"The Nature Boy" Ric Flair is often referenced as being a 16-time world champion by WWE, but he's actually held the gold at least 21 times. While never quite the box office draw as people like Hulk Hogan or "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Flair is arguably the greatest professional wrestler ever to step in the ring. That's certainly the opinion of many within the wrestling business, including many of Flair's contemporaries. For his part, Flair has cited Shawn Michaels, who beat him in his WWE retirement match, as the greatest.

Flair's best run came in the 1980s, a decade in which he spent most of reigning atop the NWA as its world champion, before the Jim Crockett-promoted section of the NWA splintered off from the group and became WCW. Flair would go on to be a top player in WCW as well, never really missing a beat. He did, however, leave WCW for a few years after a contract dispute, heading to the then WWF to take on greats like Bret Hart, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and Hulk Hogan, although the latter dream match sadly only happened on non-televised events. Flair and Hogan would go on to have a long feud in WCW though.

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After the WWE bought WCW in 2001, Flair would return to the company in 2002, spending the rest of his active career there, outside of a few regrettable matches in TNA. Over the course of his decades-long, illustrious career, Flair racked up championship after championship, and according to WWE, 16 world title reigns between their championship, WCW's, and the NWA's. In actuality, Flair has been a world champion at least 21 times, with some counts going as high as 25. This discrepancy is due to some questionable decisions in record keeping by WWE.

Ric Flair as WCW World Champion

According to WWE, Ric Flair's 16 recognized world title reigns are as follows: 8 NWA world titles, 6 WCW world titles, and 2 WWE world titles. However, there were actually quite a few title changes on non-televised events in the 1980s that for some reason aren't counted by the official lineage, many of which involved Flair losing the title and regaining it back mere days later. Three such instances occurred during Flair's first recognized NWA title reign, listed as lasting from September 17, 1981 to June 10, 1983. Flair dropped the title to big Dominican star Jack Veneno, then got it back quick. Similar situations happened with other home country heroes Carlos Carlon in Puerto Rico, and Victor Jovica in Trinidad.

At that point, there are three additional Flair world title reigns counted, bringing the true total to 19. The star wrestler's second NWA reign lasted from November 24, 1983 to May 6, 1984. During that reign, Flair dropped the title to Harley Race in New Zealand, then regained it in Singapore, another unrecognized reign, so there's 20. In 1991, WCW would establish its own world championship, although it was essentially unified with the NWA title for its first while. During this time Flair was recognized as both NWA and WCW champion, up until losing the NWA title to Tatsumi Fujinami in Japan. He would regain it a couple of months later, but this reign is not recognized by WWE for reasons unclear, and ended when Flair was stripped of both titles upon signing with WWE in summer 1991.

That covers the 21 reigns that most outside of WWE seem to agree should count for Flair's record, with Flair himself publicly concurring with that assessment, and affirming himself to be a 21-time world champion. The other four more contested reigns that bring some counts to 25 involve a masked - and suspended - Dusty Rhodes beating Flair for the NWA title in 1982 but returning it after refusing to unmask, a murky finish with Ricky Steamboat in 1994 leading to a brief WCW title vacancy and rematch that Flair won, and two reigns with WCW's odd International World Title, which was essentially the NWA title without that name after WCW didn't give them back their actual belt when the two entities split for good. John Cena may be a legitimate 16-time champ, but he's still not hitting Flair's numbers.

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