Greatest NWA World Heavyweight Champions
This is a close race with Flair but the edge goes to Thesz. Back in Thesz’s days, he dominated the NWA region for 27 years. Of that domination, he had six reigns lasting a combined 3,749 days. He was a brilliant technician and hard nosed competitor, who could bend opponents up like pretzels. His tougher fights usually lasted over an hour because they wrestled a lot of 2 out 3 falls matches. Also, in those days he would occasionally go to WWWF and AWA and wrestled their champion. Those matches usually ended as draws because their promoters had to save face. Unlike today, wrestlers tended to get upset from time to time and started hitting each other for real. It was a different time, with a different, more rambunctious fan base. If you didn’t get hurt in the ring, it could happen around the crowd.