September 19th
On this day in history in ...
1956 - The Great Malenko defeats Herb Welch in Mobile, Alabama for the
NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Title, ending Welch's second reign.
1969 - Joe Scarpa (aka Chief Jay Strongbow) defeated Paul DeMarco in
Atlanta, Georgia to win the NWA Georgia Heavyweight Title, ending DeMarco's
second reign.
1977 - WWWF World Champion Superstar Graham defeated Chief Jay Strongbow
in a steel cage match when Strongbow threw Graham against the cage near the
door, allowing Graham to crawl out the door for the win at the Boston Garden in
Masachusetts. On the undercard, Bruno Sammartino defeated Ken Patera in a Texas
Death Match.
1980 - The Grappler defeats Ted DiBiase in Shreveport, Louisana for the
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Title.
1981 - WWF World Champion Bob Backlund defeats George Steele in a Texas
Death Match at the Capital Center in Landover, Maryland.
1982 - Jos LeDuc defeated Jimmy Valiant in Charlotte, North Carolina for
the NWA Mid-Atlantic Television Title, ending Valiant's second reign.
1986 - Shiro Koshinaka defeats Nobuhiko Takada for the IWGP Junior
Heavyweight Title in Fukuoka, Japan, starting his second title reign.
1986 - Ron Starr defeats Invader I in Ponce, Puerto Rico to become the
first WWC Television champion.
1992 - Atsushi Onita defeats Tiger Jeet Singh for the WWA World Martial
Arts Heavyweight Title (top FMW title) in Yokohama, Japan. This began Onita's
third and final reign with the belt, as the title was soon retired.
1993 - WCW held their Fall Brawl Pay-per-view in Houston, Texas. Here are
the results:
- In a dark match, Erik Watts defeated Bobby Eaton.
- Steven Regal defeated Ricky Steamboat for the WCW World Television Title with
a suplex and bridge after Sir William (Bill Dundee) hit Steamboat with an
umbrella.
- Charlie Norris defeated Big Sky with a kick.
- 2 Cold Scorpio & Marcus Bagwell defeated The Equalizer & Paul Orndorff
when Scorpio pinned Equalizer with a 450 splash after Orndorff accidentally hit
him.
- Ice Train defeated Shanghai Pierce with a powerslam.
- The Nasty Boys defeated Arn Anderson & Paul Roma to win the WCW World Tag
Team Title when Sags pinned Roma with a top rope elbow. This result was hardly a
surprise, as television tapings had already been held with the Nasties as tag
champs, Missy Hyatt (who "debuted with them here) as their manager, and
Roma & Anderson broken up.
- Cactus Jack defeated Yoshi Kwan with a double-arm DDT.
- Rick Rude defeated Ric Flair to win the WCW International World Heavyweight
Title when Rude knocked out Flair with a foreign object as Flair had Rude in the
figure four.
- Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes & The Shockmaster defeated Sid
Vicious, Vader & Harlem Heat in a WarGames match when The Shockmaster forced
Kole (Booker T) to submit to a bearhug.
1998 - ECW ran a show at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Here are the results:
- Mikey Whipwreck defeated Jerry Lynn.
- JT Smith, Chris Chetti & Tommy Rogers defeated The FBI (Tommy Rich, Tracey
Smothers & Little Guido).
- The Blue Meanie & Super Nova defeated Danny Doring & Ulf Hermann.
- Chris Candido defeated Lance Storm.
- Masato Tanaka defeated D-Von Dudley.
- Balls Mahoney defeated Mike Awesome.
- New Jack, Tommy Dreamer & John Kronus defeated Justin Credible, Rod Price
& Jack Victory.
- Sabu, Rob Van Dam & Masato Tanaka vs. The Triple Threat (Shane Douglas,
Bam Bam Bigelow & Chris Candido) ended in a no-contest.
1999 - ECW held their Anarchy Rulz Pay-per-view in Villa Park, Illinois,
drawing the largest live crowd in original ECW history, with over 6,000 fans in
attendance. The show featured Taz losing the ECW World Title to Mike Awesome in
a Three Way Dance with Masato Tanaka. Despite the way it is portrayed on WWE's
"Rise And Fall Of ECW" DVD, this was not Taz' final ECW match, as he
continued to wrestle for the company through November. Here is Tim
Whitehead's original report on the show:
ECW followed up on their TNN debut by putting forth a strong PPV effort with
Anarchy Rulz. The show drew over 6,000 fans, packing the Odeum in suburban
Chicago for the largest live house in the promotion's history.
