This Day In Wrestling History – March 8th

Mar 8, 2017 - by Bill Fenbers

 

Happy birthday to American Alpha’s Chad Gable!

1982 – Bobby Eaton & Sweet Brown Sugar defeat Robert Gibson & Stan Lane, to win the vacant AWA Southern Tag Team Championship.  Elsewhere, Kerry Von Erich defeats Bugsy McGraw, to win the WCCW American Heavyweight Championship.

1983 – The Wild Samoans (Afa & Sika) defeat Jules & Chief Jay Strongbow, to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.

1987 – In the Universal Wrestling Federation, Eddie Gilbert defeats Savannah Jack, to win the UWF Television Championship.

1989 – At Day 11 of AJPW’s Excite Series 1989, Masanobu Fuchi defeats Mighty Inoue, to win the AJPW Junior Heavyweight Championship.

1992 – El America defeats Fuerza Guerrera, to win the CMLL World Welterweight Championship.

1994 – The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge & Rocco Rock) defeat Kevin Sullivan & The Tazmaniac, to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship.

1999 – In the Monday Night Wars, WWF RAW IS WAR (6.5 TV rating) beats WCW Monday Nitro (3.5 rating).

2010 – TNA begins its attempt to compete on Mondays  nights with WWE RAW, with tonight’s live airing of Impact!  Both programs would air at 9pm ET.  In the ratings, WWE RAW (a 3.4 TV rating & 5.1 million viewers) easily beat Impact! (a 0.98 TV rating with 1.4 million viewers).  One title change occurs;  The Beautiful People (Lacey Von Erich, Madison Rayne, & Velvet Sky) win a Three-Way Match (with Tara & Angelina Love, and Sarita & Taylor Wilde), to win the vacant TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship.  The titles had been stripped from Awesome Kong & Hamada, for failure to defend within 30 days;  Kong was actually released from her TNA contract a week earlier.

Over on RAW, magician Criss Angel is the evening’s guest host.  In the main event, Mr. McMahon defeats John Cena, in what was a 5-on-1 Handicap Gauntlet Match;  Cena had to face Vince, Drew McIntyre, Jack Swagger, Vladimir Kozlov, and Mark Henry.  With Cena continuing to break pinfalls, McMahon makes it a No Disqualification Match.  Batista would interfere, and eventually hit Cena with a spear, allowing Vince to get the pinfall.

2011 – WWE NXT Redemption (Season 5) starts airing on WWE.com.  This series featured losing rookies from the four previous series, rather than all new competitors.

2012 – On this evening’s Impact Wrestling, Eric Young & ODB defeat Gail Kim & Madison Rayne, to win the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship.  Young and ODB would be the final champions before the titles are retired in June 2013.

2014 – On Night 2 of Ring of Honor’s Raising the Bar, The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) defeat reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish), to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

2014 – At Combat Zone Wrestling’s High Stakes 5, Shane Strickland defeats Devon Moore, to win the CZW Wired Television Championship.

2016 – On this evening’s Impact Wrestling, Kurt Angle competes in his final TNA match, losing to Bobby Lashley.  Also, James Storm cashes in his Feast or Fired briefcase, to challenge The Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) for the TNA World Tag Team Championship.  Storm teams up with his Beer Money, Inc. partner Bobby Roode, and they defeat The Wolves to become the new Tag Team Champions.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: former Family Wrestling Entertainment (FWE) Tag Team Champion E.J. Risk (29 years old);  DREAMWAVE wrestler Mason Beck (34 years old);  former NWA-TNA wrestler Derek Wylde (40 years old);  former NEXUS member Michael Tarver (40 years old);  past RAW guest host Freddie Prinze, Jr. (41 years old);  and current SmackDown Tag Team Champion with American Alpha, Chad Gable (31 years old).

SOURCES: WrestleView, wrestlingdata.com, The Internet Wrestling Database, gerweck.net

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