Today In Pro Wrestling History: May 16th

Western wrestling fans rejoice, this is chockfull of WWE events or other American companies that have names you’re aware of! So let’s get to the list and see what popped up for the day!

• ECW Hardcore Heaven: World Television Title: RVD (c) vs Jerry Lynn (1999)

While there’s a neat note with Sid Vicious’ surprise appearance because Shane Douglas no-showed, the main sticking point is the match being highlighted. This match was a No Time Limit workrate bout that proved Jerry Lynn was as good as anyone. While RVD won, this was during his 700 day reign, and this match did a lot of work to sell ECW to TNN as more than just hardcore garbage. Jerry Lynn was on his way up the card, even donning the moniker of “The New F’n Show”.

• WWE Judgement Day: WWE Championship: Eddie Guerrero (c) vs JBL (2004)

I don’t think anyone will remember this event for being Mordecai’s PPV debut, so let’s talk about a core memory for many, the “blade job gone wrong”. JBL clocks Eddie with a chair, and when Eddie blades, he hits an artery. Crimson Mask, is an understatement, he’s bleeding all over the place, the ring is stained in blood…it looks like a butcher’s shop. The match was 24 minutes before Eddie got frustrated and hit JBL with the title in front of the referee. So Eddie was DQ’d, JBL was set up well for his legendary heel run and Eddie needed two weeks after this match to fully recover from the blood loss.

• TNA Sacrifice (2010)

One of the first pivotal Bischoff-Hogan era PPVs. Doug Williams won the X Division title for the first time, bringing the British technical style to a normally fast paced division. Tara (fka Victoria in WWE) lost a Title vs Career match against Madison Rayne and was forced to retire. The main event was RVD vs AJ Styles. RVD debuted hot in TNA and beat AJ Styles a month prior to break is 211 day reign. The match was built well, the action was solid if not a touch slow at times. The best match was MCMG vs Team 3D vs Beer Money, but generally speaking the event was received fairly well and TNA remained interesting for most of this year.

• Xia Brookside Debut (2015)

Xia has become a relevant player in TNA this year with her big heel turn. So given the fact that she’s on the come up, I thought it would be good to highlight her debut. She debuted in the British promotion All Star Wrestling in a mixed tag match. She teamed with El Ligero vs Kay Lee Ray & Sammy D. I remember her time in Stardom, and she…was not good. Her last two years in TNA have shown huge character growth and technical wrestling ability. I’m very glad to admit that my earlier disdain for her wrestling has all but evaporated, hence, why I wanted to make a note of her wrestling debut before she really popped off and I look like a bandwagoner.

• WWE WrestleMania Backlash: SmackDown Tag Team Championship: Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode (c) vs Rey & Dominik Mysterio (2021)

Even though Roman Reigns and Cesaro had a banger of a match, this history can’t be ignored or shared. Dominik showed great babyface resolve as he got jumped before the match, but still came out for the match and wrestled through it. But Dominik’s resilience isn’t the history, the Mysterios won the match, which made them the very first father and son tag team to hold the any iteration of the tag titles in WWE history. It was also Dom’s first championship in WWE, and seeing where he’s at now, this will be important in his story for the rest of his career.

A little bit of an RVD thread with the ECW and TNA moment, but then Eddie is important in these too with Judgement Day and his son (hush, it’s funnier if we call Dom Eddie’s son) eventually becoming the best member of the stable of the same name.

Did I miss anything? How far did I stretch the events today? Which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments. And if you don’t do anything else today, remember, Always Use Your Head!