Ask 411 Wrestling: What Was the Point of Shane Douglas Challenging Ric Flair in ECW?

Welcome guys, gals, and gender non-binary pals, to Ask 411 . . . the last surviving weekly column on 411 Wrestling.

I am your party host, Ryan Byers, and I am here to answer some of your burning inquiries about professional wrestling. If you have one of those queries searing a hole in your brain, feel free to send it along to me at [email protected]. Don’t be shy about shooting those over – the more, the merrier.

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Patrick is belting it out:

Seeing AAA champions being mentioned on WWE programming these days reminds me of the seemingly endless parade of other champions that we’ve been seeing on AEW programming.

How many different titles have been defended on AEW TV? Versus how many in WWE? To keep it manageable but still include the NWA and ECW “invasions” and 90s-era AAA crossover, you could probably restrict the WWE count to the Raw era.

Even with the long head start for WWE, I think AEW wins this race.

AEW actually does not win the race, though I was surprised by just how close it was.

First off, I should note that, as is often the case, the numbers that I came up with are subject to some interpretation. In some instances, you have to ask what counts as a “title.” Do belts that were, in storyline, created by wrestlers and not officially sanctioned by the promotion count as titles? Your answer to that question would impact whether we count things like the Million Dollar Title and the FTW Title. There’s also the distinction of being the “King” of the World Wrestling Federation which passed between men like Harley Race, Haku, Jim Duggan, and Randy Savage. Is that a title or not a title?

Also, what does it mean for a title to be defended on a particular promotion’s television? I found a couple of instances of mainstream WWE television shows airing archival footage. For example, during the infamous Chris Benoit memorial episode of Monday Night Raw in 2007, one of the matches played was a 1990 IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title match between Benoit and Jushin Thunder Liger. Does that count as The IWGP Jr. Title being defended on WWE television?

In a double whammy of those questions, you have an episode of NXT UK during which WWE aired a Dean Malenko/Ultimo Dragon match in which Dragon was defending his J-Crown Championship against Malenko. The J-Crown, for those who don’t know, was a combination of eight junior heavyweight titles from across the world. Do we call that eight championships or do we call it one?

So, in looking at the stats that I compiled, just know that I addressed these judgment calls as best I could, and it’s possible that you could add a few or subtract a few belts from other dataset depending on how you interpret things.

With all that said, here is my best count:

During the history of AEW, there have been THIRTY-SEVEN different championships defended on the promotion’s television shows. I note that this includes Ring of Honor television subsequent to Tony Khan’s May 2022 acquisition of the promotion as being AEW television, because since that point they’ve basically operated as different brands of the same promotion. However, if you remove ROH TV from consideration, that only drops the number of championships from 37 to 35, since most ROH belts have been defended on AEW-branded shows.

Meanwhile, during the “Raw era” of WWE – meaning 1993 to present day – there have been FORTY-EIGHT different championships defended on the promotion’s television shows. This includes all of WWE’s various brands: Raw, Smackdown, their ECW revival, NXT, NXT UK, and Speed. It would also have included Evolve, but as of our June 17 cutoff the WWE Evolve titles had been created but not yet defended, and the question asked specifically about title defenses.

Also, because I am nothing if not extra, I decided out of curiosity to look not just at the Raw era of WWE but also the entire history of the promotion going back to Capitol Wrestling in 1957. If you head back that far, it only adds thirteen belts to WWE’s total, with SIXTY-ONE championships having been defended on Capitol Wrestling/WWWF/WWF/WWE programming.
And, long-time readers of this column know that, if I have to put in a ton of time gathering data to answer a question, I’m going to run that data in this column, so . . .

