Today In Pro Wrestling History: July 29th

Now we get an article that has one of my personal favorite matches. There’s a few things for older fans and WWE diehards, but as per usual, I can only work with what the days give me! Now time to check out the events!

• MACW Richmond Show: NWA United Stated Championship: Bobo Brazil (c) vs Ric Flair (1977)

This match was a bit of a test and redemption arc for Flair. Less than two years since his plane crash, this was his first chance at a larger NWA title, not just a Mid-Atlantic region. Bobo just got done taking the title off of Blackjack Mulligan and the subsequent 3 week war that came afterwards to keep the belt. Flair ended up getting the best of the veteran powerhouse with a quick Cradle and a handful of tights. This gave Flair his first reign as a real NWA title holder and helped to set him on course to become who we all know him as today.

• AJPW Summer Action Series: Budokan Show (1993)

Two huge matches exist on this card and for a change, the Misawa match is not the most memorable. While Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada has been bookmarked as the official start of the “King’s Road” style, the match itself came at a time when Misawa was on the rise and Kawada was still battling with and against demons. After recently solidifying his partnership with Akira Taue weeks before hand, they created the Holy Demon Alliance. Misawa and Kawada have such a storied history of matches, this particular one is more of a transitional point in Kawada’s style because the dynamic was still very Misawa favored, so he retained his title, to little surprise. The match that took the crowd’s imagination was Stan Hansen versus Kenta Kobashi. Hansen started stomping Kobashi during introductions and the anger and disdain were palpable. Kobashi fought from underneath the entire match, even busting out his rare but gorgeous Moonsault. When that wasn’t enough to take down Hansen, Kobashi was getting desperate with Locomotion Cradle attempts before going back to the well one more time for the Moonsault. Hansen saw this, so decided to cut him off by cutting him down, and connected with a Western Lariat to the back of Kobashi’s head, causing him to crumple to the mat. Hansen pinned the young star, and won the match, but Kobashi proved that his star was on the rise.

• WWE Monday Night Raw: The Rock vs Ric Flair (2002)

Now there are two other things people will remember, but I didn’t want to bury the lead, so I made the header the Rock and Flair. We had a 3 Minute Warning Mae Young and Moolah beatdown that is very memorable to many fans, as well as, Chris Benoit defeating Rob Van Dam to start his fourth reign as Intercontinental Champion. Now the main reason this is on here, is the first and only encounter between The Rock and Ric Flair. Even though the match only went about 7 and a half minutes, it was a Dream Match that the fans ate up. Classic Flair spots, Rock tried the Sharpshooter but Flair got out of it and tried the Figure Four. The finish was iconic with Flair knocking down The Rock with his Knife Edge Chop, and starting the Jackie Fargo strut, when Rock kips up and catches a shocked Flair with a Rock Bottom. The Rock won the match, but the winner was irrelevant in the grand scheme of why this match worked.

• TNA iMPACT! (2015)

Almost as a continuation from yesterday, The Wolves get their rematch on Brian Myers and Trevor Lee, and win back the tag team titles. Now the match was slightly longer than a sneeze at least, but still only about 7 minutes. We also got Jeff Jarrett’s Hall of Fame acceptance speech during this episode. Dixie personally inducted Jeff as a way to blur lines that many of us are more aware of now, after the Vice Dark Side event. While we may know it was a doomed and petty charade, at the time, there was some momentum and hope that TNA might rebound after spiraling into Destination America obscurity.

• AJPW Summer Action Series: Triple Crown Championship: Kento Miyahara (c) vs Zeus (2018)

Zeus was the Adonis of Osaka, but always relegated to tag team specialty when him and The Bodyguard came over from Osaka Pro. The few chances Zeus got at singles glory, he always came up short. However, in the 2018 Champion Carnival, while he didn’t win the tournament, he defeated Kento in a block match. Kento is the undisputed Ace of All Japan at this time, the roster had a few aging veterans (Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata to name a couple), but it was effectively Kento Miyahara…and everyone else. Zeus had the look, the underdog story and could keep the work rate high for a muscular hoss like himself. Thanks to his win in the block matches, Kento wanted to get his win back, so Zeus had the right to challenge. The event took place in Osaka. While Kento is beloved…Zeus was home, and the crowd made it known during the match. This almost the same level of underdog powerhouse that Kobashi was early in his career. Zeus fought through a flurry of Blackout Knee Strikes, broke out of the Shutdown German Suplex Hold and crushed Kento with a Jackhammer. When Zeus won, all of the stereotypes of Japanese crowds being quiet, were shattered. Osaka was ecstatic for Zeus. The crowd didn’t leave after the show, they all moved to the guardrail to congratulate their new home town champion, someone even passed their infant child to Zeus to hold up in the ring as a symbol of hope and just proving how much the crowd needed Zeus to win this match. It was a great nearly 30 minute match with a beautiful ending.

Yeah, I got a little flowery on the Zeus and Kento one, that is a personal all time favorite of mine. But it was Zeus’ first and so far only Triple Crown title reign, and Osaka definitely thought it was memorable. But aside from that, not exactly the spiciest day, but I think I found enough things that qualified. Lets see if we can end July strong or if it’s gonna be another struggle bus finish to a month.