On this day in wrestling history 12/18

[Guest Sassquatch]

From Dave Meltzer:

 

ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY 12/18

 

1964 - One of the biggest drawing cards in the history of pro wrestling, Steve Austin, was born.

 

1968 - After the Los Angeles promotion and the World Wrestling Association joined with the National Wrestling Alliance to recognize Gene Kiniski as the World heavyweight champion, greatly solidifying the NWA's power base as the leading organization in the world at the time The WWA world champ, Bobo Brazil, as part of the merger, wrestled Kiniski for the title at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, going to a one hour draw. Although the match was legendary because of what it entailed at the time, those who saw it live remember it as a dreadfully boring match.

 

1970 - Toru Tanaka pinned Fritz Von Erich in Houston to win the old NWA American heavyweight champion.

 

1972 - Mil Mascaras become the first masked wrestler in several decades to wrestle in Madison Square Garden. The New York State Athletic Commission had a ban on masked wrestlers, so when a masked wrestler would appear in the WWWF in those days, he would have to do a circular mask leaving his face exposed when working the Garden, such as the likes of The Masked Russians, who were revealed as being Hispanic with their faces exposed at MSG shows, as well as El Olympico and Black Demon. The Spoiler (Don Jardine), who worked with a mask in the rest of the territory, went without a mask at MSG and actually, without the mask, was Mascaras' opponent on this show. Mascaras refused to allow his face to be shown to protect the sanctity of his gimmick and after pleading his case before the commission, the rescinded the rule. Over the next eight years, Mascaras would prove to be one of the most popular wrestlers to appear at the Garden. Wrestlers had worked north of Albany with masks. Also on the show which drew a sellout of 22,096 fans, Pedro Morales pinned Ray Stevens in the main event while Victor Rivera & El Olympico beat Dory Funk Sr. & Terry Funk.

 

1978 - The WWWF and NWA titles were co-headliners in Madison Square Garden, as Bob Backlund retained the WWWF title going to a double count out with Rock's grandfather, Chief Peter Maivia. Harley Race retained the NWA title pinning Tony Garea. Antonio Inoki was named as the World Martial Arts champion by the WWWF, and made his first title defense against a masked Texas Red (Red Bastien) while Tatsumi Fujinami retained the WWWF jr. heavyweight title pinning first-ever champion Jose Estrada.

 

1983 - Universal champion Carlos Colon defeated NWA world heavyweight champion Ric Flair in a cage match in Bayamon, PR before nearly 30,000 fans

 

1995 - Madusa Micelli, who had been wrestling until a few days earlier in the WWF as Alundra Blayze before her contract expired and wasn't renewed when the company made the decision to disband its women’s division, canceling a planned Blayze vs. Aja Kong match scheduled for the Royal Rumble. Blaze was let go while still holding the WWF women’s title, showed up on Nitro and under orders of Eric Bischoff, threw the WWF belt in the garbage can. Nitro, headlined by Randy Savage defending the WCW title against The Giant, drew its all-time record rating with a 2.7. Raw, headlined by Yokozuna vs. Razor Ramon, drew a 2.3.

[Guest Mattdotcom]

Anybody know WHY masks were banned?

[Guest JHawk]

Anybody know WHY masks were banned?

My guess would be because back in the day, you'd get several people playing the same masked wrestler. For example, there were about 20 Masked Marvels all told.

 

While we're asking questions, wasn't the Colon-Flair match in 1983 an NWA World Title match? Why was this never recognized since it was a planned finish, unlike the Victor Jovica title switch?

[Guest bob_barron]

Maybe it was for the Universal title or it was one of the title switches Flair did overseas

[Guest Sassquatch]

Anybody know WHY masks were banned?

 

Masks were banned in New York because the New York Atheletic Commission thought of them non-atheletic garb which is why so many wrestler's wore generic looking trunks for many years.

 

This rule hurt people like the Destroyer, Mr.Wrestling, and the Assassains from coming up to New York (more specifically the WWWF) and carving out a name for themselves up there. If a wrestler made it big in the New York area then they established themselves as draws which would attract many other regional promoters who liked using the New York draws.

 

While we're asking questions, wasn't the Colon-Flair match in 1983 an NWA World Title match? Why was this never recognized since it was a planned finish, unlike the Victor Jovica title switch?

 

The Victor Jovica match has always been contested by historians for it's validity as to whether or or not the match did in fact take place with a title switch. No one has been able to find any dates set by JCP or any other NWA promotion Flair worked for that traveled to Trinidad, Spain right around the time after the Colon match too place in January of '83.

 

No concrete evidence of the Jovica match taking place has surfaced.

 

The Jack Verano and Carlos Colon matches in regards to the NWA title switching hands were shown on TV at the times the matches had taken place which had confirmed that 2 phantom title changes had taken place. The title changes were just recently learned about a couple years ago when various fans had reported on the net that they had seen the matches take place and offered up detailed reviews.

 

The Verano match in question ended when Flair supposedly saw some guns and knives being pulled out by fans when he was beating Verano in the ring. For his own safety and well being, he told Verano to school boy him immediately and win the title. Flair immediately was rushed out of the ring after the fans began throwing bottles at the ring and Flair left while Verano celebrated.

 

The match was a total disaster for the NWA since Verano had refused to defend the belt outside of his country or even offer Flair a rematch for the belt that he was never supposed to win in the first place. This caused the NWA to scramble because of the possible public relations nightmare that could have ensued in regards to the credibility of the belt along with Flair's own merit with the belt and the fans. The NWA had always prided itself on how tough their champions were and the Verano match could have done serious damage to that image. The NWA never recognized the title change and Flair flew back home with the NWA belt after the tour had ended.

 

Colon's matches with Flair turned out differently however. Colon had formed his company the WWC back in late '73 and had become the most powerful wrestling promoter in Puerto Rico over the next decade. Colon became a Demi God in PR and was showered with applause wherever he would go. Colon and the WWC had also become an uneasy partner to the NWA whom they had promised huge gates to if they would do business with him and his company.

 

On 1/6/83 World Wrestling Council chmapion Carlos Colon beat Ric Flair for the NWA Heavyweight title in San Juan, Puerto Rico in a "unification" match between the two champions. This match helped turn Carlos' WWC Heavyweight belt into the Universal Heavyweight belt that was based on being the champ for two major promotions. The NWA agreed to have Flair drop the title to Colon in exchange for a large sum of that night's gate along with a precentage of each gate in the future where Colon would announce himself as the NWA champ. Colon agreed to the terms and set out to create his dream belt. However, outside of Puerto Rico, it was agreed upon that Flair would still be recognized as the NWA champ in order to not cause a confusion amongst fans.

 

Colon gained even more appreciation from the fans for his win over the NWA champ and he received all of the acolades he had set out to acheive from the win. To give the title match closure and as a way to not stir up trouble, Flair had a rematch in PR on 1/26/83 with Colon for the NWA title in which he won the match. The phantom title change had taken place and it would not be found out about until years later by historians.

 

Both the NWA and Colon gained something out of the deal and Colon was able to make his country's belt mean something more that what it had originally when it was first created.

 

Hope this helped.

[Guest JHawk]

Nicely done, Sassquatch. I was actually referring to the Verano switch when I mentioned the Jovica switch, but you picked up well on it.

[Guest Sassquatch]

Historians have also speculated that the Verano match outcome might have been planned from the start. In other words, the fans at ringside who were drawing guns and knives out might have been planted there to get Flair to give the title to Verano. It has been mentioned in the past that Verano was very adament about becoming the champion of a major US promotion and the way he went about business after the NWA title match suggests this theory might not be too far off.