On this day in wrestling history 12/27

[Guest Sassquatch]

From Dave Meltzer:

 

ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY 12/27

 

1943 - One of the most famous masked men in pro wrestling history, Bill Eadie, was born. Eadie was known by a variety of names around the world, starting as Bolo Mongol with Tattrie Newton, later becoming The Masked Superstar in the late 70s and early 80s in the Southeast and with New Japan where he was a top headliner, and finally going to the WWF as Demolition Ax, holding the tag team title on several occasions.

 

1966 - Morris Siegel, the legendary promoter in Houston, TX dating back to the early days of pro wrestling passed away at the age of 69. With Siegel's death, Paul Boesch, his leading assistant, took over as promoter for the next 21 years and became one of the most famous promoters of that era in wrestling. . . Bill Goldberg was also born on this day, making today his 34th birthday.

 

1967 - Two major title changes took place as Blackjack Lanza, managed by Bobby Heenan, captured the WWA world heavyweight title in Indianapolis from Wilbur Snyder. Lanza and Heenan were together, on-and-off, as manager and protege through the early 80s before Lanza retired to his current job as a road agent for the WWF and he's responsible for helping lay out many of the big matches you see on television and PPV. . . Johnny Valentine, who died earlier last year, captured the Florida heavyweight title at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa from Joe Scarpa, a major star who would became even more famous in the 70s when he went to the WWWF as Chief Jay Strongbow.

 

1968 - One of the legendary tag teams of the 70s, The Texas Outlaws, Dick Murdoch & Dusty Rhodes, lost what may have been the first tag team title they ever held after getting together, the Central States tag team titles to The Viking & Bob Geigel at Memorial Hall in Kansas City.

 

1982 - Before it became known as the Dusty finish, Jerry Lawler pinned Nick Bockwinkel to apparently win the AWA heavyweight title, but it was overruled by AWA President Stanley Blackburn at ringside because before the pinfall, there was an over the top rope DQ call missed by the referee that Blackburn saw.

 

1983 - In one of the key nights of modern wrestling history, this was the night of the first WWF television taping at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis, with numerous surprise guests including the WWF return of Hulk Hogan and debut of David Shults and Gene Okerlund, all signed away from Verne Gagne, and of Roddy Piper, who was first, because of his size, scheduled to be used only as a heel manager, signed away from Jim Crockett where he was one of the top draws. This raiding of talent, in the case of the AWA talent, unbeknownst to Verne Gagne and with the wrestlers walking out without giving notice on advertised dates, signaled to the world that the famous "War of '84" was set to begin, the war that changed pro wrestling and this industry for good.

 

1987 - An unheralded AWA prelim wrestler named Leon White, was brought in as the new monster creation of Antonio Inoki and New Japan Pro Wrestling under the name Big Van Vader, and shockingly pinned Inoki in less than three minutes in an unannounced match at Tokyo Sumo Hall. Vader, a role originally scheduled to be played by Jim Hellwig, who instead went to WWF instead of New Japan and became famous as The Ultimate Warrior, was managed by the most popular late night TV host in Japan. While the host only lasted one show, wanting to disassociate himself from pro wrestling because there was a huge riot at Sumo Hall because fans felt cheated by a screw-job ending and short match between Inoki and Riki Choshu, the advertised main event, Vader became one of the biggest superstars in company history. From humble beginnings, as a huge guy who was carried by Tatsumi Fujinami, he improved to being one of the best in-ring performers of his size in pro wrestling history. . . In Las Vegas, The Midnight Rockers, Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty, won the AWA tag team titles from The Original Midnight Express, Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose managed by Paul E Dangerously.

 

1991 - One of the biggest names of the 50s and 60s, Wilbur Snyder, passed away at his home in Fort Lauderdale, FL of a heart attack at the age of 62. Snyder continued to wrestle into the early 80s. His biggest matches were in the 50s when he won the U.S. title from Verne Gagne on April 7, 1956, and held both the WWA and Omaha versions of the world heavyweight title and numerous tag team titles with various partners.

