This Day in Wrestling History (September 24)

30 years ago today in London, Ontario, Canada, Greg Valentine defeated Tito Santana to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Santana at the time of the match had an injured leg, and Valentine worked the leg during the bout and post-match. Santana had to be stretchered out of the ring. They would feud until July 1985 when Santana defeated Valentine for the title in a steel cage match.

24 years ago today, Herb Abrams' Universal Wrestling Federation held their first television taping at the Reseda Country Club in Los Angeles, California. Despite the load of famous names, just 450 fans were in attendance. The tapings were for UWF's Fury Hour, which ran for SportsChannel America.

19 years ago today, WWF presented In Your House 3: Triple Header (WWE Network link) from the Saginaw Civic Center in Saginaw, Michigan. 5,146 were in attendance, with 160,000 homes watching on PPV, though some estimates have it as high as 220,000 home buys. The hook of the show was winners-take-all tag team match with all of the WWF's championships on the line in one bout. The winners would take the loser's championships. Still not sure how this relates to a tripleheader, but whateves.

• In a preshow Free for All match, Fatu defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley.
• Savio Vega defeated Waylon Mercy.
• Sycho Sid defeated Henry O. Godwinn.
• The British Bulldog defeated Bam Bam Bigelow.
• Dean Douglas defeated Razor Ramon.
• Bret Hart defeated Jean-Pierre LaFitte.
• Two Dudes with Attitude (WWF Champion Diesel & WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels) defeated The British Bulldog & Yokozuna to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship. However, Owen Hart, who was subbed out of the match, was the one who was pinned. As he was not the recognized champion at the time of the match (even though Owen was technically one half of the tag champions at the time), the belts were returned to Owen and Yokozuna the next night on RAW.
• In a post-show dark match, The Undertaker defeated King Mabel.

14 years ago today, WWF presented Unforgiven (WWE Network link) from the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 18,092 were in attendance, with a staggering 605,000 homes watching on PPV. Why so many? It was Stone Cold Steve Austin's return to the full-time roster for the first time since the previous November's Survivor Series when he was sidelined with a neck injury (kayfabe: he was run over). The 605,000 homes is nearly double the 1999 edition (335,000 homes) and 35,000 more buys than the critically-acclaimed Summerslam the previous month.

• The Right to Censor (Bull Buchanan, Val Venis, Steven Richards, & The Goodfather) defeated The Acolytes (Faarooq & Bradsahw) & The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von).
• Tazz defeated Jerry Lawler via knockout in a strap match. Of note, Raven made his WWF debut interfering on Tazz's behalf.
• Steve Blackman won a ten-minute hardcore battle royal to win the WWF Hardcore Championship by scoring the last decision within the time limit. Other participants included Crash, Sho Funaki, Perry Saturn, Al Snow, and Test. All winners became the WWF Hardcore Champion at the time of the victory under the 24/7 rule.
  • Crash pinned Blackman (3:54).
  • Perry Saturn pinned Crash (4:06).
  • Blackman pinned Saturn (9:01).
• Chris Jericho defeated X-Pac.
• The Hardy Boyz (Matt & Jeff) defeated Edge & Christian (13:33) in a steel cage match to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.
• Eddie Guerrero defeated Rikishi by disqualification to retain the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
• Triple H defeated Kurt Angle in a no disqualification match. Mick Foley was the special referee.
• The Rock defeated The Undertaker, Kane, and Chris Benoit in a fatal four-way match to retain the WWF Championship. Benoit was thought to have won the match and the title, but The Undertaker's foot was on the bottom rope and the match was restarted by Commissioner Mick Foley.

12 years ago today at a Smackdown taping in San Diego, California, Edge defeated Eddie Guerrero in a no-disqualification match. The match is the #8 moment on the Top 100 Moments in Smackdown History DVD released in 2009.

8 years ago today, TNA presented No Surrerender (pay link) from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando. The show is noted for two major announcements: Impact was moving to Thursday nights at 9pm starting in November, and that TNA had signed former WWE Champion and Olympic Gold medalist Kurt Angle.

• Eric Young defeated A1.
• Jay Lethal defeated Petey Williams.
• Abyss defeated Brother Runt and Raven in a no disqualification match.
• The Naturals (Andy Douglas & Chase Stevens) defeated America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm), Diamonds In The Rough (Elix Skipper & Simon Diamond), Kazarian & Matt Bentley, Lance Hoyt & Ron Killings, Norman Smiley & Shark Boy, The James Gang (BG James & Kip James), and Paparazzi Productions (Alex Shelley & Johnny Devine) in "triple chance battle royal" to become the #1 contenders for the NWA World Tag Team Championship.
• Senshi defeated Chris Sabin to retain the TNA X-Division Championship.
• Christian Cage defeated Rhino.
• AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels defeated Latin American Exchange (Hernandez & Homicidein a Ultimate X Match to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship.
• Samoa Joe defeated Jeff Jarrett in a Fan's Revenge Lumberjack Match. The lumberjacks: 18 members of the audience with leather straps.

