This Day in Wrestling History – October 24th

Onward, our journey to backward continues. October 24th brings us the first WCW PPV under Russo and Ferrara and a confrontation between The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar!

Born On This Day:

• 1934 – Juanita Wright (Sapphire)
• 1943 – William Crookshanks (Bill Dundee)
• 1971 – Dale Torborg (The Demon, The KISS Demon)
• 1987 – C. J. Esparza (Stanislav The Squeezer)
• 1988 – Kazusada Higuchi

On This Day in Wrestling History:

1956 – Mitsuo Surugaumi defeats Michiaki Yoshimura in a tournament final to become the first Japanese Junior Heavyweight Champion.

1967 – Paul DeMarco and Lorenzo Parente defeat Kurt and Skull Von Stroheim to win the Florida version of the NWA World Tag Team Title.

1970 – Moondog Mayne defeats Mr. Fuji to win his 11th NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title.

1974 – Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens defeat Crusher & Billy Robinson to win the AWA World Tag Team Title for their third and final time.

1976 – Alfonso Dantes wins his second NWA World Light Heavyweight Title in Guadalajara, Mexico, defeating Carlos Plata.

1979 – Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood win the Mid-Atlantic version of the NWA World Tag Team Title ending the second reign of Paul Jones and Baron Von Raschke.

1979 – Bobby Eaton wins his second NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Title, ending the fifth reign of Dutch Mantel.

1980 – Tiger Jeet Singh scores the biggest win of his career, defeating Antonio Inoki in Okinawa, Japan for the UWA World Heavyweight Title.

1980 – Tony Atlas defeats Dennis Condrey to win the NWA Georgia Heavyweight Title.

1981 – “Mr. Electricity” Steve Regal defeats “Playboy” Buddy Rose for the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title, ending Rose’s seventh reign and beginning his second.

1982 – Jumbo Tsuruta defeats Harley Race to win the NWA United National Heavyweight Title for the fifth time in Kitami, Japan.

1983 – Jimmy Garvin defeats Chris Adams for the WCCW Television Title in Fort Worth, Texas.

1994 – The Moondogs (Spot & Rex) defeat the Phantoms for the USWA Tag Team Title, starting their second reign.

1998 – Doug Gilbert wins the NWA National Heavyweight Title from Stevie Richards, starting his second reign. Christopher Daniels and Kevin Quinn defeat Danny Dominion and Ace Steel to become the first NWA Midwest Tag Team Champions, and E.Z. Ryder defeats Paul Atlas to win the revived NWA Canadian Heavyweight Title.

1998 – The Dudley Boys defeat Rob Van Dam & Sabu in Cleveland, Ohio to win their fourth ECW World Tag Team Title.

1999 – WCW held their Halloween Havoc event, this was the first WCW PPV since the arrival of writers Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara from the WWF.

• Disco Inferno defeated Lash LeRoux to retain the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship.
• Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) defeated Kidman & Konnan and Brian Knobbs & Hugh Morrus in a three-way match to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
• Eddie Guerrero defeated Perry Saturn by disqualification.
• Brad Armstrong defeated Berlyn.
• Rick Steiner defeated Chris Benoit to win the WCW World Television Championship.
• The Total Package defeated Bret Hart via submission.
• Sting defeated Hulk Hogan in just three seconds to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Well, Sting didn’t so much defeat Hogan as much as Hogan laid down for Sting.
• Goldberg defeated Sid Vicious via referee stoppage due to excessive bleeding to win the WCW United States Championship.
• Diamond Dallas Page defeated Ric Flair in a strap match.
• Goldberg defeated Sting to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The result wouldn’t stand, however, as the title is vacated the next night on Nitro due to the match being unsanctioned and Sting hitting the referee

2008 – Reports began that Dos Caras Jr., despite denials, has in fact signed a contract with the WWE starting in January and he would be making his debut at the Royal Rumble.   While he did not appear at the Rumble, Caras Jr., now billed as Alberto Del Rio, would indeed become a major part of WWE in the years to come.

2008 – AAA presented the 2008 Antonio Peña Memorial Show from Estadio de Beisbol Beto Avila in Veracruz, Mexico.

2010 –  A post-fight interview from the previous night went viral and got wrestling fans salivating. MMA reporter Ariel Helwani was interviewing UFC fan The Undertaker when Brock Lesnar, moments after losing the UFC Heavyweight Championship to Cain Velasquez exchanged glances with Undertaker, who then responded if he wanted to “do this”.

Died On This Date:

• None found