television episodes from WWE's library. Following WrestleMania 34 ,
20100-491: Was closed-circuit television , also known as theatre television , where professional boxing telecasts were broadcast live to a select number of venues, mostly theaters, with Arenas , Stadiums , Convention centers , and Schools being less often used venues. Where viewers paid for tickets to watch the fight live. The first fight with a closed-circuit telecast was Joe Louis vs. Jersey Joe Walcott in 1948. Closed-circuit telecasts peaked in popularity with Muhammad Ali in
20250-452: Was a relative newcomer to the PPV market. However, the promotion experienced a surge in popularity in the mid-2000s, credited initially to the popularity of an associated reality show on the cable channel Spike , The Ultimate Fighter . UFC 52 —the first UFC event since its premiere, broke the promotion's record with almost 300,000 buys (in comparison to 250,000 for UFC 5 ). PPV numbers escalated further in 2006, with its events taking in
20400-503: Was able to defeat Shawn Michaels after Randy Orton struck Michaels with a chair. At the height of Evolution's power, the group controlled all of the male-based championships of Raw after Armageddon . Batista teamed with Flair to win the World Tag Team Championship from the Dudley Boyz ( Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley ) in a tag team turmoil match and Triple H regained the World Heavyweight Championship from Goldberg (in
20550-458: Was also credited with the Demaree and Stewart surnames; nevertheless, his birth name is commonly considered to be Fred Phillips, even if he is also credited on various records as Fred Demaree or Fred Stewart. He was adopted by Kathleen Kinsmiller Fliehr (1918–2003) and Richard Reid Fliehr (1918–2000). The Fliehrs decided to adopt due to Kathleen being unable to become pregnant after giving birth to
20700-582: Was available on Rogers Cablesystems in the United States and Canada . After Paragon Cable acquired the Rogers Cablesystems franchise in San Antonio , Texas , First Choice continued to be carried until Time Warner Cable bought Paragon in 1996. In the United States, pay-per-view broadcasters transmit without advertisements, similar to conventional flat-rate pay television services. The term "pay-per-view" did not come into general use until
20850-822: Was broadcast via PPV from Rome, New York for people who wanted to attend but could not. The cameras were a cause of the downfall of the event. In 2015, PPV broadcasts of the Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead tour set a record for buys for a music event, with over 400,000. Viewers in the United Kingdom and Ireland can access pay-per-view via satellite, cable and over-the-internet television services, mainly for films, boxing, mixed martial arts and American professional wrestling via services such as Sky Box Office and TNT Sports Box Office . Recent years has seen
21000-499: Was brought into the open after she helped him win the match while pretending that she had sided with Sting. After becoming the unified and undisputed WCW champion, Flair feuded with Hulk Hogan upon Hogan's arrival in WCW in June 1994, losing the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to him in July at Bash at the Beach . Flair continued to feud with Hogan and finally lost to Hogan in a steel cage retirement match at Halloween Havoc . Flair took
21150-688: Was designated as the "Enforcer" of the stable, and teamed with Ole Anderson as the final version of The Minnesota Wrecking Crew. In the spring of 1987, Ole was kicked out of the Four Horsemen, and was replaced with associate member Lex Luger. Shortly after losing the Television Title, Blanchard quickly began teaming with Arn and targeted the NWA World Tag Team titles. Tully and Arn won the NWA World Tag Team Championship on September 29, 1987 by defeating The Rock 'n' Roll Express after The Midnight Express attacked Ricky Morton prior to
21300-478: Was granted the position of president of WCW. This resulted in a match at SuperBrawl IX between Flair and Hollywood Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, which Flair lost after being betrayed by his own son David Flair . In spite of his son's betrayal, Flair signed a rematch at Uncensored on March 14 which was billed as a First Blood barbed wire steel cage Match against Hogan where Flair's presidency and Hogan's WCW World Heavyweight Championship were on
21450-519: Was involved in a rivalry with the Spirit Squad on Raw . On November 5, 2006, at Cyber Sunday , he captured the World Tag Team Championship from the Spirit Squad with Roddy Piper. On the November 13 episode of Raw , Flair and Piper lost the World Tag Team Championship to Rated-RKO , due to a disc problem with Piper and had to be flown immediately back to the United States as soon as Raw
21600-463: Was largely introduced to pay-per-view cable television with the " Thrilla in Manila " fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in September 1975. The fight sold 500,000 pay-per-view buys on HBO. There was also another major title fight aired on pay-per-view in 1980, when Roberto Durán defeated Sugar Ray Leonard . Cable companies offered the match for $ 10, and about 155,000 customers paid to watch
21750-439: Was off the air. On November 26, 2006, at Survivor Series , Flair was the sole survivor of a match that featured himself, Ron Simmons (replacing an injured Piper), Dusty Rhodes and Sgt. Slaughter versus the Spirit Squad. Pay-per-view Pay-per-view ( PPV ) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through
21900-578: Was pinned after receiving the Demolition Decapitation finisher. As was customary at the time, the Busters continued to defend the titles on house shows until the title change was acknowledged on television on November 4, 1989. Their last match was a best-of-three-falls contest against The Rockers on Saturday Night's Main Event XXIV . The Brain Busters lost the first fall after not following directions from an enraged Heenan, who left
22050-529: Was pinned by Kerry Von Erich , but he regained the title eighteen days later in Japan and reigned for two years, two months and two days, losing the title to Dusty Rhodes on July 26, 1986, at The Great American Bash in a Steel Cage Match . However, Flair regained the title at a house show on August 9, when Rhodes passed out in the Figure Four leglock. In late 1985, the tag team of Arn Anderson and Ole Anderson began aiding Flair (whom they claimed as
22200-713: Was shut down. In Romania , cable communications operator UPC Romania has notified the National Audiovisual Council (CNA) on the intention to introduce in January, February 2014 at the latest, an on-demand audiovisual media service called Agerpres. According to the manager of UPC Romania-owned Smaranda Radoi UPC, will allow customers to watch movies on demand or live events; as well as broadcasts of performances, concerts and sporting events. In November 2008, pay-per-view made its debut in Albania through Digitalb on terrestrial and satellite television, with
22350-489: Was taken by the nWo in the fall and eventually returned as Savage's valet when he joined the nWo in 1997. Flair lost the WCW World Heavyweight Championship eventually three months later to The Giant. The feud with Savage continued with The New Four Horseman joining the Dungeon of Doom to create an Alliance to end Hulkamania. Together the factions wrestled Hogan and Savage in a triple steel cage, End of Hulkamania match; losing to
22500-441: Was unsuccessful and at the brand contract signing ceremony on the February 21 episode of Raw , Batista chose to remain on Raw , infuriating Triple H and thus quitting the faction. Batista defeated Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 21 . Flair and Triple H also starred in an ad for WrestleMania 21 that parodied the film Braveheart . After Vengeance , Triple H took time off and Flair turned face for
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