Today In Pro Wrestling History: October 10th

A little shorter today because I’m not feeling too hot, but not too short, just didn’t dig as much. Let’s get to it!

• WWE SmackDown: WWE United States Championship: Mr Kennedy (c) vs Chris Benoit (2006)

This will go down as Chris Benoit’s final US Title reign. Mr Kennedy was looking for a trade to Raw because no one was left on SmackDown, so a returning Chris Benoit made him eat his words. This title reign would be Benoit’s final reign with any belt in WWE, and oddly enough, his longest at 222 days. While he held the WWF Light Heavyweight Belt for 560 days as Pegasus Kid, those matches were in the UWA and not WWE.

• TNA Bound For Glory (2010)

Many may remember the 10.10.10 graphics and “They’re Here” like it’s Poltergeist all over again. But instead of Native Burial Ground, it was Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff showing up in TNA. The Immortal faction got created, and in the main event between Kurt Angle, Mr Anderson and Jeff Hardy, Jeff turned Hell and won the World Heavyweight Championship. Unleashing the Antichrist, being gifted the horrendous Antichrist Custom belt a month later. Some may consider this the calm before the storm, but it depends on where you exactly rank low periods for TNA.

• NJPW King Of Pro Wrestling (2016)

This event saw a few things that were memorable, Tiger Mask W (portrayed by Kota Ibushi) made his in-ring debut. W was an anime crossover of the new Tiger Mask at the time, which utilized cameos from NJPW wrestlers in the anime. Guerrillas of Destiny defeated The Briscoes for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team titles and the main event saw the very first defense of Kazuchika Okada’s 720 day title reign. Where he took on Naomichi Marufuji, after Marufuji beat him in the G1. There’s something nearly artistic about the first defense being a cross promotional challenger from NOAH, since during Okada’s reign he was always compared to Kenta Kobashi’s 735 Day GHC Heavyweight Championship run.

• Sukeban London (2024)

I know I mentioned this promotion in an earlier history and this was a significant moment for it, in it’s young existence. Not only for the visual avant-garde appeal, but the cultrual signficance of the 1960s Japanese girl gang motifs, legitimized by Bull Nakano‘s involvement as official commissioner helped it to flourish in America at major hubs like New York City and Los Angeles. This was their first foray internationally, selling out York Hall. The card saw Venomous Veny & Konami take out the Cherrybomb Girls, Unagi Sayaka, Ram Kaicho, Ancham and Rina Yamashita were also in undercard action. But the major draw was the title match for the Sukeban World Title between the champion Commander Nakajima (Arisa Nakajima) versus Sareee-Bomb (Sareee). Sareee’s victory went down as the very first title change in company history for the World Title, ending Nakajima’s 309 day reign.

Okay, an unexpected thread with Mr Anderson/Kennedy in two of the matches. But the start of Okada’s nearly 2 year reign was important for the hype of NJPW and what eventually became AEW, and I just really find the concept of Sukeban interesting.