Today In Pro Wrestling History: August 23rd

A few Japanese events laced in-between WWE history. SummerSlams, Raw fallouts and an inaugural Japanese show with a very beloved wrestler in the main event. Let’s get to it!

• WWF Raw is War: WWF World Championship: Mankind (c) vs Triple H (1999)

Let the shenanigans begin! Mankind had to defend his newly won title against one of his opponents from SummerSlam. But this time, Shane McMahon was the Special Guest Referee, not Jesse Ventura. Between Shane, interference from Chyna and youth being on Triple H’s side for a turn around match, Mankind lost his title after only 1 day and Triple H scored his very first of his 14 World Championship reigns.

• DDT Ryogoku Peter Pan: Ko-D Openweight Championship: Harashima (c) vs Kota Ibushi (2009)

This was the very first Peter Pan for DDT. And in DDT fashion it had a mixture of stupid and solid wrestling. While I’m going to put the emphasis on the Ibushi match, the stupid should be mentioned. Michael Nakazawa’s anal explosion was a legitimate stipulation of the match. Because the match ended in a Draw, fireworks went off in Nakazawa’s ass, so it “blew up”. Ibushi won a number one contender tournament to set this match up. Earlier in the year, The Golden Lovers defeated Harashima and Toru Owashi in a tag match. While Harashima is the most decorated Ko-D champion, Ibushi was a star on the rise. Ibushi gained the nickname of “Street King” because of his penchant for fighting literally anywhere and jumping off of anything. Ibushi won the match after debuting his Phoenix-Plex finisher. This was Ibushi’s first title reign.

• WWE SummerSlam: World Heavyweight Championship TLC Match: Jeff Hardy (c) vs CM Punk (2009)

This was a moral high ground story that sticks with many fans because of the high risk match and the demeaning tone of CM Punk…well…just speaking. Hardy’s notable struggles with drugs and alcohol, facing the Straight Edge and self righteous challenger. Many people remember the Jeff Hardy spot where he climbed a 20 foot ladder and hit his Swanton on CM Punk through the Spanish Announce Table. Medical personnel came out to attend to the scene, but Jeff refused, both he and Punk climbed back into the ring to climb the ladder for the title. They brawled, CM Punk knocked Jeff Hardy off the ladder and won the title. It was CM Punk’s third World Heavyweight title reign.

• Dragon Gate The Gate Of Generation: Open the Dream Gate Championship: Shingo Takagi (c) vs YAMATO (2013)

This match helped to sow seeds for the later turn which created Verserk. Shingo and YAMATO were known as Akatsuki, but because Shingo had more of the early favor, YAMATO was jealous. After finally caving to jealousy, Mad Blankey got involved in the match. YAMATO didn’t do anything to stop them, in fact, joining them. YAMATO defeated Shingo for his second Dream Gate title reign, as Shingo crashed down defeated.

• WWE SummerSlam (2020)

There’s quite a few moments here in this show. Firstly, it was Dominik Mysterio’s in-ring debut. Asuka pulled double duty while Bayley and Sasha were trying to run both women’s divisions via underhanded tactics. Asuka her first match against Bayley because Sasha shoved Bayley out of the way to absorb the attack from Asuka, giving Bayley the chance to roll her up and retain. This set up for the same situation to have in the match against Sasha, but Bayley didn’t take the hit, so Sasha lost her title to Asuka and that started to fracture the best friends team. The Fiend defeated Braun for the Universal Title, giving him his second reign with that title. Then Roman Reigns returned and the Tribal Chief started his heel run with Paul Heyman.

Memorable moments, new champions, crazy spots and a few screw jobs. We have a nice combination plate of things that should resonate with most current fans. At least we didn’t need to dip a toe into the before Reagan era to fill out an article!