The highlight of the show was the creation of a new major star in Mike Awesome.
Though Awesome is now a veteran wrestler, he's totally new to the vast majority
of American fans and the apparent idea here is to create a Goldberg type
charismatic newcomer. It's a formula that has worked in the past with the right
type of wrestler, and at first glance Awesome has the right combo of looks and
talent to carry the ball, though of course only time will tell on something like
this.
There were a lot of good matches on the show. ECW's main advantage over the
other two groups is workrate. No one ever dogs it out there. It creates an
atmosphere at their shows, which is very different. The weak parts of the PPV
were the "clusters" (I'll avoid the more descriptive version of that
term) where one thing leads to another and then leads to another, etc. etc. etc.
These things get over at ECW Arena but they come off looking confusing on PPV,
and almost never work so I'm not sure why they keep pushing these things. The
main event wasn't as hot as it could have been, and was overshadowed by the good
lower card matches.
Commentary was good. Joey Styles and Cyrus argue a little too much but they do
at least try to keep most of the arguing between the matches rather than during.
Technically, this may have been the best ECW PPV ever. The only major screw-up
was a video/sound timing problem in the opening video angle.
Overall, a darn good PPV for the promotion's first show of the TNN era.
They opened with a video angle where the sound got screwed up. Masato Tanaka
arrived and was going to be interviewed by Steve Prazak but Jeff Jones stuck his
nose in things and Tanaka walloped him.
LANCE STORM defeated JERRY LYNN in 16:36. They may now called Tammy Lynn Bytch
by the name Dawn Marie, but that doesn't mean the fans will show similar
restraint. A "Show Your Tits" chant erupted immediately upon her
arrival. They did some good back and forth action early, including leapfrog
spots. Lynn hit a spinning headscissors. They traded hard chops to a series of
"whooos". Lynn dropkicked Storm to the floor. Lynn kept taking Storm
down until Storm dropped Lynn's throat across the ropes. Storm dominated and got
a series of twos working on Lynn's taped ribs. Lynn retaliated with a plancha
and got two with a missile kick. A "she's a crack whore" chant
started, but Cyrus claimed they were saying, "She's a great girl".
Hilarious! They did an innovative low blow spot where Storm was on the receiving
end. They began trading fast two counts to a lot of heat. Dawn tossed a chair in
but Lynn DDT'd Storm on it. He would have gotten three but Dawn put Storm's boot
on the rope. Lynn ducked to avoid a chair spot and hit the post, further
"injuring" his ribs. Lynn blocked a DDT and hit a stunner on Storm for
two, but was selling the ribs big time. Lynn hit a huracanrana but Storm out of
nowhere grapevined the legs and rolled Lynn up for the pin. Real good opener.
Simon Diamond came down and did his "Simon Says" routine on Tom
Marquez. He challenged anyone in the back to a fight. Jazz came out and he
informed her that he didn't say "Simon Says" when issuing the
challenge, and also noted that she was a female and said all they can do in
wrestling is provide T & A, which drew a big babyface pop. He told her to
get her "flat chested ghetto booty" out of the ring. She shoved him
and Diamond then instructed Marquez to wrestle her.
JAZZ beat TOM MARQUEZ by DQ in 0:51. At least I think it was a DQ. Maybe it was
a no-contest. It was never really announced what it was, as this was the
beginning of the confusing "cluster" segment. Marquez bodyslammed Jazz
but she grabbed him in the crotch and began squeezing (ouch!) but Diamond and
Tony DeVito ran in at this point, followed by Chris Chetti and Nova to start the
next match.....
CHRIS CHETTI & NOVA fought SIMON DIAMOND & TONY DEVITO to a no-contest
in 3:53. This was pretty bad. Nova & Chetti started off well, hitting
sentons and quebradas. But Chetti then wiped out his knee in a pescado spot.
DeVito and Nova messed up a spot real bad and got booed out of the arena.
Roadkill & Danny Doring ran in and attacked everyone, including Jazz. Miss
Congeniality (formerly Angelica) got in the face of Jazz after she was laid out.
