This Day in Pro Wrestling History (July 12)

Some advice from Uncle Eddie: if you ever get yourself into some gambling problems, don't steal from your bosses to pay them off. They'll know about it. And they'll probably throw you in jail.

28 years ago today, Bruno Sammartino and Tito Santana defeated WWF Intercontinental Champion Randy Savage and Adrian Adonis in a steel cage match in Madison Square Garden in New York City. The event would be Sammartino's final appearance at the Garden, a building he sold out nearly two hundred times.

22 years ago today, NWA/WCW held The Great American Bash (WWE Network link) from the Gray Civic Center in Albany, Georgia. About 8,000 were in attendance with 70,000 homes purchasing the event on PPV. This would be the last Great American Bash until 1995. The focus of the event was to crown new board-recognized NWA Tag Team Champions. The NWA Tag Team Championship was vacated when the original versions of the title combined to create the WCW World Tag Team Championship lineage in 1991. The WCW and NWA tag team titles were defended together until September 1993 when WCW withdraws from the NWA. The first round of the tournament and one quarterfinal match was held at Clash of the Champions XIX back on June 16.

• Nikita Koloff and Ricky Steamboat defeated Jushin Liger and Brian Pillman.
• Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham defeated NWA World Television Champion Steve Austin and NWA United States Heavyweight Champion Rick Rude.
• Hiroshi Hase and Shinya Hashimoto (subbing for the injured Akira Nogami) defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes).
• WCW World Tag Team Champions Terry Gordy and Steve Williams defeated Nikita Koloff and Ricky Steamboat.
• Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham defeated Hiroshi Hase and Shinya Hashimoto.
• Big Van Vader defeated Sting to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. It's the first of three WCW world title wins for Vader.
• WCW World Tag Team Champions Terry Gordy and Steve Williams defeated Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship. Following Gordy and Williams' win, the championship was defended as the NWA/WCW Unified Tag Team Championship until WCW's withdrawal from the NWA.

19 years ago, Jack Tunney resigns from his post as WWF "President". In reality, Tunney, who had a big hand in promoting WWF cards in the Northeast in the 1980s and early 1990s, specifically the Toronto area, ran up some gambling debts and used company money to pay them off. When Vince McMahon got wind of it, he forced Tunney out, and Jack quietly faded away into retirement and obscurity. When Tunney died in 2004, there were no representatives from WWE at the funeral, nor was his death mentioned on WWE programming or their website.

16 years ago today, WCW held Bash at the Beach (WWE Network link) from the Cox Arena in San Diego, California. 10,095 people were in attendance with 580,000 homes purchasing the event on PPV. It's WCW's most watched PPV of 1998.

• Raven defeated Saturn in a Raven's Rules match.
• Juventud Guerrera pinned Kidman.
• Stevie Ray defeated Chavo Guerrero, Jr. by submission.
• Eddie Guerrero defeated Chavo Guerrero, Jr. in a hair versus hair match. It was Chavo that did his own haircut post-match.
• Konnan defeated Alex Wright by submission.
• The Giant defeated Kevin Greene.
• Rey Mysterio, Jr. defeated Chris Jericho to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. However, due to interference from Dean Malenko, the title was returned the next night on Nitro to Jericho.
• WCW World Television Champion Booker T defeated Bret Hart by disqualification.
• WCW World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg defeated Curt Hennig.
• Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Dennis Rodman defeated Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone.

15 years ago today was a big night in the Monday Night Wars. On RAW from the Louisville Gardens in Louisville, Kentucky, the WWF announces that Minnesota Governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura would return to the company as a special referee for the main event of Summerslam. On Nitro from the Jacksonville Coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida, Hollywood Hulk Hogan defeats Macho Man Randy Savage to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship just one day after Savage had won the title at Bash at the Beach. It would begin his sixth and final run with the title. Side nugget: all of Randy Savage's six world title reigns were ended by one of two men: Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair.

3 years ago today, Brooke Tessmacher and Tara (later collectively known as TnT) defeat Mexican America (Rosita & Sarita) to win the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship.

A happy 40th birthday to Gregory "Sugar Shane"/"Hurricane" Helms. Here's his best 60 moves by Youtuber BDWJ1986.

A happy 37th birthday to the beast incarnate, the conquerer of The Streak and the Brocktagon, Brock Lesnar. Here's a video of him doing F5s on everybody by Youtuber WWE All Universe. (Note: the video was made before his WrestleMania XXX win against the Undertaker.)

Happy 30th birthday to Rami Sebei, aka NXT's Sami Zayn. If you are not aware of his awesomeness, check out the match that put him on the map in WWE, a two-out-of-three falls match from last summer against Antonio Cesaro. Or you can check out this video right here. It's an El Generico tribute, who may or may not have been played by Sebei, depending on who you ask.