Just FYI, Bob Trobich, who previously represented Jim Crockett Promotions and the NWA as legal counsel (he currently serves at their Executive Director) has been posting on their message forum and has been able to fill in some of the blanks with regard to the ownership history of Big Goldy and some of the legal ramifications that occurred with Flair and WCW in the early '90s. Some of the info is already well known, but there are a couple of "new" tidbits.
 
-Jim Crockett Promotions had the belt made and it was initially their property; Crockett sells to Turner in 1988.
-Jim Herd/WCW fires Flair in '91 (who takes the belt with him) and the NWA publicly supports him. There is also some discussion of Flair working smaller NWA shows.
-Flair begins negotiating and/or signs with WWF and rumors begin circulating that he will appear with the belt on TV (Bobby Heenan actually appeared with it it before Flair made his first appearance). There is talk of doing an NWA angle.
-Flair shows up with the belt and WCW says it will pony up funds to the NWA and agrees to foot the legal bill for a court battle; NWA strips Flair and files suit against WWF. The belt becomes pixelated, etc.
-Crockett's story about the belt seemed to change depending on the audience, but during the lawsuit against the WWF he signed an affidavit stating that he gave ownership to the NWA.
-Flair had paperwork on the $25,000 bond he posted as security for the belt (an old NWA practice), but did claim that the belt was given to him at some point as a gift by Crockett.
-Trobich did not act directly as legal counsel for the NWA during the suit because he was a potential witness in fact and had previously represented Flair, thus creating a conflict.  
-Flair is paid a money settlement, for the most part covering his security bond plus interest, in exchange for the belt.
-NWA sues WCW in Sept. 1993 after the two organizations split and WCW continues to promote an NWA title match between Flair and Rick Rude for their Fall Brawl PPV (WCW had also planned to have Rude win the title without first getting NWA approval); during the hearing, one of the lawyers who had represented the NWA during the WWF lawsuit shows up on WCW's behalf with an alleged "bill of sale" indicating that ownership of the belt and it's associated "goodwill" (presumably meaning all intellectual rights accompanying it) were transfered from the NWA to WCW. Trobich says there had never been any disclosure of this until said hearing and that there was never any corporate record of a "sale". He also claims conflict of interest since the lawyer had previously represented the NWA. Judge rules that the document is vague but valid and allows the match to proceed as scheduled.
-Trobich considers another lawsuit over the validity and interpretation of the bill of sale document. He wasn't specific on whether or not this was actually pursued, but if it was the NWA obviously was not victorious because in the end WCW got to keep the belt, and in the midst of all the legal rangling, changed the name several times from the NWA title to World title to Gold Belt to finally WCW International World title.
-As an addendum, he also said Magnum T.A. stated that Flair gave him the belt while he was in the hospital, but never put in any sort of legal claim.