Today In Pro Wrestling History: November 9th

Okay, well this is an unbalanced article no matter what else happened after the first event. Everyone and their brother knows the first event, it’s probably a moment of silence in Canada, but hey, other things happened to. Let’s get to it!

• WWF Survivor Series: Montreal Screwjob (1997)

This one doesn’t need a lot of fluff. We know why this is here. Bret didn’t want to drop the belt to Shawn Michaels in Canada, Vince didn’t care, Earl Hebner was told to call the it a submission victory during the Sharpshooter from Michaels, and it is a moment that lives in infamy. I don’t understand why there’s so much mystery and intrigue wrapped around an event, in a scripted environment where the boss has the final say. Who cares if Shawn knew? Who care who knew? No one died, it was a match, move on.

• TNA Turning Point: TNA Tag Team Titles: Beer Money (c) vs Motor City Machine Guns (2008)

While this isn’t a match that is well known for a title change, since Beer Money retained, this was what many consider the opening chapter of a foundational rivalry. While early days of TNA had America’s Most Wanted, The Naturals, XXX, Diamonds in the Rough and Flying Elvises, this was the peak era of TNA and many people weren’t around for that. So the Country Mouse and City Mouse pairing of James Storm and Bobby Roode, made Beer Money Inc one of the most successful tag teams. Couple that with the breakneck speed of Motor City Machine Guns, who are credited with popularizing the Japanese Junior Style in the West. Beer Money applied their opportunistic heel persona using the Beer Bottle into the DWI finish was what the doctor ordered today. But this became a rivalry during the better portion of TNA’s peak years 2008-2012.

• EVOLVE launches (2009)

While the first event wasn’t until 2010, this day, marks the announcement of the creation of EVOLVE. Co-founders Gabe Sapolsky, Sal Hamaoui, and Davey Richards wanted to change the independent landscape by making it presented more from the sports-centric perspective. In 2015, Evolve started a working relationship with WWE until 2020 when WWE officially acquired the entire brand and dissolved it. But as many of us know, in 2025, WWE resurrected the EVOLVE name to become their development brand, with shows visible on Tubi at the time of this writing.

• AEW Full Gear (2019)

While many people have been reminded since the shocking passing of PAC, the name of this event was inspired by him going to the initial AEW Presser in “full gear”. Which then started a mocking recurring segment with Hangman Page on Being the Elite with them reminding Page that he’s not built like PAC, so PAC can show up in “full gear” while for Page, not a great idea. Aside from the rib turned show name, this is on here because of the stipulation in the World title match. Cody Rhodes decided to risk it all, saying if he didn’t beat Chris Jericho, he would NEVER be able to challenge for the AEW title. MJF threw in the towel while Cody was in a Liontamer, and then we saw the reason when MJF Low Blow’d Cody after and showed his true colors. Cody’s whole personal barring from the World title was a talking point for the first years and it started real rocket for MJF.

• MLW/CMLL Lucha Apocalypto (2024)

This was the first co-promoted Supercard between these two companies. It did a great job showcasing the relationships between CMLL, NJPW and MLW. Minrou Suzuki and Ikuro Kwon tried to take out Satoshi Kojima, which caused Matt Riddle to make the save for Kojima and start an impromptu Tag title match that just devolved into No Contest chaos. Misitco defended the World Middleweight title against Titan and Averno, where Mistico managed to retain. However, after the match, he was blindsided by Bárbaro Cavernario, who actually ripped off his mask. The match of the night was a bit of a surprise though. MLW National Openweight champion Bad Dude Tito Escondido took on Matthew Justice in a Falls Count Anywhere match. The match never even touched the ring, and they fought literally everywhere else. The finish being a Splash off of a fan onto Tito, through a table, was just a hype moment for the live crowd, and the only title change on the card.

Yeah, some people may not like my general disdain on the over inflated importance of the Screwjob, but serious, it’s been 30 years. This is equivalent to arguing if a bad movie was done on purpose or if there was some crazy sinister thing. Star Trek: The Final Frontier is just bad, Rocky V is just sucks and BloodRayne was pure garbage. Ain’t no reason to deep dive into bad writing. Just move on.