This Day in Wrestling History (Feb. 12): Christian Wins The NWA World Title

Our condolences to the family, friends, and many fans of Chavo Guerrero, Sr. He died Saturday of liver cancer at age 68.

33 years ago today in Naucalpan, Mexico, El Canek defeated Andre the Giant 2-1 in a best of three falls match to retain the UWA World Heavyweight Championship.

32 years ago today, Jimmy Hart makes his WWF debut at a TV taping in Poughkeepsie, New York. He managed both Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart.

Hart would become one of the most successful managers in WWF history during his eight-year tenure, managing championship reigns by Valentine, The Hart Foundation, The Honky Tonk Man, The Glamour Girls, Money Inc., The Mountie, and Hulk Hogan.

30 years ago today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ivan Koloff and The Powers of Pain (Barbarian & Warlord) defeated Paul Ellering (substituting for Road Warrior Animal), Road Warrior Hawk, and Dusty Rhodes to win the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship.

27 years ago today in Gainesville, Georgia, Brian Pillman and Z-Man defeat The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin & Michael Hayes) to win the vacated WCW United States Tag Team Championship.

18 years ago today in Queens, New York, ECW presented Crossing the Line ‘99 from Elks Lodge in Queens, New York.

The show is noted for the surprise reunion of the Gangstas. Mustafa Saed, one-half of the duo, left ECW in the summer of 1997 after they had lost the tag titles. The Gangstas were originally brought back together to feud with another returning team, The Public Enemy, but they left for the WWF.

The Gangstas were replacement opponents for The Public Enemy as they were originally scheduled to take on The Dudley Boyz. The feel-good reunion of the Gangstas was a brief one: Mustafa turned on New Jack and revealed himself to be the “mysterious benefactor” that bankrolled the hits on Public Enemy and New Jack to run them out of ECW.

Selected matches from the show aired on the February 21 and 28 episodes of ECW Hardcore TV (WWE Network links).

• Chris Chetti defeated Little Guido.
• Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney defeated Danny Doring & Roadkill.
• Super Crazy defeated Yoshihiro Tajiri.
• Sabu and Skull von Krush fought to a no contest.
• Sabu and Taz fought to a no contest in a FTW Championship match.
• The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley) and The Gangstas (Mustafa & New Jack) fought to a no contest.
• John Kronus and Steve Corino fought to a no contest.
• Rob Van Dam defeated Jerry Lynn to retain the ECW World Television Championship.

17 years ago today in Oberhousen, Germany, Creative Control (Gerald & Patrick) defeated The Mamalukes (Big Vito & Johnny the Bull) to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship.

16 years ago today on RAW is WAR from East Rutherford, New Jersey (WWE Network link), Peter Polaco returns to the WWF after a four-year absence under his more recent gimmick name, Justin Credible.

The former ECW world heavyweight and tag team champion was in the WWF in the mid-1990s as “Portugese Man O’ War” Aldo Montoya; the gimmick is perhaps most infamous for his bright mask that some remarked looked like a jockstrap. After an initial push, Montoya fizzled out in the spring of 1995.

By the end of his WWF run, he was rarely seen on television, much less booked at all. Polaco was given a conditional release from the WWF in 1997 (the condition being that Polaco could not go to WCW). He would land in ECW, where he would remain until the promotion’s final show in January 2001.

Polaco’s only success during his second run was winning the hardcore title eight times (never for more than a few seconds each time). He was released in January 2003.

14 years ago today at an NWA-TNA weekly PPV in Nashville, Tennessee, Kid Kash defeated Sonny Siaki to win the TNA X Division Championship.

11 years ago today, TNA presented Against All Odds from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando.

• In a preshow match, Ron Killings defeated A-1.
• In a preshow match, Lance Hoyt, Cassidy Riley and Shark Boy defeated Shannon Moore and The Diamonds in the Rough (Elix Skipper and David Young).
• The Naturals (Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens) defeated Austin Aries and Roderick Strong.
• Jay Lethal defeated Matt Bentley (with Traci), Alex Shelley and Petey Williams in a four-way match.
• Lethal pinned Williams with a bridged pin after Bentley hit Williams with a Back Body Drop.
• The James Gang (B.G. James and Kip James) defeated The Latin American Exchange (Homicide and Machete).
• America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm) (with Gail Kim) defeated Chris Sabin and Sonjay Dutt to retain the NWA World Tag Team Championship.
• Rhino defeated Abyss (with James Mitchell) in a Falls Count Anywhere match.
• Samoa Joe defeated A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels in a three-way match to retain the TNA X Division Championship.
• Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) defeated Team Canada (Bobby Roode and Eric Young) (with Coach D'Amore).
• Christian Cage defeated Jeff Jarrett to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

8 years ago today, the Von Erichs announced via their official website that they would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in April.

5 years ago today, TNA presented Against All Odds from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando.

• Zema Ion defeated Jesse Sorensen by countout to become the #1 contender for the TNA X Division Championship. Of note, Jesse Sorensen cracked his C1 vertebrae near the end of the match. The injury resulted in him missing more than a year of action.
• Robbie E defeated Shannon Moore to retain the TNA Television Championship.
• Gail Kim defeated Tara to retain TNA Knockouts Championship.
• Samoa Joe and Magnus defeated Crimson and Matt Morgan to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship.
• Austin Aries defeated Alex Shelley to retain the TNA X Division Championship.
• Kazarian defeated A.J. Styles.
• Gunner defeated Garett Bischoff.
• Bobby Roode defeated Bully Ray, James Storm, and Jeff Hardy in a four-way match to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Sting was the special enforcer.

5 years ago today, New Japan Pro Wrestling presented The New Beginning from the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium in Osaka, Japan.

• CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI & Yujiro Takahashi) defeated King Fale & Tomoaki Honma.
• CHAOS (Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) defeated Captain New Japan, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tama Tonga.
• No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero) defeated Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi) to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.
• Suzuki-gun (Lance Archer, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku & Yoshihiro Takayama) defeated Aogi-gun (Wataru Inoue & Yuji Nagata), KUSHIDA, Tiger Mask & Togi Makabe 5-3 in a ten-man elimination tag team match.
• TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) defeated Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson) to retain the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
• Hirooki Goto defeated Masato Tanaka to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
• Tetsuya Naito defeats Shinsuke Nakamura.
• Kazuchika Okada defeats Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The win ended Tanahashi's run at 404 days, the second-longest title reign in New Japan's long history. The win also made Okada, at the time just 24, the second youngest IWGP Heavyweight Champion in NJPW history (Shinsuke Nakamura was just 23 when he won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first time in 2003).