On this day in wrestling history 12/07

[Guest Sassquatch]

From Dave Meltzer:

 

ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY 12/07

 

1941 - The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Don't think this is a wrestling story? Actually, it's among the most important in history. Not only did it lead to America's participation in World War II, which most of the able-bodied men, which meant a majority of the athletes, were called in to serve, leading to weakened ranks within pro wrestling at the time, but it led to so many cultural stereotypes afterwards. The World War II period, with less athletes in pro wrestling by and large led to the popularizing of tag team wrestling, where men could tag in and out as they got tired since the active wrestlers were generally older. After the war, stemming directly from this incident, we went through some five decades of stereotyping Japanese pro wrestling as sneaky back-stabbers, who threw salt and were almost entirely heels. Because of a lack of true Japanese pro wrestlers in this country, numerous Hawaiians in the 50s through the 70s, and some later than that, were recruited to play Japanese roles and many were huge territorial draws and legends, such as Duke Keomuka, Kinji Shibuya, Toru Tanaka, Mr. Fuji, Mr. Moto and so many others.

 

1963 - Rikidozan, who was named Wrestler of the Century by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter because nobody was ever as big a star within their culture, had his final match in Hamamatsu, Japan on JWA's final card of the year. Rikidozan teamed with The Great Togo & Michiaki Yoshimura to win over The Destroyer & Buddy Austin & Ilio DiPaolo. He was dead eight days later at the age of 39, which we'll talk more about in the coming week.

 

1971 - Dory & Terry Funk won the NWA International tag team titles from Giant Baba & Antonio Inoki at the Nakajima Sports Center in Sapporo. The Baba & Inoki team, which had main evented nightly for the past four years and are still the most legendary tag team in Japanese history, had their next to last match on this night (they teamed one last time in 1979 for an interpromotional show). With the JWA falling apart, Inoki was fired after a power play attempt, which led to a few months later his forming New Japan Pro Wrestling, which for many years was the biggest wrestling promotion in the world.

 

1976 - Chief Jay Strongbow & Billy White Wolf (who would go on to more fame under the name Sheik (or General) Adnon Kaissey, won the WWWF tag team titles in a three-team tournament in Philadelphia over The Masked Executioners (John "Studd" Minton & Walter "Killer" Kowalski) and Nikolai Volkoff & Tor Kamata.

 

1988 - In the main event of a TV special called "Seasons Beatings" from Chattanooga, TN, which drew a 4.5 rating, what was billed as the two greatest singles wrestlers in the world at the time, Ric Flair & Barry Windham, defeated what was generally considered the best tag team in the world at the time, the Midnight Express of Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane in 17:41

 

1989 - William Calhoun, one of pro wrestling's biggest attractions of the 60s and early 70s as the supposed 601-pound Haystacks Calhoun, passed away from complications of diabetes at the age of 55. Calhoun, who probably legitimately weighed closer to 450 to 500 pounds, toured territory to territory before the days of Andre the Giant as a popular gimmick performer, losing rarely. Late in his career he settled into the WWF and held the tag team title with Tony Garea.

 

1994 - Pro wrestler Yoji Anjyo, attempting to make a name for himself, of the worked shoot promotion UWFI, went into the Los Angeles jiu-jitsu studio owned by the legendary Rickson Gracie. Anjyo, truly believing that his 35-pound weight advantage and submission knowledge in the Japanese dojo would allow him to become a legend since the Gracies were becoming mythical from Royce and Rickson's tournament wins in Japan and the United States in Vale Tudo and UFC competition. He was dead wrong. Before very few spectators and one video camera, Gracie mounted Anjyo and beat the hell out of him, leaving his face bloodied and swollen. This was the beginning of the end of the UWFI promotion, which at the time was arguably the hottest wrestling company in the world with Nobuhiko Takada drawing sellouts every time out. This would have been a great build for a Takada-Gracie match, but when Takada wouldn't publicly challenge Gracie, people started questioning if he was real, particularly as UFC tapes showed what was real and UWFI didn't look like UFC. UWFI within months collapsed financially because of this, leading to the New Japan interpromotional angle, which saved them for a few months, but ultimately killed them. Ironically, three years later, because of the legend from this incident, Takada did get into the ring with Gracie at the Tokyo Dome before 37,000 fans, with Gracie winning easily, and Gracie won a second rematch one year later, although the second match was a little more competitive.

 

1996 - The second Ultimate Ultimate PPV is held in Birmingham, AL, won by Don Frye via choke over Tank Abbott in about one minute. Virtually every participant in this show ended up in pro wrestling, including Ken Shamrock (WWF), Brian Johnston, (New Japan), Abbott (WCW), Frye (New Japan), Kimo (New Japan) and Paul Varelans (RINGS, Kingdom, ECW). The only one who didn't was possibly the most marketable of the bunch, Gary Goodridge, and Cal Worsham. Shamrock, in his last UFC match ever, defeated Johnston in the first round, but injured his hand and couldn't continue into the second round where he would have faced Abbott.. . . Raven also defeated Sandman at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia to win the ECW heavyweight title

 

1997 - Ken Shamrock main evented his first pro wrestling PPV event against Shawn Michaels in the D-Generation X PPV, the WWF's first card since the legendary Survivor Series match one month earlier. For trivia note, this show in Springfield, MA, was supposed to be the site where Bret Hart would drop the WWF title to Shawn Michaels as part of a four-way (with Shamrock and Undertaker as the other two) before the double-cross. The show drew a sellout 6,358 fans and $112,864 and a poor 0.44 buy rate, barely half of the show the previous month showing short-term Survivor Series bump wasn't what legend tells you it was, even if long-term it did turn the company around after McMahon went heel and Austin caught fire. Shamrock beat Michaels via DQ in a *** in 18:29 when HHH and Chyna interfered. The semifinal saw Steve Austin pin Rocky Maivia to retain the IC title in 5:32 in Austin's first match back after suffering what at the time was considered a career threatening injury at the hands of Owen Hart's tombstone piledriver in August. The show wasn't well received overall, garnering 73.3% thumbs down, with heavy criticism at the Sgt. Slaughter vs. HHH boot camp match and the Marc Mero vs. Butterbean worked Tough Man match. Most considered the best match as the opener, where Taka Michinoku became the first WWF light heavyweight champ recognized in the United States since the days of the Gran Hamada-Perro Aguayo feud, beating Brian Christopher.

[Guest DeputyHawk]

great read as always, sass, thanks for posting this stuff up. couple questions:

 

1)prob being very ignorant here, but would billy "general adnon kaissey" white wolf be the same general adnan who managed sgt slaughter during that ridiculous iraqi defector period? if not, who was gen adnan previously?

 

2)at the end of the iyh19 ppv, owen hart attacked shawn michaels from the crowd, throwing some pretty convincing looking punches onto him. i know this has probably been covered a million times before, but it looked like the ideal set-up to a ppv match at the rumble. was that the original plan, or was shawn-taker iii always the first choice. i have heard the story that shawn didn't particularly want to work with owen but at what point was the decision made to not run that match as their next ppv main event?