Today In Pro Wrestling History: June 2nd

Another mixture of things, but this day leans a little more into the Eastern promotions. There’s definitely at least one big moment for WWE fans, but this is more of a puro playground today!

• NJPW Sumo Hall Show: IWGP Finals: Hulk Hogan vs Antonio Inoki (1983)

So the reason the NJPW belts are called the IWGP, is in homage to this original round robin tournament (predecessor to the G1). The winner was given a belt to defend against the next year’s winner, but it wasn’t an official title or the official IWGP Heavyweight title we know nowadays. However, this inaugural event had pretty big names from everywhere, Andre the Giant, El Canek, Otto Wanz, Rusher Kimura and Big John Studd to name a few. Hogan won the first International Wrestling Grand Prix after connecting with an Axe Bomber while Inoki was on the apron, sending him spilling out to the floor, getting knocked out, so Hogan won via Count Out.

• BJW Hardcore Series: BJW Tag Team Championship Barbed Wire Board Deathmatch: Ryuji Yamakawa & Tomoaki Honma (c) vs John Zandig & Nick Gage  (2000)

Now this is a smattering of names that I bet some of you didn’t know interacted. Before Honma was a comedy sidekick of Togi Makabe in New Japan, he was a fairly well establish deathmatch wrestler and tag specialist. CZW was still a fairly new company, looking to make its mark since ECW’s end was in sight, so there would be an opening in the market. This entire match was chaos, the CZW crew playing invading heels perfectly. Cutting open the homegrown talent, causing the fans to get heated over their arrogance and rally for Fighting Spirit moments. After plenty of usage of the boards and weaponry, Zandig and Gage isolated Yamakawa to win the belts and really set the BJW vs CZW World War in motion.

• TNA Slammiversary XI: Last Knockout Standing: Gail Kim vs Taryn Terrell (2013)

This has been regarded as the best knockouts match in TNA history for some time. Taryn was recently stripped of her Knockouts Referee status by Brook Hogan, and signed on as a competitor to try and squash the issues she was having with Gail. This match is brutal, but it was also the coming out party for Taryn since no one expected anything from a model from WWE turned referee and now just thrown into the division. Big moves from both, heavy and hard hitting spots on the ramp…but Taryn managed to beat the 10 count at the last second, while Gail couldn’t get up. Two smaller notes would be, this year Kurt Angle was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame and this Slammiversary was held at the same place the 2026 Slammiversary will be held at. So it should be interesting to see if the new show outdraws TNA still around the peak of its powers.

• Monday Night Raw: Seth Shatters the Shield (2014)

Coming off the big win over Evolution, The Shield looked like the new unbeatable force in WWE. When Batista quit, and Triple H spoke about a Plan B, no one anticipated it to be Seth Rollins. The chairshot heard around the world. You could even hear someone in the crowd scream “No” right before Seth cracked Roman with the chair. Dean’s shocked expression, Orton and H being smug on the outside. This was a huge betrayal and set the wheels in motion for Seth to be this generally viewed as slimy shmuck…but at least his theme song is good for people.

• Dragon Gate Rainbow Gate: Open the Twin Gate Championship: KONGOH (Kenoh & Shuji Kondo) (c) vs M3K (Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda) (2023)

KONGOH is a Pro Wrestling NOAH stable, who defeated Shimizu and Kzy at Masaaki Mochizuki produced show in early April for the Twin Gate titles. The interesting aspect here, which makes it historic for Dragon Gate, is that both Susumu and Yasushi are veterans from Toryumon Japan. So the seasoned veterans who have been generally overlooked or dismissed, proved they could bring respect back to the company. M3K brought the Twin Gate belts home, and about 3 weeks later Kenoh disbanded the KONGOH stable.

These shows all had nice historical aspects. We had a little bit of everything, tournament history, company history, betrayal and matches that kicked off interpromotional wars. It’s kind of amusing that both tag matches on this list had something to do with invaders versus home grown talent.

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