This Day in Pro Wrestling History (July 23)

30 years ago today, MTV presented The Brawl to End it All from Madison Square Garden in New York City.  It was a one-hour special produced for the fledgling music channel, though in reality, there were eleven matches on the card. The big hook of the show was a WWF Womens Championship match between longtime champion The Fabulous Moolah and challenger Wendi Richter. The event, sparked by a chance meeting between Cyndi Lauper and Captain Lou Albano while filming the music video for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", set off the famous "Rock ‘n Wrestling Connnection" that would culminate with the first Wrestlemania a few months later. The event drew a 9.0 rating for MTV, making it at the time the most watched program in the history of the channel. The event was broadcast in its entirety on MSG (Madison Square Garden) Network.

• Paul Orndorff defeated Chief Jay Strongbow.
• Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch defeated Sgt. Slaughter & Terry Daniels to retain the WWF Tag Team Championship.
• Bob Backlund defeated Butcher Vachon via submission.
• Tito Santana vs. Cowboy Bob Orton, Jr. went to a 20-minute draw for the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
• Hulk Hogan defeated Greg Valentine to retain the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.
• Antonio Inoki defeated Charlie Fulton to retain the WWF World Martial Arts Championship.
• The Iron Sheik defeated Tony Garea.
• Samoan Sika defeated Ron Shaw.
• Samoan Afa defeated Rene Goulet.
• Antonio Inoki won a 20-man battle royal.
• Wendi Richter defeated The Fabulous Moolah to win the WWF Womens Championship. Save for four brief runs not recognized by WWE today, the win ends The Fabulous Moolah's dominant run as women's champion that ran for 10,170 days, or over 27 years.

25 years ago, the NWA presented The Great American Bash: Glory Days (WWE Network link) from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. 12,500 were in attendance, with about 190,000 homes purchasing the event on PPV.

• Sid Vicious and Dan Spivey were co-winners of a Two-Ring King of the Hill Battle Royal worth $25,000. Vicious won in one ring, while Spivey was the last man standing in the other ring, and the two were to face off for the money, but their manager Teddy Long put a stop to that. Other participants (who qualified by winning battle royals during house shows prior to the event) were Eddie Gilbert, Terry Gordy, Scott Hall, Bill Irwin, Brian Pillman, Ranger Ross, Mike Rotunda, Ron Simmons, Rick Steiner, Scott Steiner and Kevin Sullivan. Of note, this was Scott Steiner's PPV debut.
• Brian Pillman defeated Bill Irwin.
• The Skyscrapers (Sid Vicious and Dan Spivey) defeated The Dynamic Dudes (Johnny Ace and Shane Douglas).
• Jim Cornette defeated Paul E. Dangerously in a Tuxedo match.
• The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) defeated Mike Rotunda and Kevin Sullivan in a Texas Tornado match.
• Sting defeated The Great Muta to retain the NWA World Television Championship. However, replays post-match showed Muta had a shoulder up before the three count while Sting's shoulders were still down, thus holding up the title. Muta would win the title in September in Atlanta.
• Lex Luger defeated Ricky Steamboat by disqualification to retain the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship. The match was originally booked as a no-disqualification match, but Luger refused to compete unless the no-disqualification rule was lifted.
• The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal), The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) and Steve Williams defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin, Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy) and The Samoan Swat Team (Samu and Fatu) in a WarGames match when Hawk forced Garvin to submit.
• Ric Flair defeated Terry Funk to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

14 years ago today, WWF presented Fully Loaded 2000 (WWE Network link) from the Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas. 16,504 were in attendance, with about 420,000 homes watching on PPV, up from 360,000 for 1999's edition.

• The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff) and Lita defeated T & A (Test and Albert) and Trish Stratus in a mixed tag team match.
• Tazz defeated Al Snow.
• Perry Saturn defeated Eddie Guerrero to win the WWF European Championship.
• The Acolytes (Faarooq and Bradshaw) defeated WWF Tag Team Champions Edge and Christian by disqualification.
• Val Venis defeated Rikishi in a Steel cage match to retain the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
• The Undertaker defeated Kurt Angle.
• Triple H defeated Chris Jericho in a Last Man Standing match.
• The Rock defeated Chris Benoit to retain the WWF Championship. Benoit originally won the match and the title via disqualification (per a prematch stipulation), but the bout was restarted by Commissioner Mick Foley.

13 years ago, Lance Storm defeats Albert on RAW from the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship.

6 years ago today, WWE made amendments to their Wellness Policy to include concussion testing using the same program that used by the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NHL, and the NCAA. In addition, WWE announced they would provide drug treatment services to anyone who ever performed under contract to WWE.

2 years ago today, WWE presented the 1000^th episode of Monday Night RAW (WWE Network link) from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. 18,308 were in attendance, with an average of six million viewers watching the first episode of the three-hour era, the most since 2009, and a number that hasn't been eclipsed since. D-Generation X (minus Chyna) reunited for the first time as a group since 2000, Jim Ross did commentary, Mick Foley appeared as Dude Love, and legends galore including Jim Duggan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Sid Vicious, Vader, Ron Simmons, Bob Backlund, and Diamond Dallas Page. The Rock returned for the first time since the night after Wrestlemania XXVIII to challenge the WWE Champion at the Royal Rumble, and AJ Lee, just moments before she was to be married to Daniel Bryan, was announced as the new general manager of RAW.

• Rey Mysterio, Sheamus & Sin Cara defeated Alberto Del Rio, Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler.
• Brodus Clay defeated Jack Swagger.
• The Miz defeated Christian to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
• Lita defeated Heath Slater in a no disqualification match.
• John Cena defeated CM Punk by disqualification for the WWE Championship. Punk retained the WWE Championship, and the win by DQ was pretty much a loss for Cena, as he became the first person to fail to win the title in his Money in the Bank cash-in match. Post-match, Punk turned heel when he attacked The Rock just as he was doing the People's Elbow on Big Show.