On this day in wrestling history 12/20 & 12/21

[Guest Sassquatch]

From Dave Meltzer:

 

ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY 12/20 & 12/21

 

DECEMBER 20

 

1968 - The famous Masked Assassins, Jody Hamilton & Tom Renesto, captured the Southeastern version of the NWA world tag team titles from Ray Gunkel & Buddy Fuller (father of Ron & Robert) in Atlanta.

 

1996 - In what seemed like nearly a death blow to ECW's attempts to become a major promotion, Request TV President High Pinero made the decision that the company would be breaking its contract with ECW for PPV starting early 1997 due to his confirming a series of events, most notably the incident involving New Jack and Erich Kulas, that he was unaware of. Earlier in the week, Viewers Choice made the decision against airing ECW on PPV due to uneasiness about the product. Less than a week later, Pinero, after receiving numerous e-mails on the subjects from ECW fans, reversed his decision and ECW began on PPV the next April. Viewers Choice followed suit shortly thereafter.

 

1998 - The documentary "Wrestling with Shadows" debuted on U.S. television on A&E. The movie, which garnered generally strong reviews, was based on the finish of the Survivor Series PPV one year earlier, which still remains the most famous finish of a pro wrestling match in modern times. The movie ended up winning a Gemini Award in Canada, equivalent to an Emmy, for Best Television Documentary.

 

1999 - Bret Hart defeated Bill Goldberg to win the WCW title that Hart vacated earlier in the evening in the last attempt, short lived as it was, to revive the NWO, at Nitro at the Baltimore Arena before 8,915 fans, of which 4,589 were paid. The Monday night ratings at this point were Raw at 5.83 and Nitro at 3.20. . . Keiji Muto was named MVP of Japanese Wrestling with a 14-8 vote margin over Mitsuharu Misawa. There was major controversy because Vader, who kept All Japan from falling even farther due to staleness and injuries to top talent, was not even considered for the award. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama were named Tag team of the year and Kazushi Sakuraba, who won MVP this year, along with Naoya Ogawa won awards as Most Valuable Fighter.

 

DECEMBER 21

 

1931 - Jim Londos retained the world heavyweight title pinning Ray Steele in 57:21 with Ernest Roeber as referee before 15,000 fans in Madison Square Garden during a period when Londos headlined MSG every other week and routinely drew crowds of 15,000.

 

1973 - Ron Fuller defeated Cowboy Bill Watts to win the Georgia heavyweight championship in Atlanta during the height of the famous promotional war of Atlanta.

 

1981 - In the biggest mainstream article of the era on pro wrestling, Sports Illustrated ran a 17-page back-of-the-issue story on Andre the Giant. The story was rife with folklore and exaggerations, and even listed his size at 7-foot-4 and claimed at 520 pounds that he didn't even have excess body fat. It also claimed that had he trained for the sport and taken the necessary steroids, he would have been the strongest powerlifter ever, breaking records in the squat and dead lift. While one could speculate forever what ifs with Andre's god given size what he could have done in other sports, the fact was, he never trained and in sports that require training and discipline, god given size alone isn't enough.

 

1991 - Leon "Bull Power" White defeated Tatsumi Fujinami in Bremen, Germany to become the first CWA Intercontinental champion. The two had long been rivals already in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

 

1996 - Union of Wrestling Force International (UWFI) in Japan announced that the company would be folding with its final shows over the next week. UWFI was a major force in pro wrestling, peaking on December 5, 1993 when it drew 46,148 fans to Jingu Stadium for the battle of UWFI world champion Nobuhiko Takada and WCW world champion Vader with Takada winning with an armbar submission in a classic match. The company likely would have folded one year earlier, except was kept alive by New Japan, ultimately to be destroyed, with the interpromotional feud, which led to huge Tokyo Dome gates.

 

1997 - The UFC debuted in Japan with a crowd of more than 10,000 fans at the Yokohama Arena to see Randy Couture capture the heavyweight title from Maurice Smith via decision in a dull match. The undercard, historically, was far more notable for the UFC debuts of the two men who would dominate shootfighting over the next few years, Frank Shamrock and Kazushi Sakuraba. Shamrock became the UFC's first middleweight champion by submitting 1992 Olympic gold medalist Kevin Jackson in just 14 seconds. Sakuraba, at the time a pro wrestler with the Kingdom promotion, won a four-man tournament by tapping out a heavily favored Marcus Conan Silviera with an armbar in 3:45, despite giving away 50 pounds.

 

1998 - The Wrestling Observer Newsletter released the almost entire transcript of the Bret Hart-Vince McMahon conversation discussing the finish of the Survivor Series match one year earlier, notable because in the conversation, McMahon never once even brought up the idea of Hart losing the match.

 

1999 - In something the company and industry should have learned from about setting up stunts that mean nothing without careful planning, Bill Goldberg's career was threatened and Bret Hart's life was put in jeopardy in a stunt on a Thunder taping in Salisbury, MD. The close of the show was for Goldberg to chase Hart out of the building. Hart was to jump in a car and speed off, however, the parking lot was covered in ice, and Hart, suffering from the effects of a concussion, unbeknownst to himself at the time, lost control of the car and nearly crashed into a production truck before luckily gaining control. Goldberg wasn't nearly as lucky, as in the heat of battle, he decided to punch through a non-gimmicked limousine window that supposedly contained Vince Russo. When the first few blows didn't break the window (he was supposed to use a small hammer to break the window but didn't) his elbow did, resulting in a career threatening injury that kept him out of action for several months and his career never rebounded from the time off.