This Day In Wrestling History – September 23

This Day In Wrestling History – September 23

1917: All-time Mexican national hero El Santo (Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta) was born in Hidalgo, Mexico.

1974: Matt Hardy was born in Cameron, North Carolina.

1985: The Junkyard Dog bested Terry Funk in the main event of the WWF’s MSG card. There was also choice action on the undercard as The British Bulldogs beat The Hart Foundation in an 18:31 barnburner, Ricky Steamboat defeated Don Muraco via DQ and Andre the Giant bested King Kong Bundy in a battle of the giants.

1988: NXT Women’s Champion Kairi Sane was born in Yamaguchi, Japan.

1994: Herb Abram’s madcap promotion UWF presented Blackjack Brawl in front of a paltry 600 mans at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The 11-match show featuring a wild brawl between Cactus Jack and Superfly Jimmy Snuka, The Killer Bees over Power Warrior and The Warlord, and Steve Williams beating Sid Vicious in the main event.

1996: On Raw, Marc Mero pinned Faarooq, Vader beat Henry Godwinn, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog rolled over The Bodydonnas and The Stalker (Barry Windham) beat Triple H. The latter was still being punished for the Curtain Call incident back in May.

1997: The WWF taped Monday Night Raw at the Pepsi Arena in New York. Four of the five matches ended in a DQ finish, with only Goldust’s win over The Sultan coming via pinfall. Even the dark match between The Undertaker and WWF Champion Bret Hart ended via DQ.

2000: The Rock, The Undertaker and Triple H beat Chris Benoit, Kane and Kurt Angle in the main event of the WWF’s sold out Madison Square Garden show. Also on the card, Edge & Christian beat The Dudley Boyz, Steve Blackman defeated Gangrel in a hardcore match and the odd pairing of Chris Jericho and Rikishi dropped Eddie Guerrero and X-Pac.

2001: Held less than two weeks after 9/11, WWF Unforgiven took place before an understandably patriotic atmosphere. The promotion capitalised on that by having American hero Kurt Angle defeat WCW defector Steve Austin in the main event to win the WWF Championship. There were two other title changes on the show when Christian defeated former best friend/brother Edge to win the IC belt and Rhyno downed Tajiri to capture the WCW US strap. The pay-per-view is also infamous for a match so bad it has become legendary between The Brothers Of Destruction and the debuting former WCW tag champs KroniK.

2002: There were two major title changes on NOAH’s Great Voyage 2002 card at Budokan Hall. First, Akitoshi Saito and Jun Akiyama won the GHC Tag Team Titles from Takeshi Morishima and Takeshi Rikio, then in the main event the late Mitsuharu Misawa defeated Yoshihiro Takayama to win the GHC Heavyweight Title.

2002: Kane and The Hurricane teamed up to dethrone WWE Tag Team Champions Lance Storm and Christian. In the main event, Ric Flair and Triple H united to defeat ECW alumni Bubba Ray Dudley and Rob Van Dam. Raw posted a 3.6 rating, down significantly from 4.5 the year before.

2012: Hiroshi Tanahashi retained the IWGP Heavyweight Title against Naomichi Marufuji in the main event of NJPW Destruction. There were also singles match victories on the undercard for Low Ki, Togi Makabe and Kota Ibushi.

2013: The Shield had to square off against the majority of the roster in the elimination handicap match main event of Monday Night Raw. The Shield lost the 24-minute 11-on-3 encounter. Elsewhere on the show, Fandango beat Santino Marella, Randy Orton fought Rob Van Dam to a double count out and Alberto Del Rio beat Kofi Kingston.

2014: Kazuchika Okada headlined NJPW Destruction In Okayama, defeating current SmackDown star Karl Anderson. Anderson’s Good Brothers tag partner Doc Gallows teamed with current WWE Champion AJ Styles in a semi-final defeat to this year’s G1 winner Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tetsuya Naito.

2015: Togi Makabe retained the NEVER Openweight Title against Kota Ibushi in the headliner of NJPW Destruction In Okayama. On the same show current IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega captured the IWGP Junior Heavyweight strap from KUSHIDA in a decent albeit underwhelming match.

6 years ago by Wrestle Talk

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