Happy Cinco de Mayo! If you're celebrating this evening, stay safe, and if you get a little bit tipsy, let someone else drive for you.
112 years ago today in New York City, George Hackenschmidt, the world Greco-Roman Wrestling champion, defeated Tom Jenkins, American heavyweight champion, 2-0 in a best of three falls match to become the World Catch-as-Catch-Can Heavyweight Champion. This is the origin of the first recognized world wrestling championship in the United States.
33 years ago today in Greensboro, North Carolina, Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood defeated Jack and Jerry Brisco to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship.
31 years ago today, World Class Championship Wrestling presented the second Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions from Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. 26,153 were in attendance.
- Johnny Mantell and Skip Young fought to a draw.
- Brian Adias & Scott Casey defeated Kelly Kiniski & Nick Kiniski.
- Terry Gordy defeated Kamala by disqualification.
- Mike von Erich defeated Rip Oliver.
- Scott Casey & The Great Kabuki defeated The Dynamic Duo (Chris Adams & Gino Hernandez).
- The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers) defeated The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey) in a two-ring, no disqualification match to win the vacant WCCW American Tag Team Championship.
- Kerry von Erich defeated The One Man Gang in a hair versus hair match. It was Kerry's hair at stake versus Gary Hart, the One Man Gang's manager.
- The Fabulous Freebirds (Buddy Roberts, Michael Hayes, and Terry Gordy), Kerry von Erich, Kevin von Erich, and Mike von Erich defeated Kamala, Rip Oliver, Steve Williams, The Dynamic Duo (Chris Adams & Gino Hernandez) and The One Man Gang 3-2 in a two-ring, best-of-five falls match.
Chris Adams defeated Buddy Roberts.
Gino Hernandez defeated Michael Hayes.
Kerry von Erich defeated Rip Oliver.
Buddy Roberts defeated Gino Hernandez.
Kevin von Erich defeated Steve Williams.
- Ric Flair and Kevin Von Erich fought to a double countout for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
22 years ago today, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Brass Knuckles Champion Atushi Onita defeated his protégé Hayabusa in a no ropes exploding barbed wire exploding cage deathmatch. 58,250 fans were in attendance at Kawasaki Stadium in Kawasaki, Japan, the largest attendance in stadium history at the time.
The bout was billed as Onita's final match. In an interesting side note, Hayabusa wasn't the original opponent; Onita's original choice (and Hayabusa's trainer), Tarzan Goto, refused to lose to Onita and walked out on FMW just two weeks before the show.
In another side note, Onita did not stay retired for long; he was back in the ring a year and a half later and has occasionally wrestled ever since, retiring and unretiring multiple times, even joining a new version of FMW in 2015. The FMW founder intends to retire on October 25, 2017, his 60th birthday.
As for Hayabusa, he would go on to become the face of FMW. He was paralyzed in October 2001 when he lost his footing on a springboard moonsault and landed on his head. With Hayabusa gone, interest in FMW quickly diminished before folding in 2002. Hayabusa died in March 2016 of a subarachnoid hemmorage, an uncommon form of a stroke.
NOTE: THE LINKED VIDEO IS NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL VIEWERS.
16 years ago today, WWF presented Insurrextion (WWE Network link) from Earls Court in London, England. 15,794 were in attendanance.
- Eddie Guerrero defeated Grand Master Sexay.
- Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko defeated The Hollys (Hardcore & Crash).
- Bradshaw defeated The Big Show.
- Edge and Christian defeated X-Factor (X-Pac and Justin Credible), The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff), and The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) in a fatal four way elimination match.
- Chris Benoit defeated Kurt Angle 2-0 in a best of three falls match.
- Chris Jericho defeated William Regal by submission to win the "Queen's Cup".
- The Undertaker defeated The Two-Man Power Trip (Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H) in a handicap match.
15 years ago today, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. becomes World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. just days after the Court of Appeal for England and Wales upheld an October 2001 ruling alleging that the WWF was in breach of an agreement with the World Wild Fund for Nature (operating at the time as the World Wildlife Fund).
