Ric Flair ended 1985 the way he started as NWA World Heavyweight Champion. During the year, he went from babyface in the Mid-Atlantic region and heel the rest of the territories to the biggest heel in all of professional wrestling when he started an intense feud with Dusty Rhodes.
Flair would be aided in his rivalry by his storyline cousins Arn and Ole Anderson. They also added Tully Blanchard to the stable along with his manager James J. Dillion who became the group's overall manager.
The foursome began to call themselves "The Four Horsemen" in January 1986 after Arn compared themselves to the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" for their destruction in the wrestling ring in a memorable interview.
The name Four Horsemen stuck pretty much throughout the remainder of JCP-WCW. The entire Four Horsemen were inducted together in the 2012 WWE Hall of Fame. Even though there had been different members of the group throughout the years, Ric Flair and Arn Anderson always remained members of the Horsemen.
The Four Horsemen were a complete wrecking crew as they feuded with pretty much any and every top babyface in the company, especially Dusty Rhodes. The Horsemen took on the persona of the Nature Boy Ric Flair where they lived a flashy, playboy lifestyle with women and riding around in limos and private jets and wearing very expensive clothing.
The Horsmen won just about every title as Flair was the NWA World Champion, Blanchard was the NWA World TV Champion, and the Andersons were NWA World Tag Team Champions. The Horsemen did everything in their power to keep the NWA World Title around Flair's waist and off of Dusty's.
Even as a way to accommodate Flair's flashy style, Jim Crockett had a special customized world heavyweight championship belt made for Flair called the "Big Gold Belt." The Big Gold Belt had a nameplate where the champion had his name written on it.
The Big Gold Belt replaced the traditional "domed globe" title belt and was primarily the NWA and WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt until WCW's demise in 2001. It went over to the WWE following its purchase of WCW and was used until it was retired for good in 2014.
The Great American Bash changed this year from a one-night event to a tour of 13 dates in 13 different cities from July 1 to August 2. On the July 26 edition from Greenboro, N.C., Flair defended the title against Dusty Rhodes in a Steel Cage match.
Rhodes finally defeated Flair to win the NWA World Title, ending Flair's 793-day reign as World Champion. Rhodes defeated Flair in a rematch on the final card of The Bash on August 2 in Atlanta to retain the title.
Flair, with help from Horsemen member Tully Blanchard, attacked Rhodes and "injured" his knee. At a house show on August 9, Flair defeated Rhodes when he put him in the Figure Four Leg Lock and made Rhodes pass out from the pain to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the fourth time.
Magnum T.A. (his real name is Terry Allen) was a star on the rise in Jim Crockett's promotion going into 1986 and 1986 promised to be his best year. He was the most popular wrestler in the company during that time and was destined to be the World Heavyweight Champion.
Magnum spent the end of 1985 going into 1986 feuding with world champion Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen. His biggest feud was with Tully Blanchard, who he traded the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship. He defeated Blanchard in the infamous "I Quit" match at Starrcade '85 to win the title back as he entered 1986 as the U.S. Champion.
Magnum's most famous feud was with "Russians" Ivan Koloff and his nephew Nikita Koloff over the U.S. Title. Magnum and Nikita Koloff had a thrilling best-of-seven series for the title in the summer of 1986.
Koloff won the first three matches of the series before Magnum rallied to win the next three to tie it up and force a decisive seventh and final match. Thanks to help from his uncle Ivan and ally Krusher Kruschev, Nikita defeated Magnum to win the U.S. Championship.
Despite losing the U.S. Title, Magnum was ready to challenge Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and even defeat him to win the title at Starrcade '86 as head booker Dusty Rhodes had him winning the title. Things, however, would drastically change.
On October 14, 1986, Terry Allen was driving his Porsche 911 Turbo down Sardis Road near his home in Charlotte when he lost control of his car in the rain and slammed into a telephone pole. Injuries suffered to his back in the crash had doctors fearing he would never walk again as he was paralyzed for months. Doctors said his physical conditioning is what saved his life.
Miraculously, Allen would eventually walk with the use of a cane and would start to make appearances the following year for NWA-JCP. Allen would eventually be able to walk without a cane and would make appearances on NWA-JCP shows as a color commentator, as a manager, and even a booker.
Since Allen could no longer wrestle, head booker Dusty Rhodes decided to make Nikita Koloff into a babyface, taking Magnum T.A.'s spot and even used the Magnum T.A. car accident as the reason for why he turned into a babyface.
On October 24, 1986, Rhodes was scheduled to take on Horsemen members Ole Anderson and James J. Dillon in a cage match, but he needed a partner. All of a sudden, Nikita Koloff entered and helped Dusty in his match to solidify his turn into a face as the crowd erupted.
Nikita then mentioned how the respect he had for Magnum T.A. during their intense feud along with his career-ending accident made him change his ways. There would even be a large picture of Koloff in a wrestling magazine with the words "I cry for Magnum T.A." next to him.
He was also no longer anti-American as he became pro-American to further cement his status as the top babyface in the company. In reality, Nikita Koloff was actually an American named Nelson Simpson, who portrayed a Russian character who learned to speak Russian and not say any English to stay in character until he became a face.
Koloff feuded with NWA World Champion Ric Flair over the title and took Magnum T.A.'s spot against Flair for the title at Starrcade '86. The match ended in a double disqualification when both men attacked referees.
These "non-finishes" and DQ-finishes were commonly known throughout the circuit as "Dusty Finishes" as Dusty Rhodes usually booked main event World Title matches to end in disqualifications to keep the belt around the champion's waist.
Jim Crockett further expanded his territory by purchasing Bob Geigel's Central States Wrestling promotion in the Kansas City territory as he was planning an even bigger expansion in 1987 to try and further take it to Vince McMahon and the WWF.
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