On this day in wrestling history 1/03

[Guest Sassquatch]

From Dave Meltzer:

 

ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY 1/03

 

1968 - In the biggest head-to-head wrestling war in the history of Japanese television, TBS in Japan aired an International Wrestling Enterprises show headlined by Lou Thesz vs. Danny Hodge and Nippon TV aired the JWA promotion show headlined by Giant Baba vs. The Crusher for the International heavyweight title. Both groups and wrestling itself wound up big winners, as Baba vs. Crusher drew an amazing 48.0 rating while Thesz vs. Hodge did a 26.0 rating. That meant that virtually everyone watching television in Japan on this night were watching one or the other wrestling match.

 

1970 - Andre Roussimoff, later to become famous years later under the name Andre the Giant, made his Japanese pro wrestling debut for the old IWE promotion under the name Monster Roussimoff. IWE was affiliated with the old AWA and Verne Gagne, who came to Japan to defend his AWA title later in the tour, took one look at Andre and saw dollar signs, but not where you'd think. Gagne's idea was to market Andre as a boxer, since at the time there was huge money in heavyweight boxing and not so much in pro wrestling, as the elusive "Great White Hope" for a match with Muhammad Ali. As it turned out, that idea never went very far.

 

1977 - In a match that actually never took place (thereby allowing Fritz to lose the title without doing a job), it was announced that newcomer Bruiser Brody had defeated Fritz Von Erich in Atlanta to win the American heavyweight title, thereby starting the Fritz vs. Brody feud that led to Brody's legendary status in Texas, and ultimately Japan as well, since it was Fritz' influence that got Baba to put Brody over so strongly when he debuted a few years later.

 

1985 - An All Japan mid-card junior heavyweight sadly announced his retirement at a very young age because his bad knees wouldn't allow him to wrestle any longer. His name? Atsushi Onita.