Today In Wrestling History- June 24th

Trivia

1996 – The Monday Night War continued: WCW Monday Nitro defeated WWF Monday Night Raw: 3.3 to 2.7 in the ratings

Events

In 1995, the WWF Hall of Fame Ceremony was held at the Marriott Hotel, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The class of 95 was:

– Antonino Rocca (inducted by Kevin Nash)
– “Big Cat” Ernie Ladd (inducted by Bobo Brazil)
– George ‘The Animal’ Steele (inducted by Doink The Clown)
– Ivan Putski (inducted by Scott Putski)
– The Fabulous Moolah (inducted by Alundra Blayze)
– The Grand Wizard (inducted by Sgt. Slaughter)
– Pedro Morales (inducted by Savio Vega)

In 2001, WWF King of the Ring was held at the Continental Airlines Arena, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. With an attendance of 17,777. The event featured the WWF debut of Booker T:

Sunday Night Heat:
– 
Matt Hardy (with Lita) defeated Justin Credible to retain the WWF European Title
PPV:
– Kurt Angle defeated Christian in a King of the Ring Tournament Semi-Final Match
– Edge defeated Rhyno in a King of the Ring Tournament Semi-Final Match
– The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von) defeated Kane & Spike Dudley to retain the WWF Tag Team Titles
– Edge defeated Kurt Angle to win the 2001 King of the Ring Tournament
– Jeff Hardy defeated X-Pac to retain the WWF Light Heavyweight Title
– Kurt Angle defeated Shane McMahon in a Street Fight
– Steve Austin defeated Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho in a Triple Threat Match to retain the WWF Title. This was Benoit’s final appearance for a year, having suffered a neck injury

In 2007, WWE Vengeance: Night of Champions was held at the Toyota Center, in Houston, Texas. With an attendance of 15,000. This was  final PPV in the Vengeance chronology & featured all 9 WWE Titles being defended. It has become infamous as the event that Chris Benoit no-showed for ‘personal reasons’. He & his family were later found dead at their home:

Dark Match:
– Super Crazy defeated Carlito
PPV:
– Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch defeated The Hardys (Matt & Jeff) to retain the World Tag Team Titles
– Chavo Guerrero defeated Jimmy Wang Yang to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Title
– Johnny Nitro (subbing for Benoit) defeated CM Punk to win the vacant ECW Title
– Santino Marella defeated Umaga via DQ to retain the WWE Intercontinental Title
– MVP defeated Ric Flair to retain the WWE United States Title
– Deuce n’ Domino (with Cherry) defeated Sgt Slaughter & Jimmy Snuka to retain the WWE Tag Team Titles
– Edge defeated Batista via countout to retain the World Heavyweight Title
– Candice Michelle defeats Melina to win the WWE Women’s Title
– John Cena defeated Mick Foley, Bobby Lashley, Randy Orton, & King Booker (with Queen Sharmell) in a 5-Pack Challenge Match to retain the WWE Title

In 2012, ROH Best In The World: Hostage Crisis was held at the Hammerstein Ballroom, in New York City:

– The Briscoe Brothers (Mark & Jay) defeated The Guardians of Truth (with Truth Martini). (The GoT were not identified on the show, but are widely reported to have been played by Glenn Ruth & Charles Warrington, better known as The Headbangers)
– Homicide defeated Eddie Edwards
– Adam Cole defeated Kyle O’Reilly in a Hybrid Fighting Rules Match
– Michael Elgin (with Truth Martini) defeated Fit Finlay
– Mike Mondo defeated Mike Bennett (with Maria Kanellis & Bob Evans)
– Roderick Strong (with Truth Martini) defeated Tommaso Ciampa & Jay Lethal in a 3-Way Match to retain the ROH Television Title
– The All Night Express (Rhett Titus & Kenny King) defeated Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin) to win the ROH Tag Team Titles
– Kevin Steen (with Jimmy Jacobs) defeated Davey Richards in a No-DQ Match

Title Changes

1925 – Bobby Roscoe defeated Matty Matsuda to win the World Welterweight Title in Columbus, Ohio

1936 – George McCloud defeated Frank Sexton to win the Ohio Heavyweight Title in Columbus, Ohio

1950 – Buddy Rogers defeated Bozo Brown to win the Jack Pfeffer-promoted World Heavyweight Title in Akron, Ohio

1966 – Luis Hernandez & Pedro Morales defeated Buddy Austin & El Mongol to win the World Wrestling Association World Tag Team Title in Los Angeles, California

