This Day in Wrestling History – October 14th

Liz continues her research to bring you the highlights of today in wrestling history. October 14th brings us multiple birthdays, the passing of a legend and multiple title changes.

Born On This Date:

• 1935 – Jack Lanza (BlackJack Lanza)
• 1947 – Josip Nikolai Peruzovic (Nikolai Volkoff)
• 1952 – Daniel Eugene Spivey
• 1959 – Bruce Woyan (Buzz Sawyer)
• 1979 – Stacy Ann-Marie Keibler
• 1990 – Shaul Marie Guerrero

On This Day in Wrestling History:

1966 – Lou Thesz defeats Buddy Austin to win the WWA World Heavyweight Title.

1966 – El Santo defeats Espanto I for the Mexican Light Heavyweight Title in Mexicali, Mexico, ending Espanto’s second title reign.

1978 – The Assassin defeats Jose Lothario  to win the Mid-South Louisiana Heavyweight Title, ending the Lothario’s second reign as champion.

1985 – Butch Reed defeats Dick Murdoch to win the Mid-South North American Heavyweight Title. As a result of this win, Reed had to vacate the Mid-South Television Title, which he had won from Dutch Mantell on July 22, 1985.

1989 – Tito Santana defeated Rick Martel to win the King Of The Ring tournament.

1989 – Bruce Hart defeats Gama Singh for the Stampede Wrestling British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title.. This marked the start of Bruce’s sixth run with the belt, and the end of Singh’s fifth reign. Hart would end up retiring the belt, as Stampede Wrestling closed down two months later.

1996 – The Monday Night Wars continued, with Nitro scoring a strong win over Raw, 3.3 to 1.8.

1997 – Atshushi Onita, Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Hido defeat Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa for the FMW World Streetfight 6-Man Tag Team Title in Sapporo, Japan.

2000 – JJ The Ring Crew Guy defeats Inferno Kid in Laurel, Delaware to win the ECWA Heavyweight Title for the second time in his career.

2002 – Chris Jericho & Christian defeat The Hurricane & Kane for the World Tag Team Championship. This is the first title change for the tag straps since becoming an “exclusive” to the Raw brand.

2006 – CZW Last Team Standing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castignoli) defeated The H8 Club (Justice Pain & Human Tornado, substituting for Nick Gage) to win the CZW World Tag Team Championship. At the time of their win, the duo now had tag team titles in CZW, CHIKARA, and Ring of Honor, at the same time.

2013 – Low Ki announced his retirement.  He would return to the ring within a year.

2014 – WWE shocked many when they announced they had release ring announcer Justin Roberts.

2016 – The first night of the two night ROH event Glory by Honor took place in Illinois. It concluded in Detroit, the next day.

Died On This Date:

• 2009 – Louis Vincent Albano