On this day in wrestling history 12/30

[Guest Sassquatch]

From Dave Meltzer:

 

ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY FOR 12/30

 

1922 - World heavyweight wrestling champion Ed "Strangler" Lewis issued a challenge to World heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey for a mixed match. Sports Illustrated not too long ago ran a story about the negotiations, as did a UK based boxing magazine, which at times, came close to fruition. Bottom line is that Dempsey did some training against wrestlers, realized it would be an embarrassing situation, and the match never took place.

 

1972 - One of the great tag teams of all-time, Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkel, dropped their AWA world tag team titles briefly in Minneapolis to the top two singles wrestlers in the territory at the time, Verne Gagne & Billy Robinson.

 

1985 - Bill Dundee defeated Jerry Lawler in a loser leaves town match in Memphis. Lawler was supposed to leave for six months, and mainly wrestle indie dates and work a lot in Hawaii. A combination of the money in Hawaii not being good, and the Memphis territory falling quickly to death levels, so Lawler brought back well ahead of time, for some huge gates and classic matches teaming with Dutch Mantel against Dundee & Buddy Landel. . . In Madison Square Garden before a sellout of 20,225 fans, Randy Savage defeated WWF champ Hulk Hogan via count out in the main event while tag champs Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake retained over the British Bulldogs.

 

1986 - In a battle of the two biggest heavyweight stars in Mexico at the time, Dos Caras pinned Canek to win the UWA world heavyweight title

 

1988 - Randy Savage retained the WWF title beating Badnews Brown (Allan Coage) before a sellout in Madison Square Garden which also included the Powers of Pain beating Demolition via count out in a tag team title match. . . In one of the strangest results you'll ever see, 260 pound, at the time, Cactus Jack, captured the World Class light heavyweight title from Eric Embry at the Dallas Sportatorium. I wonder if anyone told him at the time that being a junior heavyweight in category would ruin his career? I wonder if many people, besides Foley, wondered how a man of that weight could be a junior heavyweight in the first place?

 

1992 - The experiment of making Ron Simmons, now Faarooq, the WCW world heavyweight champion in an attempt to boost attendance with African American fans was given up on officially, as Big Van Vader regained the title at the Baltimore Arena as WCW business was in another tailspin.

[Guest JHawk]

1988 - Randy Savage retained the WWF title beating Badnews Brown (Allan Coage) before a sellout in Madison Square Garden which also included the Powers of Pain beating Demolition via count out in a tag team title match. . . In one of the strangest results you'll ever see, 260 pound, at the time, Cactus Jack, captured the World Class light heavyweight title from Eric Embry at the Dallas Sportatorium. I wonder if anyone told him at the time that being a junior heavyweight in category would ruin his career? I wonder if many people, besides Foley, wondered how a man of that weight could be a junior heavyweight in the first place?

 

They ran an angle where Embry asked the weight limit to be raised so he could defend against Cactus. I remember seeing and thinking "Could Embry really be that stupid?"