This Day in Wrestling History (Sept. 21): All or Nothing

82 years ago today, Salvador Lutteroth Gonzales promoted his first card professional wrestling card under the banner of Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre (EMLL, which translates to Mexican Wrestling Enterprise). Today, the promotion is known as CMLL, which translates to World Wrestling Council. It is the oldest surviving wrestling promotion in the world. This past Friday, CMLL presented its 82^nd anniversary show from Mexico City. CMLL's anniversary event is the longest running annual show in professional wrestling.

26 years ago today, WWF taped Saturday Night's Main Event (WWE Network link) from the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show aired on October 14.

• Macho King Randy Savage defeated Jimmy Snuka.
• Hulk Hogan defeated Ted DiBiase to retain the WWF Championship.
• Roddy Piper defeated Haku.
• Tito Santana and Rick Martel fought to a double disqualification.
• The Bushwhackers (Luke & Butch) defeated The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques & Raymond).

16 years ago today at a Smackdown taping (WWE Network link) in Dallas, Texas, Triple H wrestles a company record five times on the same show. It was necessary because Vince McMahon put Triple H's spot at the upcoming Unforgiven PPV at stake in the match; Triple H had to win three out of five to hold on to his spot.

• In a preshow dark match, Stevie Richards defeated Chaz.
• In a preshow dark match, Khris Germany defeated Kevin Northcutt.
• The Big Show defeated Triple H in a Chokeslam Challenge.
• X-Pac defeated Mark Henry by countout in a WWE European Championship match.
• Triple H defeated Kane in an Inferno match.
• The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg & Billy Gunn) defeated The Rock 'n Sock Connection (The Rock & Mankind) to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.
• Mideon and Viscera (substituting for The Undertaker) defeated Triple H in a 2-on-1 handicap Casket match. Triple H originally won the match until Shane McMahon amended the rules, forcing Triple H to put both men in the casket. Of note, this show would be the final appearance for The Undertaker until the following May when he took time off to heal various nagging injuries.
• Hardcore Holly defeated Al Snow.
• Triple H defeated Mankind in a Boiler Room Brawl.
• Chris Jericho defeated Ken Shamrock in a First Blood match. It would be Shamrock's final bout for the WWF, as he left the company to resume his MMA career.
• Triple H defeated The Rock in a "Brahma Bullrope" match, giving him the three wins necessary to remain in the Six-Pack Challenge at Unforgiven.

13 years ago today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Xavier defeated Low Ki to win the Ring of Honor Championship.

12 years ago today, WWE presented Unforgiven (WWE Network link) from the Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. 10,347 were in attendance, with 360,000 homes watching on PPV. That's up from 300,000 for the 2002 event.

• In a Sunday Night Heat preshow match, Maven defeated Steven Richards.
• The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley) defeated La Resistance (Rene Dupree & Sylvain Grenier) & Rob Conway in a 2-on-3 handicap tables match to win the World Tag Team Championship.
  • La Resistance eliminated D-Von Dudley.
  • Bubba Ray Dudley eliminated Sylvan Grenier.
  • Bubba Ray Dudley eliminated Rob Conway.
  • The Dudley Boyz eliminated Rene Dupree.
• Test defeated Scott Steiner. With the win, Test won the services of Stacy Keibler.
• Randy Orton defeated Shawn Michaels.
• Lita & Trish Stratus defeated Gail Kim & Molly Holly.
• Kane defeated Shane McMahon in a last man standing match.
• Christian defeated Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam in a triple threat match to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
• Al Snow & Jonathon Coachman defeated Jerry Lawler & Jim Ross. The win gave Snow and Coachman the announcing spots for RAW.
• Goldberg defeated Triple H to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Had Goldberg lost, his career would have been over.

11 years ago today at a TNA Impact taping at Universal Orlando, Christopher Daniels and James Storm defeated Chris Harris & Elix Skipper to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship.

10 years ago today, WWE announces via a press release on their website that they have released Mark Copani, who worked under the gimmick of Muhammad Hassan. The gimmick had caused quite the uproar following a terrorist angle played out on the day of the London bombings. UPN then demanded that his character be removed from their programming, and it was essentially written off following The Great American Bash in July.

