On this day in wrestling history 12/16

[Guest Sassquatch]

From Dave Meltzer:

 

ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY 12/16

 

1917 - From a historian perspective, the highest regarded pro wrestler in history, Frank Gotch, passed away of uremic poisoning at the age of 39. While nobody knows for sure or knows better, Gotch's matches are regarded in most history books as legitimate. Certainly he put the sport of pro wrestling on the map in the United States as the biggest sports star of his era. His influence to this day is strong in that his matches with George Hackenschmidt are debated to this day, and Iowa, his home state and the state he was literally the father of wrestling in, remains the strongest state for High School and College wrestling. There have always been allegations that Gotch really died from VD.

 

1949 - Just a few months into his pro career, Verne Gagne captures the Texas heavyweight title from Leo Newman at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston, TX.

 

1963 - Edouard Carpentier is awarded the WWA world heavyweight title when champion Bearcat Wright left the promotion and missed the show in Indio, CA. Wright was scheduled to drop the title to Freddie Blassie, but refused to do a job and changed the finish in the ring to keep the title. The next night, he was booked against Gene LeBelle, who was not a main event wrestler, but was the company shooter. He knew what that meant, left the building, and Carpentier was named champion. . . In Madison Square Garden before 11,670 fans paying $34,878, Bruno Sammartino pinned Dr. Jerry Graham in the main event.

 

1990 - Starrcade '90 was held before 7,200 fans paying $93,425 at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis headlined by Sting pinning The Black Scorpion, who was Ric Flair under a mask, in a steel cage match with Dick the Bruiser as referee. Match was easily the worst Flair-Sting match ever on a major show. Rick & Scott Steiner beat Great Muta & Masa Saito to win a one-night Pat O'Connor Cup memorial tournament which included Russians Victor Zangiev & Salman Hashimikov in their only U.S. appearance ever, and a Mexican team of Konnan & Rey Misterio. Lex Luger won the U.S. title from Stan Hansen,

 

1994 - Royce Gracie defeats Dan Severn in the finals of the fourth UFC PPV event before a sellout crowd of 5,857 paying $140,000 in Tulsa. Severn, who had a 70-pound weight advantage, took Gracie down and kept him there for the entire match, until Gracie caught him in a triangle choke at 15:49. The show drew an amazing 0.9 percent buy rate and was considered the show that put Severn on the map as a pro wrestler for a few years. Al Snow was Severn's corner man in the match. Because the match went so long, and the show past the three-hour mark, much of the PPV audience missed the finish, the first of numerous problems SEG would encounter. . . At the first night of the first King of Pancrase tournament, an unknown rookie in his first fight named Frank Juarez scored an upset first round decision over Bas Rutten. Juarez later became known as Frank Shamrock.

 

1995 - Wahoo McDaniel has his final pro wrestling match in Clinton, SC at the age of 57. . . Severn defeated Paul Varelans, Tank Abbott and Oleg Taktarov to win the first ever Ultimate Ultimate tournament before a sellout 2,800 fans in Denver. UFC made national publicity for a week leading to the show because the Mayor of Denver got the show moved out of the main building, but a compromise was reached and they still held the show in the smaller building. The show, which went head-to-head with a Mike Tyson fight on free TV, drew an 0.6 buy rate live, but an 0.4 buy rate on the replay. It was the largest buy rate believed to be in history ever for a replay of a PPV event.