Today In Pro Wrestling History: May 30th

Okay now today was a pretty big stretch day, I even had to involve a birthday. So let’s see what I could cobble together as fairly memorable or interesting historic moments!

• Jake “The Snake” Roberts Birthday (1955)

One of the most recognizable wrestlers of the 80s and 90s era WWF. Even though he never won any major belts in WWF, his promos, the giant snake and that damn DDT have been burned in the brains and movesets of most fans and newer wrestlers. The concept would be critically panned and hated by the IWC nowadays, if a great character and wrestler wasn’t given any major title accolades. Jake managed to get himself healthy with the help of Diamond Dallas Page, and had a bit of a second life in AEW as a manager and ambassador for outreach programs.

• JCP Charlotte Show NWA Television Championship: Greg Valentine (c) vs Ebony Diamond (1981)

In a feud that saw crazy back and forth, Ebony Diamond entered the television tournament with a mask, and upon defeating Greg Valentine in the finals for the title, he voluntarily unmasked to reveal he who he was (Rocky Johnson). Valentine attacked him after the loss and even Valentine’s tag partner Roddy Piper got involved frequently, resulting in Valentine winning the title back. So this match was devised with the idea to stop the cheating, where both men could bring a hand picked referee. Double referees, double shenanigans, but Rocky Johnson overcame the physicality of Valentine and the awkwardness of two referees to win the title back! It wouldn’t be the end of the feud, but the story and match itself were worth mentioning.

• WWE Heat (2008)

The little show that wasn’t supposed to last as long as it did, reached its final episode. Heat would act as a pre-show to a lot of WWE PPVs, before everyone and their brother had official pre-shows. Given the show was only about an hour long, it was easily digestible and a nice little something to watch even if you didn’t buy the PPV. The final match of this final Heat, was Charlie Haas vs Robbie McAllister, with Haas taking the win.

• CHIKARA Aniversario: The Lost World Grand Championship Match: Princess Kimberlee (c) vs Hallowicked (2016)

A rather simple story of conflicting histories. Kimber’s win in December of the previous year made history for being the first female wrestler to hold the top title in a major promotion that wasn’t specifically an all women’s company. Hallowicked was looking to win his title back and become the first two time champion in CHIKARA history. While the match itself had heavy outside interference and was by no means even a hood classic, Hallowicked’s victory cemented his historical outcome. Plus, Hallowicked is just a really cool name.

• TNA iMPACT! X Division Championship: Low Ki (c) vs Sonjay Dutt (2017)

While the match was televised on June 15th, we know TNA has been a mostly taped product for years, so this was the actual recording date. TNA was in Mumbai to fulfill their obligations to Sony SIX, their Indian Broadcast partner who basically helped keep TNA afloat during the Dixie Carter fallout and eventual Anthem Sports purchase. So to mend fences and make good on commitments from previous ownership, TNA had a few events in India. This was an especially pivotal moment because it wasn’t just pandering to the “hometown crowd”, it was a whole career of coming up short, finally paying off. Fuel was added to the fire because Sonjay came into the match wearing an eye patch because Low Ki injured him weeks prior with an errant foot during the moronic simultaneous Dropkick spot between five competitors. So Sonjay had a handicap and a history of failure. Sonjay challenged for the X Division title 20 times previous, and lost in all efforts, but finally won the big one in his home country. This was a payoff not only for Indian fans, but for old school TNA fans who rocked with the “Original playa from the Himalayas”.

You know, aside from the CHIKARA stretch, I think most of this has a right to be considered historic and memorable. I don’t think the German judge will be too hard on my mental gymnastics routine today. But the end of this month has been a bit a of a struggle bus.

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!