Today In Pro Wrestling History: October 12th

You know why we’re here by now. Let’s see what history happened!

• WWF Superstars: WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair (c) vs Bret Hart (1992)

This was an unprecedented WWF title change for the WrestleMania era. This was filmed for WWF Superstars in Saskatchewan, Canada, and was distributed on Coliseum Home Video instead of on Television or a PPV. So it was a tape exclusive on Smack Em and Whack Em, in April 1993. It was significant because it started to move away from the “Land of the Giants” moniker, which was partially because of the steroid scandal at the time. What also can’t be lost is the fact it was Bret’s first WWF World title, and it lives in their weird little tape exclusive pocket of time.

• TNA Bound for Glory IV (2008)

This show was pretty pivotal for the peak period of TNA. There was a 4 Way Tag Team Monster’s Ball with LAX vs Team 3D vs Matt Morgan & Abyss vs Beer Money Inc with Steve “Mongo” McMichael as the special referee. Jeff Jarrett faced Kurt Angle during the story when Jeff wasn’t really around and Kurt was the new face. But the biggest moment would bring us to the main event. Samoa Joe came in TNA Heavyweight Champion and fought Sting. Kevin Nash was Samoa Joe’s long time on-screen ally, but Nash turned on Joe allowing Sting to with the championship and giving birth to the best TNA Stable, Main Event Mafia.

• ROH Glory By Honor NOLA (2018)

This was a pretty major turning point, primarily because of its high-stakes matches and a bittersweet milestone for the women’s division. The most significant moment of the night belonged to Kelly Klein, who defeated Angelina Love to reclaim the Women of Honor World Championship for a record third time. Unknowingly to fans at the time, this hard-fought victory would become the final match for that specific championship belt before the company retired the title completely later that year. They did bring a women’s championship back, but totally different lineage. PCO won a grueling tournament final against his own teammate to earn a future world title shot, and Rush successfully defended his championship against Silas Young.

• TNA Bound For Glory (2025)

This was really huge for TNA. They marked a TNA record audience of 7,794 at the time, which was a historic marker, not just since the Dixieland days, broke the record in all 23 years. That could’ve been aided by the fact the show had the “One Final Table” Retirement Match between The Dudleys and The Hardy Boyz. The main event also saw the payoff for Mike Santana. He had the momentum and should’ve won a few months prior, but Mike was finally able to overcome Trick Williams, recover the TNA World title from NXT, and have his day in the sun.

While we can say that TNA tripped over that good faith shortly after and then the AMC debut really face planted. But since getting rid of Dreamer, they just had Bound For Glory 2026 yesterday and that was a solid show that gives you reasons to hope.