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THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JESSE VENTURA SHOCKS THE WORLD, ECW STAR JUMPS TO WCW (AND IMMEDIATELY WINS A TITLE) AND MORE

By Buck Woodward on 2009-11-03 08:00:38

November 3rd

On this day in history in ....

1939 - Steve Casey defeats Ed Don George for the American Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Title in Buffalo, New York, ending George's third and final reign with the belt, and starting Casey's third reign. 

1981 - The Spoiler defeats Charlie Cook for the Florida State Heavyweight Title in Tampa, ending Cook's second reign, and starting the third and final reign for the Spoiler. The Spoiler had last held the title over three years earlier. 

1997 - The Monday Night Wars continued, with WCW Monday Nitro on TNT doing a 4.0 rating to WWF's 2.6 for Monday Night Raw on USA. The interesting story of the night was Perry Saturn making his Nitro debut and defeating Disco Inferno via submission to win the WCW Television Title. Saturn, who had just recovered from a broken leg, made the jump from ECW, breaking up The Eliminators tag team with John Kronus. 

Here are the results from Raw that night: Mr. Aguila (Essa Rios) defeated Super Loco (Super Crazy). ... Kane defeated Ahmed Johnson. ...Marc Mero defeated Savio Vega. ...Vader defeated Davey Boy Smith in a Dog Collar match. ... The New Age Outlaws defeated Los Boriquas. ... Ken Shamrock defeated European Champion Shawn Michaels via disqualification.

Here are the results from Nitro: Eddie Guerrero & Dean Malenko defeated Rey Mysterio Jr. & Steven Regal when Malenko forced Mysterio to tap out to the Texas Cloverleaf. ...Dave Finlay pinned David Taylor with a tombstone piledriver. ...Yuji Nagata defeated Psychosis with the Nagata Lock...Perry Saturn defeated Disco Inferno to win the World Television Title with the Rings Of Saturn. ... Chris Jericho pinned Scott Hall with a cradle. Hall was going for the Outsider's Edge and yelling at announcer Larry Zbyszko when Jericho floated over him for the pin. ...The Giant interfered and cleared out a Lucha Libre battle royal. ... Ric Flair defeated Alex Wright with a figure four leglock. ... Ray Traylor pinned Steve McMichael with a side slam. ...WCW World Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers defeated Public Enemy in a Philly Street Fight when Scott pinned Rocco Rock after he missed Rick Steiner while trying to put him through a table. ... Lex Luger defeated Curt Hennig by disqualification when Ric Flair interfered. 

1998 - Jesse "The Body" Ventura, running as an Independent candidate on the Reform Party ticket, defeats Democrat Hubert Humphrey III and Republican Norm Coleman to become the Governor of Minnesota. Ventura, who would later change his nickname to "The Mind" made headlines nationwide with his victory, telling supporters "We shocked the world." 

1998 - During a Raw taping at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas, Mankind makes the first defense of the WWF Hardcore Title by pinning Ken Shamrock on the rampway after help from Vince McMahon, Big Bossman, Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson. Also on the taping, William Regal defeated Golga of the Oddities and during the match unmasked him, revealing John Tenta. However, the unmasking was accidental, so the match never aired on the show.

2007 - World Wrestling Entertainment announced that long-time WWF Women's champion The Fabulous Moolah (Lillian Ellison) passed away. She was 84 years old.  A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Moolah was Women's Champion nine times, including the period before it was a WWE Title and "forgotten" switches not acknowledged in official WWE history books.  She may be best remembered for having the longest running championship reign (publicized as 28 years, although in truth, there were back-and-forth switches during that reign) of any champion ever in professional wrestling history and maintained a close relationship with the McMahon family through the years.  Moolah was the driving force of women's wrestling, training many of the competitors in the sport, for several decades.

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