Today In Pro Wrestling History: August 4th

You know, as soon as I was getting comfortable with SummerSlam expectations to save these days…we get a day with no SummerSlam and not much else. This was one heck of a mental gymnastics routine. So get your pommel horses ready, because this is gonna be elaborate!

• NJPW/WCW Collision In Korea (air date) (1995)

Now most of us know the show took place in April, but as we can see from the title, this was the PPV air date for the west. Collision will forever be historic given that it was the largest live gate in history with 340,000 over the two day event. As for the show, this was a great supercard. Chris Benoit, Yugi Nagata, Masahiro Chono, Bull Nakano, Akira Hokuto, Manami Toyota, Scott Norton and the Steiner Brothers were on the undercard of the show. With the main event being Ric Flair versus Antonio Inoki. Just a historic moment, given that it was in North Korea, with 2 of the biggest stars of the era.

• WCW Nitro: WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) vs Lex Luger (1997)

This was one of the high points for Lex in the big WCW era. Hulk Hogan was on his 359 day reign, so nearly a year of NWO and Hogan dominance. The match was pretty solid, Luger fought off the Outsiders and Randy Savage to finally grab Hogan and lock in the Torture Rack. Hogan submitted and the entire WCW locker room came out to carry Luger on their shoulders for overcoming the great evil of NWO. It was sadly a very short lived title reign, but the match was pretty good and the moment was iconic.

• OVW Summerblast (2000)

Now we get into the mental gymnastics portion of the list. At least this was a fairly notable card given who was utilized. We had matches with Crash Holly, Damaja, Big Bossman, Mark Henry and Rob Conway. The OVW Southern Tag titles changed hands when The Disciples of Synn (Damien & Slash) defeated BJ Payne & Scotty Sabre. Disciples of Synn are notable for being the stable that housed Kevin Throne (Seven), Tyson Tomko (Bane) and Batista (Leviathan). The main event saw Nick Dinsmore (aka Eugene) secure his 6th reign as the OVW Heavyweight Champion by defeating Flash Flanagan.

• PROGRESS Coast To Coast Tour (2018)

This would mark the beginning of Progress’ first coast to coast American tour and the first show they ever ran in the 2300 Arena. They also utilized their partnership with Evolve to help fill out cards across the country without having to fly out an entire promotion. Some very important names in the current landscape of wrestling were on this show. Mark Haskins, Flash Morgan Webster, Jordynne Grace, Toni Storm, Austin Theory, Pete Dunne, Shane Strickland & Moustache Mountain to name a few. But the best match was between CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos) vs Grizzled Young Veterans for the Progress Tag Team titles. The match broke GYVs 160 day title reign and caused a whole story of friction between Drake and Gibson for the remainder of the tour.

• NOAH Departure (2019)

This was a dire time for Pro Wrestling NOAH. They were very literally on the verge of full collapse and bankruptcy. Between the abrupt passing of Misawa in 2009, the Yakuza scandal of 2011 and Suzuki-Gun/NJPW treating NOAH as garbage during their “cross-promotion” in the preceding years, the brand of NOAH didn’t carry the same prestige it once did. In a move dubbed “The Last Voyage”, Lidet Entertainment purchased a 75% stake in NOAH to try and keep it afloat and modernize the look. The irony of the strife, is that this period in time has some of the best wrestling and factions of the modern era. RATEL’S were a fan favorite Junior Stable of cool younger wrestlers with attitude, AXIZ was Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki’s fantastic tag team. This show, showcased the aforementioned talent, going as far as HAYATA, who won the Jr Tournament and a member of RATEL’S, defeated Minoru Tanaka for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. The main event, embodied the remnants of Misawa’s closest proteges. Naomichi Marufuji faced off with Kotaro Suzuki. While they are considered Misawa’s top two “children”, Marufuji never abandoned ship, while Suzuki played the career of Prodigal Son. This would be their first singles match in about 17 years. In what felt like a 20 minute love letter to Misawa and to the dying light of NOAH, there were tons of moves and homages pulled off by both men, after an exhausted flurry, Marufuji connected with Ko-OH into a Tiger Flowsion…but Suzuki wouldn’t stay down. So Marufuji went into the Misawa bag of tricks one more time, and won the match with an Emerald Flowsion. Not for a belt, not for a tournament, but for hope to keep Misawa’s legacy alive.

Now Collision in Korea is definitely historic and I would like to think that Progress’ first American tour counts as well. Lex Luger’s title win was a huge moment and memorable for WCW fans and the NOAH timeline was very high risk because we nearly lost a promotion that was so beloved the first 10 years, it could compete at the same level with AJPW and NJPW who had 40 years of history keeping them afloat. The OVW one…ya that’s the stretch, 100 percent. But we know I detest having to use birthdays as fill in the blank moments, so it’s better than nothing.