[1992-07-04-WCW-Saturday Night] Interview: Bill Watts

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Watts announces that there are too many titles in WCW, and that from here forward, there will be only one title in each division. At the end of July, the U.S. tag titles will be retired, so whoever has the belts at the end of the month will be the last champs. Dick Slater and the Barbarian are out to issue a challenge. Slater can't form a coherent sentence.

[shoe]

Slater was so terrible. I was hoping Barbarian would start speaking.

[Kevin Ridge]

That is a lot of tag titles to have in one organization. Slater says something. Watts seemed to understanding what he said.

[WingedEagle]

Announces they're eliminating US tag titles at the end of the month and looking to unify World tag team titles. Slater and Barbarian want a shot at US titles and Freebirds.

[PeteF3]

The U.S. Tag Titles are mercy killed. Their existence was tenuous to begin with but made some sense when JCP or WCW had 6 or 7 regular tag teams plus most of the singles guys paired off with each other. Once the Midnights lost them in 1990 they were pretty much useless. A blond-haired Dick Slater rambles and gets in a challenge to the Freebirds. Dick seemed to be on something here, or his brains are just scrambled. He was very good on the mic at one point.

[MikeCampbell]

Bill Watts announces that he's retiring the United States Tag Titles, and Dick Slater rambles out a challenge for the Freebirds for the titles. Watts tells him he has to go through the Championship Committee.

[garretta]

I didn't even know that Slater and Barby teamed, let alone were any kind of title contenders. Dickie talked like there was some kind of issue between himself and the Birds. If there was, what was it?

 

If Watts wanted fewer titles, why didn't he just cancel the NWA deal? Was it eventually going to extend to the singles title as well?

 

I'm guessing the Japanese belts the Steiners had which Watts referred to were the IWGP titles. It sounds like Watts wanted to fold them into the WCW belts somehow or other. I can't believe that Inoki or Choshu or whoever was in ultimate charge of NJPW would have let him get away with that, even if the Steiners were a top team for both promotions.

[dawho5]

Slater had some trouble getting his words in order.  US Tag Titles are leaving, which makes sense given the lack of focus on the tag division.