The two companies shared the initials since 1979, but the court ruled the World Wrestling Federation violated a 1994 agreement limiting their use of the initials. Under the ruling, all mentions of the WWF initials and the old logos would be censored.
The WWF were looking to appeal the ruling to the House of Lords, the equivalent of the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom, but ultimately decided against it.
In 2003, WWE won a judgment allowing them to market classic video games with the old WWF scratch logo, but must use the new WWE logo on its packaging. In 2012, the WWE and the WWF reached a settlement over the use of the initials and scratch logo, allowing them to use archived footage unedited. Any new material produced could not use the WWF initials or logo.
15 years ago today, a number of WWE personnel got in hot water as a result of a series of incidents that happened on the flight back from London for the Insurrextion PPV.
Michael Hayes and John "Bradshaw" Layfield got into a fight, Sean "X-Pac" Waltman cut Hayes' hair, Scott Hall passed out from drinking too much, Ric Flair walked around the plane wearing little more than a robe and exposed himself to a female flight attendant, and Dustin Runnels, aka Goldust, got on the PA system and badly attempted to serenade his ex-wife Terri. Oh, and Curt Hennig and Brock Lesnar got into an impromptu wrestling match on the plane and got real close to a plane door.
Also on board of the plane were road agents Gerry Brisco, Dave "Fit" Finlay, Arn Anderson, senior writers Stephanie McMahon and Paul Heyman, vice-president of talent relations Jim Ross, and The Undertaker, who had always been seen as a strong figure in the locker room. Ross issued an apology on his blog The Ross Report a few days later:
"The flight was about seven hours in length and at times was low-lighted by a handful of people who consumed too much alcohol and consequently acted like children whose parents were away and left the liquor cabinet unlocked. The conduct of this inebriated minority was unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Procedures have been put in place to ensure such conduct does not occur in the future.
The bottom line is this: yours truly is the person in charge of the talent roster and the buck stops with me. We will do all we humanly can to solve the problem."
The fallout from the flight was severe for several people involved. Scott Hall, who was already on thin ice due to his physical condition before the tour, was released several days later as his drunkness was seen as the catalyst for the events of the flight.
Despite briefly holding the World Tag Team Championship with Booker T in late 2002, Goldust, real name Dustin Runnels, was in the company’s doghouse for virtually the remainder of his time there. Dustin left WWE in December 2003 after his contract expired. In a rare move by the company, it was announced on the website that Dustin’s contract would not be renewed. Runnels had been in and out of the company since, but he’s been in since September 2013.
As Brock Lesnar was getting a major push at the time of the flight, Curt Hennig was the man that took the fall for the airplane door incident and was fired by WWE. Hennig would spend the remainder of his career in upstart promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Hennig died of acute cocaine intoxication in February 2003.
In 2004, two flight attendants sued WWE, Flair, Hall, and Runnels for sexual harassment. The suit was ultimately settled out of court.
The seven-hour flight would become known in wrestling lore as "The Plane Ride From Hell".
Peter Polaco (aka Justin Credible) and Sean Waltman, two men on that flight, gave their account of the events, and you can read them courtesy of Pro Wrestling Stories here. Brock Lesnar gave his account of the plane ride in an interview for ESPN’s Highly Questionable in 2016, and you can see that here.
15 years ago today, Randall Anderson, or Randy Anderson as he is more commonly known, died of testicular cancer in his hometown of Rome, Georgia. He was 42.
Anderson, who was a state wrestling champion at 119 pounds in Georgia, began his refereeing career for Mid-South Wrestling in 1978, and was brought into NWA affiliate Jim Crockett Promotions in 1985.
Randy was most famously the official for the six-man tag team match that led to the formation of the New World Order in 1996. Little most people knew, he refereed the match while he was getting treated for testicular cancer. He found out he had testicular cancer through reading a medical magazine, and it was only later confirmed by a doctor.
The tumor was malignant, and his left testicle had to be removed. Randy returned to the ring two months after surgery, but his battle forced him to retire from wrestling in 1999. The cancer would ultimately claim his life on May 5, 2002 at age 42.
At the time of his death, he was survived by his wife Kristy, daughter Montana, and son Chase.
