Today In Pro Wrestling History: June 22nd

Well not a full mental gymnastics routine, but we’re getting close. Maybe more like a really nice figure skating program with one of those fancy Triple Toe Loops or whatever. But let’s find out what was around for today!

• MACW Greensboro Show: NWA World Tag Team Titles: Jay Youngblood & Ricky Steamboat (c) vs Jimmy Snuka & Ray Stevens (1980)

This match did the job it needed to, to solidify Stevens and Snuka together as a veteran Heel team, and continue to ride the fan support of Steamboat and Youngblood. Stevens grabbed Steamboat while the ref was distracted and Spike Piledrivered him on the concrete, knocking him out. Snuka and Stevens were then able to isolate and finish off Youngblood to win the titles. It started an angle where Stevens was trying to say Steamboat tripped and it totally wasn’t his doing, but they went to the tape to prove to the fans that Stevens lied and the fans were fully behind the babyface chase.

• ECW Hardcore Heaven (1996)

This show had a few solid matches, but only one really stuck out to me mainly, but I’ll mention the others. Raven had a solid ECW World title defense against Terry Gordy and we got a nearly 20 minute classic between Sabu and Rob Van Dam. This was part of the reason that made their later alliance such a big deal to ECW fans because their rivalry was a fantastic combination of high flying and extreme spots. However, the most historic match belongs to Chris Jericho taking on Pitbull #2 for the ECW Television title. The match was serviceable, but what this really was, was Jericho’s first major American title win. All of his previous victories were in indie promotions, Mexico or Japan. This title reign really helped to give him solid ground to elevate and become one of the most decorated wrestlers in modern history.

• WWE Monday Night Raw (2009)

Welp, this was the post Trump “Victory Lap” so to speak. Trump “bought” Raw after the Battle of the Billionaires, even going as far to air the show commercial free and refund all the tickets to the fans in attendance. This was of course Kayfabe and rectified by the end of the show when Vince bought his own show back for “double”, but the event also technically kicks off the guest host era of Monday Night Raw. So just a lot of weird to come from that. We did get a memorable Last Man Standing match between Triple H and Randy Orton, less than a week before their Three Stages of Hell match at The Bash. Since it was commercial free that means people saw everything, and it was a brawl that actually saw Triple H hit a desperation Pedigree on the stage, tried to pull himself up by the ladder that was there, but the ladder fell. Both men couldn’t answer the 10 count, so the Double Knock Out actually served well to build more anticipation for the Three Stages of Hell match.

• ROH Best in the World (2014)

While it wasn’t Kevin Steen’s final match in ROH, it was his last PPV match for ROH before his jump to WWE. Steen beat Silas Young and then only had 3 additional ROH dates before moving to NXT. Aside from that nugget we did get a little generational clash when Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) took on reDragon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) for the ROH World Tag Team titles, in a really good match to highlight the return of the veterans to ROH. The main event was Michael Elgin facing Adam Cole. Cole was in the midst of his 275 day reign, and was riding pretty high. In a 20+ minute match, Cole tried everything to keep the more powerful challenger down, but Elgin caught him mid Panama Sunrise, turned it into a Buckle Bomb and then planted Cole with the Elgin Bomb, to become the new ROH World Heavyweight Champion!

• STARDOM The Conversion (2024)

This was a pivotal show for the Dark Phoenix rise. Oedo Tai and Queen’s Quest had one of the classic “loser must disband” elimination match. Saya Kamitani was the last one, the rest of Queen’s Quest eliminated around her, she became the failed as the successor to Io Shirai, Momo Watanabe and Utami Hayashishita. Queen’s Quest disbanded, and Saya was the one who let it crumble. After being the bird with broken wings for about a month, Saya eventually turned heel, joined Oedo Tai, and Oedo Tai dissolved into the group now known as H.A.T.E. We also had two big title matches, first the Wonder of Stardom belt was actually lost by Anou Saori to Sendai Girl’s wrestler Mika Iwata, which was an upset, as well as, shocking to have the white belt in freelancer hands. Maika defended the World of Stardom title against Xena in a hard hitting clash of former faction members.

A little light of a day, and like I said, a touch of creative accounting. But I’ll still claim these are all memorable moments, most of which were the the launching pad for even more.

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