This Day in Wrestling History (March 19)

Now the title makes sense. On to the history.

72 years ago today, El Santo defeated Murcielago Velazquez to win the Mexican National Middleweight Championship.

32 years ago today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, WWF Champion Bob Backlund, Andre the Giant, and Jimmy Snuka defeated Afa, Lou Albano, and Big John Studd 3-0 in a best of five falls six-man tag team match.

26 years ago today in Tokyo, Japan, Erica Shishido, who would go on to great fame in Japan as Aja Kong, defeated Manami Toyota to win the vacated AJW Singles Championship. The championship was vacated a month earlier when reigning champion Mika Komatsu retired.

22 years ago today in Tijuana, Mexico, El Hijo de Santo defeated Esperanto, Jr. to win the WWA World Welterweight Championship.

20 years ago today, WCW presented Uncensored (WWE Network link) from the Tupelo Coliseum in Tupelo, Mississippi. The show's hook was a series of "unsanctioned" matches. 5,782 were in attendance with 180,000 homes watching on PPV, though some estimates have it as high as 200,000 buys.

• In a Main Event preshow match, Alex Wright defeated Mark Starr.
• In a Main Event preshow match, Steve Austin defeated Tim Horner.
• In a Main Event preshow match, Stars 'n' Stripes (Marcus Alexander Bagwell and The Patriot) defeated Dick Slater and Bunkhouse Buck.
• The Blacktop Bully defeated Dustin Rhodes in a "King of the Road" match. The match actually took place a few days earlier outside Atlanta, Georgia and was heavily edited for broadcast (thereby immediately contradicting the PPV's name) due to both competitors bleeding, a no-no for WCW at the time. Both men were fired following the event.
• Meng defeated "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in a martial arts match.
• Johnny B. Badd defeated Arn Anderson in a boxer versus wrestler match via knockout 22 seconds into the third round.
• "Macho Man" Randy Savage defeated Avalanche by disqualification.
• Big Bubba Rogers defeated Sting.
• The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) defeated Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) in a Texas tornado match.
• Hulk Hogan defeated Vader in a leather strap match. Flair was the man tied to the strap at the end of the match and Hogan touched all four corners. Don't ask me how that constitutes as a Vader defeat. As it turned out, neither Hogan nor Vader wanted to do a clean job for the other. Also of note, The Renegade made his WCW debut. This disappointed many as Hogan eluded to the "ultimate surprise" as being the WCW debut of The Ultimate Warrior.

15 years ago today, WCW presented Uncensored from the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. About 5,000 were in attendance, with just 60,000 homes watching on PPV. That's down from 325,000 homes for the 1999 edition, or an 81% drop. Needless to say, when the bottom fell out, it fell hard.  Of note, this was the last WCW PPV before the returns of both Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo. Also of note, this is the final Uncensored PPV.

• The Artist defeated Psychosis to retain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship.
• Norman Smiley and The KISS Demon defeated Lenny Lane and Rave.
• Bam Bam Bigelow defeated The Wall by disqualification.
• Brian Knobbs defeated 3 Count (Evan Karagias, Shannon Moore, and Shane Helms) in a 3-on-1 handicap match to win the WCW Hardcore Championship.
  • Knobs pinned Helms.
  • Knobs pinned Karagias.
  • Knobs pinned Moore.
• Billy Kidman and Booker defeated Harlem Heat 2000 (Big T and Stevie Ray).
• Vampiro defeated Fit Finlay in a falls count anywhere match.
• The Harris Brothers (Ron and Don) defeated The Mamalukes (Big Vito and Johnny the Bull to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
• Dustin Rhodes defeated Terry Funk in a bullrope match.
• Sting defeated The Total Package in a "lumberjacks with casts" match.
• Sid Vicious defeated Jeff Jarrett to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
• Hulk Hogan defeated Ric Flair in a "Yavapai Indian strap" match.