Roadkill was going to splash Jazz but Rod Price, C.W. Anderson, Bill Wiles, Vito
Lograsso, and Spanish Angel all charged the ring. I guess it gave the lower card
a chance to be on PPV but it was still a mess. Finally, New Jack arrived to a
massive pop with his cart full of weapons and destroyed everyone, including
using a staple gun and a guitar on Price.
They showed the ecwwrestling.com crew at the internet broadcast booth. I think
those guys should have had to pay to get in like everyone else.
YOSHIHIRO TAJIRI beat SUPER CRAZY and LITTLE GUIDO in a three-way match in
14:37. Tajiri started off with dropkicks, and hurled Guido out to the ramp. He
did a tilt-a-whirl headscissors on Crazy. Crazy came back with a springboard
missile kick. They did a variation on an AJW spot. Guido put Crazy in a camel
clutch and Tajiri kicked him, but then he kicked Guido. Tajiri did a baseball
slide, which sent Crazy over the rail. He then did an Asai moonsault. Big Sal
Graziano interfered and nailed both Tajiri and Crazy. Guido did a Rocker Dropper
off the top. They all traded some two counts and went back to the floor where
Crazy did an Asai moonsault. Crazy also kicked Big Sal off the apron and he went
through a table. Tajiri put the tarantula hold on Crazy. Guido dropkicked Crazy
while he was locked in the hold. Crazy and Guido cooperated long enough to hook
a double Sicilian Crab on Tajiri. Guido did a Tomikaze on Crazy. Guido got hung
upside down in the corner and kicked by Tajiri. Crazy then pinned Guido with a
moonsault to eliminate him at 9:17. Tajiri and Crazy continued at a fast pace,
hitting moonsaults and Tornado DDT's for two counts. Crazy went for another
moonsault but landed on Tajiri's knees. Tajiri kicked the hell out of him and
pinned him with a brainbuster. Real good match!
They showed Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins in the crowd.
They buried Insane Clown Posse, who teased coming to ECW last week only to
decide to stay with WCW. Steve Corino said he had been planning to bring ICP in
to take the tag titles but they backed out because they knew they couldn't beat
Raven & Tommy Dreamer. Styles then added that he hoped Bill Busch would have
enough respect for his new position not to take ICP back after they tried to
humiliate WCW by jumping in the first place.
JUSTIN CREDIBLE defeated SABU in 14:04. The storyline here was that Sabu has
been reinstated (even though he's been wrestling on house shows all along) from
his suspension. Credible came out and had a restraining order against the
reinstatement. Referee Jim Molineaux said it was a legal restraining order but
since Anarchy Rules in ECW the law is irrelevant. When Bob Artese refused to
declare Credible the winner by forfeit, Credible caned him. The lights went out
and Sabu appeared to start the match. Sabu used a chair on Credible but Credible
responded by putting Sabu through a table on the ramp. Sabu did a somersault
plancha to the floor. Credible ended up on a table but escaped before Sabu could
put him through it. Sabu worked Credible over some more and put him on a table,
which was propped against the rail and legdropped him from the top. The table
didn't break so he did it again. This time it broke and a metal shard slashed
Credible above the eye and he juiced like crazy. Another sharp edge cut Sabu's
mid-section and he juiced from there. Very dangerous! They slowed things down a
little after this and traded camel clutches. Sabu legdropped Jason. Credible
used a cane on Sabu but only got two since Sabu got his boot on the rope. They
did a few chair spots and traded twos. Credible bulldogged Sabu through table
but took the brunt of the blow himself. Sabu did a moonsault as they picked back
up with the highspots. Bill Alfonso kicked Credible. Sabu kicked out at two
after receiving That's Incredible, but the second time Credible scored the pin.
Styles pushed Credible's win as a major deal. The match was good but the ending
looked a little weak.
MIKE AWESOME defeated TAZ and MASATO TANAKA in 13:46 to capture the ECW World
Title. This was supposed to be a one-on-one defense by Taz against Tanaka but
Awesome arrived and he and Taz got into an argument, leading Paul E. Dangerously
to make it a three way. They were chanting "you sold out" at Taz (he's
WWF bound) but they handled this so well that he was given a babyface pop after
it was all over. Tanaka hit a plancha. Taz suplexed both opponents but Tanaka
nailed him with a roaring elbow and Awesome pinned him with a frog splash in
2:00. They treated it like a big deal that Taz lost so quickly, and sold it big
by having the lower card wrestlers all come out and watch from the ramp, making
this come off as a major event. Awesome hit a tope suicida and a powerbomb.
