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THIS DAY IN HISTORY: SNUKA VS. SAVAGE, SANTANA WINS KING OF THE RING AND MORE

By Buck Woodward on 2007-10-14 08:00:00

October 14th

On this day in history in ....

1966 - Lou Thesz defeats Buddy Austin in Los Angeles, California to win the WWA World Heavyweight Title. 

1966 - El Santo defeats Espanto I for the Mexican Light Heavyweight Title in Mexicali, Mexico, ending Espanto's second title reign. 

1978 - The Assassin defeats Jose Lothario in Shreveport, Louisiana to win the Mid-South Louisiana Heavyweight Title, ending the Lothario's second reign as champion. 

1985 - Butch Reed defeats Dick Murdoch to win the Mid-South North American Heavyweight Title in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a result of this win, Reed had to vacate the Mid-South Television Title, which he had won from Dutch Mantell on July 22, 1985. 

1989 - Saturday Night's Main Event airs on NBC, drawing a 9.5 broadcast rating. The show featured matches that were taped on September 21, 1989 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Here are the results that aired on the show: 
- Randy Savage defeated Jimmy Snuka after hitting him with Sherri Martel's purse. After the match, Snuka moved out of the way of Savage's top rope elbow, and set up for the Superfly Splash, but Sherri interfered to stop him. 
- WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan defeated Ted DiBiase with a small package after DiBiase had collided with Zeus, who was on the ring apron trying to help DiBiase. After the match, the heels beat on Hogan until Jake Roberts ran them off with his snake. 
- Rowdy Roddy Piper defeated Haku with a belly-to-belly suplex.
- Tito Santana vs. Rick Martel ended in a double DQ when their Survivor Series teammates, at ringside, started brawling. 
- The Bushwackers defeated Jacques & Raymond Rougeau when Jacques was pinned after a double gutbuster. 

1989 - WWF holds their King Of The Ring tournament in Providence, Rhode Island at the Providence Civic Center. This would be the last King Of The Ring tournament to NOT be televised, as all future King Of The Ring tournaments (there wasn't one in 1990) would be shown on Pay-per-view. Here are the results: 
First Round:
- Akeem defeated Brutus Beefcake.
- Hercules Hernandez vs. Jim Neidhart ended in a double DQ.
- The Warlord defeated Butch Miller.
- Tito Santana defeated Bad News Brown.
- Rick Martel defeated Bill Woods.
- Luke Williams defeated Nikolai Volkoff.
- Jimmy Snuka defeated The Barbarian.
- Haku defeated Terry Taylor.
Quarterfinals:
- Tito Santana defeated The Warlord.
- Rick Martel defeated Luke Williams.
- Jimmy Snuka defeated Haku.
- Akeem received a bye.
Semifinals: 
- Tito Santana defeated Akeem.
- Rick Martel defeated Jimmy Snuka. 
Finals:
- Tito Santana defeated Rick Martel to win the King Of The Ring tournament. 

1989 - Bruce Hart defeats Gama Singh for the Stampede Wrestling British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. This marked the start of Bruce's sixth run with the belt, and the end of Singh's fifth reign. Hart would end up retiring the belt, as Stampede Wrestling closed down two months later.

1996 - The Monday Night Wars continued, with Nitro scoring a strong win over Raw, 3.3 to 1.8. Raw featured Vader defeated Phinneas Godwin, Jake Roberts defeating Jerry Lawler, Freddie Joe Floyd (Tracey Smothers) defeated Triple H via countout, Faarooq defeating Alex Porteau, and Shawn Michaels defeating Steve Austin via disqualification. Nitro saw Dean Malenko defeat Brad Armstrong, Hacksaw Duggan defeat V.K. Wallstreet (Mike Rotundo), Hugh Morrus defeat Jim Powers, Lex Luger defeat Greg Valentine, Eddie Guerrero defeat The Cheetah Kid, Jeff Jarrett defeat Bubba Rogers, and World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat vs. The Faces Of Fear end in a no-contest when Scott Hall & Kevin Nash interfered. 

1997 - Atshushi Onita, Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Hido defeat Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa for the FMW World Streetfight 6-Man Tag Team Title in Sapporo, Japan. 

2000 - JJ The Ring Crew Guy defeats Inferno Kid in Laurel, Delaware to win the ECWA Heavyweight Title for the second time in his career. 

2002 - Chris Jericho & Christian defeat The Hurricane & Kane for the World Tag Team Championship in Montreal, Quebec. This is the first title change for the tag straps since becoming a "exclusive" to the Raw brand.

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