7 years ago today, TNA taped their first two-hour episode of Impact. In the featured bout, Samoa Joe, Junior Fatu, and LAX defeated Christian Cage, AJ Styles, Senshi, and Christopher Daniels.

7 years ago today on RAW from San Diego, California, John Cena defeated Jonathan Coachman in a tables match to retain the WWE Championship.

Today is the 38^th birthday of WWE Chief Brand Officer and wife of Triple H, Stephanie McMahon-Levesque. Born Stephanie Marie McMahon in Harford, Connecticut, she's the only daughter to Vince and Linda McMahon. Stephanie actually began her WWE career as a model, appearing in their merchandise catalogs starting at age 13 in 1989. She attended Boston University and earned a degree in communications in 1998. After graduating, she rejoined the family business as a receptionist, but also worked in creative design, television production, and beginning in 1999, as an in-ring performer (save for a cameo appearance on an episode of RAW in late 1998).

Stephanie's first major storyline came shortly after Wrestlemania XV when she was being stalked (and eventually abducted) by The Undertaker. She was rescued by Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was being played as a pawn in Vince McMahon's sick mind game to screw with Austin's life. Stephanie would begin an on-screen relationship with Test shortly thereafter, much to the dismay of Stephanie's brother Shane. Stephanie's in-ring debut came in September 1999, when she and Test defeated Jeff Jarrett and Debra. The couple got engaged and were set to marry, but during the ceremony, it was revealed that Triple H drugged her and took her to Las Vegas where they "got married" in a drive-through wedding chapel. It turned out to be a revenge plot concocted by Triple H and Stephanie to get back at Vince McMahon for being used in those kidnappings and such. The couple would dominate and rule the WWF with an iron fist for the first half of 2000, with Triple H holding the WWF Championship and Stephanie holding the Womens Championship. The family-most of them-reconciled their differences around this time. The on-screen romance blossomed into an off-screen relationship, though questions surrounded the union. Joanie Laurer, aka Chyna, was in a relationship with Triple H prior to being with Stephanie, and had accused her of initiating her firing from the WWF. Paul Levesque, aka Triple H, disputes such a claim, saying the two were apart for sometime before he dated Stephanie.

Following the disillusion of the McMahon-Helmsley faction, Stephanie was involved in a love triangle with husband and Kurt Angle. Around this time, Stephanie lost the Womens title to Lita. After their plan to take the WWF Championship off The Rock failed, Angle and Triple H feuded, with Helmsley winning following a low blow to Angle from Stephanie. After feuding briefly with Trish Stratus in early 2001, Stephanie McMahon became the on-screen owner of ECW as part of the Alliance. When the Alliance was ousted at Survivor Series 2001, Stephanie briefly disappeared from TV, but returned again in January 2002 as a clingy wife to Triple H. After faking a pregnancy, Triple H divorced her, leaving the former power couple to feud through shortly after Wrestlemania X-8.

By the time Stephanie returned to television in the summer, the WWF had become the WWE as she was installed as the general manager of Smackdown, and in a bit of a surprise, she became a fan favorite, a stark contrast to her "bitchy heel" persona of the past two years. She feuded with fellow general manager, RAW's Eric Bischoff for most of the remainder of the year. Stephanie would feud with her father Vince for most of 2003, conflicting largely on Vince's pursuit of having an affair with Sable. The feud culimated in a Father-Daughter "I Quit" match at No Mercy in October, with Stephanie McMahon losing via her mother Linda throwing in the towel on her behalf. Shortly after Stephanie was written off, she and Triple H got married.

She would make sporadic on-air appearances over the next few years; during which time, Stephanie became executive vice-president of the WWE's Creative department, overseeing all of the company's storylines for their television and PPV shows and many of their social media properties, including the WWE app and WWE.com. On-screen, she briefly became the general manager of RAW.

Stephanie returned to the company full-time on screen in August 2013 in support of her husband Triple H, once again turning her heel, saying that Daniel Bryan wasn't suitable to be the face of the WWE. That November, she would sign a performer's contract, allowing her to appear regularly on WWE programming. Triple H and Stephanie together make up "The Authority", a power couple that justifies their actions as best for business. Stephanie's character today is that of an insincerely polite owner. At Summerslam this past August, in her first WWE match since the I Quit match at No Mercy in 2003, Stephanie McMahon defeated Brie Bella.

Stpehanie, today WWE's chief brand officer, has three daughters with husband Paul: eight-year old Aurora, six-year old Murphy, and four-year old Vaughn, making the trio fifth-generation McMahons.