This Day in Wrestling History (May 13)

27 years ago today in Houston, Texas, Barry Windham wins a one-night tournament, defeating Nikita Koloff in the finals, to win the vacated NWA United States Championship. The title was vacated about a month earlier when Dusty Rhodes was stripped of the title after attacking Jim Crockett. Other participants in the tournament were Nikita Koloff, Ivan Koloff, Lex Luger, Al Perez, and The Midnight Rider, who unmasked to reveal himself as the Italian Stallion.

21 years ago today at an ECW Hardcore TV taping in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Mikey Whipwreck defeated "The Pitbull" Gary Wolfe to win the ECW Television Championship. It should be noted that Whipwreck at the time had yet to land an offensive maneuver in his career at the time and that The Tazmaniac distracted Wolfe, leading to the distraction pin. Mikey would have three successful title defenses on the taping, defeating Kevin Sullivan, Mr. Hughes, and Johnny Grunge, all via disqualification.

20 years ago today, WWF presented A Night to Rememeber from the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. This would be the final show at the long-time home of the Boston Celtics, who would move to the FleetCenter in the fall. Many WWF dignitaries were there, including Vince McMahon, Gorilla Monsoon, Arnold Skaaland, George "The Animal" Steele, Pat Patterson, Tony Garea, Chief Jay Strongbow, and Killer Kowalski.

• The Heavenly Bodies (Jimmy Del Ray and Tom Prichard) defeated The Bushwhackers (Butch and Luke).
• Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Phil Apollo.
• Man Mountain Rock defeated Kwang.
• The British Bulldog and Bret Hart defeated Hakushi and Jerry Lawler by submission.
• WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett defeated Razor Ramon in a ladder match.
• The Undertaker defeated Kama.
• Bam Bam Bigelow defeated Tatanka.
• WWF Champion Diesel defeated Sycho Sid. Gorilla Monsoon was the guest ring announcer.

• Hack Myers defeated Tony Stetson.
• 911 & The Tazmaniac defeated Hiroyoshi Iekuda & Tsubo Genjin.
• Axl Rotten defeated Ian Rotten in a barbed wire baseball bat match.
• Raven & Stevie Richards defeated Mikey Whipwreck & Tommy Dreamer by disqualification when Dreamer used a closed fist. A closed fist in ECW led to a disqualification. The disqualification was handed down by Bill Alfonso, a new referee brought in via petition to the Pennsyvlania State Athletic Commission by Shane Douglas
• Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko fought to a 30-minute time limit draw for the ECW World Television Championship.
• The Sandman defeated Cactus Jack to retain the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
• Eddie Guerrero defeated Marty Jannetty to retain the ECW World Television Championship.
• The Sandman defeated Shane Douglas to retain the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
• The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge & Rocco Rock) defeated The Pitbulls (Pitbull 1 & Pitbull 2) in a double dog collar match to retain the ECW World Tag Team Championship.

13 years ago today on RAW from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Trish Stratus defeated Jazz to win the WWE Womens Championship. On the same show, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan had their one and only singles match ever on WWE television. Hogan defeated Flair via disqualification to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship.

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9 years ago today, Combat Zone Wrestling presented Best of the Best VI: CZW vs. ROH from the New Alhambra Arena (that's the old ECW Arena, kids) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Best of the Best Tournament (The first round featured four triple threat matches. The man pinned was eliminated from the tournament, with the winners to face each other in singles matches in the semifinals. The four winners then faced in a one-match elimination final.):

• Austin Aries and B-Boy defeated Jigsaw.
• Claudio Castagnoli and Roderick Strong defeated Jay Lethal.
• Sabian and Matt Sydal defeated Sonjay Dutt.
• CZW World Heavyweight Champion Ruckus and Christopher Daniels defeated Derek Frazier in a Best of the Best Tournament quarterfinal match. Daniels got the pinfall to win the CZW World Heavyweight Championship, but he refused the title. Nonetheless, the decision—and the title change—stood.
• Austin Aries defeated B-Boy.
• Claudio Castagnoli defeated Roderick Strong.
• Sabian defeated Matt Sydal.
• Ruckus defeated Christopher Daniels to win the CZW World Heavyweight Championship.
• CZW World Heavyweight Champion Ruckus defeated Austin Aries, Claudio Castagnoli and Sabian in an elimination match to win the CZW Best of the Best tournament and retain the CZW World Heavyeight Championship.

Non-tournament bouts:

• Team AnDrew (Andy Sumner and Drew Gulak) defeated Pelle Primeau and Rhett Titus.
• Up in Smoke (Cheech and Cloudy) defeated The Heretic and Ravage.
• The BLKOUT (Eddie Kingston and Joker) defeated Necro Butcher and Super Dragon to retain the CZW World Tag Team Championship.
• Niles Young defeated Cloudy to retain the CZW Junior Heavyweight Championship.
• The H8 Club (Nick Gage and Justice Pain) defeated Christopher Bishop and Lionel Knight.
• Chris Hero defeated Ruckus to win the CZW World Heavyweight Championship.

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8 years ago today, TNA presented Sacrifice from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando. Of note, earlier in the day, NWA and TNA severed ties with one another after five years. NWA stripped their world heavyweight and tag team championships from Christian and Team 3D respectively, and TNA would recognize them as their initial world heavyweight and tag team champions.

• Chris Sabin defeated Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt in a three-way match to retain the TNA X Division Championship.
• Robert Roode defeated Jeff Jarrett.
• Christopher Daniels defeated Rhino.
• Basham and Damaja defeated Kip James in a handicap match.
• Chris Harris defeated James Storm in a Texas deathmatch.
• Jerry Lynn defeated Tiger Mask IV, Alex Shelley, and Senshi in a four corners match.
• Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) defeated Scott Steiner and Tomko and The Latin American Xchange (Homicide and Hernandez) in a three-team match to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship.
• Samoa Joe defeated A.J. Styles.
• Kurt Angle defeated Sting and Christian Cage via submission to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. OR DOES HE? At the end of the match, Angle had Sting in the anklelock submission as Sting rolled up Christian. The three count and the tapout happened at the exact same time, and though Angle was announced the winner and new world champion, he would be stripped of the title the next night due to the inconclusive finish.

4 years ago today, New Japan Pro Wrestling holds its first ever show in the United States with Attack on East Coast: Day 1 from the Rahway Recreation Center in Rahway, New Jersey.

• Low Ki & Homicide defeated Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask.
• Satoshi Kojima defeated Kenny Omega.
• BULLET CLUB (Giant Bernard, Karl Anderson, Prince Devitt, and Ryusuke Taguchi) defeated CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura, Jado, and Gedo) and Davey Richards.
• Yujiro Takahashi defeated Hideo Saito.
• Tetsuya Naito defeated Josh Daniels.
• Toru Yano defeated Dan Maff.
• MVP defeated Kazuchika Okada via submission.
• Charlie Haas and Rhino defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Togi Makabe.

3 years ago today, TNA presented Sacrifice from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando.

• Christopher Daniels & Kazarian defeated Samoa Joe & Magnus to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship.
• Gail Kim defeated Brooke Tessmacher to retain the TNA Knockouts Championship.
• Devon defeated Robbie E and Robbie T in a three way match to retain the TNA Television Championship.
• Mr. Anderson defeated Jeff Hardy.
• Crimson defeated Eric Young.
• Austin Aries defeated Bully Ray.
• Kurt Angle defeated A.J. Styles.
• Bobby Roode defeated Rob Van Dam in a ladder match to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.