Today In Pro Wrestling History: August 24th

A mixed bag of events, and by that I mean, for if they’re positive, negative or bittersweet. It’s a fair amount of WWE Umbrella events, so let’s get to what happened today!

• WCW Clash Of The Champions XXVIII (1994)

Two historic moments for this event. This event was Ric Flair & Hulk Hogan’s first ever televised singles match in their career. Hogan went in as Champion, and Flair won via Count Out, so Hogan remained champion and this helped to bolster early WCW’s ratings. The second moment is more bittersweet, but it involved Ricky Steamboat facing Steve Austin for the United States title. Steamboat sustained the back injury that would force him into retirement for roughly 15 years. Even though he won the match and the title, the botched bump abruptly ended his in-ring career before the Chris Jericho angle in WWE.

• WWF Brawl for All Tournament (1998)

Most of us are very aware of this moronic tournament. The tournament derailed Steve Williams push because he was surprisingly upset by Bart Gunn. Road Warrior Hawk was also injured during the tournament, and when Bart Gunn defeated Bradshaw in the Finals…no one wanted that or expected that.  Bart was punished at WrestleMania XV being put against Butterbean, who beat him easily. We learned that WWE has no business doing Worked Shoot style tournaments.

• WWE SummerSlam (2003)

We got the first ever WWE United States title defense and only the second ever Elimination Chamber match. While there were no title changes, the moments of Kurt Angle tapping out Brock Lesnar, Goldberg’s Elimination Chamber domination before getting rocked by Triple H’s sledgehammer and Eddie Guerrero utilizing Lie, Cheat and Steal masterfully to escape Chris Benoit, Rhyno and Tajiri with his US title reign in tact were great moments. Also Shane McMahon versus Eric Bischoff is somehow both forgettable and infamous at the same time. It’s like one of those fever dream matches that live in the back of your memory until someone mentions it and you question if it was real.

• NOAH Summer Navigation: GHC Heavyweight Championship: Naomichi Marufuji (c) vs Takeshi Morishima (2014)

While the storyline here was very classic, there’s more weight behind this match. Marufuji was the leader of BRAVE and Moroshima was the leader of Chokibou-Gun (Super Dangerous & Violent Army). The match was a nearly 21 minute brawl with Morishima brutalizing Marufuji and the babyface fighting from underneath. In a flurry, Marufuji hits his comeback and manages to win the match with his Pole Shift Flowsion. While it was a big win for BRAVE and started to turn the tide in favor of the babyfaces for the angle, this would also mark Takeshi Morishima’s final match for a main title as he would retire 6 months after this due to injuries combined with a diagnosis of diabetes.

• NXT Heatwave (2025)

In an unexpected bit of history, this show was a big moment for TNA Wrestling. Jacy Jayne won the Knockouts Title at Slammiversary, so she was being chased by two Knockouts, and it culminated in a triple threat with Masha Slamovich and ASH by Elegance. In a finish that many didn’t expect since ASH was fka Dana Brooke in WWE, ASH won the match, in turn making history as the first TNA Knockout to win the title on an NXT event, and being the home brand wrestler to return the belt back to TNA. The main event of the show was also memorable given the fact that Je’Von Evans and Oba Femi had history. The match itself was pretty good, but we also got a Dusty Finish. A ref bump took out the first ref, so when Evans hit his Double Jump Cutter, the second referee counted the pinfall. But the first ref recovered enough to see that Oba’s foot was under the rope, which breaks the pinfall. So the decision was reversed, and the deliberation time gave Oba the recovery space he needed so he destroyed Je’Von through the table and Fall From Grace meant that Oba retained.

TNA history on an NXT Show and a Dusty Finish actually executed well…those definitely weren’t on 2025 BINGO cards. Also weird to think how many beloved wrestlers sustained odd injuries in 1994 that derailed their careers. Still though, I think it was a fairly historic article even if some of the events weren’t really sexy.