Today In Pro Wrestling History: September 30th

There’s a few interesting wrinkles today. Debuts, retirements and a few different companies for fans of different styles to hopefully find something to enjoy.

• JWA International Competitions Of The Summer: Antonio Inoki & Giant Baba Debut (1960)

The header kinda says it all. Both Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba debuted in separate singles matches under their birth names Kanji Inoki and Shohei Baba. While Inoki had the longer match, he also had the losing effort, falling to Kintaro Oki in his debut. Baba managed to wrap things up in just over five minutes against Yonetaro Tanaka for his debut. They would be forever tied together, either due to their tag team era known as B-I Canon, holding the NWA International Tag titles 4 times between 1968-1971, their longest reign being 846 days. Then we know that Baba created AJPW and Inoki created NJPW when they left the JWA. While Rikidōzan is the grandfather of puroresu, Baba and Inoki are the ones that traveled the world and expanded the influence to levels where the world can enjoy the craft.

• WWE Monday Night Raw: Intercontinental Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs Kane (2002)

This has two reason that people tend to remember the match, the first reason is the obvious, it was a really good match. Roughly 20 minutes for a televised match is nice, Jericho targeted Kane’s legs and tried to chop down the bigger power wrestler. Kane preserved with a Chokeslam victory, winning the Intercontinental title for the second time. Before the match though, there was a backstage segment which also got a nice pop. Jericho was mocking Kane while Gregory Helms and Terri Runnels were interviewing him. Jericho said that Kane’s chances of winning were “about as real as Terri’s chest”. Kane showed up to scare Jericho, Terri gave Kane a kiss and Kane gives Helms the deadpan line of “Chicks dig the mask”.

• Dragon Gate Storm Gate: Open the Triangle Gate: Blood Generation (CIMA, Jack Evans & BxB Hulk) (c) vs Do FIXER (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito) (2006)

In these earlier days of Dragon Gate, CIMA was the Ace and Blood Generation was a very dominant heel faction but they were in flux here. After losing core members in April, CIMA was rebuilding with more international focus and even utilizing the rising babyface momentum of BxB Hulk. This new version found quick success. While the title was held between different members, over the previous 454 days, Blood Generation held the trios title for 366 of those days. The trios titles were what Blood Generation staked their new identity on, with fast paced and high flying team chemistry. Do FIXER’s victory, over their rival faction, caused the tenuous bonds to break. Jack Evans did work outside of Dragon Gate, Hulk’s rivalry with Shino Takagi turned into a teaming up when Shingo formed New Hazard. So CIMA was left to rebuild, with this match acting as the true final nail, in the Blood Generation coffin.

• PROGRESS Chapter 76: Hello Wembley! (2018)

There’s a mixed bag of history with this event. First off, it represents the absolute peak of “Britwres” because the official attendance of 4,750 at the SSE Arena Wembley, was the largest crowd for British Independent Wrestling in over 30 years. Many of the wrestlers on the card however, were basically in their last hurrah either before heading to NXT/NXT UK or because WWE were starting to tighten the restrictions around working indies. WALTER, Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Pete Dunne, Mark Andrews and Matt Riddle were on this card. Ilja Dragunov was also on this card, but didn’t officially sign with NXT UK until early 2019. The final bit of history will hit some TNA fans. Doug Williams, Atlas Champion at the time, put his career and title on the line against Trent Seven. Trent won, forcing Doug to retire. Now, Doug wanted to retire because of nagging injuries and he was 46 at the time. However, after he had successful neck surgery in 2019, the pandemic gave him time to reflect. So this show was his chosen retirement, but he did have a small return run in NWA from 2021-2023, before knee surgery made him realize retirement was probably the right choice. So many fans will remember the Wembley retirement for being an emotional sendoff for a Britwres legend.

• NXT No Mercy (2023)

The opening graphic was a throwback to the N64 WWE No Mercy game, so that was something that popped the Millennial fandom. But we at least got normal wrestling history moments. Trick Williams wins his first singles gold after defeating Dominik Mysterio for the North American title, capitalizing on Trick’s huge surge in popularity and fan support. One other crowning moment was the match between Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes. This was a Great American Bash rematch, and this time, Ilja defeated Carmelo for the NXT Championship, giving Ilja his first title since his NXT UK title reign.

A nice mixture of debuts, potential retirements, meme worthy phrases and title reigns that give fan favorites title reigns that people felt were well deserved.