This Day in Wrestling History (June 12): One Night Stand

28 years ago today, Antonio Inoki defeated Masa Saito in a tournament final to become the first IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

25 years ago today, WCW presented Clash of the Champions XV: Knocksville, USA (WWE Network link) from the Civic Auditorium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

• In a preshow dark match, Rikki Nelson defeated El Cubano.
• The Young Pistols (Steve Armstrong & Tracy Smothers) & The Z-Man defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Badstreet, Jimmy Garvin & Michael Hayes).
• Oz defeated Johnny Rich.
• Danny Spivey defeated Big Josh.
• Dustin Rhodes defeated Terrance Taylor by disqualification.
• Sting defeated Nikita Koloff.
• Arn Anderson & Barry Windham defeated El Gigante & Flyin 'Brian in a "loser leaves town" match. As Pillman lost the fall, he was forced to leave WCW. Of course, he wasn't gone for long, as he returned as the masked Yellow Dog.
• The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) defeated Hiroshi Hase & Masa Chono to retain the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
• The Diamond Studd defeated Tommy Rich.
• Steve Austin defeated Joey Maggs in just 25 seconds to retain the WCW World Television Championship.
• Lex Luger defeated The Great Muta to retain the WCW United States Championship.
• Ric Flair defeated Beautiful Bobby Eaton 2-1 in a best of three falls match to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

18 years ago today in Tokyo, Japan, Kenta Kobashi defeated Toshiaki Kawada to win the All Japan Triple Crown Championship.

16 years ago today on RAW is WAR from St. Louis, Missouri (WWE Network link), Crash Holly defeated Gerald Brisco to win the WWF Hardcore Championship.

15 years ago today at a Smackdown taping in Baltimore, Maryland (WWE Network link), Test defeated Rhyno to win the WWF Hardcore Championship. Near the end of the bout, former WCW Nitro Girl (and Baltimore Ravens cheerleader) Stacy Keibler made her WWF debut.

13 years ago today, David Sahadi gave notice of his impending resignation from his post as creative director of on-air promotions for WWE.

A part of the WWE since 1992, Saladi headed a team of video technicians that produced many of the video vignettes and promos advertising WWE's programs, wrestlers, and merchandise. Most notably, he and his team produced the WWF/E signature openings during the Attitude Era, the intro for Monday Night RAW in 1995 (the one with the helicopter flying over Titan Towers), the Billionaire Ted skits, and a black and white vignette featuring WWF legends at Wrestlemania XIV that drove Vince McMahon to tears.

In 2001, his team won seven ProMax awards for their work (including a gold medal for their WWF Beauty Pageant skit). Sahidi became disillusioned with WWE over the previous year, especially following the infamous Katie Vick angle. Sahidi would leave the company a month later. After a year away from the business, he joined TNA as a producer. Intended to stay for three months, he remains with the company to this day.

11 years ago today, WWE presented ECW One Night Stand (WWE Network link) from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. A sold-out 2,500 were in attendance, with 340,000 homes watching on PPV.

Though many WWE stars were on the card (as well as some stars from ECW making one-night only appearances), Tommy Dreamer and Paul Heyman put the show together, making Dreamer the first person other than Vince McMahon to write, produce, and main event a WWE PPV. Stone Cold Steve Austin also made an unannounced cameo appearance. Reaction to the show was so overwhelmingly positive, the one-time reunion would become a full-time revival a year later.

• Lance Storm defeated Chris Jericho.
• Super Crazy defeated Tajiri and Little Guido in a three-way dance.
• Rey Mysterio, Jr. defeated Psicosis.
• Sabu defeated Rhino.
• Chris Benoit defeated Eddie Guerrero.
• Mike Awesome defeated Masato Tanaka.
• The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) defeated Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman.

5 years ago today, TNA presented Slammiversary IX from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando.

• Gun Money (James Storm & Alex Shelley)) defeated The British Invasion (Douglas Williams & Magnus) to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship.
• Matt Morgan defeated Scott Steiner.
• Abyss defeated Brian Kendrick and Kazarian in a three-way match to retain the TNA X-Division Championship.
• Crimson defeated Samoa Joe.
• Mickie James defeated Angelina Love to retain the TNA Knockouts Championship.
• Bully Ray defeated AJ Styles in a last man standing match.
• Mr. Anderson defeated Sting to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
• Kurt Angle defeated Jeff Jarrett to become the #1 contender for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Had Angle lost, he would have given Jarrett his Olympic gold medal.

It's a happy 45^th birthday to the "The World's Strongest Man", Mark Jerrold Henry.

Henry, known these days for his up and down 20-year run in WWE, is known outside of the wrestling world for his prowess in weightlifting and powerlifting. He is a two-time Olympian (1992 and 1996), a two-time national champion and world champion powerlifter, and holds the raw world record in the squat and deadlift, and won the first Arnold Strongman Classic in 2002. He also was the first man to one hand clean-and-push-press the Thomas Inch dumbbell.

It's a happy 54th birthday for Jeremy Lynn, best known by his nickname Jerry Lynn.

Lynn worked every major wrestling promotion in his 25-year career, including WCW, ECW, WWF, TNA, and ROH. Lynn won only two world titles (ECW in 2000 and ROH in 2009), but he does have quite the trophy case: he also won the WWF light heavyweight championship, the TNA X Division championship twice, two-time NWA world tag team champion, and was the next to last WWA cruiserweight champion. Lynn was called by famed wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, "one of the most underrated workers of the last quarter century" in December 2012, just three months before Lynn's retirement.