Today In Pro Wrestling History: October 2nd

This is an interesting day because it’s not a ton of normal history moments. A little bit of infamy, some interesting landscape changes and another event I was at live! Fun times to kick off October!

• WWF Rebellion (1999)

This was the very last event booked by head writer Vince Russo before he shocked the wrestling world by leaving for rival company WCW just days later. Because of his sudden departure, the show stands as the final example of his fast paced Attitude Era writing style in WWF. On the screen, the event is deeply memorable for keeping up the momentum of major storylines, especially the feud between Jeff Jarrett and Chyna. Their match in England directly paved the way for Chyna to make history just a few weeks later as the first woman to win the Intercontinental Championship. By successfully blending these high stakes stories with a massive international crowd, the event proved that the company could run highly successful, exclusive pay-per-views just for fans in the United Kingdom.

• WCW Nitro (2000)

Let’s get to the first meme moment that people know fondly, and that is Jeff Jarrett wrapping the guitar around Beetlejuice’s head (Howard Stern cast member). Now we get to the Vince Russo garbage that everyone hated. After beating Booker T in the cage match, he vacated the title realizing the error of his way. So Jeff Jarrett and Booker T were the two officially in the match, but there was a precursor to the Feast or Fired gimmick, with the San Francisco 49ers match. Four identical boxes on the corners, but only 1 had the title belt, and the other 3 were useless garbage (a coal miner’s glove, blow-up doll and framed picture of Scott Hall). Booker T did officially win back the WCW title even with the pure idiocy of the previous two weeks.

• STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix: Artists of Stardom Championship: Threedom (Mayu Iwatani, Kairi Hojo & Io Shirai) (c) vs Kimura-Gun (Kyoko Kimura, Kagetsu, Hana Kimura) (2016)

This moment is actually very important for Stardom. Threedom, as we can see from the names, are the most decorated and important wrestlers in Stardom. Hana was coming over as a freelancer, shortly after winning her first ever titles and being a trainee for only about 6 months. Kyoko was the leader of the heel faction Kimura-Gun, which became Oedo Tai. The Kimura squad utilized outside interference, weapons and heel tactics, plus it was a wonderful early test for Hana being in a match with 5 amazing veterans. Kyoko, Hana and Kagetsu unseated Threedom, which was a shock, but also set the stage for the historic moment of mother and daughter winning a title together, this set up for Kyoko to be able to retire in January, and Hana and Kagetsu became two of the most important figures in Stardom once Io and Kairi left.

• AEW Dynamite (2019)

The debut episode of AEW Dynamite on October 2, 2019, fundamentally reshaped the professional wrestling landscape by introducing the first legitimate, major-television competitor to WWE in nearly two decades. It brought weekly prime-time wrestling back to the TNT network for the first time since WCW Monday Nitro went off the air in 2001. The historic night kicked off with Cody Rhodes defeating Sammy Guevara in the promotion’s first-ever TV match, instantly setting a fast-paced tone for the new brand. Later in the evening, the episode delivered a major milestone by crowning the inaugural AEW Women’s World Champion, as Riho defeated Nyla Rose in an emotional, hard-fought battle. By pulling in an impressive 1.4 million viewers, this showed that there was market for a larger scale alternative to WWE.

• MLW Fightland / Fusion: Alpha Tapings (2021)

There are two important moments during this show, aside from it being at the ECW Arena in Philly (so AJ and I were there live). Myron Reed had a 4-way match for his Middleweight Championship against Ares, Aramis and Tajiri. Tajiri tying things back to the history of the ECW was a nice moment which made his victory make full sense. The biggest moment was the double title match, National Openweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone faced Heavyweight Champion Jacob Fatu. It was a very good match, that was a wonderful crowning moment for Hammer, shattering Jacob’s 819 day reign.

A little bit of Vince Russo synergy, Hana, Io, Kairi and Mayu in a match is goated in modern wrestling history and I do love biased event moments.