This Day In Wrestling History – September 24

1976: Stephanie McMahon was born in Hartford, Connecticut

1979: Nikolai Volkoff and Chief Jay Strongbow went to a curfew draw in the main event of the WWF’s MSG show. Bob Backlund beat Pat Patterson on the undercard.

1996: The much-ballyhooed triple-header main event of In Your House 3 ended up being a ruse. Advertised as WWF Champion Diesel and Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels against tag champs Yokozuna and Owen Hart with all titles on the line and a change guaranteed, the WWF instead had the British Bulldog replace the “missing” Owen. Shawn and Diesel won the tag titles but the decision was overturned the next night because of the shenanigans. Elsewhere, Bret Hart beat Jean-Pierre Lafitte in a strong outing to win back his stolen leather jacket, and Dean Douglas pinned Razor Ramon.

2000: The Rock won a four-way against The Undertaker, Chris Benoit and Kane to retain the WWF Title in the top bout at Unforgiven. Triple H senselessly beat Kurt Angle to end their scorching summer programme with a whimper. The highlights of a poor show were Chris Jericho’s win over X-Pac and The Hardy Boyz defeating Edge & Christian in a cage match to win the tag belts.

2001: WCW Champion The Rock beat the red hot Rob Van Dam in the main event of Raw. In other matches, Kurt Angle beat Booker T, Chris Jericho defeated Christian, Kanyon bested Matt Hardy and William Regal pinned X-Pac.

2005: Roderick Strong beat Austin Aries, Christopher Daniels, Colt Cabana, Jay Lethal and Samoa Joe in a survival of the fittest six-way on the main event of the ROH show with the same name. 13 years later, four of the six participants have wrestled on an ROH card this year.

2006: AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels beat Homicide and Hernandez in the best match of TNA No Surrender. Samoa Joe emerged victorious in the main event, defeating Jeff Jarrett in a “fan’s revenge” lumberjack match.

2007: John Cena destroyed Jonathan Coachman in a tables match main event on Raw. There are plenty of oddities elsewhere on the broadcast. Ron Simmons beat Santino Marella via count out, Vince McMahon teamed with Carlito to beat Triple H in a cage match and Hardcore Holly pinned Cody Rhodes.

2012: Raw came from the Times Union Center in Albany, New York. The show opened with a sit-in from WWE Champion CM Punk, which led to a confrontation with Brad Maddox then General Manager (and Punk’s future wife) AJ Lee. Punk was also involved in a verbal confrontation at the end of the show, this time with John Cena. With Cena injured and unable to compete at Hell In A Cell, the on-fire Ryback was installed as Punk’s pay-per-view opponent. Ryback destroyed The Miz earlier in the broadcast, continuing his winning streak. Elsewhere, Jim Ross made his return to Raw, filling in for Jerry Lawler who was out after suffering a heart attack two weeks earlier.

2017: Kenny Omega defeated Juice Robinson at NJPW Destruction In Kobe to retain the IWGP United States title. There was a title change on the undercard as The Killer Elite Squad beat War Machine and Guerrillas Of Destiny in a three-way tag match to win the IWGP Tag Team titles.

2017: Roman Reigns cleanly beat John Cena at No Mercy in their first singles meeting on pay-per-view. In the main event, Brock Lesnar made short work of Braun Strowman, damaging the big man’s momentum. Enzo Amore shocked everyone when he defeated Neville to win the Cruiserweight Title. No-one was more shocked than Neville, who quit the promotion in disgust a few weeks later.

• Hell In A Cell
• This Day In Wrestling History
• unforgiven
• cm punk

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