Today In Pro Wrestling History: August 27th

We start off fast with Attitude Era events and end with some more recent moments. Let’s see where the history lands today!

• WWF SummerSlam (1995)

This was the last PPV before the Monday Night War started, which also played into the debut of Nitro, because this was Lex Luger’s last televised WWF event before his appearance at the Mall of America. As for the show, we have possibly the worst main event of any SummerSlam, the 500 pound garbage bag known as King Mabel, faced Diesel for the WWF Championship. The match was trash, Mabel was trash, his push was trash…everything about this was bad. Bright spots were Barry Horowitz picking up a rare victory, and the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. Even if this ladder match isn’t regarded as highly as the WrestleMania one, it is still a very good match, with clever spots to work around the “no weapons” ruling.

• ECW on TNN: Debut Show (1999)

While most of us are aware that TNN turned out to be a death sentence, at the time it was huge nationwide exposure. Also, the date was important to ECW because it was exactly 5 years after Shane Douglas discarded the NWA World Title and declared ECW to be Extreme. Given the opening of the Dudleyz driving Balls Mahoney through a flaming table, Joey Styles’ very pointed declaration that it isn’t WWF or WCW, it was ECW. They drew a line in the sand, and captured attention by showing off Jerry Lynn and Rob Van Dam. At the time it was seen as potentially something to vault ECW into legitimate competition.

• WWF SummerSlam: TLC WWF Tag Team Titles: Dudley Boyz vs Edge & Christian (c) vs The Hardy Boyz (2000)

This match birthed the TLC match type and influenced the better portion of the current generation of wrestlers. Each team having a specialty in one of the weapons was clever, some of the spots were insane and death defying, and all three were elevated, not only in the WWF tag division, but also in the minds of fans. As can be seen from the current landscape, the Hardyz are still a big draw, Edge and Christian are still a big draw and the Dudleyz just got retired last year by the Hardyz at TNA’s Bound for Glory. Trailblazing and still going strong for the most part…one match made 6 people stars, instantly.

• AJPW 45th Anniversary (2017)

The event took place in Ryogoku Sumo Hall, and was one of the best drawing events during AJPW’s rebuilding and hanging on with 6,550 fans. Utilizing this fact, there were big moments laced throughout the show. Tajiri defended his Junior Heavyweight Title against Ultimo Dragon. Both men are classic rivals, both trained in Mexico initially, before incorporating Japanese puro and making their names in western promotions. Ultimo Dragon defeated Tajiri, to mark his second reign as AJPW Junior Heavyweight champion. Satoshi Kojima was allowed to join the show for the first time in 5 years for a grudge match against Suwama. Strong BJ (Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi) defeated KAI and Naoya Nomura for the All Asia Tag Titles in a great match, but not the best. Before we get to the best match, there was also a Legends match done to commemorate the 45 years. Hiro Saito teamed with Dory Funk Jr against Masanobu Fuchi and The Great Kabuki. This marked one of Dory and Kabuki’s last matches since they were 76 and 69, respectively. The best match was the main event where Shuji Ishikawa was defending the Triple Crown Championship against Kento Miyahara. Shuji shattered Kento’s historic 464 day first reign, so Kento wanted revenge. In a fantastic match, the crowd was rallying behind the young ace, and after nearly 25 minutes, Kento won the Triple Crown back.

• Impact Wrestling Emergence (2023)

This show ended up being a major pivot point in the history of the company. Will Ospreay had a video package hyping up his appearance at Bound for Glory. SANADA, the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion, and former X-Division Champion, returned for the first time in 8 years for a non-title match against Jake Something. This helped to prove the mended bridge between NJPW and TNA/Impact Wrestling after they completely ruined the relationship under Dixie Carter. As for championship history, The Rascalz FINALLY won the Impact Tag Team Titles off of South Wales Subculture. The main event was headlined by the Knockouts, with Deonna Purrazzo enacting her rematch clause against Trinity for the Knockouts World Championship. In a solid match, Trinity defeated Deonna, officially putting down one of the most decorated, technically proficient and dominant Knockouts of TNA history. This defense truly helped to Trinity (aka Naomi) to prove herself and add more value to her brand as a wrestler.

TLC making history, Kento Miyahara back when he was still fresh and people were hopeful for an AJPW resurgence and the groundwork to the TNA brand return. While some of these events were bittersweet or marginally obscure with importance, fans of the companies will hold much of this in their memory…for better or worse.