This Day In Wrestling History – July 28th

Trivia

1997 – The Monday Night War continued: WCW Monday Nitro defeated WWF Monday Night Raw: 3.4 to 2.9 in the ratings

2007 – TNA signed suspended Tennessee Titan cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones to a deal that would see the NFL star perform as a professional wrestler. The NFL would step in to prevent Jones from being truly physically involved, although he would have a run as TNA Tag Team champion & would get to pin Sting during his run. Jones was suspended for the entire 2007 NFL season without pay for off-the-field personal conduct problems, including a Las Vegas strip club shooting incident that left former independent pro wrestler Tommy Urbanski paralyzed

2008 – Triple H & Stephanie McMahon celebrated the birth of their 2nd daughter, Murphy Claire Levesque, weighing in 8 lbs., 12 ounces

2008 – WWE officially became PG

2008 – Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. was introduced to the WWE roster as having officially joined World Wrestling Entertainment’s Creative team

2008 – Mike Adamle was named the General Manager of Raw

2009 – Following a vicious back & forth legal mess, Hulk & Linda Hogan settled their divorce in Clearwater, FL

2009 – ECW Original Francine & her husband Joe welcomed their 1st daughter, Molly Rose

Title Changes

1979 – Nelson Royal defeated Al Madril via forfeit to win the NWA Junior Heavyweight Title

1980 – Killer Karl Krupp & El Mongol defeated Ken Lucas & Ricky Morton to win the AWA Southern Tag Team Title in Memphis, Tennessee

1983 – Satanico defeated Ringo Mendoza to win the NWA World Light Heavyweight Title in Mexico City, Mexico

1985 – Hiro Saito defeated The Cobra to win the NWA Junior Heavyweight Title, though The Cobra later defeated Hiro Saito to win both the NWA & WWF Junior Heavyweight Title

1986 – Dusty Rhodes defeated Ric Flair to win the NWA World Heavyweight Title in Greensboro, North Carolina

1987 – Wendi Richter defeated Monster Ripper (Bertha Faye) to win the WWC Women’s Title in Trinidad

1994 – Steve Williams defeated Mitsuharu Misawa to win the AJPW Triple Crown Title

1994 – Silver King defeated Black Magic (Norman Smiley) to win the CMLL World Heavyweight Title

1995 – Eddie Guerrero defeated Dean Malenko to win the ECW World Television Title

1997 – on Nitro, Alex Wright defeated Chris Jericho to win the WCW Cruiserweight Title

2002 – the WWE Hardcore Title’s 24/7 Rule sees the belt pass from Bradshaw to Raven, to Justin Credible, to Shawn Stasiak, & back to Bradshaw

2003 – on Raw, Molly Holly defeated Gail Kim to win the WWE Women’s Title

2004 – in an Ultimate X Match Michael Shane, & Kazarian retrieved the belt at the same time & are pronounced co-holders of the TNA X-Division Title. The match also included AJ Styles

2010 – on Smackdown, Dolph Ziggler defeated Kofi Kingston to win the WWE Intercontinental Title

Birthdays

Happy birthday to indy regular Nick Jackson (26) of the Young Bucks, & joshi legend Lioness Asuka (52)

Also, today would have been the birthday of NWA star ‘Mr. Wrestling’ Tim Woods (81)

In Memoriam

On this day in 2007, the wrestling world lost 2-time NJPW Real World Champion Karl Gotch at the age of 82. Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Gotch was schooled in Greco-Roman wrestling from an early age, eventually competing for Belgium in the 1948 Olympics. Gotch began training to be a professional wrestler at Billy Riley’s ‘Snake Pit’ gym in Wigan, England & debuted in 1955. By the close of the decade, he was regarded as one of the best in Europe and ventured to North America to further test his skills. It was here that he adopted the ‘Karl Gotch’ name, having competed as ‘Karl Krauser’ in Europe. He won his first major championship in 1961, capturing the Ohio version of the AWA World Title. He fell out of favour with many American wrestlers after getting into an altercation with then-NWA World Champion Buddy Rogers, in which he broke Rogers’ hand. The fight broke out after Rogers refused to grant Gotch a shot at the championship, fearing that Gotch (a superior ‘shoot wrestler’) would steal his championship. After a brief run with the WWWF, Gotch moved to Japan where he became 1 of the stars of the upstart New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion. His style was adopted by Antonio Inoki and, through Gotch’s later work as a trainer, Tatsumi Fujinami, Osamu Kido & Hiro Matsuda amongst others. Gotch quietly left the wrestling business in the 1990′s, & lived out his retirement in Florida, passing of natural causes