30 years ago today at World Wrestling Council's 11th anniversary show in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Randy Savage defeated Pedro Morales to win the WWC North American Heavyweight Championship.
22 years ago today, the WWF and Japanese promotion WAR (Wrestle and Romance) held a co-promoted event. In the featured bout, Ric Flair and Genichiro Tenryu fight to a draw in a best of three falls match. Tenryu and Flair split the first two falls, and the fight to a double countout in the third fall. On the same show, Road Warrior Animal reaggravates a back injury that forces him away from the ring for over three years.
18 years ago today, WCW presented Fall Brawl: War Games (WWE Network link) from the Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It's the first of four straight years the event would be held in Winston-Salem. 11,300 were in attendance with 230,000 homes watching on PPV. In a testament to the rapid rise of WCW around this time, that's more buys than the last two Fall Brawls combined (110,000 in 1994, 95,000 in 1995). This was also the first PPV where stars from Mexican promotion AAA competed on a WCW show since When Worlds Collide in 1994.
- Diamond Dallas Page defeated Chavo Guerrero, Jr.
- Ice Train defeated Scott Norton in a submission match.
- Konnan defeated Juventud Guerrera to retain the AAA Heavyweight Championship.
- Chris Benoit defeated Chris Jericho.
- Rey Mysterio, Jr. defeated Super Caló to retain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship.
- Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) defeated The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
- The Giant defeated Randy Savage.
- Team nWo (Hollywood Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and nWo Sting) defeated Team WCW (Lex Luger, Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Sting) in a WarGames match. Near the end of the match, the real Sting (Sting) cleaned house for Team WCW, then walked out on them. The nWo Sting (Jeff Farmer-yes, THAT Jeff Farmer) submitted Lex Luger with the Scorpion Deathlock to win the match.
17 years ago today in Charlotte, North Carolina on Nitro, Curt Hennig defeated Steve McMichael to win the WCW United States Championship. Here's a stunner for you: it was Hennig's only singles title with the company.
16 years ago today at a RAW is WAR taping in Sacramento, California, Jacqueline defeated Sable to become the WWF Womens Champion. The title had been vacated since December 1995 when Alundra Blayze (aka Debra "Madusa" Miceli) trashed the women's title on Nitro. On the same taping, X-Pac defeated D-Lo Brown to win the WWF European Championship.
11 years ago today on RAW from Columbia, South Carolina, Fabulous Moolah defeated Victoria in just 30 seconds. As the story goes, this was Vince McMahon making good on his promise from a long time ago that she could have a match if she reached 80. Post-match, Randy Orton delivered an RKO to Moolah. On the same episode, Lita made her first in-ring appearance on RAW for the first time since suffering a broken neck on the set of Dark Angel in April 2002.
<iframe frameborder="0" width="560" height="315" src="//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x1af8d" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1af8d_jarrett-vs-raven-nwa-title-incident_sport" target="_blank">Jarrett vs. Raven NWA Title Incident</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/kdblack" target="_blank">kdblack</a></i>
9 years ago today at a Border City Wrestling event in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Jeff Jarrett defeated Raven to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. This was believed to be the first NWA world title match in Windsor in nearly a half-century. Despite there being TNA cameras in the building, footage of the match never aired on television..
7 years ago today, Ring of Honor taped Man Up from the Frontier Fieldhouse in Chicago Ridge, Illinois. It would not air on PPV until November 30. It's noted for being the last show for Matt Sydal before he left for WWE.
PPV Matches:
- Nigel McGuinness defeated Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli & Naomichi Marufuji in a Four Corner Survival Match.
- No Remorse Corps (Rocky Romero, Davey Richards, and Roderick Strong) defeated Resilience (Matt Cross, Austin Aries, and Erick Stevens) two matches to one to win their Best of Three Series.
- Rocky Romero defeated Matt Cross.
- Austin Aries defeated Davey Richards.
- Roderick Strong defeated Erick Stevens.
- Takeshi Morishima (c) defeated Bryan Danielson to retain the ROH World Championship.
- The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated El Generico & Kevin Steen in a Ladder Match to retain the ROH World Tag Team Championship.
In matches not airing on the Man Up PPV:
- Ernie Osiris & Silas Young defeated Bobby Dempsey & Rhett Titus.
- Mitch Franklin (c) defeated Alex Payne to retain the ROH Top of the Class Trophy Championship.
- Amazing Kong & Daizee Haze defeated Lacey & Sara Del Rey.
- The Hangmen Three (BJ Whitmer & Brent Albright) defeated The YRR (Chasyn Rance & Kenny King).
- Jack Evans vs. Tyler Black ended in a no contest.
- Irish Airborne (Dave Crist & Jake Crist) & Jack Evans vs. The Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs, Necro Butcher & Tyler Black) ended in a no contest in a Six Man Tag Team Street Fight.
- Delirious defeated Matt Sydal (w/ Larry Sweeney).
5 years ago today, Ric Flair signed a deal to return to the ring as part of the "Hulkamania Tour" in Australia.
5 years ago today, Jim Cornette and BG James would be released from TNA. Both had been working as agents for the company, though Cornette also had a hand in television production.
2 years ago today, Ring of Honor presented Death Before Dishonor X: State of Emergency from the Frontier Fieldhouse in Chicago Ridge, Illinois. The focus of the show was to crown new ROH World Tag Team Champions after one-half of the former champions, Kenny King, abruptly left the company for TNA. Of note, both Davey Richards and Matt Hardy made their returns to the company on this show.
- S.C.U.M. (Jimmy Jacobs and Steve Corino) defeated Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander in an ROH World Tag Team Championship tournament semifinal match.
- Tadarius Thomas defeated Silas Young to qualify for Survival of the Fittest.
- Kyle O'Reilly defeated ACH.
- Rhett Titus and Charlie Haas defeated The Briscoes in an ROH World Tag Team Championship tournament semifinal match.
- Jay Lethal defeated Homicide.
- House of Truth defeated The Irish Airborne (Jake and Dave Crist).
- Adam Cole defeated "No Fear" Mike Mondo to retain the ROH World Television Championship.
- S.C.U.M. defeated Rhett Titus and Charlie Haas in the finals to win the vacated ROH World Tag Team Championship.
- Kevin Steen defeated Rhyno w/ Truth Martini to retain the ROH World Championship in an anything goes match.
Last year, WWE presented Night of Champions (WWE Network link) from the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. 10,500 were in attendance, with just 175,000 homes watching on PPV, down from 189,000 for 2012's edition.
- In a preshow match, The Prime Time Players defeated The Usos, Tons of Funk, The Real Americans and 3MB in a Tag Team Turmoil match to become the #1 contender for the WWE Tag Team Championship.
- Curtis Axel defeated Kofi Kingston to retain the Intercontinental Championship.
- AJ Lee defeated Brie Bella, Natalya, and Naomi in a Fatal 4-Way match to retain the WWE Divas Championship.
- Rob Van Dam defeated Alberto Del Rio by disqualification in a World Heavyweight Championship match.
- The Miz defeated Fandango.
- Curtis Axel & Paul Heyman defeated CM Punk in a no disqualification elimination handicap match. If Paul Heyman did not compete, he would had been fired.
- Dean Ambrose defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the WWE United States Championship.
- The Shield (Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns) defeated Prime Time Players (Titus O'Neil & Darren Young) to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship.
- Daniel Bryan defeated Randy Orton to win the WWE Championship. The result was negated the next night and the championship made vacant after it was alleged referee Scott Armstrong and Bryan co-consipred to take the title from Orton. The title would remain vacant for more than a month before Orton won it back.