Copani had moved to Los Angeles to get into acting, seeing the writing on the wall that his release was imminent. Though Copani said he had at the time of his release, one source said that WWE management didn't share the feeling, saying that Mark didn't have a passion for the business, or that he turned down their offer to go to OVW.

Copani, who went into teaching after his acting career went bust, is now a principal at a high school in Fulton, New York.

9 years ago today, WWE signs Charles Scaggs. Best known as 2 Cold Scorpio, he was in the WWF in the late 1990s as Flash Funk.  He wrestled as Flash Funk for WWE developmental territory Deep South Wrestling, but would be released in May 2007 without ever appearing on WWE programming. He would make one last appearance for the company late in 2007 during the RAW 15^th Anniversary battle royal.

9 years ago today, TNA rehires Vince Russo to their creative team, while kicking Mike Tenay and Scott D'Amore off the team. Russo left the company following Victory Road in 2004. Tenay and D'Amore would be replaced by Dutch Mantel and Jeff Jarrett. Those two would leave the team in 2009 (Mantel was released, Jarrett resigned).

7 years ago today at a Smackdown taping in Columbus, Ohio, Carlito & Primo defeated Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.

6 years ago today, TNA signs Lacey Adkisson, aka Lacey Von Erich. The daughter of Kevin Von Erich and granddaughter of the late Fritz Von Erich had a brief stint in the WWE developmental system followed by a couple of years on the independent circuit. She also appeared for the short-lived Wrestilicious.  Lacey would win the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship as 1/3 of the Beautiful People before leaving the company—and the wrestling business altogether just over a year later.

6 years ago today, longtime WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia leaves the company after ten years. Plucked from her gig as a radio DJ, she debuted just before Summerslam 1999, and dabbled in other areas for the company, including singing the National Anthem before events and backstage interviewing. She'd just crossed the ten-year mark with the company before leaving, giving her the nickname of "The Decade Diva". Her actual final television appearance came three days later for WWE Superstars.

Lilian wouldn't be gone forever: she had a one-off appearance in 2010 when a volcanic eruption stranded most of the RAW staff in Europe, including Lilian's replacement, Justin Roberts. She would return to the company in December 2011 as the ring announcer for Smackdown, and in October 2014, would replace the recently released Justin Roberts as RAW's ring announcer.

1 year ago today, New Japan Pro Wrestling presented Destruction in Kobe from Kobe World Hall in Kobe, Japan.

• Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov & Rocky Romero) & Tomohiro Ishii defeat BULLET CLUB (Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson & Yujiro Takahashi).
• Alex Shelley, BUSHI & Maximo defeat Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Taichi & TAKA Michinoku) via disqualification.
• Jushin Thunder Liger, TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) & Tomoaki Honma defeat Captain New Japan, Manabu Nakanishi, Tiger Mask & Yuji Nagata.
• Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano defeat Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka).
• Ryusuke Taguchi defeats KUSHIDA via submission to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
• Kota Ibushi & Tetsuya Naito defeat BULLET CLUB (AJ Styles & Tama Tonga).
• BULLET CLUB (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) defeat CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI).
• Togi Makabe defeats Hirooki Goto.
• Hiroshi Tanahashi defeats Katsuyori Shibata.
• Shinsuke Nakamura defeats Bad Luck Fale to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.

1 year ago today, WWE presented Night of Champions (WWE Network link) from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. About 12,000 were in attendance, with 48,000 homes watching via traditional PPV outlets.

• Gold and Stardust defeated The Usos (Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso) to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.
• Sheamus defeated Cesaro to retain the WWE United States Championship.
• The Miz defeated Dolph Ziggler to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
• Seth Rollins defeated Roman Reigns by forfeit.
• Rusev defeated Mark Henry by submission.
• Randy Orton defeated Chris Jericho.
• AJ Lee defeated Nikki Bella & Paige by submission in a triple threat match to win the WWE Divas Championship.
• John Cena defeated Brock Lesnar disqualification in a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match. This was Lesnar's first disqualification loss since returning to the company in 2012, and Lesnar's final appearance until the new year.