Today In Wrestling History– July 17th

Trivia

2007 – WWE announced that WWE World Champion Edge would be out for at least 4 months to repair a torn pectoral muscle. He would vacate the World Title that night on Smackdown

Events

In 1994, WCW Bash at the Beach, held at Orlando Arena, in Orlando, Florida. With an attendance of 14,000, & saw the WCW in-ring debut of Hulk Hogan:

Dark Match:
– Brad & Brian Armstrong defeated Bobby Eaton & Steve Keirn
PPV:
– Lord Steven Regal defeated Johnny B. Badd to retain the WCW Television Title (Badd was subbing for Sting whom was injured)
– Vader (with Harley Race) defeated The Guardian Angel via DQ
– Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck defeated Dustin Rhodes & Arn Anderson
– Steve Austin defeated Ricky Steamboat to retain the WCW United States Title
– Pretty Wonderful (Paul Roma & Paul Orndorff) defeated Cactus Jack & Kevin Sullivan to win the WCW World Tag Team Titles
– Hulk Hogan (with Jimmy Hart & Mr. T) defeated Ric Flair (Sensuous Sherri) to win the WCW World Title

In 2002, All Japan Pro Wrestling held an untitled PPV in Osaka, Japan:

– Steve Williams, Mike Rotunda, & Yuto Aijima defeated Arashi, Nobutaka Araya, & Nobukazu Hirai
– Kendo Kashin defeated Gran Hamada to retain the AJPW Junior Heavyweight Title
– Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras defeated Abdullah The Butcher & Yoji Anjoh
– KroniK (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark) defeated Keiji Mutoh & Taiyo Kea to win the AJPW Tag Team Titles
– Genichiro Tenryu defeated Satoshi Kojima to retain the AJPW Triple Crown Title

In 2005, TNA No Surrender was held at the Impact Zone, in Orlando, Florida. With an attendance of 775:

Pre-Show:
– Shocker defeated Jerrelle Clark
PPV:
– America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) defeated Matt Bentley & Alex Shelley
– Sonjay Dutt defeated Elix Skipper, Shark Boy, & Mikey Batts in a 4-way Match to qualify for the 2005 TNA Super X Cup Tournament
– Apolo & Sonny Siaki defeated David Young & Simon Diamond
– Samoa Joe defeated Chris Sabin
– Team Canada (A-1, Eric Young, & Robert Roode) defeated Lance Hoyt & The Naturals (Andy Douglas & Chase Stevens) (with Jimmy Hart)
– Kip James & Monty Brown defeated 3Live Kru (Ron Killings & Konnan)
– AJ Styles defeated Sean Waltman (with Jerry Lynn as the special guest referee)
– Christopher Daniels defeated Petey Williams to retain the TNA X-Division Title
– Raven defeated Abyss (with Father James Mitchell) in a Dog Collar Match to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Title

In 2011, the second WWE Money In The Bank was held at the Allstate Arena, in Rosemont, Illinois. With an attendance of 14,815. CM Punk’s contract was set to expire that night, setting up a storyline where he left the company with the title:

Dark Match:
– Vladimir Kozlov & Santino Marella defeated Michael McGillicutty & David Otunga
PPV:
– Daniel Bryan defeated Sheamus, Kane, Sin Cara, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Justin Gabriel, & Heath Slater to win Smackdown’s Money In The Bank Match
– Kelly Kelly (with Eve Torres) defeated Brie Bella (with Nikki Bella) to retain the WWE Divas Title
– Mark Henry defeated The Big Show
– Alberto Del Rio defeated Rey Mysterio Jr., Kofi Kingston, Alex Riley, R-Truth, The Miz, Evan Bourne, & Jack Swagger to win Raw’s Money In The Bank Match
– Christian defeated Randy Orton via DQ to win the World Heavyweight Title (If Orton was DQ’ed or if there was poor officiating, Orton would lose his title)
– CM Punk defeated John Cena to win the WWE Title, & cause Cena to be fired, though the decision to fire Cena would be reversed the next night on Raw

Title Changes

1950 – Johnny Valentine defeated Danny Dusek to the Florida NWA Southern Heavyweight Title in Tampa, Florida. World Heavyweight Title in Montreal, Quebec

1957 – Killer Kowalski defeated Gene Kiniski to win the Montreal Athletic Commission

1964 – Mr. Moto & Nikita Mulkovich defeated Robert Duranton & Shag Thomas to win the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Title in Honolulu, Hawaii.