Every championship ever defended on AEW television
1) AAA World Tag Team Title (Yes, the first title defense on AEW TV was of an AAA championship), 2) AEW World Title, 3) AEW Women’s World Title, 4) AEW World Tag Team Title, 5) AAA Mega Title, 6) AEW TNT Title, 7) FTW Title, 8) NWA World Women’s Title, 9) IWGP United States Heavyweight Title,
10) Impact World Tag Team Title, 11) Impact World Title, 12) AEW TBS Title, 13) ROH World Tag Team Title, 14) ROH World Television Title, 15) ROH World Title, 16) ROH Pure Title, 17) ROH Women’s World Title, 18) IWGP World Heavyweight Title, 19) IWGP Tag Team Title, 20) AEW All-Atlantic/International/American Title, 21) AAA World Mixed Tag Team Title, 22) Regina Di WAVE Title, 23) ROH World Six Man Tag Team Titles, 24) AEW World Trios Titles, 25) NJPW Strong Women’s Title, 26) NJPW World Television Title, 27) AAA Latin American Title, 28) Real AEW World Title, 29) NJPW Strong Openweight Title, 30) AEW Continental Title, 31) CMLL World Women’s Title, 32) ROH World Women’s Television Title (only ever defended on ROH TV), 33) NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Titles (only ever defended on ROH TV), 34) IWGP Global Heavyweight Title, 35) NEVER Openweight Title, 36) RevPro Undisputed Women’s Title, 37) CMLL World Tag Team Title

Every championship ever defended on WWE television during the “Raw era”
1) WWF Intercontinental Title, 2) WWF World Heavyweight Title (original established in 1963), 3) WWF World Tag Team Title (version established in 1971), 4) SMW Tag Team Titles, 5) WWF Women’s Title (established 1993), 6) WWF European Title, 7) NWA North American Heavyweight Title, 8) WWF Light Heavyweight Title, 9) NWA World Tag Team Titles, 10) WWF Hardcore Title, 11) WCW World Heavyweight Title, 12) WCW Cruiserweight Title, 13) WCW World Tag Team Title, 14) WCW United States Title, 15) World Heavyweight Championship, 16) WWE Tag Team Titles (established 2002, currently the World Tag Team Titles) , 17) WWE United States Title, 18) ECW World Title, 19) IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title (archival footage), 20) WWE Divas Title, 21) NXT Championship, 22) NXT Tag Team Titles, 23) NXT Women’s Title, 24) WWE Tag Team Titles (established 2016, currently the WWE Tag Team Titles), 25) WWE Universal Title, 26) WWE Women’s Title (established 2016), 27) WWE/NXT Cruiserweight Title (established 2016), 28) NXT UK Title, 29) NXT North American Title, 30) NXT UK Women’s Title, 31) NXT UK Tag Team Titles, 32) WWE 24/7 Title, 33) WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles, 34) J-Crown Title (archival footage), 35) NXT UK Heritage Cup, 36) NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles, 37) Million Dollar Title, 38) World Heavyweight Title (established 2023), 39) WWE Speed Title, 40) NXT Women’s North American Title, 41) TNA Knockouts World Title, 42) WWE Women’s Speed Title, 43) WWE Women’s United States Title, 44) WWE Women’s Intercontinental Title, 45) TNA X Division Title, 46) TNA World Tag Team Titles, 47) TNA World Title, 48) AAA Mega Title

Every championship defended on WWE television before Raw but not after
1) NWA Capitol Wrestling United States Tag Team Titles/WWWF United States Tag Team Title, 2) NWA World Heavyweight Title, 3) NWA Capital Wrestling United States Television Title, 4) NWA United States Heavyweight Title, 5) NWA Capitol World Tag Team Titles, 6) WWWF United States Heavyweight Title, 7) WWWF North American Title, 8) WWWF World Junior Heavyweight Title, 9) NWF Heavyweight Title, 10) NWA North American Tag Team Titles, 11) WWF World Marital Arts Title, 12) WWF Women’s Tag Team Title (original), 13) IWGP Tag Team Title (defended on NJPW/AJPW/WWF Wrestling Summit, which aired on Japanese television)

Tyler from Winnipeg is cosplaying as a more famous questioner:

Can you give me an in depth analysis of Renegade from WCW?

There’s not much of an in depth analysis to give, because the guy really didn’t have that long a career, and he sadly died not long after his career came to an end.

Originally from Columbus, Georgia, Richard “Ric” Wilson was a high school athlete, playing football. According to a Slam Wrestling article on his death, Wilson got into wrestling because when he was young he worked out at a gym owned by Ted and Jerry Oates, brothers who formed a fairly successful tag team in the 1970s.

