Today In Pro Wrestling History: August 6th

Okay, I have learned my lesson. I’m not gonna get my hopes up after one or two really stacked days anymore, because this article was like pulling teeth at gunpoint. I had to go old and a little obscure for most of this. I mean…there’s a Tyrus match in here, so…yeah…it’s a light day.

• AJPW Summer Action Series: 2 Out of 3 Falls: Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta & Rocky Hata vs Pompero Firpo, Ernie Ladd & Bruiser Brody (1980)

This was definitely an 80s Supercard with a lot of names that people are aware of. Prince Tonga (Haku), Atsushi Onita and David Sammartino for just a few. So the main event had a few of the major home country stars and devastating gaijin powerhouses. The first fall was fairly quick in because it was a disqualification on the gaijin team. In a slightly surprising second fall, Rocky Hata got the fall on Pompero Firpo. It was a little surprising because Hata was only a few years removed from excursion, and never really moved beyond the midcard.

• SMW Fire on the Mountain: Tammy’s Hair vs Ricky’s Hair SMW Tag Team Title Match: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express (c) vs Brian Clark & Chris Candido w/Tammy Fytch (1994)

The set up was memorable for Smokey Mountain fans since Tammy used hair spray on the television events to blind Ricky and then took scissors to his hair to take chunks out of his signature mullet. Enraged, Cornette booked the title match with the hair twist, and Tammy made sure her teamed signed it quickly without reading the fine print. Tammy thought it was the wrestler’s hair on the line, but Cornette’s twist was Morton’s hair vs Tammy’s hair. The match played out in a classic 80s wrasslin kind of way, even though it was 1994. The heels shortcut and cheated, Tammy distracted the referee and the Express tried to rally from underneath and threw isolation tactics. The heels won, and the Express lost the titles, but as the crowd was irate that the cheaters won, there was a post-match brawl where the Express grabbed Candido, and while Tammy escaped being punished, Candido got his head shaved to satisfy the bloodthirsty crowd.

• WWF Monday Night Raw: WWF Light Heavyweight Championship: X-Pac (c) vs Tajiri (2001)

Reasoning here is very easy, Taijiri defeated X-Pac to win his very first title in WWF. It helped to validate him to the WWF audience after coming over from ECW, and Japan of course, but people were more aware of ECW in the 90s and early 00s. This really helped for Tajiri to be a main stay in the Cruiser/US mid card section of the Invasion era WWF roster. Which nowadays may sound like an insult, but shows need a balanced card, everyone can’t be main eventer, and Tajiri really came into his own.

• NWA Powerrr: NWA Television Title: The Pope (c) vs Tyrus w/Austin Idol (2021)

This was a decent long established story where Pope’s defenses were going to time, and he was avoiding giving Tyrus the title shot. Pope was one defense away from the Lucky 7 rule to get a World title shot, and Tyrus was being billed as a devastating force that was a real threat to Pope. With all of the shenanigans, and time-limit draws, the stipulation for this match was a no time limit match. So Pope either gets a legit defense for the Lucky 7 or Tyrus gets the title and starts his push. Pope actually had a visible pinfall on Tyrus, but Idol’s interference caused the pinfall to not get counted. So after that interference, Tyrus had an opening to hit the Heart Punch, and defeat Pope, This then lead to huge push and run for Tyrus which killed their momentum and made most of the IWC tune out, but negative history is still history.

• Battleground Championship Wrestling Turn Up The Heat (2022)

Another indie Supercard where we saw a lot of big players currently like; KC Navarro, Brian Cage, Rich Swann, VSK, Willie Mack, Ray Jaz, Facade & Dani Mo. The two most interesting matches on the show were the legends tag team match of Atsushi Onita & FMW Leatherface vs Bully Ray & PCO. Given the fact the event was in the 2300 Arena, hardcore legends and an ECW original helped to sell the card to the Philadelphia crowd. We also had an interesting during Ken Shamrock’s few years of return to wrestling, Sins of the Father match, against Harry Smith. It was barely 7 1/2 minutes, but it was a hard fought burst. Shamrock ended up grabbing in the Ankle Lock and Harry couldn’t find a way out of it, so it still made Shamrock look like a beast, and he was still in tremendous shape for anyone who thinks it was a younger wrestler being fed to a washed up legend.

It’s interesting to see two events, 42 years between…and they bookend the article with Atsushi Onita inclusion. Did I need to fill a lot of time with Supercards and random stuff? Yes. But surprisingly the events still played into larger stories or had memorable ramifications for the company. So it’s not a flashy article, but it kind of still applies.