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THIS DAY IN HISTORY: THE 'OTHER' WWF WORLD TITLE SCREWJOB

By Buck Woodward on 2008-11-25 08:00:00
November 25th

On this day in history in ....

1982 - Mid South Wrestling ran a Thanksgiving Day event at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, drawing 15,000 fans. Here are the results:
- Tim Horner defeated Mike Bond.
- Mike Sharpe defeated Marty Lunde (who would go on to greater fame as Arn Anderson).
- Princess Victoria defeated Lelani Kai.
- Bob Roop defeated King Cobra.
- Mil Mascaras & Chavo Guerrero defeated Tully Blanchard & Gino Hernandez.
- Mr. Wrestling II defeated Mr. Olympia.
- Mid South Wrestling Tag Team Champions Ted DiBiase & Matt Borne defeated Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts.
- Tony Atlas defeated Mid South Wrestling Louisiana Champion Hacksaw Duggan via countout.
- Stagger Lee (Junkyard Dog under a mask) defeated Ted DiBiase to win the Mid South Wrestling North American Title, ending DiBiase's third reign. JYD was wrestling under the mask due to losing a "Loser Leaves For 90 Days" match. When the 90 days was up, "Stagger Lee" vacated the title and Junkyard Dog "returned".

1985 - The "other" WWF World Championship screwjob took place in Madison Square Garden in New York City, more than a decade before Bret Hart stepped into the ring in Montreal.

WWF Women's World Champion Wendi Richter was riding a huge wave of popularity as an integral part of the "Rock N' Wrestling Connection" to the point that Richter's title defenses often headlined shows where Hulk Hogan wasn't on the card, something unheard of at the time, as women's matches never main evented WWF cards. She was managed by Cyndi Lauper, and her popularity continued even after Lauper stopped accompanying her to ringside. WWF offered Richter a contract on November 11th, but Richter, who was looking for a pay raise, refused to sign, and said she wanted to meet with her lawyers before signing a new deal. The WWF then hatched a plan to take the title off of Richter at Madison Square Garden, with the internal reasoning later being that they didn't want Richter to hold the belt hostage during negotiations. In truth, the decision had already been made by Vince McMahon to cut ties with Richter, and they wanted to get the belt off of her immediately.

Richter was booked to wrestle the Spider Lady, a masked wrestler usually played by Penny Mitchell, and managed by the Fabulous Moolah, in a successful title defense. However, when it came time for the match, Richter was surprised to find out that Moolah was actually under the mask on this night. Richter was quoted in some interviews as saying she didn't know it was Moolah when the match began, but given the number of times the two wrestled, she had to realize that it was Moolah when they started wrestling. During the match, referee Dick Kroll made several suspect counts, and at the end, counted three on a small package by the Spider, despite Richter kicking out.

Richter pulled the mask off of Moolah at that point (Moolah pretty much let Richter do it), and Moolah then paraded around the ring, as ring announcer Howard Finkel announced her as the new champion. Richter threw some kicks and slaps at Moolah, which Moolah no-sold, infuriating Richter, who then crabbed the belt and tried to hit Moolah with it, before throwing it down and storming off from the ring. Richter never wrestled another WWF match, instead working in the AWA and WWC.

1991 - Kamala defeats Jerry Lawler for the USWA Unified Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee, ending Lawler's tenth reign as champion. On the same card, Robert Fuller & Mike Mitchell defeat Doug Masters & Bart Sawyer for the USWA Tag Team Title.

1992 - WWE Survivor Series was held at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio, headlined by WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart defeating WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels, the in-ring return of Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig after over a year away from wrestling, and the Pay-per-view debut of Yokozuna.

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