14 years ago today, WWE tapes the 250th edition of Sunday Night Heat from the Metro Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
- In a preshow dark match, Aaron Stevens defeated John Walters.
- Victoria defeated Jacqueline.
- Maven defeated Steven Richards.
- Christopher Nowinski defeated Mike Bartilucci.
- Chris Jericho defeated The Hurricane by submission.
8 years ago today, Ric Flair makes his Ring of Honor debut as the ROH Ambassador.
Flair, who had signed onto the promotion in February less than a year after his retirement bout at Wrestlemania XXIV, left the promotion over the summer after walking out on an event in June, then not turning up for an event a month later.
In 2010, then-ROH owner Cary Silkin sued Flair for $40,000 for payments he received for no-showing events. The lawsuit was dropped in 2011 following Sinclair Broadcasting buying Ring of Honor.
3 years ago today on RAW from Albany, New York (WWE Network link), Sheamus last eliminates Dean Ambrose to win a 20-man battle royal and the WWE United States Championship.
Other participants in the battle royal (in alphabetical order) were Big Show, Cody Rhodes, Curtis Axel, Damien Sandow, Dolph Ziggler, Fandango, Goldust, Heath Slater, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, R-Truth, Ryback, Santino Marella, Sin Cara, Titus O'Neil, Xavier Woods, and Zack Ryder.
The win ends Dean Ambrose's 351-day run as champion, the longest in the WWE's era of the championship (dating back to its revival in 2003), and the third longest in the history of the title, dating back to 1979 (only Rick Rude at 378 days and Lex Luger at 523 days had a longer reign).
It’s a happy 78th birthday to William F. Watts, Jr., or Bill Watts as he is best known to wrestling fans.
Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Watts, a famed wrestler in the 1960s (he had challenged for the WWWF, NWA, and AWA world heavyweight championships), is best known for his time as a promoter.
Watts is credited for popularizing the “episodic” format for television wrestling programs for his Mid-South Wrestling in the 1970s and 1980s. A staunch believer in kayfabe, Watts had his wrestlers dress in locker rooms according to their alignments, and never allow for faces and heels to coexist in public.
Mid-South Wrestling, later known as the Universal Wrestling Federation, while seen as revolutionary, was a money loser. In April 1987, Watts sold his company to Jim Crockett Promotions for $4 million. While some of UWF’s stars made out fine in JCP (most notably Sting, Rick Steiner, and “Dr. Death” Steve Williams), most of the talent was buried with JCP’s mid-carders quickly winning their titles. The promotion would continue operations through the end of the year before eventually folding.
After initially turning down the opportunity to become WCW’s head booker in April 1989, Watts would become its Executive Vice-President in 1992, succeeding Kip Allan Frey. He brought a lot of his old-school tactics to the company (i.e. faces and heels dressing in separate locker rooms, banning top-rope maneuvers, removing floor mats). The moves made him unpopular with wrestlers—and younger audiences. Also not making Watts popular was the introduction of his son Erik to WCW, who many felt was not fit for a national spotlight.
Watts is credited for pushing African-American stars, most notably the Junkyard Dog, “Big Cat” Ernie Ladd, and Ron Simmons (the latter to the WCW world title), to appeal to the African-American fanbase. It was ironically his comments on African-Americans that would end his tenure with WCW. In a 1991 interview, Watts was advocating for a business owner’s right to discriminate against African-Americans and gays. The interview was passed along to Hank Aaron, who was a high-ranking official within the Turner organization. Depending on who’s telling the story, Watts either resigned or was fired as a result.
In 1995, Watts had a brief tenure with the WWF, but he left the company after just three months and essentially retired from the business.
Post-retirement, he wrote an autobiography, The Cowboy and the Cross: The Bill Watts Story, Rebellion, Wrestling, and Redemption in 2006, became a born-again Christian, and hosted a sports radio talk show in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2009, Watts was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. In 2013, Watts was inducted into both the Professional and International Wrestling Halls of Fame. Watts is also an inaugural member of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame class in 1996.
Bill has five children: William III, Joel, Erik, Micah, and Ene.