Today In Pro Wrestling History: October 17th

Well we start off with a match older than some people’s grandparents, but then we end with something from last year. So the history is wide spread, but it’s memorable nonetheless.

• JWA Pro-Wrestling Championship Series: NWA World Heavyweight Championship 2 Out of 3 Falls: Lou Thesz (c) vs Rikidozan (1957)

As many of us know, Rikidozan is progenitor of Japanese puroresu. Inoki and Baba were his star pupils who went on to help puroresu flourish, but without Rikidozan, none of that happens. So when Lou Thesz makes a rare appearance in Japan and wants to face the home country hero, it’s a big deal. Korakuen Stadium was the location, which isn’t an old name it’s the Baseball Stadium that held around 30,000 fans. That was sold out, the really staggering historic figure though, the match scored an 87.0 rating for Japanese Television ratings. That means 87% of people who owned a TV, tuned in to watch (for reference only about 16 million people owned a television in Japan at the time, so that equates to roughly 14 million television viewers). The match ended in a 60 Minute Time Limit Draw, with no pinfalls scored. It is a historical milestone for exactly how much pro wrestling and Rikidozan meant to Japanese people.

• WWF No Mercy (1999)

There’s a few moments here, first off, Fabulous Moolah defeating Ivory for the Women’s Championship made her the oldest champion in pro wrestling history (at the time, she was later dethroned by Pat Patterson winning the 24/7 title in 2019). The Hardy Boyz won the first ever Tag Team Ladder Match against Edge & Christian, in which they won the services of Terri Runnels. And the biggest moment, Chyna defeated Jeff Jarrett in a Good Housekeeping match for the Intercontinental Championship. Making her the first and currently only woman to hold a prestigious men’s title in WWF/E.

• STARDOM True Fight (2017)

Now we have two totally different historical elements here. First, Queens Quest vs Oedo Tai, singles matches. The Ultimate Bragging Rights gauntlet. Kris Wolf defeated AZM in the first singles, which is notable because the post match beatdown brought the surprise return of Momo Watanabe, who was out for 10 months because of an ACL injury and a foundational member of Queens Quest. Second match was Io Shirai vs Hana Kimura. Hana has only been a wrestler for a little over a year, so Io won this relatively easily. The tie breaker was Hazuki (going by HZK at the time) against Kagetsu. Kagetsu defeating Hazuki and the reign of Oedo Tai terror really kicked off in Stardom. Our second match was the main event. Yoko Bito, defends her Wonder of Stardom title against, Takumi Iroha. This was during Yoko’s brief return, that we’ve touched on in previous history articles. Iroha was an outside from Marvelous, who won the right to challenge by beating Yoko in the 5 Star Grand Prix. This was a fantastic match with solid pacing and a few hold your breath moments. But it ended in a 30 minute Time Limit Draw. It did showcase that Stardom was more than just pretty faces, because this was one of the stiffer Joshi matches in the modern era.

• WWE Friday Night SmackDown: United States Championship: Sami Zayn (c) vs Ilja Dragunov (2025)

This is still recent enough for many to know why it’s on here, but it still deserves recognition. Ilja suffered an ACL injury in September of 2024, a little over a year out of action. Sami was issuing a Weekly Open Challenge, and once The Miz got taken out, the Mad Dragon saw an opening. This was a huge moment because Ilja was decorated in Europe, NXT UK, NXT and made a pretty good splash on the main roster, but the injury messed that all up. Hardcore fans were elated to see him back, he got a good reaction from the crowd in general because of his energy…but what makes it historic is the result. Ilja defeated Sami Zayn to capture his first and so far only main roster title.

ACL tears, returns from retirement, women’s history and Japanese history. Probably not the type of article people expected, but as I say, I don’t make the history…I just pick what I think is fun.