Today In Pro Wrestling History: July 28th

So for anyone who actively dislikes the WWE product, this will be a good article to avoid any of those bombs. Like a classic game of Minesweeper. Time to see what events made the cut for today!

• WCW Nitro: Cruiserweight Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs Alex Wright (1997)

Jericho was still fairly new to WCW and in his first Cruiserweight run when these two came to a head. Das Wunderkind was very over for his look, athletic styles and the little dance he did for his intro was so over in the 90s it’s still a meme 30 years later. The match itself wasn’t the best, it was a tolerable television match, but it did two things. It gave Alex Wright his first championship of his entire career, and it proved Jericho would have a willingness to playball and chase.

• TNA PPV #108: X Division Championship Ultimate X Match: AJ Styles (c) vs Michael Shane vs Frankie Kazarian (2004)

Ahh the match that kind of established Kaz’s love for sharing awards (small joke, but anyone who followed recent TNA knows he shared another accolade). This was the only time that an Ultimate X match ended with co-holders, which really sucked for AJ Styles being the incumbent champion and the one left in the cold. However, we would see all three of these men play prominent roles in the early X-Division. Unfortunately for Shane, the spectre of his cousin and his eventual forced name change hamstrung his career. But that doesn’t take away from some of the great matches during the early days of TNA!

• TNA iMPACT! (2015)

We got two title changes while the GFW vs TNA angle was heating up. Coming off of Darkside to know that Jeff only agreed to this angle because he was feeling the Richard Petty vibe, I can respect that. As for the title matches, Brian Myers & Trevor Lee (weird tag team, I know) defeated The Wolves in a sneeze and you miss it match. I suppose the nugget here is that this would mark both of their first times holding the TNA tag titles. In the best match of the show, King of the Mountain champion PJ Black defended against Bobby Roode. Sonjay Dutt tried to interfere to help PJ Black but Drew Galloway neutralized him. So Bobby hit the Roode Bomb and became the new King of the Mountain champion!

• STARDOM World Rendezvous (2024)

Now this was the show that really started to put Saya Kamitani on the podium of Dark Phoenix to resurrect the company. Still going through feelings of failure, betrayal and abandonment with the Marigold exodus, most notably Utami Hayashishita, Saya took matters into her own hands after she lost the High Speed Title to Mei Seira. In the main event, Oedo Tai, who forced her to dissolve Queen’s Quest after the loss last month, had their leader vying for the World of Stardom title. Natusko Tora took on the champion Maika. Saya grabbed the referee when Maika had a decisive pinfall, took him out, and then beat on Maika to give Tora the advantage she needed to win the belt. Saya and Oedo Tai stood tall, officially rebranding the villainous faction to H.A.T.E. (Harass Abuse Terrorize Eradicate).

• GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XI (2024)

I’m a big fan of Bloodsport and will always add them into a list or conversation when applicable. The concept is very cool for an occasional event, and seeing names from different companies on the same card is always fun. Some undercard highlights were the Creed Brothers winning their respective matches, Masha Slamovich completely decimated Jody Threat, Mike Bailey beat AKIRA via TKO and Homicide beat Mike Santana via Referee Stoppage. But the main event and semi-main were the real jewels. Josh Barnett took on Bad Dude Tito, after a great mat based exchange and near submission victory from Tito, they returned to the stand up, traded a couple kicks, but Barnett snapped off a beautiful Spinning Back Heel Kick that caught Tito flush and put him to sleep. After the match, MVP showed up telling Barnett that his contract was nearly up and he doesn’t have plans of returning to WWE, so he wanted a fight, and the crowd loved the moment. As for the main event, Shayna Baszler faced the “Pink Striker” Miyu Yamashita. The match was easily the most hyped, but the finish did sour people a bit. It was a great strike exchange for a while, Miyu even launched herself off the corner post to connect with a Flying Kick. Shayna was staggered many times during the match, but managed to catch Miyu in a Tombstone Piledriver and then begin ground and pound down strikes until the referee had to stop it because Miyu couldn’t defend herself.

While I wouldn’t call these obscure, they’re definitely not an easy to find or digest menu item for the chicken tendy WWE only people. Does my general disdain for tribalism poke out the most during these article? Yes, very yes. But the beauty of history is all I’m doing is highlighting things that happened, I’m not inventing a narrative.