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THIS DAY IN HISTORY: WORLD CLASS STAR WARS, ECW BREAKS OUT THE BARBED WIRE AND MORE

By Buck Woodward on 2007-06-17 08:00:00

June 17th

On this day in history in ....

1934 - Mario Nuñez defeats Tony Canales in Mexico City, Mexico to become the first holder of the Mexico National Welterweight Title.

1957 - Cyclone Anaya defeats Tor Yamata for the NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Title in Birmingham, Alabama.

1964 - Pat Patterson and Tony Borne defeat Nick Bockwinkel and Buddy Mareno (Omar Atlas) for the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title in Salem, Oregon.

1965 - Bob Orton, Sr. wins a tournament for the vacant NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Title in Jacksonville, Florida. The title had been stripped from Tarzan Tyler in April.

1966 - The Viking (Bob Morse) defeats Ron Reed in St. Joseph, Missouri to win the NWA Central States Heavyweight Title, ending Reed's second reign.

1970 - Dick Garza defeats Ricky Cortez for the Wolverine Wrestling Michigan Heavyweight Title in Ypsilanti, Michigan, beginning his second reign.

1972 - Dutch Savage and Moondog Mayne defeat The Royal Kangaroos (Jonathan Boyd and Norman Frederick Charles) to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title, ending the Kangaroos' fourth reign.

1977 - Butcher Brannigan and Killer Karl Krupp defeat Larry O'Day and Ron Miller for the NWA Austra-Asian Tag Team Title in Sydney, Australia, ending their fourth reign.

1982 - Don Kernodle and Jim Nelson defeat Porkchop Cash and Iceman Parsons in Roanoke, Virginia, to win their second NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Title.

1983 - World Class Championship Wrestling holds one of many "Wrestling Star Wars" events at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas before 21,000 fans. The results:
- Genichiro Tenryu defeated Johnny Mantell.
- Vicki Carranza defeated Lola Gonzales to win the Mexican Women's Title.
- Al Madril, José Lothario and Sal Lothario defeated Bill Irwin, Fishman and The Mongol (Gene Lewis).
- Iceman Parsons defeated Buddy Roberts in a Hair vs. Hair match.
- David Von Erich defeated Jimmy Garvin to win the WCCW Texas Heavyweight Title. As a result, Von Erich got Garvin and Sunshine as his valets for a day.  This led to a memorable TV vignette where David forced Garvin and Sunshine to work on his farm, including washing his dog. 
- Jumbo Tsuruta and Ted DiBiase fought to a draw. Tsuruta retained the NWA United National Title, he vacated it following the match in order to challenge for Bruiser Brody's NWA International Heavyweight Title.
- Giant Baba defeated King Kong Bundy to retain the PWF Heavyweight Title.
- Kimala defeated Armand Hussein, Tola Yatsu and Mike Bond in a Handicap Loser Leaves Town match.
- Harley Race defeated Kerry Von Erich by disqualification. Race retained the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
- Kerry Von Erich and Bruiser Brody defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy) to win the WCCW American Tag Team Title.

1983 - The Dynamite Girls (Jumbo Hori and Yukari Ohmori) defeat Devil Masami and Talantula for the WWWA World Tag Team Title.

1984 - Jake Roberts defeats Ron Garvin to win the NWA World Television Title in Atlanta, Georgia, however the title was immediately held up upon the discovery that Roberts used a foreign object.

1985 - Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo, the U.S. Express, defeat The Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff for the WWF World Tag Team Title in Poughkeepsie, New York.  This marked Windham & Rotundo's second and final WWF Tag Title reign.  They had lost the belts to Sheik & Volkoff at the first Wrestlemania.  The finish of the match saw Rotundo grab Sheik in a small package. Volkoff ran in and turned them over so Sheik was on top, but as the referee got Volkoff out of the ring, Windham ran in and turned them back over, so Rotundo was on top, and got the pinfall. 

1985 - The Fabulous Ones (Steve Keirn and Stan Lane) defeat Ron Sexton and Billy Travis in a tournament final in Memphis, Tennessee to win the AWA Southern Tag Team Title for the 11th time.

1987 - Villano III defeats Perro Aguayo for the vacant WWF World Light Heavyweight Title in Mexico City, Mexico, beginning his third reign. The title had been held up after a match between the two on May 3.

1988 - Chris Benoit defeats Johnny Smith in Calgary, Alberta, to win his second Stampede British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title, ending Smith's second reign.

1989 - TNT (Savio Vega) defeats Abudda Dein to win the vacant WWC Television Title in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The title had been vacated on May 22 when Steve Strong injured then-champion Carlos Colón.

1994 - Mickey Doyle defeats Scott D'Amore for the Border City Wrestling Can-Am Heavyweight Title in Wallaceburg, Ontario, ending and beginning both's second reigns.

