Today In Pro Wrestling History: October 28th

Okay so Genichiro Tenryu, WALTER, Charlotte Flair, and James Mitchell walk into a bar. This whole article looks like a joke set up, but no, it’s just really…interesting historical overlap!

• AJPW Giant Series: vacant Triple Crown Championship: Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada  (2000)

Tenryu returned to AJPW after Misawa took 90% of the roster. Kenta Kobashi was the champion at the time, so when the exodus happened in June 2000, the title was vacated. Tenryu, also left AJPW 10 years beforehand to begin SWS and then WAR, but given the situation, he returned almost like a prodigal son. The 8 man tournament to crown a new champion had names like Steve Williams, Bart Gunn, Stan Hansen and Jinsei Shinzaki. Tenryu versus Kawada had links to Kawada’s early days since Tenryu was his mentor and former leader of Revolution. A late 80s heel stable, put together to try and unseat Jumbo Tsuruta. This match was a stiff classic over 26 minutes long. A great match, with amazing storytelling and Tenryu coming out on top after a legit closed fist into a Northern Lights Bomb, for the victory over his disciple.

• WWE Hell in a Cell (2012)

The two moments that stick out to different people are the two main title matches. Big Show defeated Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship was surprisingly well wrestled, critics gave it surprising praise and it also helped to give Big Show a spark to be a legitimate heel champion instead of the flip floppy comedy goof he was for a few years. The other match was CM Punk facing Ryback. Ryback was on his 38 match winning streak, and looked to be a well positioned powerhouse. CM Punk however got an assist from Brad Maddox, leading to his Rogue Referee, gimmick and fast counting the pinfall after his Low Blow on Ryback. CM Punk retained, the match was panned, and Ryback started his slow spin down the drain.

• PROGRESS Chapter 77: Pumpkin Spice PROGRESS: World Championship: WALTER (c) vs Zack Sabre Jr (2018)

As many of us remember, 2018 was a huge year for wrestling outside of WWE. This entire show, was an amazing showcase of the UK Independent scene that would eventually make waves in NXT UK, WWE main roster and in AEW in the coming years. Aussie Open, Trent Seven, Jimmy Havoc, Mark Haskins, Grizzled Young Veterans, Ilsa Dawn and Timothy Thatcher were all on the card. But the marquee was the technical miracle Zack Sabre Jr versus the Ring General WALTER. Zack tried to dismantle WALTER with submissions, joint attacks and the concept of chopping down the tree. After nearly 30 minutes, WALTER managed to rock Zack with a Northern Lariat and then because of all the pervious attacks, WALTER pulled out something different, a Fire/Thunder Driver to retain the title.

• WWE Evolution (2018)

This was the first ever All Women’s PPV/PLE event in WWE history. That alone gives it the reason to be on the list. But lets not forget a generational showcase of Trish Stratus & Lita vs Alicia Fox & Mickie James. Toni Storm beat Io Shirai in the Mae Young Classic finals. Shayna Baszler defeated Kairi Sane for the NXT Women’s Championship (also a rematch of the previous Mae Young Finals). Becky Lynch defeated Charlotte Flair in a Last Woman Standing match to retain the Smackdown Women’s title. There were also appearances of Alundra Blayze, Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly, Ivory and Torrie Wilson.

• NWA Samhain (2023)

Now this is on here for negative history reasons. I don’t want anyone here to try name a match on here that was worth watch. We all know the ONLY memorable thing about this is how NWA shot themselves in the foot like Plaxico Burress. Billy Corgan and the NWA had confirmed announcements of getting a deal done with the CW to air Powerrr. Because they decided to have a segment with the Sinister Minister James Mitchell, drinking and sniffing cocaine with jobbers and surrounded by women, it was an all around moronic decision. A television channel that has historically shown Riverdale, Superman & Lois, Gossip Girl and CW created the the remake Sabrina the Teenage Witch before it got moved to Netflix. So in what world, did anyone thing a lascivious and debaucherously buffoonish string of segments would fly?

AJPW trying to recover from the Exodus that effectively left them crippled, a major WWE milestone, one of the most electric Independent scene match ups of 2018 and NWA continuing to be irrelevant unless they’re embarrassing themselves. Definitely an interesting day!