Today In Pro Wrestling History: June 14th

More of a normal History article today! Nothing somber, a few more obscure nuggets, but I’d like to think I found some good stuff. Let’s find out if I’m just on heavy copium.

• WCW Clash of the Champions XV: WCW World Championship 2 out of 3 Falls: Ric Flair (c) vs Bobby Eaton (1991)

This ends up being the deciding factor on Jim Herd’s stupidity with firing Ric Flair. Flair was the booker and Herd was an executive. Herd didn’t see Eaton as a main event guy, but Ric had respect for his technical skill and his status with the Midnight Express. So the match itself was a pretty damn good match where Flair retained two falls to one. But because Flair booked Eaton against Herd’s wishes, Herd demanded Flair’s firing…and he got what he wanted. This is what led to Flair showing up on WWF television with the WCW big gold belt those first few weeks, since he was still champion and Herd didn’t take the belt before firing him. Pure lolcow behavior, but oddly on brand for WCW.

• NJPW Budokan Hall Show (1995)

A few fun aspects here and establishment of a major star. We got an undercard match involving Arn Anderson, Steve Austin and Mike Enos, Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero (under the Black Tiger mask) teamed together and Keiji Mutoh stifled the rocket push of returning young prospect Hiroyoshi Tenzan. The match still established the newly off excursion talent as a future threat, but also gave Mutoh’s reign solid ground to begin on. The establishment match was for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, Sabu defeated Koji Kanemoto the month prior, and Koji wanted his title back. In a nearly 20 minute affair, Kanemoto got the title back and being his second reign. Kanemoto’s career is heavily decorated and these early matches set the groundwork for a prestigious career.

• CZW Truth or Consequences: BJW Deathmatch & CZW Championship 3 Way Steel Cage Match: Nate Hatred (c) vs The Messiah (c) vs Nick Gage (2003)

This was a relentless 16 minute ultraviolent slugfest. Gage and Hatred were tag team partners, but had a falling out, so they had to work things out through blood. Messiah was an establish heel who reveled in the chaos. The match itself was a spectacle for fans of Death Matches with heavy usage of the cage and attempted interference from Messiah’s manager. Gage pinned Hatred, and this is where things get messy. While it allowed the feud to continue for the rest of the year, both titles weren’t at risk of being lost to one pinfall, just whoever lost would lose their title. Hatred, was the BJW Deathmatch Champion…except…he wasn’t. When Zandig left BJW since the working relationship was over, he was still the champion and had the physical belt. BJW officially vacated the title in March when the working relationship ended. So while there was a physical title being handed around, it represented nothing. Very similar to the IWGP Third Belt issue that confuses some people regarding Kurt Angle’s title reigns. So a great and memorable deathmatch, but some of the prizes were bupkis.

• NOAH Southern Navigation: Vacant GHC Heavyweight Championship: Takeshi Rikio vs Go Shiozaki

Anyone who read yesterday’s article, will know why this was a heavy match. Jun Akiyama was the champion…but had a herniated disc, so he nominated Shiozaki to wrestle in his stead after vacating the title. Rikio was the number one contender, so Shiozaki was literally thrust into this match merely 24 hours after being Misawa’s tag partner, for that fatal bump and now being told to carry the company. The match was emotional because of everything that transpired in mere hours. Shiozaki however did come out victorious for his first ever GHC Heavyweight Championship reign, even though the weight of carrying Misawa’s wishes and being one of the premiere disciples of Kenta Kobashi, he had to carry a lot of weight. This background is exactly why the pandemic title reign for Shiozaki was so important to his legacy and his sanity.

• RevPro Summer Sizzler: RevPro British Heavyweight Championship: Marty Scurll (c) vs AJ Styles (2015)

Even though Marty is still on many people’s blacklist in the year 2026, a decade ago, he was still a hot rising talent. AJ Styles winning this match, turned out to be fantastic for RevPro and British wrestling. NJPW and RevPro had a solid working relationship for a few years. Styles’ title reign helped to put more interest on Scurll, Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre Jr…as well as BritWres in general. There’s a reason why NXT UK was so successful but also crippled the British Wrestling scene because all of the wrestlers who rocketed to the top, got scooped up. Fun to think that this match was a real launch pad for the evolution and increased interest in the European wrestling scene.

• WWE Backlash: Greatest Wrestling Match Ever: Edge vs Randy Orton (2020)

While the name is pretentious and felt like it was purposefully created to ragebait the IWC…it did get people to watch, so kudos for that. This was a nearly 45 minute love letter to their long history. If we’re being honest, it was a great match, if not just a little too slow. The callbacks with Edge pulling out his classic offense like the Edgecution, other rivals moves like Triple H’s Pedigree, Christian’s Unprettier and Kurt Angle’s Angle Slam. The cinematic style it was shot in was interesting, and since it was the beginning of the pandemic, we were still getting used to different interpretation of cinematic and trying new ideas throughout all the active promotions. Randy may have won, and Edge was injured at the tail end of shooting, but this was still a tremendous match that gave people something to talk about for a while, while grass was illegal to touch.

I don’t think I pulled anything stretching some of the mental gymnastics, because honestly, not a lot of stretching today. Everything on the list is memorable or historic for numerous different reasons. I am a little amused that there’s a small thread of championships leaving the company because they forgot to take the title off the person before relationships soured.

How tight were the nostalgia goggles? Am I ignoring companies that you’re passionate about? Make your thoughts known and Always Use Your Head!