Today In Pro Wrestling History: May 24th

Okay so everyone who was enjoying the WCW and WWE heavy articles from most of this week…this ain’t for you. No Dewey, you don’t want this, stay away. A bunch of Japanese events with some TNA sprinkled in like a nice garnish. Time to check out the history!

NJPW IWGP & WWF Champion Series: WWF International Tag Titles: Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch (1985)

During this era when WWF and New Japan were playing nice, they decided to revive an old title they had in the late 60s and early 70s. This was intended to be a title to promote the cross-promotion harmony. This was the finals of the tournament in which Tatsumi and Kengo won the match, to become the first International Tag champs in 13 years. Sadly the reign only last 159 days until the working relationship between the two companies ended and WWF deactivated the titles again.

• FMW Sengoku (1992)

This was huge for the future of FMW. Megumi Kudo won the WWA Women’s Championship from Eriko Tsuchiya, starting to set her up as the Ace of their Joshi side. Eiji Ezaki (eventually known as the FMW Ace Hayabusa) was on the undercard. Grigory Verichev & Tarzan Goto won the WWA Marital Arts Tag Titles off of Horace Hogan and Sabu in a 2 out of 3 Falls Double Stretcher Death Match. The main event was for the WWA Martial Arts Heavyweight title, where Atsushi Onita defeated Leon Spinks in a steel cage match.

• AJPW Super Power Series: Triple Crown Championship: Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs Akira Taue (1996)

Even though Taue is often the overlooked Pillar, this event gave him the special distinction of being the first Pillar to defeat Misawa for the Triple Crown. Even though the reign only last 61 days, Taue solidified his position in the AJPW Pillars and proved that his cunning was what made him such a dangerous singles and tag team opponent.

• TNA Sacrifice (2009)

A few fun things happened here. Christopher Daniels refusing a win for the X Division championship, because the Machine Guns interfered and costed Suicide the title, so the match ends in a time-limit Draw. A women’s Monster’s Ball match with Taylor Wilde and Daffney, and Beer Money made their mark winning the Team 3D Invitational Tournament over British Invasion. Then we had the main event, Ultimate Sacrifice match, which had Kurt Angle, Sting, Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett putting something different on the line, with Mick Foley’s being the only normal match gimmick of the World Championship. This was a spectacle of a match, but it was still great. Ending with Sting pinning Kurt Angle, thusly winning leadership of the Main Event Mafia. A fun show, that was still part of the TNA peak era.

• AJPW Super Power Series: Triple Crown Championship: Kento Miyahara (c) vs Naomichi Marufuji (2018)

Naomichi Marufuji won the corresponding Champion Carnival, defeating Kento in the finals to earn a shot at the title. Kento came in with something to prove as the current Ace of All Japan, facing Misawa’s greatest student, who already defeated him in the Carnival. In a 25+ minute main event, both of them put the other through hell, but Kento managed to retain via his Shutdown German Suplex. Something almost poetic about Misawa’s first loss to a Pillar being 22 years before Marufuji comes up just shy of grabbing the title his mentor was synonymous with in the 90s. Definitely a match to watch for those unfamiliar with both or either of these men.

See, now this is a great article for anyone who enjoys products outside of the WWE formula. Classic puroresu, classic death matches, Megumi Kudo on her Joshi ascent before becoming the beautiful Bloody Valentine and TNA when they had all the momentum in the world.

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!