This Day In Wrestling History – August 22nd
Happy birthday to the King of the Cruiserweights!
1961 – Tex Riley & Len Rossi defeat Mephisto & Dante, to win the Mid-Southern Tag Team Championship.
1972 – Bill Dromo & Tojo Yamamoto defeat Jackie Fargo & Roughhouse Fargo, to win the Mid-Southern Tag Team Championship.
1973 – The Mighty Yankees (#1 & #3) defeat Jerry Lawler & Jim White, to win the Mid-Southern Tag Team Championship.
1975 – Chavo Guerrero, Sr. & Raul Mata defeat Black Gordman & Goliath, to win the NWA Americas Tag Team Championship.
1977 – Bill Dundee defeats Jerry Lawler, to win the Mid-Southern Heavyweight Championship. Also, The Hollywood Blonds (Jerry Brown & Buddy Roberts) defeat Norvell Austin & Pat Barrett, to win the Mid-Southern Tag Team Championship.
1982 – Wahoo McDaniel defeats Sgt. Slaughter, to win the NWA United States Championship.
1992 – Mitsuharu Misawa defeats Stan Hansen, to win the AJPW Triple Crown Championship.
1997 – Maunakea Mossman defeats Yoshinari Ogawa, to win the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship.
1999 – WWF’s 12th annual SummerSlam is held in Minneapolis, in front of 17,370 fans.
– Jeff Jarrett defeats D’Lo Brown to win both the WWF Intercontinental & European Championships. D’Lo held both titles simultaneously, as the first Eurocontinental Champion.
– In a Tag Team Turmoil Match, The Acolytes (Bradshaw & Faarooq) win by last eliminating Hardcore Holly & Crash Holly, to become #1 contenders for the WWF Tag Team Championship.
– Al Snow defeats The Big Boss Man, to win the WWF Hardcore Championship.
– Ivory defeats Tori, to retain the WWF Women’s Championship.
– Ken Shamrock defeats ‘The Lethal Weapon’ Steve Blackman, in a Lion’s Den Weapons Match.
– Test defeats Shane McMahon, in a Greenwich Street Fight.
– The Unholy Alliance (The Undertaker & The Big Show) (with Paul Bearer) defeat X-Pac & Kane, to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.
– The Rock defeats Billy Gunn in a ‘Kiss My Ass’ Match.
– In a Triple Threat Match, Mankind defeats Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H, to win the WWF Championship. Minnesota Governor Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura served as special guest referee.
2000 – Three-time WWWF World Tag Team Champion, & inaugural WWWF International Tag Team Champion ‘Professor’ Toru Tanaka, dies of heart failure at age 70.
2005 – In a Loser Leaves Town Match on RAW, John Cena defeats Chris Jericho, to retain the WWE Championship. As a result, Jericho leaves WWE. He would not return until November 2007.
2007 – WWE releases Daniel Rodimer, a finalist in the fourth season of Tough Enough (towards the end of 2004). Rodimer was signed by WWE company in July 2006 but never appeared on television; he did make appearances on HEAT, which had become an online-only program.
2009 – At Women Superstars Uncensored’s As The World Turns event, Hailey Hatred & Jessika Havok defeat Brooke Carter & Alicia, to win the WSU Tag Team Championship.
2010 – Former ECW star Balls Mahoney and The Outpatient (real name John Kissel) were both charged with disorderly conduct. This comes after police were called to a New Brunswick, NJ restaurant after a fight between the two. Mahoney and Kissel both claimed to police that the fight was a ‘work,’ to build interest in an upcoming wrestling match. But after reviewing surveillance footage from the eatery’s security cameras, police press charges of disorderly conduct on both Mahoney and Kissel. The police were called after one of the wrestlers apparently brandished a knife.
2010 – Koji Kanemoto & Tiger Mask IV defeat Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori, to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.
2011 – On Monday Night RAW, Air Boom (Evan Bourne & Kofi Kingston) defeat The New Nexus (David Otunga & Michael McGillicutty), to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.
2011 – Rey Mysterio undergoes surgery for a torn ACL, an injury that occurred on Monday Night RAW a week earlier. Mysterio would miss almost a year of action, recovering from his injury and then having to serve a 60-day suspension, beginning April 26, 2012, for his second violation of WWE’s Wellness Policy.
2015 – NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn (the first edition) is held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, in front of 15,589 fans. The event featured a one-time appearance by New Japan’s Jushin Thunder Liger, and the NXT in-ring debut of Apollo Crews.
– Jushin Thunder Liger defeats Tyler Breeze.
– The Vaudevillains (Aiden English & Simon Gotch) defeat Blake & Murphy (with Alexa Bliss), to win the NXT Tag Team Championship.
– Apollo Crews defeats Tye Dillinger.
– Samoa Joe defeats Baron Corbin via referee stoppage; Corbin passed out after Joe applied the Coquina Clutch.
– Bayley defeats Sasha Banks, to win the NXT Women’s Championship.
– In a Ladder Match, Finn Balor defeats Kevin Owens, to retain the NXT Championship. This would be Owens’ final match in NXT; he had been on WWE’s main roster for three months at this point.
2016 – Just one night after becoming the inaugural WWE Universal Champion at SummerSlam, Finn Balor is forced to relinquish the title on Monday Night RAW, due to a shoulder injury suffered during his title match against Seth Rollins. Also, The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von) announce that they were leaving WWE. They had returned the night after SummerSlam 2015. After this announcement, D-Von would return to WWE in September 2016 to work as a producer, while Bubba Ray moved on to the independent circuit, and is currently in Ring of Honor.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: WWE Hall of Famer Paul Ellering (64 years old); 10-time WCW World Tag Team Champion Stevie Ray from Harlem Heat (59 years old); current WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville (31 years old); WWE’s Apollo Crews (30 years old); and current SmackDown Tag Team Champions Jimmy & Jey Uso (32 years old).
Today would have been the 59th birthday for former WWF & WCW wrestler Dean ‘BattleKat’ Peters. Today would’ve been the 93rd birthday for WWE Hall of Famer Pat O’ Connor, and the 100th birthday for long-time UK wrestling commentator Kent Walton.
Also born on this day was long-time NWA President Sam Muchnick (born in 1905).
