Today in Pro Wrestling History: September 13th

Another article dominated heavily by the bigger North American companies, but we did get an anniversary show to mix things up a little. So while it’s very American television heavy, there’s at least one nugget!

• WCW Fall Brawl (1998)

Well this was the nail in the WarGames coffin for Fall Brawl. This…infamous variant of the classic WarGames saw three teams of three. Team WCW (Roddy Piper, Diamond Dallas Page, The Warrior) vs Team NWO (Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart & Stevie Ray) vs Team Wolfpac (Kevin Nash, Sting & Lex Luger). This was a mess on the basis that WCW changed the rules, allowing for pinfalls to be legal even before “The Match Beyond”, coupled with Warrior’s ridiculous mystical gimmick. Even though it was three teams, it was also every man for himself because whoever picked up the pinfall would win a World title shot. Let’s also couple that with Hulk Hogan literally just walking out at some point. The “Inescapable cage” and Hulk just Nopes the match and bounces. Stevie Ray was the obvious fall guy in a rather stacked match, which also ruined the psychology. And to add to the awful night that was Fall Brawl ’98, this was also the event where British Bulldog got injured because the stupid trap door Warrior had in the ring for his smoke filled idiot gimmick.

• WWE Breaking Point (2009)

This was an interesting one off gimmick event in time. The three of the major matches were held under submission or surrender only rules. Priceless (Ted Dibiase Jr & Cody Rhodes) versus Degeneration X (Shawn and Triple H), was a submissions count anywhere match. Priceless attacked Triple H before the match so they isolated Shawn Michaels and eventually wore him down in a Double Submission Million Dollar Dream + Figure Four. The WWE Champion Randy Orton also defended against John Cena in an I Quit match. Cena won using the handcuffs that Orton introduced against him as leverage for the STF, forcing Orton to quit, giving Cena his 4th reign as WWE Champion but 6th overall with a “World” title. Then of course we can’t forget the Screwjob reborn. Since the show was in Montreal, CM Punk versus The Undertaker, turned into an homage, in the worst ways. While Undertaker initially won with Hell’s Gate, that move was banned so Teddy Long restarted the match. Once Punk locked in the Anaconda Vise, the phantom submission was called and Punk left victorious. If you read this and actively puked, don’t worry, so did most people.

• CMLL 80th Anniversary Show (2013)

This show displayed a terrible booking decision that almost resulted in a legit riot, not just hyperbolic descriptors for an article. Fans were chomping at the bit to see Atlantis vs Ultimo Guerrero in a Lucha de Apuestas match. The heat was building for decades and the 80th anniversary was a significant enough milestone, fans expected the legendary icons to face off. CMLL in their infinite wisdom, decided to do a swerve. During the show they set up a Relevos Suicidas tag match, with the stipulation being, the winning team would face one another in the main event Mask vs Mask. It was Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero vs La Sombra & Volador Jr. The young duo of Sombra and Volador actually defeated the legends…and the crowd erupted in anger screaming “fraud”. Even though La Sombra versus Volador Jr became a great match, the crowd pelted them with food and garbage. This was an outright rejection of two fantastic young luchadors because CMLL played with fire and got burned. La Sombra won the match, forcing Volador Jr to unmask, but the rejection here was a stepping stone towards creating Los Ingobernables…where another rejected future star from Japan made a home and brought the same attitude to NJPW a few years later.

• WWE Monday Night Raw: Big E Cashes In (2021)

There’s actually a fair bit of history with this Cash-In. Big E firstly, bucked the norm by declaring he’d cash in beforehand to raise interest. Then after Bobby Lashley defeated Randy Orton and Big E came out, we saw a lot of firsts. Big E became the first African American winner of the briefcase to cash in and win the WWE Championship. Also it signified the first time the title ever went directly from one black heavyweight champion to another. The victory also gave Big E the distinction of being the 33rd Triple Crown winner in WWE history. Crazy to think how much history was made in a 30 second cash in.

• TNA Victory Road (2024)

This show was a microcosm of what was making people talk about TNA at the time. The crossover with NXT was giving some extra exposure to certain talent and this show was a great display for them. Zachary Wentz defended his X-Division title, after a heartfelt angle against Wes Lee, against former champion Mike Bailey. The match itself turned into a high octane modern wrestling classic, that ranked very highly for many people as must see for Match of the Year lists. Joe Hendry was also riding his viral success wave, defeating a petty heel version of Josh Alexander. The System (Eddie Edwards & Brian Myers) managed to get the tag team titles off of ABC (Ace Austin and Chris Bey). But the final thing of note, stopped Eddie and Myers from causing more damage. In the main event between Nic Nemeth and Moose for the TNA World title, JBL appeared to lay out the System with a few Clothesline from Hell which gave Nic the opportunity he needed to retain the title. What JBL was doing in TNA was a big talking point amongst the IWC.

Now we all knew that WCW was a dumpster fire, but look, CMLL can screw up and make people want to burn down the building as well! So no matter which company you hate, everyone makes bad decisions. Yes…some companies swing and miss more often than others, but you got to take the good with the bad.