On this day in wrestling history 12/05

[Guest Sassquatch]

From Dave Meltzer:

 

ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY 12/05

 

1938 - In a battle of two of the greatest light heavyweight wrestlers in history, Danny McShain, the supreme worker and bleeder of his time, defeated Leroy McGuirk, the supreme lighter weight shooter to win the World light heavyweight title in Hollywood, CA. McShain held the title, which eventually morphed into the current NWA World light heavyweight title in Mexico, a record 11 times. McGuirk gave up the light heavyweight belt to move to the junior heavyweight division, winning the title the next year and holding it until being blinded in an auto accident, never dropping the title after an amazing 11-year run as champion.

 

1958 - Dynamite Kid, who along with Satoru Sayama in the early 1980s put lighter weight wrestling on the map in Japan, and tapes of their matches led to revolutionizing the in-ring product, was born in England. Tom Billington, who appeared Saturday at the UK Rebellion PPV backstage, has been confined to a wheelchair for the past four years due to the brutal punishment he largely inflicted on himself as being the premier insane bump taker of his time. Debuted 1975 and 1978 for Stampede.

 

1966 - In the first pro wrestling sellout ever at Budokan Hall, Giant Baba retained the International heavyweight title beating Fritz Von Erich. This match was humorous for a behind-the-scenes story. Von Erich was the top heel in Japan of this time period because they put the iron claw over so strong. When Von Erich got the hold on Baba, Baba went to blade his forehead, but instead cut Fritz' finger, and it was bleeding all over the place. The reporters quickly made up the story about how Fritz went into the match with a terribly painful hangnail.

 

1993 - In the biggest show ever in the history of the UWFI promotion and a battle of recognized World champions, Nobuhiko Takada defeated Vader (WCW world champion at the time) in 14:23 with an armbar to retain the title at Tokyo Jingu Stadium before a sellout 46,168 fans paying $2.5 million. The WCW promotion was furious at Vader for losing cleanly in another promotion while holding its world title. In the top two matches on the undercard, Russian former national champion amateurs Salman Hashimikov & Vladimir Berkovich beat American top amateur wrestlers Dan Severn & Gary Albright, while Kiyoshi Tamura was put over Olympic silver medallist Dennis Koslowski.

 

1997 - Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue captured their second consecutive Real World Tag League tournament victory at Tokyo Budokan Hall beating Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama in 30:52 before 15,500 fans at Budokan Hall.

 

1998 - Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama captured the Real World Tag League tournament over Stan Hansen & Vader when Kobashi pinned Vader after a desperation lariat before a sellout 16,300 fans at Budokan Hall. Hansen & Vader had gone undefeated in the round-robin aspect of the tournament in the first time two of the biggest foreign stars of all-time in Japan had formed a team with Vader joining up with All Japan.