Today In Pro Wrestling History: November 13th

This was an active day, pretty interesting if you ask me, and an interesting mixture. Not exactly the craziest of days, of fun little moments. Let’s get to it!

• ECW November to Remember: Winner Takes All World Heavyweight Title & Television Title: Sabu (c) & Road Warrior Hawk vs Terry Funk (c) vs King Kong Bundy (1993)

So the concept was simple, two titles on the line, if a pinfall was scored on the champion, the champion would lose the title. So Funk and Sabu had a chance to walk out as double champion. Bundy turned on Funk during the match, which cemented Funk losing the Television title. After Bundy crushed Funk with the Avalanche Splash, Sabu rolled him up with the Small Package and won the match. So Sabu held both titles, and the betrayal helped to fuel Terry Funk’s challenge for the Heavyweight title the next month.

• WCW/NJPW World In Japan: WCW United States Championship: Sting (c) vs Kensuke Sasaki (1995)

The history here comes from the fact that Kensuke Sasaki’s victory marked the first time the United States title changed hands on foreign soil and he was also the first non-American to hold the title since Rowdy Roddy Piper in 1983. The title win helped to establish Sasaki under his real name, after he recently dropped his Power Warrior gimmick. The show also was a solid display of the working relationship between both companies. While the relationship would strain and get weird later in the 90s, it was part of the allure of early WCW.

• TNA Turning Point (2011)

The event lived up to its name as a real turning point. Gail Kim defeated Velvet Sky for the Knockouts Championship, and she was already Knockouts Tag Champ with Madison Rayne, so Gail was double champ after this. Robbie E got an upset win over Eric Young for the TNA Television Title. But many people may remember this as Jeff Hardy’s return to TNA PPV after the infamous Victory Road debacle. Jeff Jarrett did a huge favor for Jeff. As nearly a direct reference to Victory Road, Jeff won the match in 6 seconds after connecting on a Twist of Fate. But Jarrett complained he wasn’t ready, so they restarted the match. In a longer match of about 5 minutes, Jarrett had Hardy in a Figure Four, but Jeff turned it into a Cradle and won again. Irate, Jarrett follows Hardy up the ramp with a chair, cracks him with it and drags him back to the ring. Jarrett hit The Stroke, argued with the referee to restart the match again, Hebner finally did, but it took long enough for Hardy to recover and Small Package for the win again. So Jeff Jarrett lost three times in the course of about 6 minutes.

• Talk N’ Shop Talk N’ Shop-A-Mania 2: Rise of the Torturer (2020)

Dude the pandemic was epic for pure idiocy and creativity to keep people entertained and to keep paychecks cashing. We got cameos from the “It’s still real to me” guy, Ethan Page’s Karate Man, Justin Credible, a hardcore match that turned into a Softcore match, the rules for the illustrious Roll Undershed match and of course the introduction to CGI Genie commentary. Mr Hughes shows up in the main event, the Faces of Fear rip off Chadd 2 Badd and Sex Ferguson’s dicks and something was going on in Sex’s sex swing. We also got another installment of Steiner Math at the end when Scott Steiner is playing cards in the afore mentioned Shed. This was just a good time. If you enjoy Sharknado, Velocipastor, Iron Sky or “insert B-level movie slop” here, this is your type of self aware insanity.

• AEW Full Gear: AEW World Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs Hangman Adam Page (2021)

So this match sortuv fed the “long term storytelling” meme that gets associated with AEW Diehards. Adam was always the “little brother” of the Elite, be it on the Being the Elite YouTube show, or in segments. So when he lost the inaugural championship match against Chris Jericho in 2019, he went through a few other low periods which eventually led to his entire self doubt alcoholic cowboy shit gimmick. The two years resulted in him getting kicked out of the Elite, losing a Title Eliminator to Omega and being so broken, that he allied with the misfit Dark Order, and actually turned his life around. Winning the Casino Battle Royal, coming in as the Joker, he got the chance to challenge Omega. This also carries some weight since, while Full Gear is named after PAC, it also was a part of the rib against Page since he “didn’t have a good enough body to appear in Full Gear” like PAC. So when Page actually won with two Buckshot Lariats, after sobering up, finding his confidence, beating an Elite member and winning at the event that was used to ridicule him…it was a big culmination for Page’s character.

You know the thread that connects at least two of these, is Hawk and Kensuke Sasaki were known as the Hellraiser in New Japan. So tag team members in different events is kinda cute, and well Good Brothers and Elite in the next…so there we go. Team/Faction threads.