Today In Pro Wrestling History: July 15th

Most of this article should have names and companies everyone knows. It ends with a little casual obscurity, but you know I like to mix things up while staying in the parameters of historic and memorable. So its time to see what I threw together!

• TNA Victory Road: Match of Champions, Tag, X Division & World Title Match: Team 3D (c) vs Samoa Joe (c) & Kurt Angle (c) (2007)

So to clarify the stipulation, whoever ate the pinfall, lost their title. So everything was on the line, but only the loser would lose their title. Samoa Joe pinned Bubba after interference from Rick Steiner. Therefore, Team 3D lost their tag titles. Instead of sharing the win with Kurt, he decided to hold the Tag titles by himself. This bubbled up to be an angle for Hard Justice where Kurt and Samoa Joe would face off in another winner takes all match, but the match was fun, and uniquely memorable.

• WWE Money In The Bank (2012)

While nothing overly historic happened during the event, it did lead to a first ever and the main event was unprecedented at the time. While the main event was the WWE Championship MITB match, it was jam packed with former champions. Kane, Chris Jericho, John Cena, The Miz and The Big Show. John Cena securing the briefcase for the first and only time in his career. As for the subsequent history, we can mention that on July 23rd.

• WWE Extreme Rules (2018)

The B-Team became Raw Tag Team Champions after defeating Woken Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt. Shinsuke Nakamura won the United States Championship from Jeff Hardy, but I think we all know the main memory from this show. This was during a low period for WWE when many fans were frustrated with the Roman Reigns being shoved down our throats situation. But in typical fandom fashion (not just wrestling, all fandoms self sabotage), the crowd hijacked the main event. A main event with two workhorse fan favorites of Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins, in a 30 Minute Iron Man Match for the Intercontinental title. Pittsburgh’s obsession with popping themselves with idiotic buzzer noises and count downs on the final 10 seconds of every minute like it was Royal Rumble, hijacked the show, disrupted the match and gave Vince the fuel he needed to double down on his vision because the crowd proved the “workrate” wasn’t something people wanted to see since they were actively lampooning it.

• AAA Triplemania XXXI: AAA Mega Championship: El Hijo del Vikingo (c) vs Kenny Omega (2023)

While this wasn’t the first they touched, it was the most significant. This match was supposed to happen years prior, but injuries derailed the plans. They had a match in March on Dynamite where Omega defeated Vikingo, but the title wasn’t on the line. Using that as motivation for the match, Vikingo needed to avenge his loss to solidify his title run. Vikingo slipped the One Winged Angel, spiked Omega with a Poisonrana, Double Knees left him out, so Vikingo hit his 630 Senton to win the match clean and punctuate his title reign that would eventually last 833 days.

• NOAH One Night Dream: Kento Miyahara vs Katsuhiko Nakajima (2023)

We end with another psuedo dream match. While it’s not the first time they’ve matched up, it holds a lot of weight. They both came up in NOAH SEM program, which was similar to the NJPW Young Lion dojo system. Katsuhiko had a few more years on Kento being active in World Japan and Diamond Ring before they were both in Kensuke Office during the SEM years. A very much senior/junior dynamic, but also where the build comes from. Their last match, before this, was in 2012 in Diamond Ring. Katsuhiko holds a 3-0 advantage over Kento, who at this point and is currently still considered the unrivaled ace of All Japan. So Kento being an underdog as an Ace, was an interesting story. And this would be the first time they’ve touched since becoming their current more polished forms, so in a way, it’s a dream match. Ace of All Japan versus the Mad Wolf. In a grueling 34 minute match, Nakajima managed to win with his classic PK into the Vertical Spike Brainbuster. Kento was incensed, they scuffled a bit until Katsuhiko tossed him out of the ring, and sat cross legged and smug while Kento boiled on the outside. Their rivalry wasn’t over, but this match is critically praised and highly rated on all platforms.

Interesting moments, dream grudge matches, fans ruining things for themselves, all classic tentpoles of pro wrestling. The days are annoying warm, and some of the events are a little stretched, but you can’t say I find boring stuff. Now someone shut off the summer and let’s skip right to fall…I hate weather over 85 degrees.