Today In Pro Wrestling History: July 2nd

Another article with some fun nuggets and continuation events from events included in previous History articles. And yes, a fair bit of WWE for everyone who only cares about only that.

• BJW vs CZW BJ Hardcore Series: BJW Deathmatch Championship Lemon, Salt and Mustard Deathmatch: Tomoaki Honma (c) vs John Zandig (2000)

Back in June I touched on this tour with the Tag Team Title match. Even if you’re not into hardcore wrestling, this was a pivotal war for both companies. BJW was established in 1995 but their Deathmatch title wasn’t a thing until 1998, and CZW was founded in 1999. So both companies are very young and looking to carve their own paths. This match was the height of Ultra Violence and really sparked the war full throttle since CZW was starting to clean up over the Big Japan wrestlers. The canvas was covered in salt and wasabi mustard, so every cut, small or large, literally got salt rubbed in the wound every bump. The finish saw Zandig execute his Spinning Powerbomb onto a Barbedwire Board to end the match and win the Deathmatch title.

• WWF Monday Night Raw: Buff Bagwell vs Booker T (2001)

Now most of us over the age of 30 know exactly why this is on here. The first ever “WCW match” after WWF won the war. This was a week before Raw was going to be in Atlanta, so the match was set up to fail. Everyone with eyes knows that, the same was WCW were generally made to look clownish or like less than during the “Invasion” angle. The crowd ate this match alive, you think tribalism is bad now? At this point Pro Wrestling was a more pop culturally accepted thing for most people to enjoy or have a working knowledge of. Bandwagoners and lifers were riding high of the victory, the same as any other sports or sport adjacent entertainment avenue. Steve Austin and Kurt Angle were sent out to pop the crowd and beat up the “WCW guys”. This was Buff’s first and last match on WWF television.

• WWF SmackDown: WWF Tag Team Titles: Billy & Chuck (c) vs Edge & Hulk Hogan (2002)

This is more on here for the somewhat surprising history it holds. Yes, this was the taped era of SmackDown, so this is the taped date. Since the show went on air for 4th of July, it makes the moment a little more poignant. Edge and Hulk Hogan won the match, and this was a moment for Edge since he stated he idolized Hogan growing up (like most people around his age), but the surprise…this is Hulk Hogan’s ONLY reign as Tag Team champion. And that’s across everywhere, he never won tag team titles anywhere before this. While he’s a 12 time World champion and a few other regional and tournament singles championships…his only Tag title was also the last championship he won in his career.

• NJPW G1 Special: Inaugural IWGP United States Championship: Kenny Omega vs Tomohiro Ishii (2017)

While people who watched this two day tournament were more in Ishii’s corner than you may think, after his spot where he literally bit the ropes to block a Dragon Suplex off the apron. Omega winning the United States title just solidified his rise as the one who would eventually unseat Okada. Omega won the 2016 G1, which led to his loss at WK in 2017, then he had the draw against Okada the month prior to this. So following up his historic moment as being the first foreigner to win the G1, the only person to take Okada the distance and not outright lose…this felt like a harbinger. And boy was it.

• GFW/Impact Slammiversary (2017)

This was a unification carnival of a show. With the GFW invasion/merger, Jarrett’s new company was looking to rebrand and unify all the titles. This also had that surprisingly fantastic DeAngelo Williams performance with Moose versus Chris Adonis & Eli Drake. But Sienna ended up defeating Rosemary and unifying the Women’s Championships as a win for GFW. Santana & Ortiz were already the double champions after beating the Veterans of War, so they defended in a 4 way featuring a NOAH tag team of Naomichi Marufuji and Taiji Ishimori, but Santana & Ortiz retained. Then the World/Global unification match between Alberto el Patron and Bobby Lashley. While people didn’t like the finish, it was a solid match. Patron won, officially cementing the rebrand to GFW with all of the major titles being unified under the GFW representative. Weird time for TNA…but you know from like 2015-2018 are kind of the Voldemort years for reasons.

• WWE Money in the Bank (2022)

There’s a few reasons this is on the list today. Officially, this is the last Vince McMahon PPV before his “retirement”. But aside from the spectre of Vince hanging over the show, the show itself had some memorable moments. Liv Morgan had a fantastic cash in when she won the Women’s MITB match to kick off the show, and then cashed in on Ronda Rousey, who had very much so worn out her welcome to the WWE fans at this point. Liv was beloved, Ronda was detested, so Liv cashing in successfully was a huge moment. The tag team titles match between the Street Profits and Usos was something people buzzed about too being a fantastic match that got nearly as much time as the Men’s Money in the Bank match. Speaking of that, after losing the United States title earlier in the show to Bobby Lashley, Vince added Austin Theory to the MITB match since Theory was Vince’s hand picked “chosen one”. Theory won the MITB, to a chorus of boos, but since it ended up being Vince’s last PPV, the way people used the whole “Daddy’s not here to save you anymore”, against Theory did make for some fun television because he’s got a very punchable face, so hating Theory was as easy as breathing.

A couple firsts, a couple lasts and a surprising amount of Invasion overlaps stories. July is just invasion month! Should I be concerned? Should you be concerned? Lock your doors and buy a dog!

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!