This Day in Wrestling History (Feb. 28): Mae Young Gives Birth... to a Hand

35 years ago today in Atlanta, Georgia, Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen defeated Jack and Jerry Brisco in the finals of a one-night tournament to win the vacated NWA World Tag Team Championship.

The title was vacated when Ole's original partner Gene Anderson was injured back in October and Ole was forced to give up his half of the title two months later.

31 years ago today in Houston, Texas, Dick Slater defeated Jake Roberts to win the Mid-South Television Championship.

He would be the last to hold the title before the name change a few weeks later when Mid-South became the Universal Wrestling Federation.

28 years ago today at a World Championship Wrestling taping in Columbia, South Carolina, Rick Steiner and Eddie Gilbert defeated Kevin Sullivan and Steve Williams to win the NWA United States Tag Team Championship.

17 years ago today on Nitro from Minneapolis, Minnesota (WWE Network link), 3 Count (Shane Helms, Evan Karagis, and Shannon Moore) defeated Brian Knobbs to win the WCW Hardcore Championship. Since all three men pinned Knobbs at the same time, they were recognized as the champion as a group.

17 years ago today on RAW is WAR from New York City (WWE Network link), Mark Henry and Crash Holly fought to a no contest for the WWF Hardcore Championship.

During the bout, Mae Young gave a splash on Crash, then collapsed in pain, causing the bout to be stopped. Later in the show, Mae gave birth to Mark Henry's baby, which turned out to be a hand. No, seriously. Look at the video.

Those hoping the weird hand birth would create a downturn for RAW’s ratings would be sadly disappointed: RAW got a 6.5 rating, consistent with what the show was doing at the time. Nitro on the other hand: 2.1, the lowest the show’s gotten since May 6, 1996.

15 years ago today in Dover, Delaware, Nick Berk defeated Justice Pain to win the CZW World Heavyweight Championship... only to lose it moments later to Yoshihiro Tajiri... who would then lose it to John Zandig.

15 years ago today, WWF premiered Tough Enough 2 on MTV.

Much like the first series, the show pit ordinary citizens through rigorous pro wrestling training and other physical and psychological challenges to earn a WWF contract. Trainers, including Al Snow, Hardcore Holly, Tazz, Ivory, and Chavo Guerrero, Jr., could eliminate contestants if they weren’t moving along far enough in the training or due to injury.

In a surprise to many, two women got the prize when the winners were announced in May 2002: Linda Miles and Jackie Gayda. Jake Sokoloff and Kenny Layne, the two runners-up, were not happy with the final result considering it was assumed that one man and woman would win the prize.

Miles briefly managed Shelton Benjamin, but more famously managed The Basham Brothers as dominatrix Shaniqua. Miles was released in 2004, shortly before Wrestlemania XX. She retired shortly after and is now a school teacher in Cincinnati.

Jackie Gayda’s career includes one of the most infamous matches in WWE history; a July 8, 2002 mixed tag team match between Trish Stratus and Bradshaw and Gayda and fellow Tough Enough winner Christopher Nowinski. “That Jackie Gayda match”, as it is known in wrestling lore, was voted the Worst Worked Match of 2002 by Wrestling Observer Newsletter readers. Jackie would manage Rico and Charlie Haas in 2003 and 2004. Gayda remained on the roster until her release in July 2005, just a month after Gayda married Haas. Jackie briefly appeared for TNA in late 2005 and early 2006 before leaving the company due to her pregnancy. Charlie and Jackie have four children together.

Layne would wrestle on the independent circuit as Kenny King and for TNA before joining Ring of Honor in 2007. His biggest success came as one half of the All Night Express with Rhett Titus. Two weeks after winning the ROH World Tag Team Championship, ROH severed ties with Layne after making an appearance on TNA Impact. King would join TNA shortly after and would remain with the company until September 2015, where shockingly, he returned to Ring of Honor.

Also in the cast were Matt Morgan (who would go on to moderate success in TNA before retiring in 2015) and Jessie Ward, who now works in television production. Ward was diagnosed with a heart condition and was forced to drop out about halfway through. Ward credits the show for saving her life. Ward married Tomasso Whitney, aka Tommaso Ciampa, in September 2013.

Among those not making the cut for the second season cast were John Hennigan (he would go to win the show's third season), Shelly Martinez (who went on to moderate success as Salinas in TNA and Ariel in WWE), Kia Stevens (best known as Amazing Kong internationally, Awesome Kong in TNA, and Kharma in WWE), Kim Neilson (who had a brief run in TNA as Desire and was a part of The Biggest Loser Season 13 cast), Chad Lail (who wrestles in TNA as Gunner), and Shad Gaspard (who was a part of the original final cast, but failed a drug test before the show began taping; he would wind up in WWE a few years later as one-half of Cryme Tyme).

The full season is available on WWE Network right here. Just flip the year to 2002, look around the middle, and there you are.

7 years ago today, Ring of Honor tapes its first series of episodes for HDNet. In the featured bout, which would not air until the third episode, Bryan Danielson defeated Austin Aries by submission.

4 years ago today at an Impact Wrestling taping at Universal Orlando, Kenny King defeated Rob Van Dam to win the TNA X Division Championship.

3 years ago today at Shine 17 in Ybor City, Florida, Leva Bates and Mia Yim defeated Allisin Kay and Taylor Made in the finals of a one-night tournament to win the Shine Tag Team Championship.

2 years ago today, Vince Russo quits the website he founded, PyroandBallyhoo.com. The statement through his Facebook page:

TO ALL VISITORS OF PYROANDBALLYHOO.COM,

As of today I am no longer associated with the website, or brand, pyroandballyhoo.com in any way, shape, or form. I will not be posting anything---blogs, videos, podcasts, from this point going forward. I am no way any longer associated with the site.

Please know, that if you renew your monthly membership, you will not be getting any content from Vince Russo from this day going forward. I also ask you to not buy any Vince Russo merchandise, as I no longer have access to the orders.

I will keep you all updated of my future endeavors here on my Facebook page.

As always I have been and still am very thankful for all your support.

I'll keep you posted.

Peace,

Vince

The next day, he released a video on Youtube (sorry, video is no longer available on the tubes) detailing what had happened with the site, essentially saying he was locked out of a website he never owned, and he only found out when he tried to do a post for it, and he was even locked out of his own Twitter.

Today, Russo is a host on his own video podcast network, The Brand.