Today In Pro Wrestling History: September 3rd

Hold on while I stretch, the mental gymnastics were a little strong in this one. For as many things that happened today, not a whole heck of a lot could be described as something that will forever be burned into the memory banks. So time to check out my floor routine!

• NWA WCW Live at the Omni: World Television Championship NoDQ Match: Sting vs The Great Muta (1989)

This was the rematch of The Great American Bash, where the match ended in the classic, two referees count the pinfall for each competitor so there’s controversy. The Television title was vacated and this was to resolve the double pinfall. Utilizing the chaos of his Manager Gary Hart and taking advantage of the NoDQ rules, Muta won the match with the help of his trusty Poison Mist and a blackjack.

• CMLL 77th Anniversary Show (2010)

The primary focus of this show is the insane 14 Man Steel Cage Lucha de Apuestas match. As most of us are aware since there’s been escape the cage Mask or Hair wager matches in the history before from Dragon Gate, CMLL and AAA, this is an insane scramble. The first 12 to escape the cage are officially safe and the last two must fight in a traditional singles match, where the loser is the overall loser and in this case, must unmask. Our lucky twelve were:  Místico, Volador Jr, Averno, Mephisto, Ephesto, Jushin Thunder Liger, Último Guerrero, Atlantis, Mr. Niebla, El Alebrije, Histeria and Psicosis. Which left La Sombra (aka Andrade) to face off with Olimpico. La Sombra won the match, which this was a huge feather in the cap and helped to catapult his popularity in Mexico. Olimpico was unmasked and forced to reveal his real name of Joel Bernal Galicia.

• WWE Raw: Raw Tag Team Titles: B-Team (c) vs McIntyre & Ziggler (2018)

For as much flack as I, and many others give the 2017-2019 years of WWE, McIntyre’s return was handled fairly well and the B-Team were a fun comedy act. But with McIntyre showing more of an aggressive side to his personality since returning to the main roster, this was the perfect way to make him look like a real returning threat, and keep the B-Team comedically sympathetic. This marked McIntyre’s first main roster title since returning, and quickly added more legitimacy to the angle that was going on against the reunited Shield at the time. This would however mark the end of the B-Team’s one and only Cinderella run with the belts, holding them for 50 days.

• WWE Clash At The Castle (2022)

This marked the WWE’s first event in the UK since SummerSlam 1992. From an IWC critical perspective, this will be remembered for the Intercontinental Match between Gunther and Sheamus since it is highly rated across many outlets and even received 5 Stars from a certain someone who’s opinion is taken too seriously. But top to bottom, the card was filled with great matches, the crowd had great energy and we even got two major things still paying off. Dominik Mysterio officially turned heel. After Edge and Rey defeated the Judgement Day, Dom hit a low blow and joined the Judgement Day on the following Raw. We also saw Solo Sikoa’s debut during the main event between Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre. Solo helped Roman retain, and the Bloodline kept growing.

• MLW Fury Road (2023)

With this event, it began their FITE+ and New Japan cross-promotional era. Alex Kane made his first title defense against Willie Mack, successfully retaining the MLW World title. Matt Cardona made his MLW debut defeating Mance Warner. Maki Itoh defeated B3CCA in a battle of the wannabe popstars, to earn a future shot at the MLW Featherweight Championship, which was held by Delmi Exo at the time. Salina de La Renta made a surprising return to MLW claiming that she was back to dominate, returning Promociones Dorado to the forefront. Lastly, we saw Ricky Shane Page defeat Jacob Fatu for the National Openweight Title in a Weapons of Mass Destruction Match. This would mark the last title Fatu held in MLW since he would be on his way out in a few months.

So yes – yes – yes, a little on the Stretch Armstrong side of the game for what qualified, but at least most of it was interesting. I just really think birthdays is low hanging fruit since Google and Wikipedia exist, so it adds nothing more than those mediums do. I make my life more difficult than it has to be, I’m aware. Hopefully something today clicked in your memory banks!