1972 – Stan Stasiak defeated Red Bastien to win the Texas Heavyweight Title in Irvin, Texas

1972 – Abdullah the Butcher defeated Ernie Ladd to win the National Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Title in Akron, Ohio

1972 – Boris Malenko & Johnny Walker defeated The Professional (Doug Gilbert) & Mike Webster to win the NWA Florida Tag Team Title in Jacksonville, Florida

1974 – Jackie Fargo defeated Jerry Lawler to win the NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee

1978 – Roddy Piper defeated Moondog Mayne to win the San Francisco NWA United States Heavyweight Title

1984 – Wahoo McDaniel defeated Ricky Steamboat to win the NWA United States Title. The title would be vacated a week later as Tully Blanchard interfered to help McDaniel

1985 – The Dynamic Duo (Gino Hernandez & Chris Adams) defeated The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers) to win the WCCW American Tag Team Titles

1988 – Johnny Smith defeated Chris Benoit to win the Stampede British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title in Calgary, Alberta

1988 – Tatsumi Fujinami defeated Riki Choshu to win the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Title. Also, Shiro Koshinaka defeats Owen Hart to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title

1989 – Chicky Starr defeated Super Medico I to win the WWC World Junior Heavyweight Title in Caguas, Puerto Rico,

1996 – on Nitro, Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) defeated Sting & Lex Luger to become the 1st 5-time WCW Tag Team Champions

2001 – Double C (Claudio Castagnoli) defeated Ares & The Scorpion to win the vacant Swiss Wrestling Federation Powerhouse Title in a three-way tournament final in Sulgen, Switzerland

2001 – Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated Juventud Guerrera in the final of a tournament to become the 1st GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion

2005 – Rebecca Knox defeated Miss Chevius to become the 1st NWA/ECCW SuperGirls Champion in Surrey, British Columbia

2007 – Chuck Taylor defeated Ricochet to win the 5th-annual CHIKARA Young Lions Cup in Hellertown, Pennsylvania.

2008 – Taylor Wilde defeated Awesome Kong to win the TNA Knockout’s Title

Birthdays

Happy birthday to Puerto Rican star Chicky Starr (56), former WWF & WCW wrestler Tommy ‘Zeus’ Lister (56), 5-time NWA World Champion Adam Pearce (36), & hardcore indy star Mad Man Pondo (45)

Also, today would have been the birthday of two-time Mexican National Tag Team Champion Ángel Azteca (51), & former NWA & WWC regular Don Kent (81)

In Memoriam

In 2007, WWF & WCW Triple Crown Champion Chris Benoit took his own life aged 40 in a very well-documented incident. Benoit trained in the famous Hart Dungeon & debuted in Calgary in 1985. He idolized Tom Billington (better known as The Dynamite Kid), & adopted much of his move set, most notably the diving headbutt. In his 3 years with Stampede, he became an 8-time champion, winning singles & tag team titles. Stampede closed in 1989 & Benoit moved to Japan, competing for New Japan Pro Wrestling as ‘The Pegasus Kid’. He would only hold 1 title in New Japan, but won their Best Of The Super Juniors tournament twice as well as 1 Super J Cup. In 1992, he began competing in North America again, firstly for WCW, then ECW. It was in ECW where he gained the ‘Crippler’ nickname after putting Rocco Rock & Sabu out of action. The intention was for Benoit to become ECW World Champion in 1995, but Paul Heyman failed to renew his American work visa on time, so he returned to Japan & (by way of the promotions’ working agreement) WCW. His WCW career kicked off when he became part of the reformed Four Horsemen stable, leading to numerous reigns as WCW Television & United States Champion. Despite his obvious potential, Benoit was never given a main event push, & he (like several others) grew tired of the constant backstage politicking in the company. Despite winning the WCW World Title at Souled Out in 2000, he (along with his friends Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, & Eddie Guerrero) left the company the next day to join the WWF. He instantly became a main event competitor in the WWF, winning the Intercontinental Title, & challenging for the World Title. However, his momentum was killed after he suffered a neck injury, forcing him to sit out most of 2001 & 2002. Upon his return, he was used primarily as a mid-card level talent, competing for tag team & secondary singles titles. However, after winning the 2004 Royal Rumble from number 1, he was thrust into the main event once more & went on to win the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania 20. Benoit’s run as champion ended at Summerslam & he was relegated down the card again, competing for the US & Tag Team Titles. By the end of his career, he was wrestling on the ECW brand & was booked to win the ECW Title at Vengeance, but failed to show at the event for reasons which would become clear over the next few days