1995 - ECW holds "Barbed Wire, Hoodies and Chokeslams" before 1,150 at the ECW Arena in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The results:
- Broad Street Billy defeated The New Jersey Devil.
- Mikey Whipwreck pinned Val Puccio.
- Vampire Warrior pinned Hack Myers.
- Tommy Dreamer defeated Vampire Warrior.
- 911 pinned Jim Steele.
- Beulah McGillicutty pinned Luna Vachon.
- 2 Cold Scorpio and Taz defeated The Pitbulls and Raven in a Handicap match.
- ECW World Tag Team Champions The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) were scheduled to face Axl & Ian Rotten, the reunited Bad Breed. Bill Alfonso would not allow the Bad Breed to team (they had lost a match to the Pitbulls where the losing team had to split up forever). So, Axl and Ian instead brawled out of the building. The Gangstas (New Jack and Mustapha Saed), making their ECW debut, attacked the Public Enemy and were arrested.
- The Sandman defeated Cactus Jack by knockout in a Barbed Wire match to retain the ECW World Heavyweight Title.  This was the second of only five barbed wire matches in ECW history.  Cactus had the match won when Sandman couldn't respond to a ten count, but referee Bill Alfonso (doing a heel referee gimmick at the time, claiming he was sent by the State Athletic commission) stated that a barbed wire match couldn't end on a ten count.  Sandman then grabbed Jack from behind and choked him out with barbed wire to get the win. 

1996 - The Monday Night War continued on, with WCW Monday Nitro winning the night with a 3.4 rating, beating WWF Monday Night RAW's 2.3.

1996 - Flex Kavana (who would debut exactly five months later as Rocky Maivia at WWF Survivor Series) and Bart Sawyer defeat Brickhouse Brown and Reggie B. Fine in a tournament final for the USWA Tag Team Title in Memphis, Tennessee.

1996 - Jushin Liger defeats Dick Togo for the Michinoku Pro Wrestling British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Title in Tokyo, Japan. Shinjiro Otani defeated Kazushi Sakuraba for the UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Title as well.

1997 - Kyoko Inoue defeats Kaoru Itoh for the vacant WWWA World Singles Title in Sapporo, Japan. Inoue had vacated the title on May 11 after a match between the two in Nagoya, Japan ended in a draw after 60 minutes.

1999 - Sherri Martel defeats Miss Manners (Adrian Lynch) in Fargo, North Dakota to win the (revived) AWA World Women's Title for the fourth time.

1999 - The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) defeat The Brotherhood (Knuckles Nelson and Rick Fuller) for the NWA World Tag Team Title in Bolton, Massachusetts.

2000 - Bad Attitude (Rick Michaels and David Young) defeat The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) in Cornelia, Georgia to win the NWA Wildside Tag Team Title, beginning their second reign.

2000 - Club WWF (Andy Anderson and Steve Bradley) defeat Nueva Generación (Ricky Banderas and Apolo) for the IWA World Tag Team Title, just one day after Nueva Generación won the titles, in Humacao, Puerto Rico, ending and beginning both's second reigns.

2000 - Powerhouse Hughes and Dale Price defeat Eric Love and Luscious Lucas in Monessen, Pennsylvania to win the Championship Wrestling Federation Tag Team Title.

2001 - Samu defeats Dylan Dean for the World Xtreme Wrestling Heavyweight Title in Allentown, Pennsylvania, beginning his third reign. At the same event, The Mad Russian ends the third reign of Lucifer Grimm as WXW Hardcore Champion.

2004 - Shinya Hashimoto and Yoshiaki Fujiwara defeat Takao Omori and Shiro Koshinaka in Miyagi, Japan to win the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Title.

2005 - AWA announcer Ron Trongaurd dies of liver cancer at age 72.

2005 - Pete Wilson defeats Duke Durrango for the Stampede British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title in Calgary, Alberta, ending Durrango's second reign.

2006 - Toby Klein defeats Trik Davis to win the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Title in Streamwood, Illinois.

2006
- Night two of the fourth-annual Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup Tournament is held in Pinellas Park, Florida. The results:
In tournament matches:
- Ruckus defeated Canadian Cougar in a quarterfinal.
- PWG World Champion Joey Ryan defeated Rod Steel in a quarterfinal.
- AWA World Light Heavyweight Champion Kirby Mack defeated Delirious in a quarterfinal.
- Milano Collection A.T. defeated T.J. Wilson in a quarterfinal.
- Ruckus defeated Joey Ryan in a semifinal.
- Milano Collection A.T. defeated Kirby Mack in the other semifinal.
- Milano Collection A.T. defeated Ruckus in the finals to win the Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup.
In other matches:
- T.J. Wilson defeated The Human Tornado, Jake Manning, Arik Cannon, El Generico and T.J. Mack in a six-way match.
- Billy Kidman defeated Lex Lovett.
- Scott Commodity and Preston James defeated Bruce Santee and Pretty Fly.
- Naphtali defeated OG Scarface and Havok in a three-way match.
- Christopher Daniels defeated Sedrick Strong.

Thanks to Ryan Martinez for his help with the above.

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