This Week In Pro Wrestling History, Aug 19-25
This Week In Pro Wrestling History
19/8 – 25/8
1964 – Bruno Sammartino the WWWF Champion faced Waldo Von Erich in a fabulous bout at Madison Square Garden that resulted in a draw after 81 minutes.
1975 – The man known as “The Golden Greek” Jim Londos passed away as a result of a heart attack.
Londos was 78 years old.
1979 – Dusty Rhodes wins his first NWA World Heavyweight Championship with a victory over Harley Race.
Rhode’s reign was short lived however as Race would win the title back 5 days later.
1997 – One of the founding members of The Four Horsemen, Arn Anderson, announced his retirement from wrestling.
In comparison to other wrestling retirements, Anderson never wrestled another match again.
1998 – In the final match of the WWF Brawl For All Tournament Bart Gunn was victorious over Bradshaw by way of a points decision.
1999 – In the WWE Championship match at Summerslam, with Minnesota Governor, Jesse “The Body” Ventura as the guest official for the match, Mankind was victorious over “Sone Cold” Steve Austin and Triple H for the WWE Championship.
1999 – On Monday Night Raw after Summerslam, Triple H defeated Mankind for his first WWE Championship.
This would be the last time Mick Foley would hold the WWE Championship.
2000 – For the first time on Monday Night Raw a WWE women’s world title match was the main event when Lita defeated Stephanie McMahon for the WWE Women’s Championship.
2001 – During what was known as the Invasion by wrestlers from WCW and ECW, WWE held the annual Summerslam Pay Per View.
The card for the night was mainly matches between WWE and The Alliance (WCW + ECW).
A couple of historic moments were:
The Rock was victorious over Booker T for the WCW Championship.
This was historic as it was the first time someone from WWE held the WCW Championship.
The World Tag Team and WCW Tag Team Championships were unified when The Undertaker and Kane were victorious over Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) and Kanyon.
2001 – On Monday Night Raw the following night it was Austin Appreciation Night however the celebration ended abruptly when Kurt Angle returned from injury to shower everyone in the ring with milk from a milk truck that he drove into the arena.
2002 – In the main event of Summerslam, Brock Lesnar made WWE history with a victory over The Rock to become the youngest WWE Heavyweight Champion in history.
This win came just a month after Lesnar’s 25th birthday and just short of 6 months since Lesnar made his WWE debut.
Also on the same night Shawn Micheals was victorious over former best friend Triple H in an unsanctioned Street Fight.
2003 – Legendary British wrestling commentator Kent Walton suffered a stroke and passed away at the age of 86.
2005 – In what would be there only confrontation, at Summerslam Shawn Michaels faced Hulk Hogan with Hogan getting the win.
Chris Jericho would be defeated by WWE Champion John Cena in a “Your Fired” match.
After the loss Jericho would not reappear in WWE until November 2007.
2009 – CM Punk would win the WWE Championship against Jeff Hardy at Summerslam.
2010 – Jimmy Saled Wehbra AKA Skandor Akbar (Alexander the Great) the leader of Devastation Inc in the Universal Wrestling Federation passed away at the age of 75.
2015 – For the first time in nearly a decade The Dudley boys returned to WWE.
With an assist from comedian John Stewart, Seth Rollins won a “Winner Takes All” match against John Cena.
The win by Rollins meant that Rollins became a double champion by capturing Cena’s US title and retaining the WWE Championship.
2020 – After suffering an attack earlier in the evening, Jeff Hardy managed to return and capture the WWE Intercontinental Championship from AJ Styles.
