Today In Pro Wrestling History: July 5th

While this article doesn’t contain anything for WWE only fans, there’s still plenty of names that most modern wrestling fans should be aware of. I can only utilize events that happened on this day, so if your favorite company isn’t around, yell at them to spread out their shows better.

• WCW Great American Bash Tour at the Omni: WCW World Tag Team Titles: The Steiner Brothers (c) vs Miracle Violence Connection (1992)

Now the major point is the tags, but I didn’t want to miss the chance to mention Brad Armstrong defeated Scotty Flamingo (Raven) for the Light Heavyweight title on this same show. Random Scotty Flamingo facts amuses me. But back to the main dish, the Steiners and MVC collided a lot the last month or so. Prime stiff wrasslin style of tag team wrestling was what these teams brought to the table. And in this situation, the Miracle Violence Connection ended up getting the best of things and taking the titles off the Steiners.

• AAA Triplemanía VIII (2000)

This was only the second Triplemania outside of Mexico, but the first one ever in Japan. While there was no epic Lucha de Apuestas match or emotional journey, this was more of a star studded crossover event. Heavy Metal teamed with Tiger Mask IV, there was a Four Corners Elimination Trios match with names like Naomichi Marufuji, Psicosis, Perro Aguayo Jr and Espiritu. The main event was an Atomoicos match with Hector Garza, Octagon, Latin Lover & Jushin Liger versus Cibernetico, Abismo Negro, CIMA & Electroshock. So it was a nice cross over with some established New Japan names, NOAH and future of Dragon Gate when they rebranded from Toryumon.

• NJPW New Japan Soul: IWGP Junior Tag Titles: Motor City Machine Guns (c) vs Apollo 55 (2009)

For the uninitiated, Apollo 55 is Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi. This was during the good years of TNA and NJPW getting along. MCMG took the Junior titles off of No Limit and were defending it on TNA television. Apollo 55 had an earlier title shot, but they were too fresh of a team and didn’t know how to wrestle together. This match was the Apollo 55 coming out party, a 21 minute tag team classic that holds up against anything at present and anything in the past. Apollo 55 winning was a feel good moment for the Japanese crowd and their first tag titles reign. A tremendous moment between two teams that helped to define the modern style of wrestling.

• NJPW Dominion (2015)

This was the culmination of a few things that would help mold NJPW for the next decade. This was their first show in Osaka-Jo Hall in 21 years and they sold it out. Tetsuya Naito began the Los Ingobernables de Japon attitude when he refused to help Tomoaki Honma in a mid card random tag match. While it wasn’t the official debut, the change was evident in the Stardust Genius, and this set the gears in motion. But the big draw from a wrestling perspective was Kazuchika Okada looking to avenge his Wrestle Kingdom loss to AJ Styles. While it wasn’t a pure wrestling classic because Bullet Club still polluted the first few minutes, we all know it was a great match given the participants. The counter wrestling towards the finish was fantastic, and with Okada winning the match and becoming heavyweight champion again, it kept The Rainmaker well positioned as the new Ace.

• Impact Wrestling: Final Deletion (2016)

What is regarded as the first ever cinematic match, we had the face off of Broken Matt versus Jeff Hardy at the Hardy Compound. This match put TNA/Impact’s name on people’s tongue for the first time in years. While the initial reception was confused and mixed, mostly because Impact was in obscurity, so what lead to this was relatively unknown and the cinematic overly scripted and reshot aspect had people curious if this helped or hurt the suspension of disbelief with people already knowing wrestling was scripted. As we know, it began a renaissance for the Hardys. Broke, Woke, Rejuvenated, or any and all in between, has been helping the Hardys stay relevant this last decade and surprisingly also became the blueprint for how wrestling evolved during the Pandemic.

• MLP Resurrection (2025)

So most people know that Scott D’Amore decided to become the spiritual successor to Maple Leaf Wrestling, by creating Maple Leap Pro-Wrestling in August 2024. This show was the first show in Montreal and an ambitious swing utilizing a lot of international talent. The Good Brothers defeated the Bullet Club War Dogs, Gisele Shaw retained her MLP Women’s Championship over Shotzi Blackheart, Thom Lattimer defended the NWA World Title against Matt Cardona successfully and Josh Alexander also defended his MLP Canadian Championship against Ace Austin. So this was a supercard of TNA, NJPW, AEW and NWA talent. The main event was Montreal’s own French Canadian Frankenstein PCO vs Dan Maff in a House of Pain match with Billy Gunn as the special guest referee. While titles didn’t change hands, it was still a fairly big Supercard for the first event in Montreal with the hometown guy going over. So it was definitely memorable, especially if you speak French.

A few supercards, two events with my top two tag teams of all time and the innovative but initially confusing Final Deletion. Kind of an odd list of shows, but kinda expected when you involve the cinematic Hardys stuff.