Today In Pro Wrestling History: July 13th

Truth be told, this article starts off with an odd thread, and there’s another related thing that isn’t wrestling related so I wasn’t going to include it. But people can probably put the pieces together after seeing the shared wrestler between the first two events. Aside from that, there is some other interesting and fun moments to remind us that wrestling is an escape from the dreary days that are reality!

• NJPW Best of the Super Juniors (1995)

The second year the tournament changed its name from Top of the Super Juniors to what it’s still known as, Best of the Super Juniors. The reason this is here, is because the tournament winner was Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit), which marked his second tournament trophy, which is an impressive accomplishment since foreign talent rarely wins once much less twice. For historical context, only Prince Devitt (2013) and Will Ospreay (2019) matched the two tournament victories…and no one has surpassed it to this day, in regards to foreigners.

• WCW Bash at the Beach (1997)

While yesterday’s Bash was the Dennis Rodman match most of us remember, it wasn’t the only one. The main event of this show was Lex Luger & The Giant defeating Hollywood Hogan and Dennis Rodman. Also to many people’s surprise, Hogan tapped out to the Torture Rack in the match, Rodman didn’t eat the pin. We also got a great match for the Cruiserweight Championship when Chris Jericho retained over Ultimo Dragon. But the connective thread between these first two events is, Chris Benoit faced The Taskmaster (Kevin Sullivan) in a Retirement/Loser Leaves Town Match. Benoit won the match, marking the last time we saw Sullivan until a 1 off surprise resurrection of the Varsity Club in 1999. But we never saw the Taskmaster again, so I guess that counts.

• FREEDOMS Crazy Monkey Presents: Tokyo Death Match Carnival (2016)

Sometimes its fun to just throw in random Death Match shows that seem interesting or well received from the crowds. This had a well received match, with a hell of a stipulation. Madness Violent Fluorescent Light Tubes & Gadgets Board & Alpha Death Match, between Kenji Fukumoto and Masashi Takeda. Takeda won via a Reverse U Crash on a Bed of Open Scissors. You ever stare at a sentence and question your sanity until you remember it’s pro wrestling? Yeah that just happened to me. But the main event was King Of FREEDOM World Title Ultimate Kaiju Battle Death Match, Jun Kasai vs Violento Jack. Jack was striving to show that Mexican Ultra Violence deserved to be at the top of the Death Match World, and after being called the Mexican Jun Kasai, he had to take out the measuring stick. Executing a Package Piledriver into a stack of toy building block, the crowd was shocked when Jack won the match. Kasai has a reputation for never really losing on his self produced shows, so a clean win, was a historical footnote for fans of the Death Match Carnivals.

• TNA Impact: World Title vs X Division Title Six Sides of Steel Match: Bobby Lashley (c) vs Eddie Edwards (c) (2016)

What was an immediate rematch after the Destination X match was ruined due to interference and ended in a No Contest, we saw the steel cage stipulation to prevent outside interference. This match lived up to the big time billing. We were still at the time of getting used to Broken Hardy shenanigans in the undercard, but this match was great. It was back and forth, but the turning point was when Eddie missed a Diving Boston Knee Party from the cage. Lashley hit one Spear, but Eddie kicked out, incredulous, Lashley ran through him with a second Spear to become on of the most dominant forces in TNA history.

• NOAH Destination (2024)

This was a show with a fair bit of crossover and a decent amount of title changes. Go Shiozaki defeated Akitoshi Saito for the Zero-1 Heavyweight Championship, Amakusa defeated Daga for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship and Kaito Kiyomiya retained the GHC Heavyweight title against Yoshiki Inamura. But the most notable crossover match was the dream match made real, AJ Styles vs Naomichi Marufuji. This was a fantastic match, with two veterans who were at the top of defining the modern wrestling style. If the match was had 10 years earlier, this would’ve been a generational matchup. As it stands, it’s still a great match, with only a few minor hiccups. Still an enjoyable Dream Match and one of the cleaner Marufuji matches during this era.

• WWE Evolution (2025)

Even if the main event was the best match, this entire show was very well done, and hard to find a bad match in the bunch. Trish Stratus vs Tiffany Stratton was the worst match, and that was still serviceable. Becky Lynch retaining her Women’s Intercontinental Championship over Lyra Valkyria and Bayley was a good way to open the show. But the Women’s World Title match between Naomi, Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley stole the show. Naomi pulled off a pretty big upset given the fact that Iyo and Rhea are arguably the two most over women in the WWE right now, and also very well known workhorses. This match validated Naomi walking out and going the TNA/Impact to reinvent herself, win the Knockouts Title and come back a better version of herself.

The Benoit thread is what I was talking about in the intro, and we don’t need to give it more time than the events put highlight on. I will say, given how good the wrestling was and the critical reception of Evolution II was, one would imagine there would be more conversation for a third. Hopefully it doesn’t take another 7 years.