This Day in Wrestling History (September 2)

29 years ago today at CWF/NWA Battle of the Belts at the Spartan Sports Center (today known as the Sun Dome) in Tampa, Florida, Ric Flair defeated Wahoo McDaniels two falls to one to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

22 years ago today, WCW presented Clash of the Champions XX: 20^th Anniversary (WWE Network) from Center Stage Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. Center Stage Atlanta was where WCW Saturday Night was taped from 1989-1996. The show commemorated WCW and its predecessors broadcasting on TBS for 20 years. It also featured the final television appearance in the United States of Andre the Giant before dying of heart failure just four months later.

• Ricky Steamboat defeated Steve Austin in a no disqualification match to win the WCW World Television Championship.
• Arn Anderson & Beautiful Bobby defeated Dick Slater & Greg Valentine.
• Ron Simmons defeated Cactus Jack to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
• Butch Reed & The Barbarian defeated Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes.
• Big Van Vader, Jake Roberts, Rick Rude & The Super Invader (w/ Harley Race) defeated Nikita Koloff, Sting & The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) in an 8-man tag team elimination match.
  • Jake Roberts eliminated Nikita Koloff.
  • Sting eliminated The Super Invader.
  • Scott Steiner eliminated by disqualification.
  • Rick Steiner eliminated by countout.
  • Big Van Vader eliminated by disqualification.
  • Jake Roberts eliminated Sting.

12 years ago today on RAW from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the World Heavyweight Championship is introduced in the form of the Big Gold Belt (aka the old WCW world heavyweight championship belt). The belt was retired this past April when said Big Gold Belt and the Big Eagle belt used during the Attitude Era were retired in favor of the WWE Undisputed Championship belt. WWE had but one champion only for a few months before Brock Lesnar signed an exclusive contract to Smackdown, taking the title with him. Thus, Big Gold is reborn. The WWE would operate with two world champions until this past December when the belts were once again unified in a TLC match won by Randy Orton. Big Gold was once again retired just after Summerslam when the WWE introduced an updated version of their world title belt commissioned just a year and a half earlier. In an important side note, Triple H defeated Ric Flair to retain said World Heavyweight Championship later in the show.

7 years ago today at a RAW taping from Columbus, Ohio, Jeff Hardy defeats Umaga to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship for the fourth and final time.

7 years ago today, WWE releases Nick Dinsmore after failing a second drug test. He portrayed controversial special needs wrestler Eugene, the nephew of Eric Bischoff from 2004-2007. He was brought back in July 2009, only to be released after just one appearance on RAW. After spending most of the last seven years on the independent circuit and in Ohio Valley Wrestling (where he is a 10-time heavyweight champion), Dinsmore was brought back by WWE last September as a trainer for their NXT promotion.

6 years ago today, UFC announces that Randy Couture would be returning to the company. Couture had been at odds with UFC since late 2007. Oh, and Randy at the time just happened to be their heavyweight champion. During the same conference call, it was announced that Couture's first opponent would be Brock Lesnar for the heavyweight title in November. (For the record, Lesnar would win via second round 2^nd round TKO.)