Today In Pro Wrestling History: September 11th

Okay yes, everyone in America and most people across the world knows what happened today. But there will be plenty of acknowledgement elsewhere. People enjoy hobbies to escape from reality, so I decided we’ll just focus on wrestling things for this article. So let’s see what happened in wrestling today!

• WWF vs WCW Monday Night War Begins (1995)

WCW debuted the week before, but WWF was preempted by the US Tennis Open, so it took a week before head-to-head competition began. This also kicked off Eric Bischoff’s taking shots at the fact that WWF was taped and told people Michaels would in by Superkick on Raw. Even though Raw still beat Nitro, it was by a slim margin (2.5 for Raw vs 2.4 for Nitro). WCW’s main event was Hulk Hogan vs Lex Luger, where Dungeon of Doom turned it into a No Contest, where WWF’s main event was Shawn Michaels defeating Sycho Sid. Until the Outsiders appeared, Nitro and Raw traded weekly wins even with WCW spoiling finishes on occasion. WWF wouldn’t change their Live/Tape schedule until 1997.

• ROH Glory by Honor IX: ROH World Championship NoDQ Match: Tyler Black (c) vs Roderick Strong (2010)

This had a few layers to it. Terry Funk was the Special Enforcer for the match, Truth Martini was Strong’s manager during this chase, but this was Tyler Black’s last ROH match. The fans completely turned on him. Unlike the “Summer of Punk” where it was appreciation and all love, the fans chanted “Future Jobber”, “Sell Out” and “NXT” at Black the entire time. To his credit, Tyler played into the hatred, refusing the Code of Honor and being a general jackass. After the ref bump, Tyler takes advantage of the situation, hits Roddy with Martini’s Book of Truth, then God’s Last Gift…but Roddy kicked out while Terry Funk was now the acting referee. Tyler went up for a Phoenix Splash, but completely missed. Roddy hit him with a flurry of moves ending with a Sick Kick, and Roddy finally snatched the ROH World Championship!

• TNA No Surrender: X-Division Championship: Brian Kendrick (c) vs Austin Aries (2011)

This was the match that really solidified Aries as a major player for the foreseeable future. A solid match that subverted the X-Division expectations by being heavily mat-based. But Aries eventual win laid the foundation for so much. This was his first X-Division Championship reign, also historically the longest reign at 298 days (recently tied by Leon Slater, but never broken). Also, unlike many, he chose to end his historic reign by creating Option C. No one beat Aries for the title in his first reign, he vacated it willing by bringing Option C to TNA. So a record that still stands today and a gimmick that has become a TNA staple, are all tied to Austin Aries and this match.

• WWE Backlash (2016)

There were two pretty important moments here, so it would be wrong to focus on the one I just like more. In a six pack elimination match, Becky Lynch defeated Nikki Bella, Alexa Bliss, Natalya, Naomi and Carmella, to become the Inaugural Smackdown Women’s Champion. This was highly significant because it was Becky’s first WWE title in her career. She was very often seen as the underdog of the Four Horsewomen (a decade changes perspective a lot, doesn’t it?), so this was a huge victory to help build her up as a pillar of the women’s division. The other important moment was the WWE Championship match, Dean Ambrose defending against AJ Styles. This goes down as historic since AJ Styles won the match, it was his first reign as WWE Champion. With this victory he also became the first person to ever hold the TNA World Championship, IWGP Heavyweight Championship and WWE Championship in history. No, Kurt Angle did NOT complete this as well, because the IWGP belt he won, was no longer recognized by New Japan as the main title and was called the “3rd Belt” to signify it was the 3rd Generation Belt because Brock Lesnar refused to defend it and was officially stripped, even though the IGF recognized it as their title.

• STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix (2022)

On this event we got a bunch of important moments. Regarding the 5 Star Grand Prix, Suzu Suzuki had an interesting story because she tested positive for Covid right as the tournament was starting. But instead of forcing her to forfeit, there were enough dates and time to just reschedule and backload her matches. Suzu fought against Saya Kamitani, the reigning Wonder of Stardom Champion, and it was still during Saya’s babyface era. Suzu was an invading freelancer and Saya was the home ground wrestler. Try as she might, the young Kamitani fell to Suzu as she was on her ferocious ascent back up the leaderboard. The biggest moment for the Grand Prix though, was Giulia versus Mayu Iwatani. Mayu is the Icon of Stardom, and the last remaining of Threedom, while Giulia was being pushed to the moon. Since 5 Star matches are held under a strict 15 minute time limit, this match actually ended in a Draw. Which did wonders to add a bottleneck and sense of tension to the tournament. In non-tournament action we saw Tam Nakano and Natsupoi successfully defend their Goddesses titles against Ami Sourei and MIRAI, continuing the good fortune for the Cosmic Angels. Lastly the trios titles were on the line as well. Oedo Tai (Starlight Kid, Momo Watanabe and Saki Kashima) defeated Stars (Hazuki, Koguma and Hanan), but even in the loss, the current Future of Stardom champion Hanan showed a lot of heart. This was a big moment to prove that Hanan had staying power in the company. I also saved her for last because Hanan is the older sister of Rina, who won the 2026 5 Star, so their family is really establishing themselves as top Stardom stars for the new generation.

A lot of firsts today! First head-to-head for Nitro & Raw, first X-Division reign for Aries, first WWE Championship for AJ Styles and first ROH Championship for Roddy Strong. Ending with Stardom might not have been a first, but there’s quality memorable moments and Saya Kamitani, Hanan, Rina…the current new guard of Stardom all slowly building momentum in the last few years of events. Fun to see how the pieces fit.