Today In Pro Wrestling History: September 24th

Some of these days are really like a game of Russian Roulette, I swear. Today was actually pretty easy, but I’m really just in a holding pattern for a struggle bus soon. Anyway though! Enjoy what was found for today!

• WWF Unforgiven (2000)

There’s a ton of memorable moments with this show. Raven’s WWF debut when he hit the Evenflow DDT on Jerry Lawley to help Taz get the win. Stephanie choosing Hunter over Kurt Angle, and the Dusty finish in the fatal 4-way for the WWF Championship. Chris Benoit getting the pinfall on The Undertaker, but the referee missing the foot on the rope, so Mick Foley runs in to restart the match. Benoit got mugged by Kane, Undertaker and The Rock after the restart, then the chaos breaks down, eventually leading to Rock hitting a Rock Bottom on Benoit, and escaping with his title. As for the crowning achievement of the show, the WWF Tag Team Championship Steel Cage Match, between The Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian. Enduring early isolation when Jeff was knocked out of the cage early, the Hardyz fought back, with a slight assist from Lita, they managed to defeat E&C, and started only their second reign as WWF Tag Team champions.

• NWA SuperGirls Volume 2 (2005)

While is was Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling’s show, their partnership with the NWA allowed for more visibility so they used the NWA letters. . The event’s ultimate historical significance lies in its spotlight on a young Irish wrestler named Rebecca Knox, aka Becky Lynch. As the inaugural SuperGirls Champion, Knox anchored the show with a highly memorable, successful title defense against indie icon Cheerleader Melissa. The match solidified Knox’s status as a top tier talent on the North American circuit, especially after a dramatic finish involving outside interference from her manager, Scotty Mac. Beyond the main event, the card featured early career showcases from future legends like Nattie Neidhart, and hard-hitting pioneer LuFisto. By bringing together such an extraordinary collection of future trailblazers long before the mainstream women’s wrestling revolution, this taped event proved that women could headline compelling, athletic, and financially viable independent shows entirely on their own merits.

• TNA No Surrender (2006)

A rather innocuous PPV to have a ton of memorable moments, but here we go. Jim Cornette came out during this event to announce that TNA officially signed Kurt Angle. TNA’s 2006 Match of the Year happened today, Christopher Daniels & AJ Styles defeating LAX (Homicide & Hernandez) for the NWA World Tag Team titles in a tag team Ultimate X Match. There was also a rather unique “Fans Revenge Jumberjack Match” between Samoa Joe and Jeff Jarrett. 18 fans had leather straps and an intent to punish Jarrett. Samoa Joe won, and it went over huge, but definitely somewhat unique. There was also another odd gimmick, Triple Chance Battle Royal for #1 contenders to the NWA World tag titles. Effectively it was a Battle Royal where when one partner was eliminated, they remained at ringside until the other partner was eliminated, because the final two teams would face off in a normal tag, so as long as one member was alive in the match, the eliminated member had a chance to re-enter. The Naturals (Chase Stevens & Andy Douglas) ended up winning, by defeating America’s Most Wanted in the final stretch.

• WWE No Mercy (2017)

From a match quality perspective, the highlight goes to Seth & Dean versus The Bar for Raw Tag Team titles. Seth & Dean retained, but the particularly memorable moment was Cesaro taking the catapult bump in the corner too high and having his front two teeth impacted. This also was the effective passing of the torch moment between John Cena and Roman Reigns since he threw multiple Attitude Adjustments at Roman, including an Avalanche version and Roman still kicked out. The match created the “Sad John Cena” meme that still pops up from time to time. While Cesaro’s teeth and Sad John Cena have places in memories, the last match was definitely something everyone had an opinion about. Enzo defeating Neville for the Cruiserweight title after a Low Blow, set the IWC on fire. While the concept of someone who was the antithesis of a division works in some ways, it kind of backfired on Enzo with the WWE crowd.

• NJPW Destruction In Kobe (2023)

There are two things that many people will probably remember vividly depending on what style of fan you are. Firstly, Yoshinobu Kanemaru’s betrayal. SHO challenged Taichi for his King of Pro Wrestling title in a “Seconds Handcuffed to the Ring” match. Kanemaru was Taichi’s second because they were part of the Just 5 Guys stable, but Kanemaru feigned a leg injury and then spit the Suntory Whiskey in Taichi’s eyes, hit him with the bottle and SHO hit the Shock Arrow for the victory. This did set up for SANADA vs EVIL in a Lumberjack match, but the betrayal hurt a rather interesting faction of just normal guys the fans were enjoying. As for the second moment, it was the main event. Yota Tsuji was fresh off returning from excursion and picked up the pinfall on Ospreay in an undercard 8 man tag on the last day of the G1. So that gave him a shot at Ospreay’s United States Championship (gimmicked as the United Kingdom). This was a wonderful match for Yota and the proof on why New Japan strapped the rocket to him fairly quickly. This has received critical praise from everywhere, and Tsuji may have lost, but it was a star making performance for him. So it wasn’t rain maker shock, but Ospreay got more of a fight than he expected and fans saw the rise of a Young Lion who could take the reins of the company.

See, a nice combination of “Before they were Stars” with the SuperGirls gem, classic Ruthless Aggression moments, classic TNA, memes and a star making performance. All things that are worthy of being memorable.