Today In Pro Wrestling History: June 19th

A fairly busy day for WWE shows, with a dash of TNA and some Japanese seasoning. Time to dig in to today and see if we’re on the road to a fairly good month!

• WWE King of the Ring: The King of Harts (1994)

Serving as somewhat of a launchpad for the “New Generation”, we got a King of the Ring with some unexpected finished and tons of younger talent advancing. Defeating Doink the Clown first on TV, Owen Hart continued his moment through this PPV. Defeating Tatanka, 1-2-3 Kid and meeting Razor Ramon in the finals. With Bret winning the last two King of the Ring tournaments (91 & 93), this was a great moment for Owen to prove he was on the same level as his older brother, applying the King of Harts moniker gave off premium arrogant overcompensating little brother energy. A perfect angle to frame his ascent to Bret’s level.

• NWA/TNA First Ever PPV (2002)

In typical TNA fashion, they somehow overcame near financial disaster to salvage together a show and launch into a company that refuses to die. Prior to the show going live, there was a giant fat mess of a wrestler named Cheex, who during a Dark Match broke the ring. This caused TNA to scramble and send out promos and stalling segments to repair the ring, even getting a little help from Country Superstar Toby Keith in the stall. When they managed to cobble together the ring, we saw the birth of a brand that is still loved by many, but also, synonymous with bad decisions and bad luck. On the show we saw The Flying Elvises vs AJ Styles, Low Ki and Jerry Lynn open the official show. The main event was the Gauntlet for the Gold Battle Royal, that boiled down to a singles match between the final two wrestlers, Ken Shamrock and Malice. Ken Shamrock defeated Malice to win the NWA World Heavyweight title!

• TNA Slammiversary (2005)

So if it wasn’t for who debuted on this show, I would’ve singled out the King of the Mountain match. But Samoa Joe debuted at this show and easily ate Sonjay Dutt’s lunch and left him packed and folded like a quesadilla, that would then lead to the Samoan Submission Machine’s 562 day undefeated streak. The biggest moment here for TNA fans, and Attitude Era fans, is finally seeing Raven get to sit at the top of the mountain. In TNA, after two years of being foiled by Jeff Jarrett’s cronies and shenanigans, Raven finally won the NWA World Heavyweight title. After betrayal from The Gathering, inventing the Clockwork Orange House of Fun Match, Sabu and Abyss stood in Raven’s way a different times…but today was the payoff.

• NJPW Dominion: IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Tetsuya Naito (c) vs Kazuchika Okada (2016)

Now there were a few things that happened at this event, so the show in general is worth going back and watch. But if I didn’t spotlight the title match, I’d just be wrong. Naito and Okada will always have bad blood because it was Naito’s lack of being able to capture the hearts of the fans during his Stardust Genius incarnation, that made his title shot against Okada get demoted to the co-main event of Wrestle Kingdom 8 and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Shinsuke Nakamura for the Intercontinental title was the main event. Okada never forgave Naito, and that forced Naito to go on a second excursion to Mexico and reinvent himself. While Okada is scorned, Naito is trying to prove that he can be the star. However, scorn wins in the end today. A little over 30 minutes, but this victory set into motion the greatest modern wrestling title reign before Roman Reigns went on his Tribal Chief run.

• WWE Money In The Bank (2016)

The two biggest things involve WWE’s most successful faction and the hashtag that popped most people. The faction aspect is that Roman Reigns came in as WWE Champion for his match against Seth Rollins. After Seth defeated Roman for the title, Dean Ambrose’s music hit and he ran down to Cash In since he won the briefcase earlier in the night. Ambrose seizing the opportunity and winning the title marks an interesting nugget where all 3 members of the Shield held the WWE Championship at one point during this night. The hashtag is thanks to The Club. When Waffle House is using your tag #beatupJohnCena, then you know you’ve got something. AJ Styles vs John Cena started at this show before the eventual trilogy. The excuse that WWE fans used back in the day was that Styles was too small, when he was the face of TNA. Everyone just assumed Styles would get overpowered and dog walked, so that was a way to always portray TNA as less then in the minds of the fans. While this match specifically ended thanks to Club interference hitting a Magic Killer on Cena, the trilogy proved that AJ Styles belonged in WWE and could very much so hang.

• WWE UK Championship Tournament: NXT Tag Team Titles:  The Undisputed Era (c) vs Moustache Mountain (2018)

In an opening match, featuring a cocky yet dominant champion team who’ve held the titles over 200 days already, the home country crowd was electric for Moustache Mountain. In a fantastic match, that was bolstered by the crowd being heavily behind the British Strong Style boys. Kyle O’Reilly accidentally knocks Roderick Strong out of the ring with an errant strike, leaving himself isolated. Seeing this as the perfect time, Moustache Mountain hit their Burning Hammer/Knee Drop finisher and defeat the champions! Even though the reign was only two days because Undisputed Era invoked their rematch immediately, the match itself and pop of the crowd makes it a greatly memorable moment for those who saw it.

• NOAH Limit Break 3 Go! Go Shiozaki Debut 20th Anniversary Memorial (2024)

So, for Japan likes to give tenured wrestlers their own self-produced show to celebrate anniversaries and other occasions. Go led NOAH through the darkness of the pandemic and removed his Fallen Ace aura, to become the true embodiment of NOAH. So for his produced event, he also decided to reignite old NOAH and AJPW feelings. Shiozaki tagged with Jun Akiyama, former co-founder of Burning, the faction and moniker that became synonymous Kenta Kobashi. Shiozaki being Kobashi’s star pupil and member of 2 later incarnations of Burning, saw this as an opportunity to bridge the Burning gap. They faced Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Suigura, the veterans who are most closely associated as the heart and soul of NOAH. While they both were trained an had a few early matches in All Japan, Marufuji is seen as Misawa’s spiritual successor and Sugiura came into his own under the NOAH banner. So seeing Burning versus NOAH, was like Kobashi versus Misawa, one more time, as well as, a chance to fix the broken relationship between NOAH and Jun Akiyama. While the match was solid, this history between all four men, the weight of legacies and the fractured relationships trying to mend, was an emotional weight that became a great memory by the end of the show.

Now, I know I’ve said it before, but I’m always glad when the days are filled events instead of having to try and validate something random just to fill up space. Historic and memorable boxes were checked by all of the events, so I feel like my job is done now. Time to take a nap.

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