Today In Pro Wrestling History: July 16th

Moving into the second half of July, we start with a day where I had to do the most mental gymnastics. As for how the gymnastics worked out, WWE fans aren’t going to care much for this article. We spend a little more time in Japan than with American television, but there’s still a few things for the less hardcore fans!

• WCW Bash at the Beach (1995)

This was WCW’s first major outdoor event at a beach. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Vader and Ric Flair guest starred in an episode of Baywatch, the episode was filmed on this day, but didn’t air until 1996. But it was a good way to promote two pop culture phenomena of Pro Wrestling and Baywatch. The main event of the show was Hulk Hogan retaining his title against Vader in a steel cage, which was also Vader’s last PPV before jumping to WWF.

• NOAH Accomplish Our Third Navigation: Inaugural GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles: Jushin Thunder Liger & Takehiro Murahama vs KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji (2003)

Firsts are always easy moments for historical articles. This was the culmination of the tournament to crown the very first GHC Junior Tag champions. We get the two protege/children of the most established Heavenly Kings in KENTA (trained by Kenta Kobashi) and Marufuji (trained by Misawa) facing the legend himself Liger and an up and coming freelancer from Osaka Pro who had previous MMA experience in K-1 and RINGS, even facing Jens Pulver in his career. So that was all to say, while Liger and Murahama weren’t an established team, they weren’t nobodies. After over 24 minutes, we saw KENTAfuji become the inaugural champions and their first title reign lasted for 690 days.

• WWE SmackDown (2021)

This one is on here, not because of a match but because it was the first WWE Event with a live crowd as the world started to come out of the pandemic era. The show also happened to be the Go-Home for Money in the Bank, but another notable aspect of this show, we saw the return of Finn Balor, after his second run in NXT.

• NOAH Destination (2022)

This was a hell of an event. We saw Rob Van Dam team with Masato Tanaka as “Team ECW” against the Perros del Mal de Japon duo of NOSAWA and Super Crazy. Keiji Mutoh was on his final retirement tour, where Kaito Kiyomiya finally got his win back from the legend. Speaking of legendary wrestlers, Satoshi Kojima defended the GHC Heavyweight title against Kenoh. Kojima was the fourth to accomplish the “Grand Slam” of winning the 3 main major titles of puroresu. But on this night, Kenoh defeated Kojima, putting an end to his history making reign.

• Marigold 1st Anniversary Series ~ Burning Desire: Winner Takes All Marigold World Championship vs GHC Women’s Championship: Utami Hayashishita (c) vs Takumi Iroha (c) (2025)

Marigold was on it’s first anniversary tour, so what better way to display their position in the joshi scene than a winner takes all battle between two championships that were created the same year looking to become prestigious titles in their own right. Most people understand Utami’s legacy so far since she was the Super Rookie of Stardom, but jumped to Marigold when the ownership change happened. Takumi however has always been highly regarded but more of a freelancer. Marvelous is probably where she’s best known, but if Utami is a company Ace, Iroha has been more of an Ace’s “Wild” type, where she’s amazing, but never been in a heavily successful company. With both belts looking to elevate their status, this would also be a big win for the participants. We saw a 56 minute grueling match. Finisher attempts, great exhaustion periods, with the final flurry being desperate sluggish striking. Both putting all of their energy into the parting shots, but the match would take too much of a toll. Where they both connect on strikes, collapse, and can’t respond to the standing count. A double TKO, so both women retain their belts, but the match was not panned for an indecisive finish, due to the nature of how grueling the match was, it is highly praised and considered one of the best matches from 2025.

Well hey, like I prefaced, not exactly the most crazy day. But there will be days like that. I like to think that events I grabbed were still memorable in their own right, but not every day is going to be a winner.