Today In Pro Wrestling History: November 1st

A little bit of Halloween Hangover with a few of these moments! Also one of the moments that officially put TNA/Impact Wrestling back on people’s radar! Saved from the depths of despair, no longer…DELETED! Yaaasss…

• WWE Raw (2004)

The biggest talking point was the official implosion of the Chris Benoit and Edge partnership. Edge fully completed his villainous turn by abandoning and attacking Benoit, which cost them the World Tag Team Championship and kicked off their bitter rivalry. At the same time, the show successfully built intense anticipation for Survivor Series by raising the stakes for the traditional elimination match. Fans were hooked because the winning team would get total control of Raw for a month, meaning every wrestler in the main event was fighting for a massive reward. Add in entertaining undercard moments, like Gene Snitsky continuing his monster run and Tajiri mocking Triple H, and you get a textbook example of a 2004 episode that kept fans deeply invested in the weekly drama.

• Impact Wrestling Total Nonstop Deletion (2016)

During the time was Impact Wrestling was embroiled in financial and legal disputes between Dixie and Billy Corgan, the entire Broken Universe was the only real bright spot in the company. King Maxel defeated Rockstar Spud in his debut match in 17 seconds (Maxel is Matt Hardy’s slightly over 1 year old son, at this time). Jeff Hardy’s Narcoleptic Weedwacker wielding persona Itchweed returned. Tag Team Apocalypto happened here, with Road Warrior Animal, Swoggle, Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, Decay and the CGI Volcano spot with Crazzy Steve. While it wasn’t the first Hardy Universe moment, it definitely grabbed more attention being an entire zany episode or Hardy shenanigans.

• WWE SmackDown: NXT Took Over (2019)

Due to travel delays from the previous day’s Crown Jewel, NXT was called in as the “If emergency roster needed break glass”. After Bayley retained the SmackDown Women’s title against Nikki Cross, Shayna Baszler attacked. Rhea Ripley and Teagan Nox defeated Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose, The Miz was taken out by Tommaso Ciampa. The Undisputed Era made their presence felt the entire show, including Adam Cole defending his NXT title successfully against Daniel Bryan. At the end of the night, NXT held the SmackDown ring and declared war for Survivor Series.

• CMLL Dia De Muertos (2019)

This perfectly blended intense luchador rivalries with a deep dedication to Mexican culture. The show featured iconic stars like Caristico and Mistico II joining forces in a historic victory to capture the world tag team titles, thrilling the Arena Mexico crowd. Meanwhile, the dominant Sanson proved his absolute chokehold on the holiday tradition by winning the King of the Underworld championship for the third year in a row. What truly made the weekend unforgettable was how the roster fully committed to the holiday spirit, with wrestlers competing in elaborate Day of the Dead face paint while the losers of each match were theatrically dragged away into the Aztec underworld.

• WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event (2025)

Jade Cargill defeated Tiffany Stratton for the WWE Women’s Title, which marked her first WWE singles title. Dominik Mysterio escaped with his Intercontinental title in hand after a triple threat with Penta and Rusev. The main event was CM Punk versus Jey Uso for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. The match was solid, but the main memorable aspect was, with CM Punk’s win, he finally got a decent run with the World Heavyweight title unlike the 5 minutes and 10 seconds from earlier in the year when Seth cashed in on him.

An odd combination of shows, but definitely all had some staying power. NXT’s Smackdown Takeover, Total Nonstop Deletion, a Ruthless Aggression rivalry and some more recent payoffs in the WWE universe.