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26 years ago today, the Universal Wrestling Federation (Herb Abrams version) presented UWF Beach Brawl from the Manatee Civic Center in Palmetto, Florida.
Just 550 fans were in attendance, with about 18,000 homes watching on PPV. The actual number of home buys may be lower, as it was not available in all markets.
- In a dark match, Boris Zuhkov defeated Paul Samson.
- The Blackhearts (Apocalypse & Destruction (Gangrel) defeated Jim Cooper & Fire Cat.
- Johnny Ace fought Terry Gordy to a double countout in a street fight.
- Mask Confusion (Brian Blair & Jim Brunzell) defeated The Power Twins (David & Larry Power).
- Rockin' Robin defeated Candi Devine to win the UWF Women's Championship.
- Paul Orndorff defeated Col. DeBeers in a strap match.
- Bob Backlund defeated Ivan Koloff.
- Sunny Beach & Steve Ray defeated Bob Orton Jr. & Cactus Jack.
- Steve Williams defeated Bam Bam Bigelow to win the UWF SportsChannel Television Championship.
26 years ago today in Mexico City, Mexico, Konnan el Barbaro defeated Cien Caras in the finals of a tournament to become the first CMLL World Heavyweight Champion.
23 years ago today, WWF holds its first ever Hall of Fame induction Ceremony from the Omni Inner Harbor International Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland.
This was the first year a full class was inducted, as the previous year, the Hall of Fame was created with just one inductee, Andre the Giant.
Clips of the ceremony have aired on WWE television and on its old Classics on Demand service, but the full event has never been made available to the public.
Inductees included Freddie Blassie, Bobo Brazil, James Dudley, Gorilla Monsoon, Arnold Skaaland, Buddy Rogers, and Chief Jay Strongbow.
22 years ago today in Tokyo, Japan, the Holy Demon Army (Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue) defeated Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuhara Misawa to win the All Japan Pro Wrestling Unified World Tag Team Championship.
19 years ago today on Nitro from Boston, Massachusetts (WWE Network link), Jeff Jarrett defeated Dean Malenko to win the WCW United States Championship.
The episode is best remembered for Sting repelling from the rafters to save a beaten down Diamond Dallas Page.
17 years ago today, the Holy Demon Army (Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue) defeated Takao Omori and Yoshiaki Takayama in a tournament final to win the All Japan Pro Wrestling Unified World Tag Team Championship.
The championships were vacated in April when Vader, one half of the tag champions with Steve Williams, fractures his left arm.
The Army’s sixth tag title reign, an All Japan record, would be their last. It would also be their shortest. Just seven days later, Taue is among about two dozen wrestlers who walk out on the company in support of its ousted president Mitsuharu Misawa. Misawa would go on to form Pro Wrestling NOAH with most of All Japan’s parts and would eventually take their TV deal.
13 years ago today at an NWA-TNA weekly PPV taping in Nashville, Tennessee, AJ Styles defeated Kazarian to win the TNA X Division Championship.
8 years ago today, WWE releases Macho Madness, the first-ever compilation of matches featuring "Macho Man" Randy Savage.
A second DVD, Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story, was released in 2015 and features a documentary on his life.
8 years ago today, Tommy Dreamer signs a new deal with WWE just one day after becoming ECW Champion. Dreamer's deal lasts for three years, but he leaves the company for TNA just six months later.
8 years ago today, Batista vacates the WWE Championship after its revealed he suffered a torn left bicep in the steel cage match against Randy Orton two days earlier.
Today would have been the 93rd birthday of James E. Barnett, or simply Jim Barnett.
Born in Oklahoma City, Barnett initially wrestled himself before turning to promoting in 1955. It was Barnett that came up with the idea of setting up a wrestling ring in a TV studio and doing live matches there instead of restricting weekly wrestling shows to just highlights of matches from recent arena events. Barnett’s style of programming became an instant hit, both with television viewers and ticket buyers.
In 1964, after an excursion to Australia with Johnny Doyle, the two began co-promoting cards under the World Championship Wrestling banner. The two would split time annually for the next decade before Barnett sold the promotion until selling it to Tony Kolonie in 1974 (Doyle died in 1969, leaving Barnett to run the promotion solo).
Upon returning to the United States, he bought a stake in Georgia Championship Wrestling and would become one of the most powerful promoters in the National Wrestling Alliance. His most notable decision as owner of Georgia Championship Wrestling was giving Tommy Rich a one-week run as NWA World Heavyweight Champion to boost gates in the state.
In 1983, Barnett served as a senior vice-president for the WWF and had a hand in the first three Wrestlemania events. In 1985, Barnett brokered the deal that returned the 6:05pm Saturday night timeslot on TBS to Jim Crockett (McMahon bought it by virtue of buying a majority stake in Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1984).
Shortly after Wrestlemania III, Barnett’s back channel to Crockett cost him his WWF job, but it would provide him a safe landing spot with Jim Crockett Promotions (Barnett had overdosed on sleeping pills following his WWF firing). He would remain with JCP and its successor, WCW (no relation to the Australian promotion he founded of the same name), in a consulting position until WCW’s shutdown in 2001.
In his final years, Barnett had been battling cancer and suffered a broken arm in a fall. He required surgery on the arm and contracted pneumonia. He would never recover. The pneumonia claimed his life on September 18, 2004. He was 80 years old.
Barnett, an openly gay promoter, is a member of the inaugural class of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996.
The best of cSs on this day:
2016: Full spoilers from NXT's June 9, 2016 tapings at Full Sail (Results of NXT Takeover: The End fallout tapings include setup for a Shinsuke Nakamura-Finn Balor match)
2015: WWE creative has nothing for Bray Wyatt, and that's sad (Bray Wyatt’s been missing on WWE programming since Payback)
2014: Report: Daniel Bryan injury to force him off Money in the Bank; will be stripped of WWE title (SEScoops and Wrestling Observer Newsletter report Daniel Bryan’s neck injury will force him to vacate WWE Championship; ladder match to determine new champion)
2013: Who is Kaitlyn's secret admirer? (Cagesiders weigh in on who is Kaitlyn’s secret admirer; it was AJ Lee)
2012: Hulk Hogan retires on Dallas television days before TNA Slammiversary (Hulk Hogan quietly announces his retirement in an interview with KDFA-TV in Dallas just days before Slammiversary)
2011: TNA's Jeff Hardy resurfaces on YouTube to resuscitate his reputation (Jeff Hardy appears on his brother Matt’s Youtube channel, his first notable appearance since his infamous Victory Road match)
2010: The Unfortunate Circumstances of Undertaker's Injury; Storylines and Missing Out on a Rampage/MMA Angle (Undertaker’s injury means a missed opportunity for the legend and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to cross paths)