He would make his triumphant return to the NWA/WCW in February of 1993, but was still under the WWF‘s “no compete” clause so he’d have to wait to wrestle. When Flair was finally allowed to compete, he would defeat Barry Windham at Bash at the Beach 1993 to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for a 10th time. WCW would then leave the NWA in September of 1993, and re brand it the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. Once again, if that sounds stupid to you, that’s because it is. If WCW didn’t want to be part of the NWA anymore, then why even bother re branding the NWA World Heavyweight Championship? Why not just retire it and focus on the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and just name the former NWA Champion as the number one contender? Why continue to recognize Flair as “a” World Heavyweight Champion, but not “your” World Heavyweight Champion? The matter got even more confusing when a match between Flair and Ricky Steamboat for the WCW International Heavyweight Championship ended in a double pin, causing the championship to be “held up” aka vacated. The follow up match was won by Flair, but despite recognizing his former runs with the WCW International Heavyweight Championship as official World Championships reigns and counting them toward his record 16, WWE doesn’t recognize this as a title win for Flair. It’s bit of a head scratcher when you consider that Flair wasn’t recognized as the champion going into the match, and it’s made even more confusing when considering that WWE recognizes Kevin Nash just handing him the WCW Championship on the May 29th 2000 episode of Nitro as an official World Championship win. Mercifully, the WCW International Heavyweight Championship and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship would be unified in June of 1994 when Ric Flair defeated Sting to become the undisputed WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Sadly it would mark the final time Flair was seen as “The Man” by WCW.
