This Day in Pro Wrestling History (August 9)

If you thought yesterday's TDIPWH was loaded, strap in boys and girls. Today is even more loaded. TOO MUCH HISTORY TO HANDLE!

34 years ago today, the WWF held Showdown at Shea at Shea Stadium in Flushing, New York. 36,295 fans were in attendance for the show.

• The Hangman defeated Rene Goulet.
• Ivan Putski defeated Johnny Rodz.
• Angel Marvilla defeated Jose Estrada.
• Beverly Slade & Kandy Maloy defeated Fabulous Moolah & Peggy Lee.
• Dominic DeNucci defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna.
• Greg Gagne defeated Rick McGraw.
• Pat Patterson defeated Tor Kamata via DQ.
• WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami defeated Chavo Guerrero.
• WWF Martial Arts Champion Antonio Inoki defeated Larry Sharpe via submission.
• Andre the Giant defeated Hulk Hogan.
• Tony Atlas defeated Intercontinental Champion Ken Patera via countout.
• Bob Backlund & Pedro Morales defeated The Samoans (Afa & Sika) to win the WWF World Tag Team Title. However, because Backlund was already the WWF World Heavyweight Champion, he and Morales were forced to vacate the belts.
• Bruno Sammartino defeated Larry Zbyszko in a steel cage match.

28 years ago today in St. Louis, Missouri, Ric Flair defeats Dusty Rhodes to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the fifth time. Rhodes was in the figure four leglock, but did not submit. The pain was too much for Rhodes (thanks in part to an attack from the Four Horsemen) and his shoulders were counted down.

Terry Funk vs Sabu - ECW Born To Be Wired 97 by benoitsergerie

17 years ago today at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sabu defeated Terry Funk in a barbed wire match to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. The match became the main event of the show, appropriately named Born to Be Wired, two weeks prior when a number of injuries forced a shuffling of the card. The match doesn't last long either; the men became so entangled in the barbed wire at one point, Sabu went to the finish rather than separate and do more spots. The two had to be cut from the wire post-match. Sabu's second and final reign would only last eight days before losing the title to Shane Douglas at Hardcore Heaven. In interviews since the match, ECW promoter Paul Heyman has said the level of violence bothered him so much, he would never again book such a match. WARNING: THE ABOVE VIDEO MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL VIEWERS.

17 years ago today, WCW presented Road Wild (WWE Network link) from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. About 6,500 were in attendance for the free show (free as in WCW did not make a dime in ticket sales) with 240,000 homes watching on PPV, which was up slightly from 1996's Hog Wild. The event was renamed Road Wild due to a potential trademark lawsuit with Harley-Davidson, who owned the "HOG" trademark.

• Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) defeated Vicious and Delicious (Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton).
• Konnan defeated Rey Misterio Jr. in a Mexican deathmatch.
• Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael defeat Dean Malenko & Jeff Jarrett in an elimination tag team match.
  • Steve McMichael eliminated Jeff Jarrett.
  • Steve McMichael eliminated Dean Malenko.
• Alex Wright defeated Chris Jericho to retain the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship.
• Ric Flair defeated Syxx.
• Curt Hennig defeated Diamond Dallas Page.
• The Giant defeated Randy Savage.
• The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) defeated The Outsiders (Kevin Nash & Scott Hall) by DQ in a WCW World Tag Team Championship Match.
• Hollywood Hogan defeated Lex Luger to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

(Hulk Hogan returns to the red and yellow)

(Flair wins US title)

(Jericho debut)

(Kane and X-Pac win tag titles)

(Chyna becomes the #1 contender)

15 years ago today was a big day in the Monday Night Wars for both WWF and WCW. On WCW Monday Nitro, Chris Benoit defeated David Flair to win the WCW United States Championship. In the show's main event, Hulk Hogan wore his trademark red and yellow for the first time in three years as he, Sting and Goldberg defeated Sid Vicious, Kevin Nash, and Rick Steiner. Despite the return of Hogan, it could not turn around the steady ratings slide; the show did a 3.1 rating.

Over in the WWF on RAW is War, the Millennium Countdown that played on WWF programming for more than a month finally ended, and the Millennium Man was revealed to be the debuting Chris Jericho. RAW had a title change too: Kane and X-Pac defeated The Acolytes (Faarooq & Bradshaw) to win the WWF Tag Team Championship. Post-match, Kane spoke without a voicebox for the first time. In the main event, Chyna defeated Triple H and The Undertaker in a triple threat falls count anywhere match to become the #1 contender for the WWF Championship. Chyna became the first woman to become the top contender for the WWF's top prize. It wouldn't last, as Chyna would lose it to Mankind (and Triple H) the next week. The show did a 6.4 rating.

4 years ago today, TNA taped The Whole F'N Show from the Impact Zone at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. The taping for the August 12 Impact was the original card for Hard Justice, but was postponed for TNA's ECW reunion show, Hardcore Justice.

• Kurt Angle defeated AJ Styles.
• Angelina Love defeated Madison Rayne to win the TNA Knockouts Championship.
• Matt Morgan defeated D'Angelo Dinero & Mr. Anderson in a three-way match.
• Jeff Hardy defeated Shannon Moore.
• The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) defeated Beer Money Inc. (James Storm & Robert Roode) two falls to one to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship. The match was the fifth and final bout between the two teams in the best-of-5 series for the titles.
• Robert Roode pinned Alex Shelley.
• Alex Shelley pinned Robert Roode.
• Chris Sabin pinned James Storm.
• Rob Van Dam defeated Abyss in a Stairway to Janice match to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Eric Bischoff was the special referee.

3 years ago today at a Smackdown taping in Sacramento, California, Cody Rhodes defeated Ezekiel Jackson to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

3 years ago today on an episode of Impact from the Impact Zone at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, Mexican America (Anarquia and Hernandez) defeat Beer Money to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship.

Happy 31^st birthday to Elizabeth Miklosi, aka Lizzy Valentine. Trained by Homicide, Elizabeth spent most of her time on the independent circuit, feuding with Alexis Laree (aka Mickie James) in Northeastern independent promotions. She had a cup of coffee in TNA as part of an all-female stable known as Bitchslap. The storyline was dropped due to lack of female competition at the time. After some time on the west coast indy circuit (notably Pro Wrestling Guerrilla), she gained fame as Matt Sydal's (the future Evan Bourne's) girlfriend on Wrestling Society X. She was also part of the short-lived Wrestilicious series as Kandi Kisses and a member of The Right stable in Lucha Libre USA. Here's Lizzy in the ring for Women Superstars Unleashed from 2013 challenging Angel Orsini for the WSU Championship.

Happy 34^th birthday to Caleb Dewall, aka "Pro Wrestling's Last Real Man" Silas Young. Dewall is the nephew of wrestling royalty: Stan "The Man" Hansen. Dewall also holds another pretty cool claim to fame: he's the last man to defeat Kevin Steen in a Ring of Honor match. Here's his pretty awesome finish, the Pee Gee Waja Plunge, a steamroller + handstand + springboard moonsault.