According to the Wrestling Observer obituary for Wilson, even though he received some basic pro wrestling training from the Oates brothers, he didn’t truly start a career until he moved to the Boston area. Though some sources list Killer Kowalski as continuing Wilson’s pro wrestling training in Boston, Slam and the Observer agree that, though the future Renegade may have trained at Kowalski’s school, the person who actually trained him was not Kowalski but actually Ric Byrne, a 1990s and early 2000s indy mainstay whose hilariously dated website is still online.

The entire time that he was training to wrestle, Wilson was also working as an exotic dancer, which by all accounts he was actually pretty good at. In what I think is a funny note that shows just how many parallels there are between pro wrestling and exotic dancing (as if The Wrestler didn’t already to that), Wilson adopted “Rio, Lord of the Jungle” as his gimmick for both wrestling AND stripping. If you couldn’t from the name alone, his schtick was effectively a Tarzan clone.

Rio bounced around New England indies in 1992 and 1993, eventually getting booked on cards by Wendell Weatherbee.

Who is Wendell Weatherbee, you might ask? Weatherbee is an interesting character. He did some indy wrestling and managing, as well as running the independent group All-Star Can-Am Wrestling in the early 90s, based out of Massachusetts. However, Weatherbee also had another gig – he was a limo driver. Specifically, he chauffeured for several WWF stars of the era, including the Ultimate Warrior.

Because Weatherbee and Warrior knew each other, it created an opening for Weatherbee to book Warrior on All-Star shows when he was between stints with the WWF. According to the December 14, 1992 Wrestling Observer ,also helping Weatherbee was the fact that he was running “sold shows,” i.e. shows where an organization pays a promoter a flat fee to put on a show, meaning the show derives its income from that flat fee rather than having to rely on ticket sales. The sold show model allowed Weatherbee to afford Warrior’s hefty price tag.

Warrior and Rio, Lord of the Jungle appeared on at least one of Weatherbee’s shows together, specifically on January 8, 1993 Billerica, Massachusetts, where Warrior beat his old WWF rival Hercules in the main event and the semi-main saw Rio get a DQ win over Demolition Ax.

Weatherbee comes back into Renegade’s story later, but there is a bit of a diversion now. Ric Byrne started wrestling for Tatsumi Fujinami’s independent promotion WAR in Japan in 1992, and he put in a good word for Rio, Lord of the Jungle, leading to Rio touring with WAR in March 1993, April 1993, and February 1994. While in WAR, Rio got singles matches against John “Earthquake” Tenta and Haku, as well as a young wrestler named “Lionheart,” who these days you would know better as Chris Jericho.

In between those WAR tours, Ric Wilson/Rio also received a WWF tryout. In what to my knowledge is the only match for the Fed in his short career, Wilson lost to the Brooklyn Brawler in a match held during the August 18, 1993 WWF television taping held in Lowell, Massachusetts. Sadly, it doesn’t seem that match was taped.

1995 is where our story really takes a turn. Hulkamania was running wild in the company at the time, and Hogan was trying to recreate some of his greatest WWF feuds. He eventually brought in the future Big Show, a.k.a. Paul Wight, to be a stand-in for Andre the Giant, and he was looking for a stand-in for the Ultimate Warrior as well.

This is where Wendell Weatherbee reenters the story. According to both the Observer and Slam, Weatherbee also knew Jimmy Hart from his days as a chauffeur, and Hart and Weatherbee had a conversation in which Hart mentioned they needed somebody who could pass as the Warrior. Weatherbee recommended Richard Wilson for the gig, AND sent in a tape of an All-Star Can-Am show that featured both men to highlight the resemblance.

This lead to WCW signing Wilson to a contract that, according to the Observer paid $150,000 per year for two years, which would be the equivalent of $316,000 today once you adjust for inflation.

At that point, I think everybody pretty well knows the story. Wilson was given the name the Renegade – originally to be the Renegade Warrior before a legal threat – based on the popular syndicated television show of the time that starred Lorenzo Lamas. (Based on this, one wonders if Hogan ever called Lamas to play his Warrior knockoff.) His first appearance was as a corner man for the Hulkster during the legendarily bad Uncensored 1995 pay per view. In promos leading up to the event, Hogan referred to Wilson as “The Ultimate Surprise,” while a silhouette of the Renegade appeared on screen and did all sorts of Ultimate Warrior mannerisms.

