Today In Pro Wrestling History: June 13th

Well there’s a good mix of promotions, but also a cataclysmic tragedy that did alter the course of an entire promotion and shake the Japanese wrestling community. Many already know, but for those who don’t…read on.

• WWF King of the Ring (1993)

This was WWF’s first ever King of the Ring PPV. After going through Mr. Perfect, Razor Ramon and Bam Bam Bigelow, Bret Hart came out victorious. During the crown presentation, Jerry Lawler attacked Bret Hart to start off their angle. During this time, we know WWF was struggling a little, but the crowning achievement following Bret’s first World Heavyweight reign signified his status in the company and new generation.

• WCW The Great American Bash (1999)

Funny how this is the first PPV where they used that awful stylized logo, and the decline of the company was very obvious. World title match between Kevin Nash & Macho Man…ends in disqualification because Sid Vicious returns and attacks Nash. Rick Steiner retained the Television title over Sting when they brawled to the back and he was attacked by dogs (off screen, but that was the implication). The only decent match was Jersey Triad (DDP & Kanyon) defeated Chris Benoit and Saturn for the tag team championships. The rest of this show is a comical mess of nonsense. So this is a prime example of point at this and laugh, style of history.

• AAA Triplemania XVII (2009)

This was a very significant event for AAA and one of the biggest What Ifs in company history. Let’s start with the easy history, the main event of Dr Wagner Jr versus El Mesias was dramatic juice filled brawl that actually won the Super Luchas Magazine Match of the Year honors. It also marked Wagner’s first reign with the AAA Mega Championship, and solidified his legendary status in the company.  The What If however, is El Hijo del Santo. This was his first appearance in AAA after four years. He captained Team AAA against La Legion. It was a steel cage match, done in the same style of Dragon Gate’s Dead or Alive. Where two teams of five brawl and the last two that don’t exit the cage, have to fight in a normal singles cage match. Silver King and Santo were the final two. Santo’s victory wrestled company control out of Konnan and La Legion’s hands and returned it to the Roldan/Pena family. Backstage politics and contractual issues however, made this Santo’s final appearance in AAA as an active wrestler since he retire in December of 2025.

• Pro Wrestling NOAH Southern Navigation: GHC Heavyweight Tag Championship: Bison Smith & Akitoshi Saito (c) vs Go Shiozaki & Mitsuharu Misawa (2009)

This is tragic history. For those who don’t know the story, Misawa knew he was in bad health, but kept wrestling because he also knew that NOAH needed his drawing ability. NOAH lost it’s television deal because NTV was having financial issues, Kenta Kobashi was repeatedly sidelined with health issues and the future generation didn’t satisfy the fans at the time who wanted to see the legends. So Misawa felt obligated, and in a chilling understanding, he even wrote a note prior to his passing, foretelling he may die in the ring. Akitoshi Saito was the one to execute the Backdrop that killed Misawa, and Saito shared the contents of the letter over the years. Misawa absolved Saito of blame, instead taking the blame himself on not being able to repay the trust of his opponent. The letter also urges him to continue wrestling and to never blame himself. Saito admitted that he considered suicide after the tragedy, but the letter helped to turn around his mentality. He kept that letter in his bag for the next 15 years until he retired in 2024.

• TNA Slammiversary VIII (2010)

No matter how people look back at the Hogan/Bischoff era, it was still the peak of popularity for the company. This had a lot of fun memories if you were a TNA enjoyer back in the day. Hernandez and Matt Morgan were feuding after their “I am the tag team champions” angle, Doug Williams retained the X Division title over Brian Kendrick, being the most anti-X Division wrestler ever and Black Machismo Jay Lethal defeated Fortune AJ Styles with a Northern Lights Suplex Hold. Also, one of my favorite tag team names got invented at this time, Enigmatic Assholes, Jeff Hardy and Mr Anderson, they defeated Beer Money…but I just always loved that name. The main event was Sting trying to regain the World Championship from RVD, but Jeff Jarrett stopped Sting from using his bat, thus fueling Sting’s whole anti-Hogan/Bischoff conspiracy angle. Should also be noted that this show marked the TNA debut of Tommy Dreamer, so if anyone has a time machine and can stop this from happening, that may save the current product.

• NXT TakeOver: In Your House (2021)

One of the last shows for the original Black & Gold before the awful idea that was NXT 2.0. But the positives would be, that it was the first “In Your House” PPV since 1999 and the first to stream on Peacock. Ted Dibiase presented the Million Dollar Championship to LA Knight after he defeated Cameron Grimes. Bronson Reed teamed with MSK to put up all of their titles against Legado del Fantasma, they retained, but Winner Takes All matches are always fun. Raquel Gonzalez retained over Ember Moon in a brawl with solid interference but generally proved Raquel as a force to be reckoned with. The main event was fairly NXT star studded with Johnny Gargano, Kyle O’Reilly, Adam Cole and Pete Dunne going after Karrion Kross for the NXT Championship. The match was frenetic, all of the smaller challengers tried to gang up on Kross, but you can’t kill what’s inevitable. Kross eventually recovered and retained his title by forcing Kyle to submit to the Kross Jacket.

Well there was a lot of fun, a little cringe, and of course the somber tragedy that overshadows most things on this day. Even if you’re not a Japanese wrestling fan, most people know a couple names, and Mitsuharu Misawa is one that most know, so that alone should paint the picture of how much of a tremor this was in the wrestling world 17 years ago.

Since it’s somber, I’m not gonna end with something kitschy. Just Use Your Head and take care of yourselves.