- Jason Hess

Hello and welcome to the latest installment of Houston Wrestling here at Kayfabe Memories.  With Wrestlemania 18 right around the corner, I am going to take a detour from my original article (back next month with it) and talk about two men who apparently will be facing each other at WrestleMania.  Both have ties to Houston for very different reasons.  One of the featured matches for this year’s WrestleMania is Ric Flair vs. The Undertaker.  While the Undertaker is actually from the Houston area, Ric Flair is the man we are going to focus on extensively, as we take a look back at Flair in Houston during his main run as NWA champion in the 1980’s.   

Rewind:

As NWA champion, Ric Flair would venture into many territories just like all of the NWA champions would until the territorial NWA champion would become extinct in 1987.  Although never officially affiliated with the NWA, Paul Boesch often booked each “world” champion on his cards, having the likes of Nick Bockwinkel, Stan Hansen, Flair, and Harley Race on cards in Houston. 

Paul Boesch seemed to have not liked Race much, stemming from two events that happened four years apart.  In 1977, legislature passed an amendment making wrestling events presentable on Sundays.  Boesch quickly tackled the arrangement of having the first wrestling card ever held on a Sunday in Texas history, and booked the larger Summit arena (now known as the Compaq Center) for its first wrestling show ever.  In fact, May 21 would be a night of firsts:

-First wrestling card held on a Sunday in the state of Texas.

-First wrestling card at the Summit.

-First wrestling card in Texas with all three major organizations represented (AWA, NWA, WWWF.)