Today In Pro Wrestling History: August 9th

Greedy SummerSlam, utilizing most of the back half of the month, leaving me to try and figure out these first few weeks. This is another article with a couple things that really matter, and one or two events to fill out the list since I don’t like super short articles.

• ECW Born to be Wired: ECW Heavyweight Championship No Rope Barbed Wire Match: Terry Funk (c) vs Sabu (1997)

This was the match where Sabu missed “Air Sabu” and gashed himself with some crazy like 10 inch gash down to the muscle. Bill Alfonso ran to the back and grabbed a roll of athletic tape and wrapped Sabu’s arm. The blood soaked through quickly, and became an iconic moment. The finish of the match was an Entanglement before Jada Pinkett Smith. Both men got tangled in the wire, but Sabu managed to position himself to pin Funk and win the match. The ring crew came out and had to cut out the wrestlers, and then Sabu went to the hospital to get a rumored 100-150 stitches.

• WWF Raw is War: Y2J Debut (1999)

The worst kept secret in wrestling history! The countdown that was an homage to all of the Y2K fear and countdowns to the new Millennium ruining all computer systems everywhere! Jericho interrupted The Rock, which immediately shot him into the Main Event, when he was merely a rising mid-carder in WCW. Jericho going from a Cruiserweight afterthought to a main event player was one of the final nails in the War coffin to prove that WWE was superior.

• AAA Triplemania XXIII (2015)

The final two matches are the main reason why this show is remembered…aside from the awful audio and picture issues the production had. Brian Cage faced Alberto del Patron in a Hair vs Hair match. Much to the surprise of WWE fans, Patron was the babyface here. Brian Cage came out in a “Vote Trump for President” shirt, and heeled it up hard. Tirantes was the original referee, and refused to count anything for Alberto. So Alberto knocked out Tirantes, and there was crazy interference from El Hijo del Fantasma. Alberto fought through, eventually using cheap tactics to equalize things hitting Cage with a Low Blow and slamming him into a propped up chair, before locking him in a Submission. The new referee recorded the submission victory for Alberto, and Cage had his head shaved. The main event was a Mexican Dream Match between Rey Mysterio Jr & Mysteziz (aka Sin Cara, aka Caristico, aka Mistico). Trying to re-establish his aura, Mysteziz was in AAA to wash away the failure of Sin Cara. It was a solid match that saw Rey Mysterio win the match by using Mysteziz’s own La Mistica submission against him. After the match, Los Perros del Mal attacked, when Mysterio tried to fight them off, Mysteziz laid out Rey, turning heel. Even going as far as to challenge him to a Mask vs Mask match. The match never came to be because Mysteziz appeared in CMLL a few months later, and the political battle of names and allegiances just forced the possibility to evaporate.

• NJPW Summer Struggle: Vacant NEVER Openweight 6 Man Titles: Yoshi-Hashi, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii vs Kazuchika Okada, SHO & Toru Yano (2020)

This is on here because it was the culmination of a makeshift tournament. Due to EVIL betraying LIJ and joining Bullet Club, the 6 Man Titles were vacated. So the finals ended up being the two CHAOS teams, of a proven trio with history of working together against Kazuchika Okada and two warm bodies. SHO was on the rise in the Junior division, but still not even close to established and Toru Yano is primarily a comedy wrestler at this point. So aside from guaranteeing the belts would go to CHAOS, would Okada be enough to beat a cohesive trio, was the big question. Yoshi-Hashi managed to isolate SHO and lock him in his Butterfly Lock submission. SHO submitted and this marked the first time in Yoshi-Hashi’s 12 year career where he held a title. While it was a big moment for Hashi, it also proved how thin the NJPW roster was to try and push someone who was known as the “Loose Explosion” for a period of time.

• AAW Take No Prisoners: AAW Heavyweight Championship: Ren Jones (c) vs Trevor Lee vs Rafael Quintero (2025)

AAW has been a hotbed for independent wrestling in the last 20 years. This was a super show with a few big names, including a Women’s Title defense from Maggie Lee against her current TNA faction mate Heather Reckless. But the main event, saw a decent bit of interference with Trevor Lee playing heel to end Ren Jones’ 200 day title reign. After Jake Something distracts the referee, Stallion Rodgers wipes out Ren Jones and Trevor Lee hits his Cave-In Stomp to secure the title and become the ninth AAW Triple Crown Champion in company history.

See, even with the seemingly innocuous events, there was some history to be gleaned. YOSHI-HASHI’s first title, Trevor Lee becoming an AAW Triple Crown Champion, Triplemania being a convoluted mess of issues and politics…wait…no that still counts. Either way, some of these may not have been the most shiny of events, but they still qualify.