Today In Pro Wrestling History: May 9th

One of these days is gonna be easy…it’s not today, but based on the law of averages, one of these days needs to not be a mess. There’s a touch of gymnastics here, but everything contains a nugget of something interesting at least.

• WCW Slamboree (1999)

This was the beginning of the end, oddly marked with the logo change. The “classic” WCW logo was last used here before they transitioned to that bootleg edgy starship logo. We  saw a ton of desperation shifts with Rick Steiner becoming TV Champion, Roddy Piper defeated Ric Flair to become president of WCW, immediately firing Flair and turning Bischoff face. To further cement the Bischoff face turn, Macho Man interfered on behalf of DDP during the main event to screw Nash out of winning the title. But Eric ran out, gave the “There must be a legit winner” spiel and restarted the match, so Nash Jacknife Powerbombed DDP again, to regain the World Heavyweight Title. In other crazy moments, Bret Hart returned after a few months off due to Owen’s tragedy, and attacked both Sting and Goldberg to force that match into a No Contest. A memorable mess of a show…but still memorable.

• Batista WWE Debut (2002)

While his in-ring debut wasn’t until the end of June, this was the first time Reverend D-Von unveiled his new Demon Deacon Batista. Serving as a chain wearing enforcer, he was a sight to behold. While not a very long lived gimmick, and often forgotten by many, Deacon Batista does usually garner positive memories when people eventually go “oh yeah, with D-Von, I remember”.

• MLW Revolutions: Global Tag Team Championship: C.W. Anderson & Simon Diamond vs P.J. Friedman & Steve Williams (2003)

While the show itself had a few fun wrinkles and some may have seen it on television on MLW Underground TV, the major historical aspect is, this is the first ever tag team champion. Known as the Global Tag Team Championship back in this first iteration of MLW, we saw the Extreme Horsemen, defeat Dr Death and P.J. Friedman. Since MLW has remained a strong option for talent to still have exposure once they came back in 2017, I figured there was no harm in a little of their history.

• IGF Genome 12 (2010)

While not overly historic, this was definitely different event. Part of Inoki’s 50th Anniversary in the industry, this had a lot of well known legends. We got some of his favorite MMA guys in Bob Sapp, Josh Barnett, Alexander Otsuka and Mark Coleman. But we also got some big names in pruoresu, Ultimo Dragon, Tiger Mask I and Tatsumi Fujinami were also featured on the card. So between the Inoki-ism and fellow legends acknowledging his career milestone of 50 years, this was a very interesting event.

• ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds (2018)

Faction warfare was at its peak at this point. The partnership was in full swing, Bullet Club and Los Ingobernables de Japon were in battles for king of the mountain. Beer City Bruiser, Brian Milonas and Silas Young were working their way up in relevance, but the two biggest things from this show were more ROH focused. Dalton Castle gave a very somber promo about nagging injuries and thinking about relinquishing the title. It was impactful because Dalton was a fan favorite, his flamboyant style and entrance earned a lot of good faith and being in his first reign (that some felt was overdue), the crowd urged him to continue. As for more people establishing themselves, The Kingdom, under Matt Taven’s leadership, defeated SoCal Uncensored for the Trios title in his hometown. This was the beginning of the Matt Taven push, which may be a mixed bag to many, its still significant.

• NJPW Resurgence: NJPW Strong Women’s Title: Mercedes Mone (c) vs AZM vs Mina Shirakawa (2025)

There were a few threads here. AZM challenged Mercedes two year prior at Sakura Genesis for the IWGP Women’s Championship. That too was held in Triple Threat format with Hazuki. While unsuccessful then, and still being insulted by not getting a singles shot, this had different weight. Not only did AZM have history with Mina in Stardom, because they were in rival factions, their number one contender match went to a Double Count-Out Draw a month earlier. So AZM had a lot to prove, and she put herself on the map for people who weren’t paying attention. AZM got her first fairly big singles title since High Speed in Stardom is seen as lower mid-card at best. After years of being overlooked and undervalued, AZM finally gets some well deserved recognition.

Yeah, as much as I like trying to find a thread in the events, today was not one to get cute. I’m just glad there were enough things that equated to memorable moments to fill out a decent length list. Hopefully none of these ones that I do will ever be like two or three events and a Toru Yano shrug.

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!