This Day in Wrestling History (Mar. 4): Old School Is Cool

42 years ago today in Madison Square Garden in New York City, Bruno Sammartino and Nikolai Volkoff fought to a draw for the WWWF Championship. The match was stopped due to the building's 11pm curfew after 53 minutes.

21 years ago today in Tokyo, Japan, Stan Hansen defeated Toshiaki Kawada to win the All Japan Triple Crown Championship. It would be Hansen's fourth and final All Japan Triple Crown title, the most for any foreign-born wrestler.

16 years ago today at an ECW on TNN taping in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Rob Van Dam vacated the ECW World Television Championship due to injury (broken ankle). At an even 700 days, RVD's championship run is the longest of any championship in company history and is longer than the next two longest TV title reigns (Shane Douglas' 329-day run and Taz's 267 day run) combined.

15 years and a day ago today, Women of Wrestling, the all-women's promotion founded by David McClane (the man behind Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling in the 1980s), ceases operations indefinitely.

The promotion produced 22 episodes and one PPV, WOW Unleashed in late 2000 and early 2001.While the show did well in syndication, the PPV disappointed (and that's putting it gently), doing such a low buyrate, it was never officially reported, though it was rumored that there were more people in attendance at the show (about 9,500) than people watching at home (about 6,000). The low buyrate led in part to the promotion's demise.

But it wouldn't stay down. WOW had a soft relaunch in 2012, and just a few days ago, almost 15 years to the day of their last episode, WOW has rebooted with new episodes, which you can see right here.

6 years ago today during an appearance on the Jim Kerr Rock & Roll Morning Show in New York City, Hulk Hogan  revealed the company had signed Rob Van Dam. He would debut four days later on TNA's first regularly-scheduled Monday night Impact by defeating Sting in just 12 seconds.

4 years ago today, Ring of Honor presented their 10^th Anniversary Show: Young Wolves Rising from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.

• The All-Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus) defeated Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin).
• Mike Bennett defeated Homicide.
• The House Of Truth (Michael Elgin & Roderick Strong)) defeated The Amazing Red & TJ Perkins.
• Jay Lethal and Tommaso Ciampa fought to a 15-minute time limit draw for the ROH World Television Championship.
• The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) defeated The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) to retain the ROH World Tag Team Championship.
• Kevin Steen defeated Jimmy Jacobs in a no disqualification match.
• Adam Cole & Eddie Edwards defeated Team Ambition (Davey Richards & Kyle O'Reilly).

4 years ago today, New Japan Pro Wrestling presented their 40^th Anniversary Event from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

• Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi) and Kushida defeated Hiromu Takahashi, Takaaki Wantanbe, and Tama Tonga.
• CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI) defeated Captain New Japan and Tomoaki Honma.
• Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV defeated CHAOS (Gedo & Jado).
• Aogi-gun (Waturu Inoue & Yuji Nagata) and Togi Makabe defeated Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, and TAKA Michinoku).
• CHAOS (Takashi Iizuka & Toru Yano) defeat TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima).
• CHAOS (Masato Tanaka, Shinsuke Nakamura & Yujiro Takahashi) defeat Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Karl Anderson.
• Kazuchika Okada defeated Tetsuya Naito to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

3 years ago today, WWE presented the 2013 edition of Old School RAW (WWE Network link) from the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York. The show began with the first live appearance of The Undertaker since RAW 1000. Also, Mae Young made her last television appearance as WWE superstars, divas, and legends celebrated her 90^th birthday.

• Ryback defeated Antonio Cesaro.
• Mark Henry defeated Zack Ryder in just 50 seconds.
• The Miz defeated Dolph Ziggler.
• Jim Duggan defeated Jack Swagger by disqualification.
• Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan & Kane) defeated The Prime Time Players (Darren Young & Titus O'Neil).
• Brodus Clay & Tensai defeated 3MB (Drew McIntyre & Heath Slater) in just 24 seconds.
• Alberto Del Rio defeated Wade Barrett.
• The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn & Road Dogg) defeated Epico & Primo.
• CM Punk defeated Randy Orton, Sheamus, and The Big Show in a fatal four-way match to earn a match against The Undertaker at Wrestlemania XXIX.