This Day in Wrestling History (Apr. 13): ECW Debuts on PPV with Barely Legal

27 years ago today, All Japan Pro Wrestling and the WWF co-present the US/Japan Wrestling Summit from the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The joint event is attended by 53,742 fans.

• Doug Furnas, Dan Kroffat, and Joe Malenko defeated Samson Fuyuki, Toshiaki Kawada and Tatsumi Kitihara.
• Jushin Liger defeated Akira Nogami.
• Tito Santana and Jimmy Snuka defeated Masa Fuchi and Kenta Kobashi.
• Tiger Mask and Bret Hart fought to a 20-minute draw.
• The Great Kabuki defeated Greg Valentine.
• Jake Roberts defeated The Big Bossman.
• Shinya Hashimoto and Masa Saito defeated Masa Chono and Riki Choshu to retain the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
• Haku and Jumbo Tsuruta defeated Rick Martel and Mr. Perfect.
• Genichiro Tenryu defeated Macho Man Randy Savage.
• Ultimate Warrior defeated “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase to retain the WWF Championship.
• André the Giant and Giant Baba defeated Demolition (Ax and Smash).
• Hulk Hogan defeated Stan Hansen.

23 years ago today in St. Paul, Minnesota, Jesse Ventura is awarded nearly $810,000 in video tape and merchandising royalties after a Minnesota state court found the WWF liable for fraud and misapproriation of publicity rights.

Ventura alleged in the suit, filed in December 1991, that he never received compensation for his commentary work or royalties from his appearances on nearly 100 WWF home video releases, even though wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant did and non-wrestlers like Cyndi Lauper and Mr. T did as well. Jesse also alleged that he did not sign any documentation that explicitly denied him of said compensation. The jury awarded Ventura $801,333.06 in video royalties and another $8,625.60 in merchandising royalties.

WWF filed an appeal, but in September 1995, the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals holds up the verdict. In response to the ruling, the WWF removed Ventura’s commentary from all programming and subsequent home releases (Ventura’s commentary was eventually restored). Ventura v. Titan Sports Inc. is seen as an important case in regards to restitution law.

20 years ago today, ECW makes its PPV debut with Barely Legal (WWE Network link) from the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1,170 were in attendance, with about 70,000 homes watching on PPV, though some estimates have it as high as 104,000 buys.

It was the show that almost never was: six months earlier, video surfaced of the Mass Transit incident (a then seventeen-year old Eric Kulas heavily bled in a match against New Jack; Kulas claimed to be 19 and trained by Killer Kowalski, neither of which was true). PPV companies expressed their concerns over the incident and all three major PPV outlets (Premiere, Request TV, Viewer's Choice) chose not to carry the PPV, originally scheduled for December.

Request would reverse the decision, but under certain conditions, including pushing the scheduled start time to 9pm, multiple commentators, an advanced script of the show, and no excessive bleeding. Portions of the event, including a preshow speech by ECW owner Paul Heyman, was filmed for the wrestling documentary, Beyond the Mat.

• In a dark match, Louie Spicolli defeated Balls Mahoney.
• In a dark match, J.T. Smith and Chris Chetti defeated The FBI (Little Guido and Tommy Rich).
• The Eliminators (Perry Saturn and John Kronus) defeated The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray and D-Von) to win the ECW Tag Team Championship.
• Rob Van Dam defeated Lance Storm.
• The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, and Masato Yakushiji defeated bWo Japan (TAKA Michinoku, Terry Boy, and Dick Togo).
• Shane Douglas defeated Pitbull #2 to retain the ECW World Television Championship.
• Taz defeated Sabu by submission.
• Terry Funk defeated The Sandman and Stevie Richards in a three-way dance to earn an ECW World Heavyweight Championship match.
• Terry Funk defeated Raven to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.

17 years ago today in Indianapolis, Indiana, Taz defeated Mike Awesome via submission in just 75 seconds to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.

