Today In Pro Wrestling History: October 22nd

This is a heavily WWE dominated article, which I suppose is fair since we’ve had a few days where WWE didn’t exist. It’s just how the dominos of history fall. Let’s check it out!

• WWF No Mercy: WWF World Heavyweight Championship NoDQ Match: The Rock (c) vs Kurt Angle w/Stephanie McMahon (2000)

This culminated in Kurt Angle’s first World title win, less than one year after his debut. The match was changed to NoDQ literally as Kurt Angle was walking down the ramp. Stephanie managed to break up a few pinfalls, Rikishi tried to interfere on behalf of Rock, but Kurt pulled Rock into Rikishi’s ass attack and then dodged a Superkick that connected with Rock. Kurt won thanks to the Olympic Slam, in a solid match with one of the most iconic celebrations in WWF history.

• WWF Raw  (2001)

The night of new champions. Bradshaw defeated Hurricane for the WWF European Championship. Kurt Angle defeated defeated Rhyno for the WCW United States title. Tajiri defeated Billy Kidman for the WCW Cruiserweight Title. And lastly, The Rock & Chris Jericho defeated The Dudley Boyz for the WWF Tag Team titles.

• TNA Bound for Glory (2006)

LAX defeated AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels in a Six Sides of Steel match for the NWA Tag Team titles. Chris Sabin won his third X-Division title over Senshi/Low Ki. The main event pitted Jeff Jarrett’s NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship against Sting’s career, with Kurt Angle as Special Enforcer. Sting and Kurt Angle were the two biggest acquisitions of TNA at the time, and taking down Jeff Jarrett, who fan perception was Jeff was annoyingly in control of the main event and people were very sick of him at this point. So Sting winning his second NWA World’s Heavyweight title, but first under the TNA banner since his first reign was in 1990. With Kurt in the moment as well, encapsulated the start of the peak of TNA.

• WWE TLC (2017)

Asuka’s main roster debut was a big moment here when she defeated Emma. AJ Styles vs Finn Balor gave us a Bullet Club dream match. But a picture that gets meme’d and lives forever, is Kurt Angle returning to a WWE Ring for the first time in 11 years, to pinch hit for Roman Reigns since he was ill with a viral infection. The moment with Kurt, Seth and Dean Ambrose facing off against Miz, Cesaro, Braun Strowman, Sheamus & Kane. So a pretty all around memorable show where many forget these moments all intersected.

• NXT Halloween Havoc (2022)

checks notes: Okay, this one doesn’t have Kurt Angle in it! Part of the fun for these first few NXT Halloween Havocs was Shotzi Blackheart’s amazing “Elivra-esque” host duties, since the Spooky Season Vibe is her wheelhouse. Speaking of that, this was the first Halloween Havoc under the NXT banner to be a PLE and not a TV Special. When it comes to actual reason for it being here though, that’s simple. The main event with Bron Breakker defending and retaining his NXT Championship against Ilja Dragunov & JD Mcdonagh in a great match. But the big memorable moment is the vacant North American title Ladder Match. Carmelo Hayes, Oro Mensah, Von Wagner, Nathan Frazer and Wes Lee fought over the vacant title. This was a big moment for Wes Lee coming a few years after Nash Carter was released from NXT, leaving the tag team specialist to try and find his groove as a solo act. So him winning the North American title, gave everyone a lot of hope since NXT just rebranded back to NXT and not that cornball NXT 2.0 era.

I didn’t realize that Kurt Angle was literally in every moment except the most recent one. Is October 22nd just Kurt Angle day? Sheesh…I’m surprised he didn’t show up at Halloween Havoc just to keep his streak going. The Rock and AJ Styles had a little crossover as well, but this is really the Kurt Angle show.