Tanaka did a running chairshot on the ramp. He followed up with a series of
Tornado DDT's for near falls. They traded chair spots. Tanaka was Awesome Bombed
from the ring through a table. Awesome hit the frog splash but only got two,
which put Tanaka over in a major way since Taz was pinned earlier with that
move. Awesome pulverized Tanaka with chairshots. Tanaka went for the roaring
elbow but Awesome moved clear. Awesome hit a German suplex and a spear. Awesome
hit a chairshot off the top and used a chair, somewhat weakly, on Tanaka on a
table. Awesome finally powerbombed Tanaka through a table for the pin. Real hot
match! Taz returned and kissed the belt before handing it over to Awesome and
shaking his hand. Paul E. and the other wrestlers hugged Taz as he left. A great
way to handle this situation!
RAVEN & TOMMY DREAMER defeated STEVE CORINO & RHINO in 3:23 in an
"unscheduled" match to retain the ECW World Tag Titles. Tommy came out
and cut a babyface promo, including mentioning Sammy Sosa. Francine was there,
looking too much like Karen Carpenter to be healthy. Corino arrived and
instructed Rhino to attack Dreamer. Tommy fought back, including dumping Jack
Victory from his wheelchair. Dreamer did some moves like neckbreakers but kept
selling his back. Corino brought in a ladder. Rhino powerslammed Francine. Raven
then ran in and it became the tag title match somehow, with Raven & Tommy
scoring double pins on Corino & Rhino with DDT's. Another
"cluster" so it came off poorly. Chicago radio personality Mancow came
out with two overweight indie guys named Toad & Al Roper Jr. to congratulate
Raven & Dreamer.
Axl Rotten got on the mic and said he wanted a World Title shot and called
Awesome out. He never arrived (which kind of looked bad) but the Impact Players
did and they tripled on Axl until Spike Dudley & Balls Mahoney made the
save. Spike did the Acid Drop on Dawn Marie. Somewhere in here Balls hit Johnny
Smith was a standard chairshot, but they sold it as being so devastating it
knocked Smith out of the main event. Balls ended up substituted into the match
instead.
ROB VAN DAM beat BALLS MAHONEY in 19:36 to retain the ECW TV Title. I think
Smith could have had a better match here but I guess the idea was that he was
too new to most fans to be in the main event. The first half of the match was
actually slow, with no heat. Mostly they bawled, both in the ring and on the
floor, to very little crowd response. Van Dam finally popped the crowd with an
amazingly high somersault plancha from the top. Balls juiced after a Van
Daminator. Balls came back and got a series of twos as the crowd began to get
into it as the pace was picking up. Bill Alfonso gave Van Dam a chair and he
kicked it into Balls' face. They traded a bunch of spots where each landed on a
chair, leading to near falls. Balls hit Van Dam with a sick chairshot. Alfonso
broke up the pin at two. Alfonso hit Balls with a chair but he no-sold. Balls
was stalking Alfonso when Van Dam recovered and hit the Van Daminator for two.
Finally, Van Dam hit the frog splash for the pin, though it looked like it also
hurt him. They shook hands afterward. The last half of the match was okay. But
the hot lower card bouts made the show.
1999 - Glamour Boy Shane defeats Gangsta Mustafa Saed in Guaynabo, Puerto
Rico to win the WWC Television Title.
2000 - Mike Rapada (Colorado Kid) won the NWA World Heavyweight Title in
a tournament in Tampa, Florida, defeating Hector Guerrero in the first round and
Jerry Flynn in the finals.
2003 - Sonjay Dutt became the first (and as it turns out, only) MLW
Junior Heavyweight Champion by defeating Tony Mamaluke, Eddie Colon and
Christopher Daniels to win the J-Cup USA tournament in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
On the same card, Terry Funk, The Sandman, Steve Williams, Sabu & Bill
Alfonso defeated The Extreme Horsemen (Steve Corino, Simon Diamond, CW Anderson,
PJ Walker & Barry Windham) in a WarGames match. Originally, Jerry Lawler was
supposed to participate, but a week before the show, WWE forced Lawler to back
out, since they felt MLW's television exposure on the Sunshine Network made them
more than just an "independent company" (Because he is an announcer,
not a wrestler, for WWE, Lawler is allowed to work indy shows).
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