Today In Pro Wrestling History: August 21st

This article starts off with easy Western events, two memorable SummerSlams and ends with some interesting Japanese shows to round out the day! Don’t miss your spot like Vickie!

• CWF Tampa Show: NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Harley Race (c) vs Dusty Rhodes (1979)

This was a classic clash between the blue colored hero of the common man, facing off against a more corporate chosen champion. Championship Wrestling from Florida was the stage for Dusty Rhodes to win his very first NWA World Heavyweight Championship. While Dusty’s initial reign only lasted 5 days, he still had 3 title defenses against Harley, Terry Funk and Don Muraco, before dropping the title back to Harley. While it wasn’t the beginning of Dusty’s career, it was a crowning achievement for the “son of a plumber”.

• WWE SummerSlam (2005)

There’s three aspects of this show, that still get talked about. John Cena vs Chris Jericho is often cited as the beginning of the “anti-Cena” surge. Even though Jericho was going on an extended hiatus, the Cena disdain among the crowd was already beginning. Then we’ve got the rubber ball Shawn Michaels match against Hulk Hogan. While the classic generational clash helped to sell to the PPV, Hogan not wanting to do a trilogy and not wanting to really work with Shawn, had Shawn take things into his own hands to make fun of Hogan’s arrogance. Hogan won the match, but as there have been interviews and commentary about it, over the last 20 years, we know that Shawn was the one who looks less immature in the end. Lastly, Dominik Mysterio on a pole match…oh wait, that’s Russo, I mean the Custody Ladder Match. The fact that Dominik still uses the Eddie Guerrero drama in his character, proves the lasting effect this match had. It was fun, it was thrilling and still matters…hard to argue significance.

• WWE SummerSlam: Inaugural Universal Championship Match: Finn Balor vs Seth Rollins (2016)

Finn won a Fatal 4-Way on Raw during his Main Roster debut for this inaugural match, while Seth was handpicked. Finn came out in full Demon paint, and this match was a great match with a bittersweet finish. Many people know the spot, Seth Powerbombing Finn into the guardrail, where his arm went back first and tore his labrum. Finn fought through injury and defeated Seth to become the first ever Universal Champion. Even though he had to vacate the title one night later, the match was pretty great and the moment will be forever etched in the memories of millions of people.

• DDT Wrestle Peter Pan: Ko-D Openweight Championship: Jun Akiyama (c) vs Konosuke Takeshita (2021)

As many may have gathered, the Ko-D title is the one that gets the most possibility to have real matches. Jun Akiyama recently left AJPW to join DDT, and Konosuke was the DDT Ace. So we had the hand picked protege of the Four Pillars, so one of the last active ties to Giant Baba, King’s Road, Misawa and that golden era; defended DDT’s top title against their current Ace. Takeshita won the King of DDT tournament for the second time. Akiyama was on a solid 6 month title reign, and the generational clash was a theme during the pandemic that helped to keep fans invested. After nearly 25 minutes, Takeshita locked in a modified Chicken Wing, and forced Akiyama to tap out. This gave Takeshita his 5th title reign moving into 3rd place historically in total number of title reigns with the belt and 2nd place in total days.

• STARDOM X STARDOM ~ Nagoya Midsummer Encounter (2022)

The two most notable aspects of this show were historical turning points in different ways. The Legend versus Champion aspect of the main event was historic for Joshi reasons. The World of Stardom Champion, Syuri, was in the middle of a dominant reign, when Nanae Takahashi stepped up to challenge. The current champion versus the first champion. Syuri defeated Takahashi in a 25 minute war. Syuri proved that she could hang with the stiffer striking of classic AJW Legends. From less of a match perspective, the second thing of note involved Tam Nakano, Natsupoi and the rest of the Cosmic Angels. Poi and Tam defeated the STARS duo of Hazuki & Koguma to win the Goddesses of Stardom belts. This was important since Mina Shirakawa, Sayaka Unagi and SAKI failed in their chance for the Artists of Stardom belts. The divide made things very clear. Unagi left Stardom shortly after to begin a lucrative freelance career, Mina got sick of being treated as second fiddle so the seeds for Club Venus began to take root. Natsupoi and Tam were on the road to solid pushes and the title change helped to validate Poi’s defection from Donna del Mundo. So even if Cosmic Angels were fan favorites, this event set the stage for the eventual fracturing.

I mean…everything except Finn versus Seth had a measure of generational clashing. Harley and Dusty, while close in age, Harley was established much higher than Dusty at the time. Jun & Konosuke, Syuri & Nanae, Shawn and Hogan…August 21st apparently was a big day for nostalgia.