NWA-JCP 1986: The Four Horsemen; The Ric Flair-Dusty Rhodes Rivalry Remains Strong; Magnum TA and Nikita Koloff; The Great American Bash Goes on Tour; NWA-JCP Keeps Expanding Territories

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.

NWA-JCP 1985:JCP and NWA See Major Formation and Expansion; The Start of the Flair-Rhodes Rivalry; The First Great American Bash

Jim Crockett was trying to do what he could to combat the rising success of Vince McMahon and the WWF especially during "Hulkamania" and the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection between rock 'n' roll music on MTV and the WWF and the first WrestleMania grand event.

Crockett had some success teaming with Verne Gagne of the AWA, Ole Anderson of Georgia Championship Wrestling, Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett of the Memphis-based CWA, and other NWA territories to form Pro Wrestling USA and promote their joint-venture shows in WWF territories in an attempt to ruin them like McMahon was trying to do to them.

One thing McMahon did that was considered a failure was purchase Georgia Championship Wrestling's Saturday evening time slot and their flagship show World Championship Wrestling to air his WWF programing. The fans of GCW were furious with McMahon's disregard of the Southern wrestling tradition and culture by airing his own "Yankee" promotion and it did not fly with them.

Due to losing money and poor ratings, McMahon was forced to sell the GCW World Championship Wrestling time slot to Crockett and the NWA Mid-Atlantic promotion. One thing Crockett did with World Championship Wrestling on TBS that McMahon did not was have the show filmed in Ted Turner's Atlanta studios

Crockett bought out Ole Anderson's GCW promotion and merged it with Mid-Atlantic. Crockett also purchased the St. Louis Wrestling Club in the St. Louis territory to form NWA Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). Crockett was also re-elected NWA President in a further attempt to take down McMahon.

The top event of Pro Wrestling USA was the SuperClash '85 - The Night of Champions event at Comiskey Park in Chicago on September 21, 1985 with over 20,000 fans in attendance. The headlining matches for the event were Ric Flair defeating Magnum T.A. to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and AWA World Heavyweight Champion Rick Martel and Stan Hansen fighting to a double count out.

Pro Wrestling USA only lasted a few more months as arguments between promoters, mostly Crockett and Verne Gagne, led to the breakup of Pro Wrestling USA in January 1986. Pro Wrestling USA shows would mostly be shows for the AWA.

Crockett added a second annual supercard to his lineup in addition to Starrcade as The Great American Bash became the annual summertime supercard. The first Great American Bash was held on July 6, 1985 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Ric Flair defended his NWA World Heavyweight Championship against "The Russian Nightmare" Nikita Koloff and defeated him to retain the title. Flair was in the middle of a brutal feud with Koloff and his uncle Ivan Koloff during the summer of 1985. Flair had been a babyface in the Mid-Atlantic territory but a heel anywhere else in the other NWA territories.

NWA-JCP head booker Dusty Rhodes defeated Tully Blanchard in a Steel Cage match to win the NWA World Television Championship. Rhodes also won the services of Blanchard's valet Baby Doll for 30 days.

At an event on September 29 at The Omni in Atlanta, Flair defeated Nikita Koloff in a Steel Cage match. Koloff and his uncle Ivan attacked Flair after the match until Rhodes ran in and chased them away. Flair's storyline cousins The Andersons (Arn and Ole Anderson) came in to thank Dusty for helping Flair.

All of a sudden, the Andersons locked the cage door and in a major double-cross, they along with Flair viciously attacked Rhodes. Flair hit a knee drop off the top rope onto Rhodes' ankle, "breaking" it. Flair then applied the Figure Four Leg Lock until other face wrestlers came in and saved Rhodes. This was one of the biggest moments in NWA-JCP history as it started the Flair-Rhodes rivalry that lasted over a year as Flair was a total mega heel.

Rhodes managed to come back from the ankle injury to challenge Flair for the NWA World Title at Starrcade '85 on November 28 from The Omni. With the referee, Tommy Young down, The Andersons ran into the ring and attacked Rhodes. Rhodes, however, rolled Flair into an inside cradle to pin him and win the match and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

It appeared that Flair's year-and-a-half long reign as champion was over and Rhodes won the title for the third time in his career. However, Tommy Young announced that he reversed his decision due to the interference from Arn and Ole Anderson from a Rhodes' pinfall win to a Rhodes' disqualification win. That meant that Flair retained the title as the title cannot change hands on a disqualification or a count out.

This was just the beginning of the intense Flair-Rhodes rivalry that was about to add some more "horses" to the stable as we go into 1986.