Today In Pro Wrestling History: October 19th

This is not exactly the deepest day, and the more interesting shows are a little more obscure than usual. So let’s see what we’ve got going on.

• WWA The Inception Tour – vacant World Wrestling All-Stars Heavyweight Championship: Road Dogg vs Jeff Jarrett (2001)

We’ve seen and heard stories about different companies trying to capitalize on the void left by WCW/ECW when WWE bought their competition. This was one of the fleeting promotions that had some early success, but became a financial moneypit. This first tour took place in Austrailia, so a starving market with a bunch of WCW and WWE that were in between contracts. Juventud Guerrera, Lodi, Buff Bagwell, Disco Inferno, Psicosis, Norman Smiley, Lenny Lane, and Stevie Ray were some of the undercard talent. But they crowned their inaugural Champion, Road Dogg defeated Jeff Jarrett, just to drop it to Jarrett later in the tour in a Steel Cage match.

• RevPro Okada vs. Aries (2014)

Now since it’s 2014, this was one of the first real independent and puroresu Dream Matches, during the boom period of wrestling. Kazuchika Okada was coming off his second reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion, the one where AJ Styles defeated him in his debut match. RevPro was just starting their relationship with NJPW and this match was a late pivot. Okada was supposed to face Ricochet, but Lucha Underground filming made it impossible for him to make the date. Austin Aries stepped up to give us the dream match. Former ROH & TNA Champion Austin Aries taking on rising new Ace of NJPW and two time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada. Nearly 16 minutes, and it was a damn good match. While not five star magic, it was still very good and set a stage for the coming years of Japanese and UK crossover shows with Dream matches.

• AAA Heroes Inmortales XIII: AAA Mega Championship: Fenix (c) vs Kenny Omega (2019)

A small note that this show was the breakout show of El Hijo del Vikingo, when he won the Copa Antonio Peña, defeating Black Taurus. But the eyes were on Fenix and Omega. After team AAA beat team AEW at Triplemania, Omega challenged Fenix directly. This led to a stiff match, Omega legit broke Fenix’s nose, and even though he mounted a valiant comeback, the One Winged Angel brought meteor down and ended Fenix’s 420 day reign as champion. This would kick off Omega’s 765 day reign as champion.

• STARDOM New Blood 5: Future of Stardom Championship: Hanan (c) vs Ami Sohrei (2022)

This was a big moment for Stardom, the New Blood brand always functioned as a Rookie showcase, but this was the first event treated as a sub-brand spin off event. Like NOAH SEM or NJPW Tamashii.  Hanan held the title for 294 days, and was doing a great job showcasing the new generation of Stardom. Ami Sohrei however, had her breakout performance in this match. As the junior member of Giulia’s Donna del Mundo, this helped to establish her place in the premier stable and show she wasn’t just the inexperienced bump girl anymore. Ami Sohrei won the match, which marked her first professional wrestling title of her career.

New champions, start up companies spending more money than they make and one of the earliest modern boom era Dream Matches with both guys at the height of their powers. Nothing fancy, nothing fancy…but fits the memory jar.