This Day In Wrestling History – May 31st
1974 – The Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Gene & Ole Anderson) defeat Bob Armstrong & Robert Fuller, to win the NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship.
1979 – Motoshi Okuma & The Great Kojika defeat Butch Miller & Sweet Williams, to win the AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship.
1980 – Dick the Bruiser defeats King Kong Brody, to win the WWA World Heavyweight Championship for the 9th time.
1991 – Bill Dundee defeats Tom Prichard, to win the vacant USWA Texas Heavyweight Championship.
1998 – WWF Over the Edge: In Your House is held in Milwaukee in front of 9,822 fans. This was the first WWF pay-per-view to have a TV-14 rating. Between this event and Great American Bash in 2008, all WWF/E pay-per-views would be rated TV-14; SummerSlam 2008 would be the first TV-PG pay-per-view in over a decade.
– L.O.D. 2000 (Hawk & Animal) defeat D.O.A. (8-Ball & Skull).
– Jeff Jarrett defeats Steve Blackman.
– Marc Mero defeats Sable in an Inter-Gender Match.
– In a Three-on-Two Handicap Match, Kaientai (Dick Togo, Men’s Teioh, & Sho Funaki) defeat Taka Michinoku & Justin Bradshaw.
– The Rock defeats Faarooq, to retain the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
– Kane defeats Vader in a Mask vs Mask Match.
– In a Six Man Tag Team Match, The Nation (Owen Hart, Kama Mustafa, & D’Lo Brown) defeat D-Generation X (Triple H, Billy Gunn, & Road Dogg).
– In a Falls Count Anywhere Match, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeats Dude Love, to retain the WWF Championship. Vince McMahon served as special guest referee, while The Undertaker served as ringside enforcer.
1999 – In the Monday Night Wars, WWF RAW IS WAR (6.3 TV rating) beats WCW Monday Nitro (3.3 rating). On RAW, Jeff Jarrett defeats The Godfather, to win the Intercontinental Championship. Over on Nitro, The Jersey Triad (Bam Bam Bigelow & Diamond Dallas Page) defeat Chris Kanyon & Perry Saturn, to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship. Kanyon was subbing for an injured Raven, and turned on Saturn during the match. Kanyon joined the Triad, and the titles were defended under the Freebird Rule.
2000 – On Thunder, The Perfect Event (Shawn Stasiak & Chuck Palumbo) defeat KroniK (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark), to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
2002 – Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero defeat Negro Casas & El Hijo del Santo, to win the CMLL World Tag Team Championship.
2004 – On RAW, La Resistance (Rob Conway & Sylvain Grenier) defeat Chris Benoit & Edge, to win the World Tag Team Championship.
2010 – Ashton Kutcher is the guest star of this evening’s WWE RAW.
2012 – The TNA Hall of Fame is established by Dixie Carter. The first person inducted would be Sting, at Bound for Glory in October 2012.
2013 – In a Two-out-of-Three Falls Match, La Sombra defeats Shinsuke Nakamura, to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
2014 – Masato Tanaka & Takashi Sugiura defeat Maybach Taniguchi & Takeshi Morishima, to win the GHC Tag Team Championship.
2015 – WWE Elimination Chamber is held in Corpus Christi, TX in front of 7,000 fans. Originally scheduled as a normal non-televised Sunday house show, it was announced in mid-May that the house show would become a televised Elimination Chamber event. The event aired exclusively on WWE Network in most areas; it was available on pay-per-view in Egypt, Germany, and a few other countries overseas.
Pre-Show Match:
– Stardust defeats Zack Ryder.
PPV:
– In a Six Team Elimination Chamber Match, The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, & Xavier Woods) defeat The Ascension (Viktor & Konnor), Los Matadores (Diego & Fernando), Lucha Dragons (Kalisto & Sin Cara), Tyson Kidd & Cesaro, and The Prime Time Players (Titus O’Neil & Darren Young), to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship.
– In a Triple Threat Match, Nikki Bella defeats Paige and Naomi, to retain the WWE Divas Championship.
– In a Champion vs Champion Match, Kevin Owens (NXT Champion) defeats John Cena (United States Champion). Neither title was on the line.
– Neville defeats Bo Dallas.
– In an Elimination Chamber Match, Ryback defeats King Barrett, Mark Henry, R-Truth, Dolph Ziggler, and Sheamus, to win the vacant Intercontinental Championship.
– Dean Ambrose defeats Seth Rollins (with Kane and J&J Security) via disqualification; as a result Rollins retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
2016 – On Impact Wrestling, Eli Drake cashes in his Feast or Fired briefcase, and defeats Bram, to win the TNA King of the Mountain Championship.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Former WCW Tag Team Champion Vampiro (50 years old); 3-time GHC Heavyweight Champion & 4-time Tag Team Champion Takashi Sugiura (47 years old); and current Pro Wrestling NOAH performer Cody Hall (26 years old, son of Scott Hall).