A bizarre set of circumstances brought this match together. Four days earlier, Mike Awesome as the ECW world champion signed a deal with WCW. Allegedly, there was a plan for Awesome to junk the ECW world title belt in a garbage bin a la Madusa in December 1995, but with Paul Heyman and ECW’s lawyers threatening legal action and WCW on thin ice with Time-Warner, the plan was ultimately scrapped and a plan was agreed to for Awesome to drop the title on TV.

On the day of the title change, Mike was escorted by WCW security to a secluded area (Awesome was not permitted to change in the ECW locker room) and was handed a script of what was to take place and not to stray from it under any circumstances.

So where does Taz come in? A call to Vince McMahon. Heyman called McMahon about borrowing Taz as Mike Awesome’s surprise opponent. Seeing McMahon had an opportunity to defecate on WCW (figuratively) drop on his lap, he agreed.

After the short match, in which Taz submitted Awesome with his Tazmission, Awesome left through the crowd. For what it’s worth, Taz only held the title for nine days, losing it to Tommy Dreamer at Cyberslam 2000, only to lose it less than a half hour later to Justin Credible.

The match would air the next night on ECW on TNN (WWE Network link) and is believed to be the only time that WWF, WCW, and ECW had some significant involvement in a televised match together.

15 years ago today, World Wrestling All-Stars presented Eruption from the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia.

• A.J. Styles defeated Nova in a semi-final match in a tournament for the vacant WWA Cruiserweight Championship.
• Jerry Lynn defeated Chuck E. Chaos in a semi-final match in a tournament for the vacant WWA Cruiserweight Championship.
• Teo defeated Puppet the Psycho Dwarf in a midget hardcore match.
• Brian Christopher and Ernest Miller defeated Buff Bagwell and Stevie Ray.
• Alan Funk defeated Pierre Ouelette.
• A.J. Styles defeated Jerry Lynn to win the WWA International Cruiserweight Championship.
• Sabu defeated Devon Storm in a steel cage match.
• Midajah defeated Queen Bee in an evening gown match.
• Scott Steiner defeated Nathan Jones by submission to win the WWA World Heavyweight Championship. Sid Vicious was the special enforcer.

15 years ago today in Tokyo, Japan, Genichiro Tenryu defeated Toshiaki Kawada to win the vacated All Japan Pro Wrestling Triple Crown Championship.

The title was vacated on March 28 when Toshiaki Kawada suffered a knee injury.

10 years ago today in Osaka, Japan, Yuji Nagata defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

The win ends Tanahashi’s title reign at 270 days. It would be the longest in the company following Brock Lesnar vacating the title until Hiroshi Tanahashi’s 404-day IWGP title reign spanning virtually all of 2011 and a few weeks into 2012.

9 years ago today, TNA presented Lockdown from the Paul Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Massachusetts. The show's hook of course was that every match was contested in a steel cage.

• Jay Lethal defeated Johnny Devine, Shark Boy, Sonjay Dutt, Curry Man, and Consequences Creed in a Xscape match to retain the TNA X Division Championship.
• Roxxi Laveaux defeated Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, Salinas, Rhaka Khan, Traci Brooks, Christy Hemme, and Jacqueline in a Queen of the Cage match to become the #1 contender for the TNA Knockouts Championship.
• B.G. James defeated Kip James.
• Super Eric and Kaz defeated The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley), The Latin American Xchange (Homicide and Hernandez), Scott Steiner and Petey Williams, The Rock 'n Rave Infection (Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave), and Black Reign and Rellik in a Cuffed in the Cage match for a future TNA World Tag Team Championship match.
• Gail Kim and O.D.B. defeated Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed.
• Booker T and Sharmell defeated Robert Roode and Payton Banks in an intergender tag team match.
• Team Cage (Christian Cage, Kevin Nash, Rhino, Sting, and Matt Morgan) defeated Team Tomko (Tomko, A.J. Styles, Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon), and James Storm) in a Lethal Lockdown match.
• Samoa Joe defeated Kurt Angle to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.