1965 – The Assassins (Guy Mitchell & Joe Tomasso) defeated Boris and Nicoli Volkoff to win the WWA World Tag Team Title in Indianapolis, Indiana

1970 – Paul DeMarco defeated Nick Bockwinkel to win the NWA Georgia Heavyweight Title in Atlanta, Georgia

1983 – Ronnie Garvin defeated The Iron Sheik to win the NWA National Television Title in Atlanta, Georgia

1987 – El Dandy defeated Kung Fu to win the NWA World Middleweight Title in Mexico City, Mexico

1990 – Terry Gordy defeated Stan Hansen to win the AJPW Triple Crown Title in Ishikawa, Japan (Gordy would vacate the title 10 days later after being hospitalized after an overdose on painkillers)

1993 – Brian Lee defeated Tracy Smothers to win the SMW Heavyweight Title in Johnson City, Tennessee

1999 – Steve Bradley defeated Vic Grimes to win the Power Pro Wrestling Young Guns Title in Memphis, Tennessee

2002 – Mike Knox defeated Frankie Kazarian to become the 1st Impact Zone Wrestling Heavyweight Champion in Tempe, Arizona

2002 – The Dogg Pound (Shelton Benjamin & Redd Dogg (Rodney Mack) defeated Flash Flanagan & Trailer Park Trash to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Title in Jeffersonville, Indiana

2004 – Michael Kovac & Eric Schwarz defeated Swi$$ Money Holding (Double C (Claudio Castagnoli (WWE’s Cesaro) & G-Ses (Marc Roudin)) to win the German Stampede Wrestling Tag Team Title in Neukirchen-Vluyn, Germany

2004 – Doug Williams defeated Alex Shelley in the final of a tournament to become the 1st ROH Pure Champion in Elizabeth, New Jersey

2006 – Amazing Kong & Kyoko Kimura defeated Kyoko Inoue & Etsuko Mita to win the NEO Tag Team Title in Tokyo, Japan

2006 – Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Giant Bernard in the final of a tournament to win the IWGP Heavyweight Title

2007 – on Smackdown, The Great Khali won a 20-man Battle Royal to win the vacant World Heavyweight Title (also in the battle royal were: MVP, Mark Henry, Kane, The Major Brothers, Jamie Noble, Finley, Kenny Dykstra, Funaki, Shannon Moore, Chris Masters, Batista, Dave Taylor, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Mr. Kennedy, Jimmy Wang Yang, Deuce N’ Domino, Matt Hardy, & Eugene)

Birthdays

Happy birthday to current TNA wrestler Knux (36), one-time WCW Cruiserweight Champion Daffney (39), indy wrestler Beau James (40), one-time TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion Lacey von Erich (28), All Japan regular Sushi (36), & Dragon Gate star Masato Yoshino (34)

Also, today would have been the birthday of one-time NWA World Champion Edouard Carpentier (88), & former NWA & WCW referee Randy Anderson (55)

In Memoriam

On this day in 1988, NWA star Bruiser Brody lost his life aged 42. Brody began his career in the early 70′s, freelancing for several NWA-affiliated promotions all over North America. He became a regular in the Texas territory, eventually winning a total of 12 singles titles (including one Texas Heavyweight Title) and 6 tag team titles in the area. In the early 80′s he became a star in Japan, competing regularly for AJPW and winning their heavyweight title on three occasions. He also won two World’s Strongest Tag Leagues, one with Stan Hansen, the other with Jimmy Snuka. However, Brody also gained a reputation as being exceptionally difficult to work with; he would often no-sell during matches & on 1 notable occasion, stopped working altogether during a cage match with Lex Luger, later stating that ‘the match just wasn’t working’. Late in his career, he began to work frequently in Puerto Rico, a decision which would lead to his death. Brody got into a fight with fellow wrestler José Gonzalez, known as Invader 1, who stabbed Brody in the shower. The entire locker room heard the commotion; Tony Atlas saw Gonzalez standing over Brody holding the knife and indeed it was he who had to carry Brody to the ambulance when the paramedics couldn’t lift the near-300lb Brody. The scandal intensified a year later when Gonzalez was inexplicably found not guilty, on account of self-defence. Several American wrestlers who had been in the locker room at the time, including Tony Atlas & Dutch Mantel, were not called to testify at the trial. The incident led many wrestlers to boycott Puerto Rico, nearly crippling the wrestling business on the island