This Day in Wrestling History (October 18)

32 years ago today, El Hijo del Santo, the son of legendary luchadore El Santo, makes his professional wrestling debut. His debut actually came eight months earlier under the name El Korak, but Santo would not allow his son to take on his name and mask until he finished college. El Hijo del Santo, real name Jorge Guzman Rodriguez, would wrestle under the mask for more than 30 years, until spinal damage forced him away from the ring earlier this year. He would win championships in five different organizations in Mexico, and was recognized in 2008 by the World Boxing Council as their wrestling champion for significant contributions to the sport.

17 years ago today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The FBI (Little Guido & Tracy Smothers) defeated The Gangstinators (John Kronus & New Jack) to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship.

16 years ago today, WWF presented Judgment Day: In Your House (WWE Network link) from the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago, Illinois. 18,153 were in attendance, with 327,000 homes watching on PPV.

• Sunday Night Heat matches:
  • Steve Blackman defeated Bradshaw.
  • The Oddities (Giant Silva, Kurrgan and Golga) defeated Los Boricuas (Jose Estrada, Miguel Perez,Jr. and Jesus Castillo).
  • The Godfather defeated Faarooq.
  • Scorpio defeated Jeff Jarrett.

• PPV matches:
  • Al Snow defeated Marc Mero.
  • L.O.D. 2000 (Hawk, Animal and Droz) defeated Disciples of Apocalypse (8-Ball, Skull and Paul Ellering).
  • Christian defeated Taka Michinoku to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship. This was Christian's debut match.
  • Goldust defeated Val Venis.
  • X-Pac defeated D'Lo Brown to win the WWF European Championship.
  • The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) defeated The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) by disqualification for the WWF Tag Team Championships.
  • Ken Shamrock defeated Mankind to retain the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
  • Mark Henry defeated The Rock.
  • The Undertaker fought Kane to a no contest for the vacant WWF Championship with Steve Austin as the referee. Per a pre-match stipulation, since the match did not have a conclusive winner, Austin was fired. Needless to say, the stipulation didn't stick.

15 years ago today on RAW is WAR from Columbus, Ohio, The Hollys (Crash & Hardcore) defeated the Rock ‘n Sock Connection to win the WWF Tag Team Championship. It was the second title change in less than a week, and the seventh in seven weeks.

15 years ago today on Nitro from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Filthy Animals (Konnan & Rey Mysterio, Jr.) defeated Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship. They would be forced to vacate the titles the less than a week later when Mysterio suffered a leg injury.

10 years ago today on RAW from Chicago, Illinois, Edge defeated Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels in a triple threat match. The match served as a tuneup for Taboo Tuesday the next night, as one of the three men would face Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship. That man, determined by a fan vote, would be Shawn Michaels, who, by the way, suffered a torn meniscus in the triple threat match.

9 years ago today at a Smackdown taping from Reno, Nevada, Booker T defeated Chris Benoit to win the WWE United States Championship.

5 years ago today, TNA presented Bound for Glory from the Bren Events Center in Irvine, California.

• The Amazing Red defeated Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Daniels, Homicide and Suicide in an Ultimate X match to retain the TNA X-Division Championship.
• Sarita & Taylor Wilde defeated The Beautiful People (Madison Rayne & Velvet Sky to retain the TNA Knockout Tag Team Championships.
• Eric Young defeated Kevin Nash and Hernandez in a three-way match to become the new TNA Legends Champion.
• The British Invasion (Brutus Magnus & Doug Williams) and Team 3D (Brother Devon & Brother Ray) defeated Booker T & Scott Steiner and Beer Money Inc. (James Storm & Robert Roode) in a Full Metal Mayhem Double Ladder Four Way match for the TNA and IWGP Tag Team Championships. The British Invasion won the TNA tag titles, while Team 3D won the IWGP tag titles.
• ODB defeated Awesome Kong and Tara in a three-way match to retain the TNA Knockouts Championship.
• Bobby Lashley defeated Samoa Joe in a submission match.
• Abyss defeated Mick Foley in a Monster's Ball match. Dr. Stevie was the special referee.
• Kurt Angle defeated Matt Morgan.
• AJ Styles defeated Sting to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.

4 years ago today, WWE launches their "Stand Up for WWE" campaign, designed to get fans to defend the company against criticism, in reality was a thinly veiled attempt to get fans to support Linda McMahon's Senatorial bid in Connecticut. However, Linda would get crushed in the polls, as she lost her bid to Richard Blumenthal the next month.

3 years ago today at an Impact taping at Universal Orlando, James Storm defeated Kurt Angle to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship just two days after Storm's tag team partner Bobby Roode failed to win the title at Bound for Glory. I know this was in yesterday's TDIPWH, but I jumped the gun by a day. My bad, everyone.

2 years ago today, TNA announces via press release that Bruce Prichard has been hired as TNA's senior vice president of programming and talent relations. He would hold the position for less than two years before being released in July 2013.