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14 years ago today, WCW presented the next-to-last episode of Nitro from the Stephen C. O'Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida.

• Jason Jett defeated Disqo.
• Shane Helms defeated Billy Kidman to retain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship.
• Bam Bam Bigelow defeated Shawn Stasiak.
• Kanyon defeated M.I. Smooth.
• Rick Steiner defeated Konnan by disqualification.
• Team Canada (Mike Awesome and Lance Storm) defeated WCW World Tag Team Champions The Natural Born Thrillers (Sean O'Haire and Chuck Palumbo).

14 years ago today on RAW is WAR from Albany, New York, Edge & Christian defeated The Hardy Boyz to win the WWF Tag Team Championship...only to lose them about an hour later to The Dudley Boyz. Of note, ECW World Heavyweight and Television Champion Rhyno and Spike Dudley both made their WWF debuts. On the same show, Raven defeated The Big Show to win the WWF Hardcore Championship.

13 years ago today at a Smackdown taping in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, William Regal defeated Diamond Dallas Page by submission to win the WWF European Championship. On the same show, Brock Lesnar made his Smackdown debut (one night after making his WWF debut with a returning Paul Heyman when he interfered in a hardcore title match) and X-Pac returned to the WWF as the newest member of the nWo.

8 years ago today on RAW from Indianapolis, Indiana, ECW Champion Bobby Lashley became the first man (officially) to win the Masterlock challenge by breaking out of Chris Masters' submission hold. On the same show, Edge won a ten-man last chance battle royal, last eliminating Ric Flair, to enter the Money in the Bank ladder match at Wrestlemania 23.

4 years ago today, Ring of Honor presented Manhattan Mayhem IV from the Manhattan Center in New York City.

• Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly defeated Michael Elgin & Mike Mondo.
• Tommaso Ciampa defeated Grizzly Redwood.
• Mike Bennett defeated Steve Corino.
• The All-Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus) defeated The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe).
• El Generico defeated TJ Perkins.
• The Kings Of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) defeated The Latin American Exchange (Hernandez & Homicide).
• Davey Richards defeated Christopher Daniels in a "Pure Wrestling Rules" match. Under Pure rules, competitors were limited to three rope breaks.
• Eddie Edwards defeated Roderick Strong to win the ROH World Championship.

2 years ago today, TNA taped two more PPVs in their One Night Only series.

First, they taped One Night Only: Hardcore Justice II from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando. The PPV would not air until three and a half months later (July 5). The show's hook: you guessed it: hardcore matches.

• The Latin American Exchange (Hernandez & Homicide) defeated The Disciples of the New Church (Sinn & Slash) in a no disqualification match.
• ODB defeated Jackie Moore
• Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels & Kazarian) defeated Generation Me (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) in a $20,000 ladder match.
• Shark Boy defeated 2 Cold Scorpio, Crimson, Devon Storm, Funaki, Gunner, Johnny Swinger, Little Guido, and Sam Shaw in a hardcore gauntlet match.
• Bob Holly, James Storm & Magnus defeated Aces and Eights (DOC, Mike Knox & Wes Brisco) in a six-man elimination tag team match.
• Joseph Park defeated Judas Mesias in a Monster's Ball match.
• Brother Runt & Jeff Hardy defeated Aces and Eights (Bully Ray & Devon) in a tables match.

Second, they taped One Night Only: Tournament of Champions 2013 from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando. The show's hook was a one-night tournament of past TNA world champions.

• Play-in match
  • James Storm defeated Mr. Anderson.

• Quarterfinals
  • Samoa Joe defeated Jeff Hardy.
  • Austin Aries defeated Kurt Angle.
  • James Storm defeated Bully Ray by disqualification.
  • Bobby Roode defeated Sting.

• Semifinals
  • Samoa Joe defeated Austin Aries.
  • Bobby Roode defeated James Storm.

• Finals
  • Bobby Roode defeated Samoa Joe.