Today In Pro Wrestling History: September 7th

Well, it’s not what I would call a deep mix of promotions, but it’s definitely a weird blend. Dominated by WWE events, I don’t think anyone had the other companies on their BINGO card for being involved in a history article together. Let’s get to it!

• WWF King of the Ring (1991)

This would go down as the final untelevised King of the Ring event. Since WWF was in the midst of their New Generation pushes, Bret Hart faced Irwin R. Schyster in the finals. Bret won the King of the Ring via Roll-Up, and also lead to his own bit of history. Because of the low sales and PR nightmare of 1992, there was no King of the Ring in ’92. So when they debuted the 1993 King of Ring PPV, Bret Hart became the only two time winner and technically, the only back to back winner.

• WWF In Your House 17: Ground Zero (1997)

While The Headbangers won a 4-Way Tag Elimination Match for the WWF Tag Team Titles over Owen & Bulldog, The Godwins and The Legion of Doom, the main event holds a most of the weight here. This event also had the very first singles match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker. The match itself would end in a No Contest, but it set the stage for Badd Blood 1997 and a certain few WrestleMania matches that people hold dear. Also cute notes here, it was the final event that used the Suburban Home Entrance and the first In Your House to go 3 hours.

• HUSTLE House Vol. 20: The debut of KUSHIDA (2006)

Now many of us know that KUSHIDA spent time in Mexico after his MMA days, training under El Oriental (actual masked gimmick name, not a slur). Even if it is mentioned that he wrestled early matches in Aztec Budokan under the name of Yujiro, information for those matches is sparse to non-existent. So when he returned to Japan, Kushida passed an open audition and Tajiri instantly took a liking to him. This show would mark his first match under the KUSHIDA moniker, teaming with Tajiri against Red & Blue Onigumo. KUSHIDA was a rising star and quickly became a fan favorite being dubbed “HUSTLE Supernova”.

• WWE Unforgiven (2008)

This was the “Championship Scramble” show, for better or for worse. Matt Hardy defeated Mark Henry, Finlay, The Miz and Chavo Guerrero for the ECW Championship. Triple H managed to retain his WWE Championship over Brian Kendrick, MVP, Jeff Hardy and Shelton Benjamin. Lastly, after CM Punk was attacked in the back, the World Heavyweight Championship scramble was changed to having Chris Jericho in it, and vacating the title. Chris Jericho ended up winning the World Heavyweight scramble over Kane, JBL, Rey Mysterio and Batista. This marked Jericho’s first reign as World Heavyweight Champion.

• XPW Symphony Of Destruction (2024)

I’m a sucker for Megadeth references, so the name of this show stuck out more to me than the card. But XPW is an interesting concept where they had stand up comedians like Earl Skakel and TV personality Kat Martini at the event, mixed in with the hardcore wrestling aspect. Mickie Knuckles successfully defended her XPW Women’s title against Reyna Maya. In an inaugural championship match for the XPW West Coast Heavyweight Championship, we saw the return of Necro Butcher against Bad Dude Tito. Tito beat the hell out of Necro for most of the 12 minutes, until Necro managed to choke out Tito and become the first ever champion. The title went inactive shortly thereafter, because of financial issues. XPW has come under new ownership, so it’s back, but it’s gone in and out of different hiatus moments.

Another article with a slight stretch here or there, but most of the events matter. I just figured a fairly recent Necro Butcher event was a feel good moment, especially with more people being aware of some of Necro’s struggles after Dark Side.