Today In Wrestling History- August 1st

Trivia

2002 – WWE Niagara Falls opens, the 1st dedicated WWE retail & entertainment site

Events

In 2008, ROH Fueling The Fire was held in Manassass, Virginia:

Dark Matches:
– Alex Payne & Dirty Sanchez defeated Cordova & John Kermon
– Ernie Osiris & Bobby Shields defeated Ninja Yellow & Ninja White
– Sean Denny defeated Mitch Franklin
Fueling The Fire:
– The Briscoe Brothers (Jay & Mark) defeated Sweet n’ Sour Inc. (Shane Hagadorn & Adam Pearce)
– Pelle Primeau defeated Rex Sterling
– Delirious defeated Rhett Titus
– Roderick Strong defeated Necro Butcher
– Austin Aries & Bryan Danielson fought The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) to a time-limit draw
– Brent Albright defeated Chris Hero
– Nigel McGuinness defeated Ruckus to retain the ROH World Title
– The Age of the Fall (Tyler Black & Jimmy Jacobs) defeated Naomichi Marufuji & Go Shiozaki

In 2011, NJPW G1 Climax XXI: The Invincible Fighter was held in Fukuoka, Japan. The event mostly featured G1 Climax League matches:

– Kota Ibushi defeats Ryusuke Taguchi to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title
– Hirooki Goto defeats Hiroyoshi Tenzan
– Yujiro Takahashi defeats Tetsuya Naito
– Satoshi Kojima defeats Minoru Suzuki
– MVP defeats Shinsuke Nakamura
– Yuji Nagata defeats Hiroshi Tanahashi

Title Changes

1963 – Eddie Graham defeated Hiro Matsuda to win the (Florida) Southern Heavyweight Title in Jacksonville, Florida

1974 – Bulldog Bob Brown defeated Harley Race to win the Central States Heavyweight Title in Kansas City, Kansas

1979 – Angelo Mosca defeated Bob Sweetan to win the TSW Brass Knucks Title

1980 – El Halcon defeated Gino Hernandez to win the WCCW American Heavyweight Title. Also, Kerry von Erich & Sweet Brown Sugar defeated Stan Stasiak & Tim Brooks to win the vacant Texas Tag Team Titles

1982 – Harley Race defeated Jumbo Tsuruta to win the NWA United National Heavyweight Title (now part of the All Japan Triple Crown) in Tokyo, Japan

1996 – W*ING Kanemura defeated Masato Tanaka in a tournament final to become the first FMW Independent World Heavyweight Champion in Shiodome, Japan

Birthdays

Happy birthday to one-time WCW Tag Team Champion Jimmy ‘Bunkhouse Buck’ Golden (64), tag team legend & current TNA star Devon (42), former WCW Television & Cruiserweight Champion Prince Iaukea (50), UK indy regular Stevie Lynn (31), & WWE referee Mike Chioda (48)

In Memoriam

The wrestling world has lost two personalities on this date:

Firstly, in 2002, former Portland promoter Don Owen died at the ripe old age of 90. Owen was the son of famed boxing promoter Herb Owen & began working for his father as a food & drink vendor in the 1920′s. In the coming decades, Don and brother Elton would occasionally step into the ring where necessary, but both preferred to work behind the scenes. When Herb died in 1951, Don took over the business & became a founding member of the NWA. He secured a local TV deal in 1952 & would keep it running (under the names ‘Portland Wrestling’ & ‘Big Time Wrestling’) for close to 40 years, making it probably the longest-running wrestling show in history. He became 1 of the best-loved promoters in America, due to his reputation for fairness & offering good pay. Due to this, his PNW promotion attracted &/or trained many of the big names of the era, including Curt Hennig, Roddy Piper, Jesse Ventura, Jimmy Snuka, & George Wagner (before he became Gorgeous George). The promotion held firm through to the 1980′s, when the WWF’s expansion started to take it’s toll. Eventually, Owen sold the company to Sandy Barr & lived out a quiet retirement before passing of natural causes at his home in Eugene, Oregon. He is still remembered as the ‘standard-bearer’ of professionalism amongst promoters.

Secondly, in 2004, 2-time NWA Light Heavyweight Champion Ken Timbs died aged 53. Timbs began his professional career in Ole Anderson’s Georgia territory, debuting in 1978, but soon found himself competing in Joe Blanchard’s San Antonio-based SCW promotion. Here, he formed ‘The Fabulous Blondes’ with Eric Embry and the pair would go on to compete together through to the mid-80′s, by which time they were 3-time SCW Tag Team Champions. After leaving SCW, he had a stint on the independents before moving to Mexico, where he became a 2-time EMLL/NWA Light Heavyweight Champion. He also became the Guatemalan Heavyweight Champion before returning to the US in the mid-90′s, though he became semi-retired soon after. He battled heart disease for several years before eventually succumbing to a heart attack