On this day in wrestling history 12/26

[Guest Sassquatch]

From Dave Meltzer:

 

ON THIS DAY IN WRESTLING HISTORY FOR 12-26

 

1963 - The original Gorgeous George, real named Raymond George Wagner, passed away of a heart attack at his Hollywood, CA apartment at the age of 48. George was the most well known wrestler in the country when pro wrestling hit network television in 1949 with his bleached blond hair and fancy robes and spawned generations of wrestlers who followed suit. While George was such a huge attraction in the early days, when television and movie stars frequented the wrestling matches, he often commanded 50 percent of the gate, an unheard of percentage either before or since. After being the highest paid wrestler in history by the early 50s, and likely the highest paid athlete in the world at the time when $100,000 athletes were almost non-existent, he died penniless.

 

1981 - While wrestling as a heel in Florida for his only major heel run of his career, David Von Erich defeated Jack Brisco in St. Petersburg at the Bayfront Center to win the Southern heavyweight title.

 

1983 - The Iron Sheik defeated Bob Backlund in Madison Square Garden to win the WWF heavyweight title when Backlund's manager, Arnold Skaaland, threw in the towel when Backlund was caught in the camel clutch. With the exception of a one week interruption by Antonio Inoki, Backlund had held the title since February 20, 1978 when he defeated Superstar Billy Graham, and during that period as a headliner sold out Madison Square Garden more than 40 times. Clearly his drawing power hadn't fallen too much in New York (some of the other cities weren't doing as well) as between the Garden sellout and closed circuit at the Felt Forum, an announced crowd of 24,592 attended the show. However, the plans by Vince McMahon Jr. to go national had already been laid out and the title switch became evident the next day when Hulk Hogan appeared at a WWF television taping in St. Louis. Backlund only lasted a few more months in the WWF before being fired when he refused McMahon Jr.'s decision to bleach his hair and turn heel. Years later he returned to the WWF as a heel.

 

1985 - One of the great tag teams of the era, Ted DiBiase & Steve Williams, captured the Mid South tag team titles from Dick Murdoch & Eddie Gilbert in Biloxi, MS. Three months later the belts were re-named the UWF tag team titles. DiBiase & Williams remained a team until Jim Crockett Jr. purchased the UWF from Bill Watts in early 1987.

 

1987 - Randy Savage defeated Honky Tonk Man via DQ and Greg Valentine beat Brutus Beefcake via count out in the double headliner in Madison Square Garden.

 

1988 - The first PPV show ever for World Championship Wrestling, shortly after purchasing the company from Jim Crockett, Starrcade '88 took place at the Scope in Norfolk. The show drew about 10,000 fans in the 13,000-seat Arena for a gate of $150,000 and received 94 percent thumbs up in the Observer poll, headlined by a ****1/2 match where Ric Flair pinned Lex Luger in 30:59. Yes, Flair really was "the man." Dusty Rhodes had originally, since he and Flair were at odds, wanted to book Starrcade with Rick Steiner winning the NWA title from Flair in a quick match, but Jim Herd, in one of his first acts as new Vice President of the company hired by TBS, insisted that Flair, who TBS felt was the company's most valuable asset, score a clean win over Luger, since Flair was never scoring clean wins. As it was, Flair used the ropes for the win.

 

1990 - New Japan Pro Wrestling had a two-hour live prime time special from Hamamatsu headlined by Tatsumi Fujinami winning the IWGP heavyweight title from Riki Choshu, but the show was more memorable for being the final appearance as a wrestler by Lou Thesz, who at the age of 74, lost to Masahiro Chono's STF in a match he regrets ever doing as his artificial hip went out trying to do a piledriver and he had to gut his way through the rest of the match. Thesz became the first wrestler ever to wrestle in seven decades (Mae Young has since done the same). Nick Bockwinkel, at 56, and Hiro Matsuda, at 53, also came out of retirement on the show, which drew a 10.0 rating.