Today In Pro Wrestling History: August 7th

Thankfully I lowered my expectations yesterday, so that made me less annoyed at today’s lack of big action. We definitely have a few fun things, and one thing that resonates with me, but nothing crazy. I will say, most of the list is stuff that many of us are fairly aware of because it’s easily accessible. Now let’s get to the history!

• WWF SmackDown (2001)

This show had two title changes a few notable moments. The Brothers of Destruction defeated Chuck Palumbo & Sean O’Haire for the WCW Tag Team Titles. But one of the big things was Kanyon and Diamond Dallas Page defeating the APA for the WWF Tag Titles. Which made them the first “WCW” wrestlers to win the WWF tag titles. Rhyno also Gored Chris Jericho through the original SmackDown Ovaltron, which marked the final show for the original set, since the next week we went to the Fist set.

• NWA/TNA PPV #8: NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ken Shamrock (c) vs Ron Killings (2002)

This show had the first NWA title change during the TNA era. Shamrock’s inaugural title reign came to an end at 49 days when Ron hit his Consequence finish. With the victory, Ron Killings became the first officially recognized African-American NWA World champion. A little crazy to think it took until 2002 for the NWA to officially have a recognized African-American champion, but that definitely adds extra weight historically than just being the first title change in TNA history.

• TNA Hardcore Justice: TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Sting (c) vs Kurt Angle (2011)

This was the era of Joker Sting, because he went crazy knowing what Bischoff and Hogan were all about. So this match was framed as the two biggest names in TNA squaring off for the title with the Immortal story looming in the background. But after a solid 10 minute match, we get a ref bump, and Brian Hebner crashes. Hulk Hogan walks out with a chair, Kurt stops Hulk from hitting Sting, but then Kurt cracks Sting with the chair, hit the Angle Slam, and defeated Sting as Hebner wakes up to make the count. Controversial finish because most people wanted another classic match between two legends, but the Hogan shadow looming over things worked for the overall narrative.

• Hana Kimura Debut Celebration Produce “Hana”: Kyoko Kimura vs Hana Kimura (2016)

While this wasn’t Hana’s first match ever, it was a separately produced event to commemorate her breaking into the business officially. These style of shows are supercards, involving names like Kenoh, Syuri, Mayu Iwatani, VENY & Masaaki Mochizuki. But the beauty in this was historically, it was the first Mother versus Daughter match in Joshi history. While Kyoko won the match, in the following months Hana went on to win her first titles, then freelanced in Stardom to win titles with her mother and create Oedo Tai before Kyoko retired about 6 months after this match.

• WWE Monday Night Raw: Last Man Standing: Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman (2017)

No matter how people felt about Roman or WWE booking at this time, the entire angle of Braun versus Roman has different moments burned into the memory of most fans. Be it the Ambulance flip leading up to this, attempted vehicular homicide and Braun screaming “I’m Not Finish With You”. This match was leading up to a 4-Way for the Universal title at SummerSlam, so the over the top violence helped to keep the momentum moving. While the match was a brutal 20+ minute slugfest, the only negative to the match is that Samoa Joe came out after Roman hit Two Superman Punches and a Spear, to choke out Roman with the Coquina Clutch. Some fans were salty about the finish because the referee stopped the count due to the finish, but complaining about anything like that is ridiculous since we’ve always been told that things like that are “referee’s discretion”. We see plenty of referees do weird things, or ignore obvious things because they have a different tolerance than others. So the match was great and the build worked well at the time to help establish Braun as a monster, but as per usual, tons of fans like to ruin things for themselves.

A decent amount of first time champions, some real dramatic history and a sweet beginning of a career that we all know inevitably ended too soon. I would’ve liked to find an event a little more recent, but as I say a few times, I can only work with what I’m given. Let’s hope tomorrow is easier!