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THIS DAY IN HISTORY: HANSEN TAKES THE AWA BELT, AUSTIN ENDS KANE'S REIGN IN A DAY AND MORE

By Buck Woodward on 2007-06-29 08:00:00

June 29th

On this day in history in ....

1973 - Kim Sung Ho defeats Alfonso Dantes for the EMLL NWA Light Heavyweight Title in Mexico City, Mexico.  

1986 - The AWA announces that since World Champion Stan Hansen refused to wrestle Nick Bockwinkel in Denver, Colorado, Hansen was being stripped of the title and Bockwinkel was named the new champion.  In truth, Hansen had already been booked to defend the AWA World Title on All Japan Pro-Wrestling shows in July. When Hansen was told to drop the title beforehand, he refused, since his loyalty was to All Japan and Giant Baba, and he knew that Baba was advertising a AWA title defense on the July tour.  Hansen went to Japan, still in possession of the AWA Title belt (a new belt was made for Bockwinkel) and "defended" it, dropping the belt after he won the NWA International Title (an All Japan belt) from Jumbo Tsuruta.  Hansen would run over the AWA Title belt with his truck and mail the bent remains to Verne Gagne.  Bockwinkel would take the mangled belt and had it restored.

1992 - Tom Prichard defeats Brian Christopher for the USWA Southern Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee to win the title that had been vacated a week earlier when a match between the two ended in a no-contest. This began Pritchard's fifth title reign.  On the same show, Jerry Lawler & Jeff Jarrett defeated The Moondogs (Spot & Spike) to win the USWA Tag Team Title. 

1998 - Steve Austin defeats Kane for the WWF World Heavyweight Title in Cleveland, Ohio, ending Kane's reign after less than 24 hours.  This begins Austin's second WWF World title reign. 

1999 - The Hardy Boyz defeat Faarooq & Bradshaw for the WWF World Tag Team Title in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  This was the first of an eventual five runs with the belts for Matt & Jeff Hardy.

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