This Day in Wrestling History (May 14)

41 years ago today, Giant Baba defeated Mr. Wrestling in the finals to win the All Japan Pro Wrestling Champion Carnival. It's his second straight tournament title. He would go one to win a third straight the next year, and eight of the first ten. The only two he did not win were in 1976 and 1979—both won by Abdullah the Butcher.

32 years ago today in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carlos Colon defeated Ox Baker to win the WWC Heavyweight Championship.

25 years ago today, Ole Anderson replaces Ric Flair as the head booker of WCW. Flair constantly clashed with then WCW executive vice-president Jim Herd over creative differences, ultimately leading Flair to resign from the position back in March. Anderson's booking, highlighted infamously by Sting being rescued by Robocop at Capital Combat and "The Black Scorpion" saga, led WCW to then-record losses ($6.5 million for the year), and Ole to be fired from his position after just seven months.

21 years ago today, ECW presented When Worlds Collide from the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's hook was a main event tag team match featuring WCW's Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton.

• Tommy Dreamer defeated Rockin' Rebel.
• Mikey Whipwreck defeated 911 by disqualification to retain the ECW World Television Championship.
• Jimmy Snuka defeated Kevin Sullivan.
• Tommy Cairo and Peaches defeated Sandman and Woman in a Singapore cane match. As a result of getting pinned, Sandman was caned. Peaches only got three shots in on Sandman before Woman threw powder in her face.
• Pitbull #1 defeated Tazmaniac.
• JT Smith and The Bruise Brothers (Ron Harris and Don Harris) defeated Shane Douglas, Mr. Hughes, and Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) in a 3-on-4 handicap elimination match. (24:52)
  • Smith was the survivor.
  • Hughes, Douglas and The Bruise Brothers were counted out.
  • Smith pinned Rock.
  • Smith pinned Grunge.
• Sabu and Bobby Eaton defeated Terry Funk and Arn Anderson.

20 years ago today, WWF presented the first ever In Your House (WWE Network link) from the Onandaga War Memorial Coliseum in Syracuse, New York. About 7,000 were in attendance, with 180,000 homes watching on PPV, though some estimates have it as high as 261,000 to 332,000 buys. The hook of the In Your House series was a two-hour (later three-hour) PPV for a lower price compared to their bigger PPV offerings (Wrestlemania, King of the Ring, Summerslam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble). And with this show, there was another hook: they gave away an actual house in Orlando. It was won by Matthew Pompacilli of Henderson, Nevada.

• In a preshow Free for All match, Jean-Pierre LaFitte defeated Bob Holly.
• Bret Hart defeated Hakushi.
• Razor Ramon defeated Jeff Jarrett & The Roadie.
• Mabel defeated Adam Bomb.
• Owen Hart & Yokozuna defeated The Smoking Gunns (Bart Gunn & Billy Gunn) to retain the WWF World Tag Team Championship.
• Jerry Lawler defeated Bret Hart.
• Diesel defeated Psycho Sid to retain the WWF Championship.
• In a post-show dark match, Bam Bam Bigelow defeated Tatanka.
• In a post-show dark match, The Undertaker defeated Kama.
• In a post-show dark match, The British Bulldog fought Owen Hart to a 15-minute time-limit draw in a King of the Ring qualifying match.

17 years ago today, ECW presented It Ain't Seinfeld from the Elks Lodge in Queens, New York. The show's name was no accident: it took place on the night of the final episode of the popular comedy about nothing, Seinfeld. The finale is widely regarded as one of the worst in television history. As for the wrestling, in the evening's featured bout, The Dudley Boyz defeated Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, and Spike Dudley. Before the match, a fan jumped out of the Elks Lodge balcony trying to get to the ring and attack the Dudleys.

15 years ago today, ECW presented Hardcore Heaven (WWE Network link) from The Rave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In an interesting bit of trivia, the building was also hosting a concert at the same time and the power went out briefly during the show.

• In a preshow dark match, Chilly Willy defeated Johnny Swinger.
• Masato Tanaka defeated Balls Mahoney.
• Little Guido defeated Mikey Whipwreck and Simon Diamond in a three-way dance.
• Kid Kash defeated C.W. Anderson.
• Super Nova and Chris Chetti defeated Da Baldies (Angel and Tony DeVito) and Danny Doring and Amish Roadkill in a three-way dance.
• New Jack defeated Angel.
• Yoshihiro Tajiri defeated Steve Corino.
• Rhino defeated The Sandman to retain the ECW World Television Championship.
• Jerry Lynn defeated Rob Van Dam.
• Justin Credible defeated Lance Storm to retain the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. It was Lance Storm's final match with the company; he would debut for WCW a month later. Tommy Dreamer was originally scheduled to be involved in the match, but Justin Credible, threatening to vacate the championship and spit on it unless Tommy Dreamer was removed from the match, got Tommy Dreamer removed from the match.

10 years ago today, tickets for ECW One Night Stand went on sale—and sold out that very day. Tickets for the event at the Hammerstein Ballroom for the ECW reunion show went for as much as $400.

10 years ago today, Mike Quackenbush defeated B-Boy, Kevin Steen, and Super Dragon in an elimination match to win CZW's Best of the Best 5 tournament.

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

• Jushin Liger defeated Petey Williams in a World X Cup match.
• America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm) defeated A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels to retain the NWA World Tag Team Championship.
• Raven defeated A-1.
• Bobby Roode defeated Rhino.
• The James Gang (B.G. James and Kip James) defeated Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon).
• Petey Williams won a World X Cup Gauntlet match. Other participants in the match were Minoru Tanaka, Puma, Chris Sabin, Hirooki Goto, Incognito, Johnny Devine, Sonjay Dutt, Black Tiger IV, Magno, Eric Young, Alex Shelley, Jushin Liger, Shocker, Tyson Dux, and Jay Lethal.
• Sting and Samoa Joe defeated Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner.
• Christian Cage defeated Abyss in a Full Metal Mayhem match to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

7 years ago today, Ring of Honor announces they would make their Canadian debut in July at the Ted Reeves Arena in Toronto. The company also announced that Jay Briscoe would vacate the ROH World Tag Team Championship on behalf of his team. Jay's brother and tag team partner Mark at the time was out with a wrist injury. Jay said in a statement that "he realized it felt wrong to be defending the belts without Mark as his partner". Mark returned two months later, but it wouldn't be until late 2009 the Briscoes would be tag champions again.