Today In Pro Wrestling History: September 17th

A nice mixture of companies again, and even though the oldest thing on this list is older than most fans, its still a very important moment. So let’s see what happens when we go from 1981-2023!

• NWA Kansas Show: NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Dusty Rhodes (c) vs Ric Flair (1981)

The match between Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair, remains one of the most important moments in professional wrestling history because it marked the official beginning of Ric Flair’s legendary run at the top of the industry. By defeating “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes in Kansas City, Flair captured his very first NWA World Heavyweight Championship. This victory transformed Flair from a rising regional star into the touring franchise player of the National Wrestling Alliance, setting up the defining wrestling rivalry of the 1980s between Rhodes’s blue-collar persona and Flair’s arrogant, wealthy villain character. With legendary champion Lou Thesz serving as the special referee to hand Flair the belt, the match acted as a literal passing of the torch that established Flair as the standard-bearer for the sport for the next two decades.

• WWE Unforgiven (2006)

Two pretty big moments occurred during this event. Trish Stratus had her retirement match, challenging Lita for the Women’s Championship. This was compounded being in Toronto, so Trish was obviously the favorite. Surprisingly, Trish won the match with the Canadian classic Sharpshooter, allowing her to retire as a record-breaking (at the time) 7-time champion. Then the main event had a lot of moving pieces and Canadian favoritism as well. John Cena was challenging Edge for the WWE Heavyweight Championship in a TLC match. Also, sometimes forgotten, if Cena lost this match, he’d get traded to SmackDown since this was a Raw exclusive event. Everything was weighted for Edge between match design and home country, but Cena pulled it off. An FU off a ladder through stacked tables, gave Cena the winning moment. This began Cena’s third World title reign, and also his longest at 380 days.

• ROH Death Before Dishonor: Ladder War III: The All Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus) vs The Briscoes (2011)

Ladder War III featured a brutal main event where the All Night Express, defeated the ROH legends of Jay and Mark Briscoe. This high-stakes match was fought to determine the number one contenders for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. Known for its extreme violence and dangerous spots, the battle saw both teams use ladders as weapons all around the Manhattan Center, including a famous moment where the action spilled near the venue’s balcony. Ultimately, King and Titus managed to climb the ladder and retrieve the contract, securing a massive victory over the Briscoes in a classic and memorable ROH match.

• NJPW Destruction in Tokyo: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: KUSHIDA (c) vs BUSHI (2016)

About a week ago, we had the moment where BUSHI solidified his new moment in 2010 against MAZADA in AJPW, allowing him to keep the mask and keep the BUSHI train rolling. It really paid off here because everything was perfect. Los Ingobernables de Japon was the most popular faction, KUSHIDA was considered the ace since 2014, so the fans were getting a little bit of fatigue. BUSHI was the overwhelming fan favorite, and the crowd went crazy when he actually beat KUSHIDA. It was BUSHI’s crowning achievement as a singles wrestler and is still, at this time, his only singles title reign with a Japanese title (all of his previous singles titles were in Mexico or a Mexican title).

• NOAH Naomichi Marufuji Debut 25th Anniversary Show: Will Ospreay vs Naomichi Marufuji (2023)

Now this match happened a little bit before Will Ospreay announced his departure from NJPW, but NJPW and NOAH were in a point of working together with less animosity. Over the years, we’ve seen Ospreay use more and more of the Marufuji offense in NJPW. Kick combinations, the way he throws the Kawada Kicks, the Hook Kick, Shiranui, and other moves over the years. So this was a dream match for Ospreay and honestly, it was a wonderful moment for Marufuji. Marufuji’s slower dynamic style and Ospreay starting to understand how to slow down and add psychology, this was fantastic and even helped to elevate a 43 year old Marufuji to showing flashes of his older moniker “Genius of the Ark”. While Ospreay won the match, it is a moment caught in time worthy of being considered historic and memorable.

Ric Flair’s first World title, BUSHI’s first and currently only Japanese Junior singles title, Trish Stratus going out as a champion, and Will Ospreay getting to tie up with one of his icons before leaving Japan. Ladder War was a great memory for classic ROH fans as well, so I’m glad this is a pretty deep article.