Today In Pro Wrestling History: July 10th

Ahh, now this was a bit of a stretch for big moments, but there’s a ton of smaller events that still resonated with the appropriate demographic. So let’s see what kind of smorgasbord of events we have today!

• JCP The Great American Bash (1988)

The final JCP/NWA event before the Ted Turner purchase a few months later. So to touch on the normal kind of memorable event, The Midnight Express defeated The Fantastics for the NWA United States Tag Team Championships. Now the one with the weird history, is the main event and it reeks of 80s ideas. Ric Flair was defending the NWA World Heavyweight title against Lex Luger. Luger dominated the match until Flair managed to take advantage of being outside of the ring and smashing Lex into guardrails and posts, splitting him open. When Flair tries to use a chair, the referee stops him which gives Lex the opportunity to put him in the Torture Rack, but before Flair can submit to the finish, it is announced that the Maryland State Athletic Commission put a stop to the match, declaring Flair the winner because of excessive blood loss from Luger. While the match established Lex as a legitimate main event player…still one of the more weirdly memorable finishes in wrestling.

• NOAH Departure (2004)

NOAH’s first ever event at the Tokyo Dome! This show also has the first time Mitsuharu Misawa was across from Keiji Mutoh, it was a tag match, so historically, they never had a singles match. But the tag match gave people reasons to buzz with the shared AJPW bridge but also the “ships passing in the night” analogy since they were always Aces in rival promotions. In some of the notable wrestling, Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated Jushin Thunder Liger for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to begin his third title reign. But the main event was the protege of the Heavenly Kings, Jun Akiyama facing Kenta Kobashi for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. It was a 4 year story that cross from their time in AJPW to the current status in NOAH. Kobashi defended the title, since this was during his legendary 735 day reign, but the match was still a beauty. They sold out the Tokyo Dome with 58,000 fans for a good reason.

• CZW/JAPW Acid-Fest: A Tribute to Trent Acid (2010)

This was a memorial and fund raising show dedicated to the untimely passing of Trent Acid. In a bit of a brighter news, the event officially marked CZW’s 106th event in the 2300 Arena, meaning they held more shows in the “ECW Arena” than ECW did. This was basically a wrestling wake, friends, family and memories as the show rolled along. In the main event Johnny Kashmere, Trent’s Backseat Boyz teammate, came out with their original manager and former owner of Phoenix Championship Wrestling, who put the team together, Donnie B. Kashmere faced Devon Moore, and when he went over, it was an emotional moment. Kashmere retired on the spot, hanging up the boots to focus on higher education and behind the scenes wrestling roles. While no one truly retires in wrestling, he stayed pretty retired until 2023.

• TNA Destination X (2011)

With Destination X returning in 2026, it feels correct to highlight some of the fond moments of the past. Destination X was often TNA’s least criticized PPV because the point was a heavy focus on the X Division. This year was no different with Austin Aries beating Shannon Moore, Amazing Red & Robbie E w/Cookie for an exclusive contract. We also saw Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn continue their 15 year rivalry, with the resulting going the way they normally did, RVD going over. Brian Kendrick defeated Abyss for the X Division Championship, which was important because it would have ruined TNA if he lost. The story was Abyss wanting to the change the X Division to the Xtreme Division and make it a hardcore title if he retained. That would have sunk the brand, bad enough most people didn’t like Abyss as X Division champion anyway. We also got another classic rivalry as the main event with AJ Styles facing Christopher Daniels. No belts, no contracts, just bragging rights. The finish was AJ countering an Avalanche Angel’s Wings to drop Daniels into the landing zone for Spiral Tap. AJ won, and this was a well received show all around.

• Wrestle Carnival Ringmasters (2022)

While the promotion was short lived, this event has set up for some names people are getting more aware of now. And yes, it’s not WrestleCircus, this is in England. They didn’t lean into the Carnival gimmick super hard, but hard enough to still give off the old traveling circus vibe. Charles Crowley defended the King of the Carnival championship twice on this show, once against Scotty 2 Hotty and the other time against Alexander Wolfe, he was successful in both defenses. Man Like Dereiss defeated Eric Young in the undercard, Robbie X and Leon Slater squared off, with Robbie X going over. Jetta won the interim Queen of the Carnival title, beating Charlie Morgan. Lastly, Chris Ridgeway became the inaugural Pure Champion defeating Emersyn Jayne. Just a fun show, with a few classic names, up and coming UK names, and we see where the TNA and Leon Slater relationship got started.

Again, a weird little combination Taco Bell & Pizza Hut today, but I would say they all qualify to varying degrees of memorability. I can only do so much with what some of these days give me, when I try to avoid filler birthdays or some random title change in the backwoods of Louisiana in 1962.