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September 16th
On this day in history in ....
1963 - Bruno Sammartino & Bobo Brazil battle Gorilla Monsoon & Hans Mortier to a draw in the main event of a show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Each team scored one fall before the time limit expired during the third fall.
1972 - Harley Race defeats Pak Song in a tournament final to become the first ever NWA Missouri Champion. Race would go on to hold the title a total of seven times, and would be the reigning champion when the territory closes in 1985.
1978 - WWWF World Champion Bob Backlund defeats Superstar Billy Graham in a Stretcher Match at the Philadelphia Spectrum in Pennsylvania when Backlund hit Graham with a chair and the stretcher itself, enabling Graham to be wheeled off on the stretcher.
1986 - At a WWF television taping in Baltimore, Maryland, Roddy Piper hosts his "Piper's Pit" segment at the same time that Adrian Adonis hosts an edition of "The Flower Shop". Piper's guest, Don Muraco, joins Adonis and Cowboy Bob Orton in attacking Piper and beating him down and destroying the Pit set. Later in the show (shown on a different TV episode), Piper returned with a baseball bat and destroyed the Flower Shop set. A new Piper's Pit set would be constructed, and the Flower Shop would never return.
1990 - Brian Pillman lost to Danny Spivey in the final phase of his attempt to "Run The Gauntlet". The Gauntlet was a concept (briefly) employed by WCW where a wrestler would attempt to win three consecutive matches on WCW Saturday Night. Pillman won the first two, defeating Tim Horner and Buddy Landell, then lost to Spivey.
1994 - SMW Tag Team Champions The Rock N' Roll Express defeat The Gangstas in Knoxville, Tennessee. However, New Jack & Mustafa would later threaten to sue SMW, saying tape of the match proves that they should have won the belts. As a result, Smoky Mountain Wrestling awarded the titles to the Gangstas, ending the ninth title reign for Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson.
1995 - ECW held their "Gangsta's Paradise" event at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here are the results:
- Bull Pain defeated Tony Stetson with a DDT.
- Dudley Dudley & Dances With Dudley defeated Chad Austin & Don E. Allen.
- Hack Myers defeated JT Smith via countout when Smith fell off the top rope to the floor and was counted out.
- Jason & The Eliminators defeated Rick & Scott Steiner & Taz when 2 Cold Scorpio knocked out Taz and put Jason on top for the pin.
- The Pitbulls defeated Raven & Steven Richards in a two out of three falls Dog Collar match to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship. This match also saw, after months of teasing, 911 chokeslam referee Bill Alfonso. Raven won the first fall for his team by piledriving Pitbull #2 through a table for the pin. The Pitbull's took the second fall, and interference began in the form of the Dudley's. Pitbull #2 was stretchered out, and Tommy Dreamer took his place, pinning Raven, but referee Bill Alfonso refused to allow the pin, since Dreamer was not a scheduled participant. 911 got involved, and in the end, the Pitbulls, with the help of Dreamer and 911, hit a double superbomb on Raven and Richards, and ECW Commissioner Tod Gordon counted the pin.
- In their ECW debuts, Rey Misterio Jr. (now Rey Mysterio) defeated Psicosis with a springboard rana.
- Mikey Whipwreck & Public Enemy defeated The Sandman, 2 Cold Scorpio & New Jack in a steel cage match when Whipwreck pinned Sandman after a splash off the top. During the match, Rocco Rock and Scorpio fell off the top of the cage through three tables stacked in the ring.
1996 - The Monday Night Wars raged on, with Nitro doing a 3.7 to Raw's 2.1. Nitro was headlined by Ric Flair & Arn Anderson defeated Chris Jericho & Marcus Bagwell, Lex Luger defeated Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael via disqualification in a handicap match, and Rey Mysterio defeated Juventud Guerrero. Raw countered with Marc Mero defeating Owen Hart, Faarooq defeating Sid Vicious via disqualification, and The Sultan defeating Jake Roberts.
1998 - Olympico defeats Karloff Lagarde Jr. to win the CMLL World Welterweight Title in Mexico City, Mexico.
2002 - Low Ki defeats Spanky in Tokyo, Japan on a Zero-One event to win the NWA International Light Heavyweight Title. Low Ki's first championship in Japan, he would hold it for almost a full year.
2002 - During an edition of Raw from Denver, Colorado, Rico scores a shocking upset by pinning Ric Flair with a spin kick.
2003 - During a Smackdown taping in Raleigh, North Carolina, Eddie & Chavo Guerrero defeat Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas for the WWE Tag Team Championship. This would end Haas & Benjamin's second (and final) tag title reign, and was the start of Eddie & Chavo's second run with the belts. In the main event of the show, Brock Lesnar would defeat Kurt Angle in a 60-minute Ironman match to win the WWE World Title, 5 falls to 4. Angle, who scored two falls in the last ten minutes of the match, had Brock Lesnar in an ankle lock when time ran out, but was unable to get Lesnar to tap before the bell rang (which would have forced the match into overtime).
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