Today in Pro Wrestling History: July 1st

A little bit of Monica in my life, a little bit of Erica by my side…what? These articles have really started feeling like a wrestling Mambo Number 5 with how I try to find different shows and there’s still crossover names and just generally interesting nuggets. And if it looks like this, then you’re doing it right…

• WWE SmackDown: WWE Tag Team Title: Eddie Guerrero & Tajiri (c) vs World’s Greatest Tag Team (2003)

Let’s not forget that this show did kick off the reactivation of the WCW United States Championship as a SmackDown exclusive WWE United States Championship. With that, they started a tournament to crown the first WWE version champion. So because it was just the start of the reactivation tournament, it’s a footnote and not so much the memorable moment. This tag match was memorable for the build and the fallout. Tajiri was Eddie’s surprise partner after Chavo got legit injured before Judgement Day 2003. Thanks to the unexpected teammate and Eddie’s “Lie, Cheat & Steal” motto, they won the tag belts from WGTT. For the next month and a half WGTT chased but were amusingly rebuffed until tonight. WGTT won this match and got the tag titles back, which sent Eddie into a spiral. He threw Tajiri through the window of his Lowrider, which obviously ending the pairing and reframed Eddie as a heel.

• Dragon Gate Pro-Wrestling Festival In Kobe: Open the Dream Gate Championship: Jushin “Thunder” Liger (c) vs CIMA  (2007)

The Flagship Kobe World event! This solidified the tradition where Dragon Gate’s biggest event takes place during the Kobe World Festival. At this point, Dragon Gate was still establishing its Dragon Style and CIMA was their Ace. However, CIMA and Liger had deep history where dating back to the 2000 Super J-Cup. CIMA was a rising star, but Liger just treated him like a speed bump, dismissing, diminishing and destroying the young wrestler in the tournament. CIMA held on to that embarrassment for 7 years, and when Liger came into his home and took the main title to New Japan…CIMA had to be the one to bring it home. In a 25 minute match where Liger tried to surgically take him apart, CIMA tapped into the “Super CIMA” babyface fire to hit a flurry of a comeback and win back the Dream Gate title for Dragon Gate. Even if western fans criticize some of the pacing or the no sell moments, the crowd was white hot, and this was a big match for a relatively new name since Dragon Gate only rebranded from Toryumon in 2004.

• AJPW/NJPW 40th Anniversary: Pro Wrestling Love (2012)

A nice cross promotion show that showcased the rising New Japan and helped out the struggling AJPW get some exposure during a still dodgy time. While SMOP (Ryoto Hama & Akebono) defeated Strong BJ for the All Asia Titles, this show was more for the fun and memorable interactions through the card. TenCozy teamed with Keiji Mutoh to defeated the CHAOS trio of Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano and Takashi Iizuka. Kazuchika Okada & Shinsuke Nakamura faced off against Shuji Kondo & SUWAMA, in what was probably the best match. Joe Doering teamed with Seiya Sanada to defeat Tama Tonga and Tetsuya Naito. Plus both main championships were defended. Tanahashi defended the IWGP title against Togi Makabe and Jun Akiyama defended the Triple Crown over Taiyo Kea. A very fun show to show the crossovers and both brands showcased equally well.

• NJPW G1 Special (2017)

This first night was anchored with two big title matches and the opening salvos of the United States Championship tournament. Plenty of really great tournament matches makes this event a great rewatch, but let’s get to the bigger moments. War Machine defeated the Guerrillas of Destiny for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. But the main event was huge at the time. We were in the early stages of the Bullet Club Civil War of “Bullet Club is Fine” and the match became a rarely seen Champion versus Champion match when Cody Rhodes beat Christopher Daniels a week prior for the ROH World title. If Cody could tear the belt away from Okada, during Okada’s dominant reign, after he already rebuked Kenny twice…that would tip the scales heavily in the civil war on top of showing Cody as a double champion. Cody was indignant, spat in Okada’s face and we saw the Short Flurry Variation of Wrist Control Rainmakers where Okada just rocked him multiple times out of irritation. One legit Rainmaker later…and that was all she wrote. Again, great match with the little Bullet Club interactions coming to a head to drive that story for the rest of the year.

• NXT Great American Bash: Winner Takes All: Keith Lee (c) vs Adam Cole (c) (2020)

North American Champion Keith Lee and NXT Champion Adam Cole squared off for one of them to become the first ever simultaneous champion over both singles titles. Cole was on his 400+ run, and even pulled double duty at one point to defend the Tag Titles and his own championship to cover injury. So the workhorse felt all too confident that he’d make more history. Lee was on a pretty massive push himself, so this was one of the few modern matches that didn’t have an obvious logical winner. False finishes everywhere, Keith countered a second Panama Sunrise into a second Spirit Bomb, but much like Goku, the Spirit Bomb finishes no one…so Keith went to the best character in Dragon Ball and channeled his inner Vegeta for a Big Bang Catastrophe! Keith Lee made the history that day!

• Impact Wrestling Against All Odds (2022)

This event is on here for the memorable aspect of how I devise these lists. Yes, Moose vs Sami Callihan bringing back the Clockwork Orange House of Fun match was memorable and not bad at all. Mike Bailey also defended the X Division title against Trey Miguel in a highly praised match. But this is on here in light of the recent passing of Joe Doering. While not his FINAL match, it was his last title match of his career before having to leave wrestling to battle cancer again. The match itself was a beautiful exhibition of the beast the Joe Doering was, his embracing of the King’s Road style, mixed with Josh Alexander’s gritty mat based technical prowess…this was a beautiful match. All things considered, if this was the last match people remember, he definitely showed why he was the Modern Era Stan Hansen and deserving of being the beloved champion he was.

There was a nice little thread with Okada and Joe Doering being on a few of the different events, but I think it’s only happened once or twice so far where all the history was post-2000. That always surprises me when I don’t have to wade through the territories or Attitude Era just to fill space on the card, so to speak.

It’s time for summer, hit the klaxon and head to the beach for action! But if you’re riding out the AC paradise, have fun and Always Use Your Head!