This Day in Wrestling History – October 11th

Liz continues her historical look back on wrestling for October 11th. This features several birthdays, including Rhea Ripley, Ricochet, and the legendary Dusty Rhodes!

Born on This Date:

• 1945 – Virgil Riley Runnels Jr (Dusty Rhodes)
• 1963 – Michael Maurice Smith (Sam Houston)
• 1965– Samuel Larry Anoa’i Fatu (The Tonga Kid)
• 1966 – Rafael Nunez Juan (Scorpio Jr.)
• 1967 – Peter Senerchia (Taz)
• 1978 – Andy Douglas
• 1981 – Adrian Jaoude
• 1988 – Trevor Mann (Ricochet)
• 1996 – Demi Bennett (Rhea Ripley)

On This Day In Wrestling History:

1987 – Bill Dundee & Jerry Lawler defeat Doug Somers & Soldat Ustinov for the AWA World Tag Team Title in Memphis, Tennessee. Somers was a substitute for Boris Zukhov, who had left the AWA for the WWF.

1987 – Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo defeated Bull Nakano & Condor Saito in the finals of the Best Tag Team League in Tokyo, Japan.

1989 – Jumbo Tsuruta defeats Genichiro Tenryu in Yokohama, Japan for the All Japan Triple Crown (NWA United National, NWA International and Pacific Wrestling Federation Heavyweight titles), becoming the first ever two-time Triple Crown champion.

1993 – Randy Savage defeats Jerry Lawler for the USWA Unified Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee, ending Lawler’s 16th run with the title. Savage would vacate the title the next month when WWF would break off relations with the USWA.

1993 – WCW Saturday Night taping in Atlanta, Georgia, Vader and Stunning Steve Austin defeated Ric Flair and Arn Anderson via disqualification. The match featured the final WCW television appearance of Sid Vicious until 1999. The match’s conclusion did not air as the bout was still in progress as their TV ended.

1996 – Ultimo Dragon defeats The Great Sasuke in Osaka, Japan to win the eight-belt J-Crown. Dragon would later win the WCW Cruiserweight Title as well, and hold nine belts at one time. The J-Crown consisted of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title, NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title, WAR International Junior Heavyweight Title, British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Title, WWF World Light Heavyweight Title, UWA World Light Heavyweight Title, WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Title, and the NWA World Welterweight Title.

1999 – Jushin Liger defeats Kendo KaShin in Tokyo, Japan to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title for a record 10th time.

2005  – America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) defeated The Naturals (Andy Douglas & Chase Stevens) to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship at a TNA Impact taping.

2010 – New Japan Pro Wrestling presented Destruction ’10 from Ryogoku Kokugikan (Sumo Hall) in Tokyo, Japan.

• Manabu Nakanishi defeated Tama Tonga.
• Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson) and Tiger Mask defeated Chaos (Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii and Yujiro Takahashi) by disqualification.
• Complete Players (Gedo, Jado and Masato Tanaka) defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Tomoaki Honma and Wataru Inoue.
• Tajiri defeated Toru Yano.
• Golden☆Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi) defeated Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The match was voted 2010 Match of the Year by Tokyo Sports Magazine.
• Koji Kanemoto and Yuji Nagata defeated Atsushi Aoki and Go Shiozaki.
• Hirooki Goto defeated Shinsuke Nakamura.
• Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Tetsuya Naito.
• Satoshi Kojima defeated Togi Makabe to win the IWGP Heayvweight Championship.

2011 – Randy Orton won a 41-man battle royal to earn a WWE Championship later in the show. It was the largest battle royal in WWE history at that time.

2016 – AJ Styles lost to James Ellsworth when Dean Ambrose (who was the special ref) interfered. This led to Ellsworth earning a championship title shot.

Died on This Date:

• None