This Day in Wrestling History (March 21)

24 years ago today, WCW and New Japan presented WCW/New Japan Supershow (aka Starrcade 1991 in Tokyo Dome) from the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The show would air on tape delay on PPV in North America sometime the following month. Not all the matches on the show aired on the North American broadcast.

• In a dark match, Animal Hamaguchi, Kengo Kimura, Osamu Kido and Kantaro Hoshino defeated Super Strong Machine, Hiro Saito, Tatsutoshi Goto and Norio Honaga.
• Shiro Koshinaka, Kuniaki Kobayashi and Takayuki Iizuka defeated Tim Horner, Brian Pillman and Tom Zenk.
• In a dark match, Scott Norton defeated The Equalizer.
• Jushin Liger defeated Akira Nogami to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
• Arn Anderson and Barry Windham defeated Masa Saito and Masahiro Chono.
• El Gigante defeated Big Cat Hughes.
• The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) defeated Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
• In a dark match, Big Van Vader and Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow defeated Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed).
• In a dark match, Riki Chōshū defeated Tiger Jeet Singh via knockout.
• The Great Muta defeated Sting.
• IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami defeated WCW World Champion Ric Flair to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. This is where it gets a little complicated (and by a little, I mean a lot). Flair's WCW world title was not on the line, yet on the American version of the show, the match was considered a title versus title bout. Though Fujinami won the match, he did not win the WCW world title because after Bill Alfonso was knocked out, Ric Flair was backdropped over the top rope by Fujinami. At the time, this was a disqualification under WCW rules. But this was fought under NWA rules, so no DQ. But wait, you're asking. Wasn't the WCW and NWA world title one and the same? Well, yes. But not in Japan; they considered the two championships different entities (something, ironically, WCW did a few months later when Ric Flair left). Anyway, a few moments later, New Japan referee Tiger Hattori counted the fall for Fujinami after a grounded cobra twist (that's an abdominal stretch into a rollup) and presented the title to Fujinami. Post-show, a livid Flair crashed Fujinami's post-match press conference and took back the WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt and told him that Fujinami will have to come to America and take it from him. Fujinami was for two months the recognized NWA world champion. This brief reign is not officially recognized by WWE, though this may change soon with Tatsumi going into the WWE Hall of Fame.

21 years ago today at a Monday Night RAW taping (WWE Network link) in Pougkeepsie, New York, The Headshrinkers (Fatu & Samu), Jeff Jarrett, Rick Martel, and Irwin R. Schyster defeated The Smoking Gunns (Billy & Bart), The 1-2-3 Kid, Sparky Plugg, and Tatanka. The bout, airing two weeks later, was originally scheduled to take place at Wrestlemania X, but was cut due to time constraints. The April 4 episode also featured the debut of Shawn Michaels' new talking segment, The Heartbreak Hotel.

18 years ago today, WWF presented the Slammy Awards from the Weston Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. The show, airing live on the USA Network, would be the last Slammy Awards until 2008.

• New Sensation: Rocky Maivia
• Best Dressed: Sable
• Best Tattoo: The Undertaker
• Match of the Year: Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania XII
• Best Hair: Hunter Hearst Helmsley
• Loose Screw: Mankind
• Best Bow Tie: No winner as Owen Hart steals the Slammy
• Best Entrance Music: The Undertaker
• Best Finisher: Shawn Michaels' Sweet Chin Music
• Best Couple: Goldust and Marlena
• Freedom of Speech: Steve Austin
• Star of the Highest Magnitude: The Undertaker
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Arnold Skaaland
• Miss Slammy: Sable

16 years ago today, ECW presented Living Dangerously (WWE Network link) from the Convention Center in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

• In a dark match, Nova and Chris Chetti defeated Danny Doring and Amish Roadkill.
• Super Crazy defeated Yoshihiro Tajiri.
• Balls Mahoney defeated Steve Corino.
• Little Guido defeated Antifaz del Norte.
• Rob Van Dam defeated Jerry Lynn to retain the ECW World Television Championship. Originally, Lynn had the match (and the title) won via referee's decision after the time limit expired, but Lynn asked for a five-minute overtime to determine a clear winner. Oops.
• New Jack defeated Mustafa.
• Spike Dudley and Nova defeated The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray and D-Von Dudley). Nova was injured during the match and replaced by Sid Vicious.
• Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas defeated The Impact Players (Justin Credible and Lance Storm).
• Taz defeated Sabu by TKO when Sabu passed out in the Tazmission to unify the ECW and FTW World Heavyweight Championships.

14 years ago today, WCW presented the final episode of Thunder from the Stephen O'Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida. Of note, this episode, taped two days earlier, ended up being the final episode of Thunder. Five days earlier new head of TBS Jamie Kellner (famous for cancelling six of the WB's most successful animated series while heading that network) in his first act announced that all wrestling programming would be canceled on the Turner networks in an effort to attract a more affluent audience. The cancellation kills Eric Bischoff's chances of buying WCW. Two days after Thunder airs, WWF swoops in and buys WCW.

• Yang & Kaz Hayashi defeated AJ Styles & Air Paris.
• Jason Jett defeated Cash.
• Ernest Miller & MI Smooth defeated Chris Kanyon & Road Warrior Animal.
• Hugh Morrus defeated Rick Steiner.
• Shane Helms, Rey Mysterio Jr., & Billy Kidman defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr., Kid Romeo & Elix Skipper.
• Chuck Palumbo defeated Mike Awesome.
• Scott Steiner & Jeff Jarrett defeated Dustin Rhodes in a handicap match.

7 years ago today in Resada, California, El Generico & Kevin Steen defeated Joey Ryan & Scott Lost to win the PWG Tag Team Championship.

5 years ago today, TNA presented Destination X from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando.

• Frankie Kazarian defeated Brian Kendrick, The Amazing Red, and Christopher Daniels in a ladder match to become the #1 contender for the TNA X Division Championship.
• Tara defeated Daffney to retain the TNA Knockouts Championship.
• Rob Terry defeated Brutus Magnus in just 83 seconds to retain the TNA Global Championship.
• The Motor City Machineguns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) defeated Generation Me (Jeremy & Max Buck) in an Ultimate X match to become the #1 contender for the TNA World Tag Team Championship.
• The Band (Scott Hall & Syxx-Pac) defeated Kevin Nash & Eric Young. Unsurprisingly, Nash turned on Young near the end of the match.
• Doug Williams defeated Shannon Moore to retain the TNA X-Division Championship.
• Matt Morgan & Hernandez defeated Beer Money Inc. (Robert Roode & James Storm) to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship.
• Kurt Angle defeated Ken Anderson.
• AJ Styles and Abyss fought to a no contest for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. The end of the match went like this: Abyss chokeslammed Styles through the ring. The referee called for the bell and Hogan gave the TNA world title belt to Abyss, but Earl Hebner took it away. Flair complained and got pulled into the ring by Abyss. Chelsea went to use the spray Flair used on Hebner a few moments earlier, but Hogan got a hold of the spray and sprayed Flair's eyes. Flair flopped around for a bit. In comes Desmond Wolfe. He gets sprayed in the eyes and wound up in the hole in the ring. A moment later, so did Flair. Hogan and Abyss celebrate. Reprise the theme song and roll the credits.