8 years ago today from Atlanta, Georgia, WWE presented the 2009 WWE Draft (WWE Network link) on a special edition of RAW.

As with previous editions of the Draft, wrestlers would earn randomly selected picks for their wrestlers by winning interpromotional matches. This would be the final draft involving ECW (the brand would be discontinued in February 2010).

• In a preshow dark match, Dolph Ziggler defeated Goldust.
• In a preshow dark match, Curt Hawkins defeated Jimmy Wang Yang.
• Rey Mysterio defeated Evan Bourne.
• Kane defeated The Brian Kendrick in just 46 seconds.
• Maryse, Michelle McCool, Natalya defeated Melina, Mickie James, and Kelly Kelly in just 76 seconds.
• John Cena defeated Jack Swagger to win two draft picks for RAW.
• The Great Khali defeated Santino Marella in just 63 seconds.
• Kofi Kingston defeated The Miz by disqualification.
• Edge defeated Carlito, Chavo Guerrero, Finlay, JTG, Mark Henry, Mike Knox, Montel Vontavious Porter, Paul Burchill, Primo, R-Truth, Ricky Ortiz, Shad, The Big Show, and Tyson Kidd in a 15-man battle royal to win two draft picks for Smackdown.
• Christian defeated Shelton Benjamin. This would be ECW’s only win on the show.
• Matt Hardy defeated CM Punk by disqualification.
• Chris Jericho defeated Tommy Dreamer.
• In a non-draft match, Batista, Shane McMahon, and Triple H defeated Legacy (Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase).

NOTE: Picks in bold were made during the show. Other picks were made two days later in the Supplemental Draft.

In an interesting bit of trivia, seven of the nine championships in WWE switched homes (Unified Tag Team Championships held by Carlito and Primo, US Champion MVP, WWE Champion Triple H, Divas Champion Maryse, Women’s Champion Melina, and Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio)

7 years ago today, WWE announces via press release that Smackdown would be moving to Syfy effective October 1. The announcement ends speculation as to the show's future after their contract with MyNetworkTV expired.

The show moved again to USA Network in January 2016, bringing WWE’s two main shows to home.

4 years ago today at SHIMMER Volume 66 in Berwyn, Illinois, The Global Green Gangsters (Kellie Skater & Tomoka Nakagawa) defeated the Canadian NINJAs (Portia Perez & Nicole Matthews) in a no disqualification match to win the SHIMMER Tag Team Championship.

The Gangsters would hold the championships for the next two years, surpassing the NINJAs first tag title run which spanned from May 2009 to March 2011. They would also go on to set the record for most successful title defenses with 13.

---

The best of cSs on this day:

2016: Gallows and Anderson attack some local talent before SmackDown - where are we going with WWE's 'Bullet Club'? (Stills emerge from Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows’ Smackdown debut)

2015: Uhaa Nation, Jessie McKay officially join WWE - no word on Samoa Joe (The future Apollo Crews and Billie Kay among new class of eleven at WWE Performance Center; the future Peyton Royce also in the group)

2014: Oculus movie opens to $12 million in its first weekend in theaters (WWE Studios’ Oculus makes its money back on on opening weekend—it would go on to gross $44 million)

2013: WWE News: Why Dolph Ziggler has jobbed so much; nixed Jack Swagger title run (PWInsider report explains the logic of Dolph Ziggler losing so much prior to his Money in the Bank cash-in; also Jack Swagger’s DUI may have cost him a world title run)

2012: Kevin Nash staying ready for potential WWE return (Kevin Nash answers a fan question on a possible WWE or TNA return)

2011: Chael Sonnen: "My focus is making things right with Director Kizer" (MMAer Chael Sonnen on The MMA Hour says he wants to make things right with Nevada State Athletic Commission director Keith Kizer)

2010: NXT officially axed from Syfy in the autumn, has WWE already found another network for the show? (Smackdown’s move to SyFy has an unintended consequence: NXT is moving out)