This Day in Pro Wrestling History (August 4)

19 years ago today at SMW's Superbowl of Wrestling from Knoxville, Tennessee, The Heavenly Bodies (Jimmy Del Ray and Tom Pritchard) defeated The Thugs (Tony Anthony and Tracy Smothers) to win the SMW Tag Team Championship. They would be the last champions in the promotion's history before the promotion shut down in December.

18 years ago today, WCW presented Collision in Korea on PPV. The event, originally taped over two days in April, was co-promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was the first North American wrestling PPV to take place in North Korea. With a reported combined attendance of 340,000 people, it's the largest attended pro wrestling event ever. Results below are matches that were broadcast on the PPV.

• Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit) defeated 2 Cold Scorpio.
• Yuji Nagata defeated Tokimitsu Ishizawa via submission.
• Masahiro Chono and Hiro Saito defeated El Samurai and Tadao Yasuda.
• Bull Nakano and Akira Hokuto defeated Manami Toyota and Mariko Yoshida.
• Shinya Hashimoto fought Scott Norton to a 20-minute time limit draw for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
• Road Warrior Hawk defeated Tadao Yasuda.
• The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) defeated Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki.
• Antonio Inoki defeated Ric Flair.

17 years ago today on the 100^th episode of WCW Monday Nitro from the Palace at Auburn Hills in suburban Detroit, Michigan, Lex Luger defeated Hollywood Hogan via submission to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The win ended Hogan's run as WCW champion just six days short of a full calendar year. His moment of glory wouldn't last long, as just five days later at Road Wild in Sturgis, South Dakota, Hogan would defeat Luger and regain the world title.

12 years ago today at a Smackdown taping (WWE Network link) in Richmond, Virginia, Brock Lesnar scored perhaps the most stunning defeat in Smackdown history when he defeated Hulk Hogan via knockout. It would be Hogan's final appearance in WWE until the following January.

6 years ago today on an episode of RAW from Richmond, Virginia, Batista and John Cena defeated Legacy (Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase Jr.) to win the WWE World Tag Team Championship. The duo would lose the championships back to Legacy just one week later.

Today is the 37^th birthday of Frank Gerdelman, best known as Kazarian. He had a cup of coffee in the WWE, but his best successes came in TNA, where he is a five-time X Division champion and twice tag team champion. He also won the PWG world title twice, once in 2003, and again in 2004. After nearly a decade in TNA, he debuted recently for ROH at Best in the World. Enjoy this tribute made from Youtuber IAmTheMikko.

Today's the 54^th birthday of Dean Simon, aka Dean Malenko. Today, Malenko works as a road agent for WWE, he's won just about everywhere he's been. He's a two-time ECW World Television Champion, four-time WCW Cruiserweight Champion, United States Champion, and tag team champion, and twice light heavyweight champion in the WWF. The "Man of 1000 Holds" was the #1 ranked wrestler in the world according to Pro Wrestling Illustrated in 1997, and won Best Technical Wrestler from Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 1996 and 1997. Enjoy some of his 1000 holds courtesy of Youtuber BDWJ1986.