This Day In Wrestling History – September 20th

1957 – Ivan the Terrible and Nikita Zolotoff defeat Pepper Gomez and El Medico, to win the NWA Texas Tag Team Championship.

1970 – Missouri Mauler defeats Danny Miller, to win the NWA Eastern Heavyweight Championship.

1975 – Ric Flair defeats Wahoo McDaniel, to win the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship.

1978 – Jose Lothario defeats Assassin #1, to win the NWA Tri-State Louisiana Heavyweight Championship.

1981 – In Toronto, Big John Studd defeats Angelo Mosca, to win the Canadian Heavyweight Championship.

1985 – Kerry and Kevin Von Erich defeat Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez, to win the WCCW American Tag Team Championship.

1987 – In the World Wrestling Council, Huracan Castillo, Jr. defeats Gran Mendoza, to win the WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship.  Also, Carlos Colon defeats Hercules Ayala, to win the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship.

1989 – Masa Saito and Shinya Hashimoto defeat Riki Chosu and Takayuki Iizuka, to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.

1993 – In New Japan Pro Wrestling, Shinya Hashimoto defeats The Great Muta, to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.  In the United States Wrestling Association, Jerry Lawler defeats Tatanka, to win the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship for the 16th time.

1997 – WWE One Night Only is held in Birmingham, England in front of 11,000 fans.  The event was only available on pay-per-view in Canada and Europe.  It would later be available as a VHS release in the United States.

-Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeats Dude Love.

-Tiger Ali Singh defeats Leif Cassidy.

-The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) defeat Los Boricuas (Savio Vega and Miguel Perez, Jr.), to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship.

-The Patriot defeats Flash Funk.

-In a tag team match, The Legion of Doom defeat The Godwinns.

-Vader defeats Owen Hart.

-Bret Hart defeats The Undertaker, by disqualification, to retain the WWE Championship.

-Shawn Michaels defeats The British Bulldog, by submission, to win the WWE European Championship.  With this victory, Michaels becomes the first Grand Slam Champion in WWE History (he had previously been a WWE Champion, Tag Team Champion, and Intercontinental Champion).

1997 – In Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan, Devil Masami defeats Zero, to win the vacant WCW Women’s Championship.  At the same event, Sugar Sato defeats Yoshiko Tamura, to win the vacant WCW Women’s Cruiserweight Championship.

1999 – On WWE RAW IS WAR, Vince McMahon opts to vacate the WWE Championship he had just won at the September 16th SmackDown.  Also, in a Dark Side Rules Match, The Rock and Mankind regain the WWE Tag Team Championship, defeating The Ministry of Darkness (Big Show, Undertaker, Mideon, and Viscera).  All four members of The Ministry of Darkness were legal in this match.  However, Undertaker opted to do commentary at the announcer’s table for the entire match.

2003 – The Backseat Boyz win the vacant ROH World Tag Team Championship in a Gauntlet Match.

2004 – Christy Hemme, age 24, wins the first televised (and second overall) WWE Diva Search.  Other 2004 participants included Maria Kanellis, Michelle McCool, Joy Giovanni, Amy Weber, and Carmella DeCesare.

2006 – La Amenaza Bryan is stripped of the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship.  He had left the World Wrestling Council due to payment and differences with the Creative team.  In New Japan Pro Wrestling, president Simon Kelly Inoki strips Cho-Ten (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Masashiro Chono) of the IWGP Tag Team Championship, after the two wrestlers decide to stop teaming together.

2008 – Adam Pearce defeats Brent Albright, to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

2009 – TNA No Surrender is held at the Impact Zone in Orlando, in front of 1,100 fans.

-Taylor Wilde and Sarita defeat The Beautiful People (Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne) to become the inaugural Knockouts’ Tag Team Champions.

-Hernandez defeats Eric Young.

-Samoa Joe defeats Daniels, to retain the X Division Championship.

-D’Angelo Dinero defeats Suicide in a Falls Count Anywhere Match.

-ODB defeats Cody Deaner, in an inter-gender match, to win the vacant TNA Women’s Knockout Championship.

-Kevin Nash defeats Abyss, to retain the TNA Legends Championship AND claim the $50,000 bounty on Abyss from Dr. Stevie.

-In a Lethal Lockdown Match, Beer Money, Inc. (James Storm and Robert Roode), along with Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray) defeat The Main Event Mafia (Booker T and Scott Steiner) and The British Invasion (Brutus Magnus and Doug Williams).

-In a five-way match, A.J. Styles becomes the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion;  defeating Hernandez, Sting, Matt Morgan, and previous champion Kurt Angle.

2013 – Ring of Honor Wrestling’s “Death Before Dishonor XI” is held in Philadelphia.

-Jay Lethal defeats Silas Young.

-In the semi-final matches to crown a new ROH World Champion, Adam Cole defeats Tommaso Ciampa;  and Michael Elgin defeats Kevin Steen.

-The Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov) defeat The American Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards), to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.

-Adam Page defeats R.D. Evans.

-Roderick Strong defeats Ricky Marvin.

-In an eight-man tag team match, Adrenaline Rush (ACH and TaDarius Thomas) along with C&C Wrestle Factory (Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander) defeat reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly), along with Michael Bennett and Matt Taven.

-Adam Cole defeats Mike Elgin, to win the vacant ROH World Championship.

2015 – WWE Night of Champions is held in Houston, in front of 14,369 fans.  The event marks Sting’s only WWE main event pay-per-view and title match;  and also marks the final match of Sting’s pro wrestling career.

-In the pre-show match, Stardust and The Ascension defeat Neville and The Lucha Dragons.

-Kevin Owens defeats Ryback, to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

-Dolph Ziggler defeats Rusev.

-The Dudley Boyz defeat The New Day, via disqualification, allowing The New Day to retain the Tag Team Championship.  Xavier Woods, who was not legal in the match, interfered by breaking up a pin fall attempt from Bubba Ray Dudley.

-Charlotte defeats Nikki Bella by submission, to win the WWE Divas Championship.  At 301 days, Nikki is the longest reigning Divas Champion.

-In a six-man tag team match, The Wyatt Family (Luke Harper, Bray Wyatt, and Braun Strowman) defeat the team of Dean Ambrose, Chris Jericho, and Roman Reigns.  The match ends in a submission victory after Braun Strowman applies the Lifting Arm Triangle Choke on Chris Jericho, causing Jericho to pass out.

-John Cena defeats Seth Rollins, to regain the United States Championship.  Rollins defeated Cena for the title at SummerSlam a month earlier;  in a Title vs. Title match (Rollins’ WWE World Heavyweight Title was on the line as well).

-In his second match of the night, Seth Rollins defeats Sting, to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO:  WWE Hall of Famers Arn Anderson (age 58 today) and Greg Valentine (65 today).  Anderson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012;  Valentine was inducted in 2004.  Also, happy birthday to 5-time WWE Tag Team Champion Tony Garea (70 years old today), Megumi Kudo, 6-time WWA World Women’s Champion (47 today), and former ECW personality Joel Gertner (turns 41 today).

SOURCES: Google, Wikipedia, gerweck.net, tpww.net