 

1993 - Starrcade '93 at the Charlotte Independence Arena saw Ric Flair pin Big Van Vader in a match where Flair vowed to retire if he lost. While the show had little to offer other than the main event, it was one of the most memorable matches of the era. The show drew 75% thumbs up in the Observer balloting and was considered Flair's 11th world heavyweight title and of all his title wins, was easily the most memorable and considered the best TV build-up of any match in the five-year history of the WCW promotion. The irony was this was never supposed to take place, as the plan for Starrcade was for Sid Vicious to beat Vader and win the title, but instead, Vicious and Arn Anderson had their brawl in an England hotel room which resulted in Vicious being fired, and Flair was called upon to save the day. To show how different economics are these days, the show drew only 5,500 paid and 8,200 total $65,000, which were the best numbers for WCW that entire year, and an 0.55 buy rate, the company's best of the year.

 

1994 - A less memorable Starrcade '94 in Nashville drew WCW's first major arena true sellout in several years with 7,000 fans paying $90,000 (8,200 total in the building). The idea of a true sellout was so foreign that WCW employees were out front taking photos of the box office with the "sold out" sign. The show received a 78% thumbs down response, and drew an 0.60 buy rate, with no match better than the **1/4 for the Nasty Boys vs. Harlem Heat. The main event, at 3/4*, saw Hulk Hogan pin long-time best friend Ed Leslie, billed as The Butcher, in 12:07 to retain the WCW title.

 

1995 - With a little more paper, Starrcade again packed Nashville with 8,200 fans, this time with 6,018 paying $83,855 but drawing a poor 0.36 buy rate for a great show billed as the World Cup of Wrestling. In one of the worst big matches of his career, Ric Flair won a triangle match, long before the term three-way dance was in the national wrestling lexicon, over Sting and Lex Luger in 28:03, and then in a second disappointing match, defeated Randy Savage when Arn Anderson hit Savage with a foreign object to win the WCW title in a call made by Hulk Hogan at the last minute to take the title from Savage to put it on Flair, so Hogan could be fed. Highlight of the show were undercard matches involving New Japan vs. WCW talent, in particular Koji Kanemoto beating Alex Wright in a ***3/4 match and Shinjiro Otani, who stole the show, pinning Eddy Guerrero in a ****1/4 match. WCW ended up winning the best of seven against New Japan when Sting beat Kensuke Sasaki with the scorpion in a *** match.

 

1998 - Bill Goldberg's winning streak ended at the hands of Kevin Nash to headline Starrcade '98 at the MCI Arena in Washington, DC before a sellout 16,066 paying $584,236, the largest house ever for a WCW PPV event, and a 1.15 buy rate. The show drew an 83 percent thumbs down, despite the greatest opening match in Starrcade history, a three-way where Billy Kidman retained the cruiserweight title over both Juventud Guerrera and Rey Misterio Jr. in a ****1/2 match. Kidman then beat Eddy Guerrero in a ***1/2 match to keep the title. This was also the night Eric Bischoff scored his pinfall over Ric Flair.

[Guest JHawk]

1983 - In one of the key nights of modern wrestling history, this was the night of the first WWF television taping at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis, with numerous surprise guests including the WWF return of Hulk Hogan and debut of David Shults and Gene Okerlund, all signed away from Verne Gagne, and of Roddy Piper, who was first, because of his size, scheduled to be used only as a heel manager, signed away from Jim Crockett where he was one of the top draws. This raiding of talent, in the case of the AWA talent, unbeknownst to Verne Gagne and with the wrestlers walking out without giving notice on advertised dates, signaled to the world that the famous "War of '84" was set to begin, the war that changed pro wrestling and this industry for good.

 

Can I ask what your source for that one is? Just because I was under the impression that this was taped a week or so later.

[Guest Sassquatch]

These all come from Meltzer's site.