As an aside, it was reported that the signing of the Renegade actually destroyed the friendship between Wendell Weatherbee and the Ultimate Warrior, as Warrior saw Weatherbee tipping off Jimmy Hart to Wilson as costing Warrior a job, since he had been negotiating with WCW on and off about a return.

Renegade got a mega-push as a friend of Hogan. At that year’s Great American Bash, he flattened Arn Anderson to win the WCW World Television Title and also got a successful PPV defense of the belt against Paul Orndorff, in addition to beating both Anderson and Orndorff like drums in rematches on the house show circuit and then winning all manner of television squashes.

However, the problem is that the fans never took to the Renegade. They saw him as a pale imitation of the original, which really he was. Though nobody would mistake the Ultimate Warrior for an all-time great in-ring performer, he had an inherent charisma that Wilson lacked, and Warrior could at least be carried to a good to great match by an experienced opponent (e.g. Randy Savage) while Renegade struggled even with extremely talented veterans like Anderson and Orndorff.

Almost exactly six months after he debuted, the plug was pulled on the Renegade experiment as he lost the TV Title to Diamond Dallas Page at Fall Brawl 1995. He won a couple of television squashes against job guys after that but, otherwise, it was time for the Renegade’s massive losing streak to begin, with most of his pseudo-Warrior gimmick being stripped away as well. He was put into a pretty boy tag team with “Outlaw” Joe Gomez. Eventually, they turned on each other and had some singles matches in a feud that couldn’t even main event WCW Saturday Night.

Somewhat ironically, Renegade’s last role of any significance in WCW was, again, as a stand-in for the Ultimate Warrior in 1998. The real Warrior had signed with the company at this point, and he liked to do these “magic” spots where he would be in one place in the arena and then seemingly disappear and reappear in another. When this was done, Wilson would be the first “Warrior.”

In December 1998, WCW told Renegade that his services were no longer needed. I’ve found no record of him ever having another match after leaving the company, returning to civilian life. By this point, he was also reportedly abusing drugs, particularly GHB, pretty badly. There were also issues in his personal life, as he was served with divorce papers in 1999.

Approximately two weeks after those divorce papers were served, on February 23, 1999, Wilson died via a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 33 years old. According to Find a Grave, you can go pay your respects to him at the Parkhill Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia.

And there it is. The sad story of the Renegade.

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Triple T Ticking Time Bomb Taz disrespects the old guard:

I remember watching ECW TV back in the day, the year was probably 1994. During that time, “The Franchise” Shane Douglas kept repeatedly calling out Ric Flair. Was there ever supposed to be any payoff to that?

No, there was no planned payoff at the time, as ECW and WCW were not collaborating with one another aside from very occasional, one-off arrangements that sometimes existed because WCW wanted to settle some sort of legal claim ECW was making against them at the time. The whole purpose of Douglas running down Flair was simply to make Douglas seem anti-establishment and to elevate him in the eyes of the ECW audience, as Flair would never answer the Franchise’s challenges and thus appear to be afraid of him. This sort of “grandstand” challenge by one promotion’s champion to another promotion’s champion was actually a a very well-worn practice in wrestling at the time, probably going back at least half a century earlier.

For what it’s worth, even though there was no planned payoff when Douglas was calling out the Nature Boy in ECW, there still did wind up being a feud between the two men later in their careers. In the year 2000, Flair and Douglas were both on the WCW roster during the company’s New Blood vs. Millionaire’s Club feud. With Vince Russo booking at the time, he wanted to take advantage of the “real” bad blood between the two men, which lead to a Douglas/Flair match at the Slamboree pay per view in 2000, which Douglas won.

We’ll return in seven-ish days, and, as always, you can contribute your questions by emailing [email protected]. You can also leave questions in the comments below, but please note that I do not monitor the comments as closely as I do the email account, so emailing is the better way to get things answered.