Today In Pro Wrestling History: July 8th

Another day another debut, gotta love when factions that are beloved appear for the first time! Other then that, we have a few interesting events and title changes. Time to check out the stuff!

• WWF King of the Ring: Don Muraco vs Iron Sheik (1985)

The inaugural King of the Ring, which was just a house show at the time. This was before the concept was fully realized, but it doesn’t stop Muraco from being the first winner. Defeating Junkyard Dog, Les Thorton and Pedro Morales before taking down Sheiky baby. The Magnificent Muraco was still a big draw at the time, even though he didn’t get the now customary “royal push”. Concepts have to start somewhere, right?

• NJPW Turbulence: IWGP Junior Tag Titles: Ryusuke Taguchi & El Samurai (c) vs Gedo & Jado (2006)

Now most people know Gedo only as the Booker of New Japan, but he did have a solid career as a wrestler prior to booking. At this point Gedo & Jado were aligned with Jushin Liger’s heel group known as the CTU (Control Terrorism Unit). With the victory, this would actually go down as Gedo & Jado’s longest tag title reign. This was the end of the first tag title for a young Taguchi, but it also began a fairly illustrious career for him since he is only second behind Rocky Romero for wrestlers with the most reigns and different tag partners. Rocky has 8 reigns with 4 partners, Taguchi has 7 reigns with 4 partners.

• TNA Destination X: TNA World Championship: Bobby Roode (c) vs Austin Aries (2012)

The Option C show! While Austin declared the implementation leading up to the PPV, this was the payoff. After vacating the X Division title, Aries was granted a shot at Bobby Roode and the World Title. This was a great concept because while it positioned the World Title above their unique draw title, it proved that it could be a real conduit to the main event scene. Aries overcame Roode’s cheating to win clean with a Brainbuster, snapping Roode’s 256 day reign, that was the longest reign in TNA until 2023 when Josh Alexander was on his standard bearer run.

• WWE Raw: Wyatt Family Debut (2013)

After weeks of horror movie style vignettes, the Wyatt Family appeared in force by taking out the established monster of a man, Kane. Even if he was removed from the height of his mystique, the visuals of a decorated 7 foot tall beast getting torn apart while Bray rocked in his chair, was unsettling but also sent a solid message. The cult leader display, the violence and the general unsettling presentation helped to make this group feel unique and dangerous. Easily turning into a highlight of this era of WWE.

• MLW Never Say Never (2023)

MLW’s first live event since 2019, as they were re-finding their rhythm as the pandemic was breaking. Jacob Fatu defended the National Openweight title against Calvin Tankman, MLW Featherweight champion Delmi Exo won the wXw Women’s title over Ava Everett in a Winner Takes All Match. Now the big moment here was Alex Kane was being pushed well during the pandemic era as a powerhouse who held the National Openweight title for 229 days. Hammerstone was starting to get fairly close to Fatu’s dominant title reign in days, not super close, but close enough for the conversation to be had (Hammer was at 644 and Fatu’s record in 819). If Hammer could get past Kane, then the record felt like an inevitability. However, a small distraction from Kane’s manager Mr. Thomas, and a Locomotion Cradle segment lead to Kane sinking in the Rear Naked Choke. Hammerstone had no choice but to tap out, and thus began Hammerstone’s descent in MLW.

A few firsts between King of the Ring, Option C, and the Wyatts. The others were fairly big moments for the wrestlers involved and fans in attendance. As I’ve said before, not every day is filled with bangers, but I try to keep it interesting at least!