This Day in Wrestling History (February 26)

48 years ago today in St. Paul, Minnesota, Verne Gagne celebrates his 41^st birthday by winning the AWA World Heavyweight Championship for the eighth time, defeating Mad Dog Vachon.

32 years ago today in Madison Square Garden in New York City, Verne Gagne defeated Eddie Graham at a WWWF event to retain the AWA World Heavyweight Championship.

18 years ago today at a Monday Night RAW taping in Berlin, Germany, The British Bulldog defeated Owen Hart to become the first ever WWF European Champion. The tournament, taking place over a week-long tour of Germany, included Flash Funk, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Bret Hart, Rocky Maivia, Mankind, and Vader. The taping aired March 3 and despite being one of the better shows in terms of wrestling that WWF's put on in recent memory, it wound up being one of the least-watched RAWs in company history (just a 1.9 rating for the taped show against a 3.4 for Nitro). WWF brass didn't like it too much either, and the next week, RAW got a complete overhaul and became RAW is WAR. Of note, this taping also featured the last WWF Superstars matches before it became a highlight show for the remainder of its run, concluding in 2001.

Masato Tanaka/Tommy Dreamer vs... by Stinger1981

15 years ago today at an ECW on TNN taping in Cincinnati, Ohio, Tommy Dreamer and Masato Tanaka defeated The Impact Players (Lance Storm and Chris Candido) to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship.

15 years ago today in Newark, Delaware, Christopher Daniels defeated Scoot Andrews to win the East Coast Wrestling Association Super 8 tournament.

15 years ago today in Los Angeles, California, Chris Candido defeated Damien Steele in a falls count anywhere match to win the XPW World Heavyweight Championship. On the same show, Supreme defeated John Kronus in a No Rope/Barbed Wire/Beds of Everything match to win the King of the Deathmatch tournament and become the first XPW King of the Deathmatch Champion.

13 years ago today at a Smackdown taping in Boston, Massachusetts, Goldust defeated Maven to win the WWF Hardcore Championship.

8 years ago today in Fresno, California, John Cena and Shawn Michaels defeated Rated RKO (Edge and Randy Orton) to win the World Tag Team Championship.

5 years ago today, WWE cleans house as a slew of talents get released: Charlie Haas, Gregory Helms, Maria Kanellis, Paul Burchill, and referee Scott Armstrong. Armstrong would be back with the company a year later. Kanellis semi-retired, not returning until exactly two years later at a Family Wrestling Entertainment event.

4 years ago today, Ring of Honor presented their 9^th Anniversary Show from Frontier Park Fieldhouse in Chicago, Illinois.

• Davey Richards defeated Colt Cabana.
• Mike Bennett defeated Steve Corino, Kyle O'Reilly, and Grizzly Redwood in a Four Corner Survival match.
• El Generico defeated Michael Elgin.
• Roderick Strong defeated Homicide in a No Holds Barred match to retain the ROH World Championship.
• Sara Del Rey defeated MsChif.
• The Kings Of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castignoli) defeated The All Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus) to retain ROH World Tag Team Championship.
• Christopher Daniels and Eddie Edwards fought to a 30-minute time limit draw tied 1-1 in a best of three falls match for the ROH World Television Championship.
• Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin) defeated The Briscoe Brothers (Jay & Mark Briscoe).