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February 8th
On this day in history in ....
1954 - Fred Blassie defeats Don McIntyre for the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title in Birmingham, Alabama, ending McIntyre's third reign as champion.
1971 - Pedro Morales, the reigning U.S. Champion, defeats Ivan Koloff in New York, NY at Madison Square Garden to win the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship, ending Koloff's reign of less than a month. Koloff was going for a German suplex, and Morales kicked off the turnbuckles, sending both men backwards to the mat. Both men had their shoulders down, but Morales lifted his at the two count and won the title. During Pedro's title reign, the WWWF would join the NWA as a member company, and the WWWF title would no longer be referred to as a "World Championship".
1980 - Stan Hansen defeats Antonio Inoki in Tokyo, Japan to win the National Wrestling Federation World Heavyweight Title, ending Inoki's second reign.
1986 - Randy Savage defeats Tito Santana in Boston, MA for the WWF Intercontinental Championship, Savage's first WWF title. Santana would continue to defend the title on shows for two more weeks, until the match is broadcast on television. Savage knocked out Santana with a foreign object for the win, which was "missed" by referee Danny Davis. Months later, when Davis began his heel turn, WWF announcers pointed to this as the first sign that he was a crooked ref. In the main event of the show, Bruno Sammartino defeated Roddy Piper in a steel cage match when he hit Piper with a chair before exiting the cage.
1988 - Ted DiBiase made his only defense of the WWF World Title, defeating Bam Bam Bigelow at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in California. The following weekend, WWF President Jack Tunney would announce on television that he was not allowing Andre The Giant's "sale" of the belt to Ted DiBiase following Andre's win over Hulk Hogan on The Main Event special to stand and was vacating the title, thus nullifying DiBiase's brief reign.
1992 - Tom Pritchard defeats Eric Embry in Memphis, Tennessee for the USWA Southern Heavyweight Title, ending Embry's fourth reign as champion and starting Pritchard's fourth run with the belt.
1992 - Jushin Liger defeats Norio Honaga in Sapporo, Japan for the IWGP World Junior Heavyweight Title, starting his fifth reign with the belt.
1993 - The Night Stalker (Bryan Clarke) defeats Tracey Smothers to win the Smoky Mountain Wrestling "Beat The Champ" Television Title in Jellico, Tennessee.
1997 - WWF broadcast Shotgun Saturday Night from Penn Station in New York City. In the main event of the show, the Nation Of Domination (Savio Vega, Faarooq & Crush) defeated Aldo Montoya & The Godwinns when Savio pinned Montoya with a spin kick. The original match was Vega vs. Montoya but it turned into a six-man after the others interfered. As the show ended, the brawl continued, and The Godwinns tried to slop D'Lo Brown (then a member of the Nation's entourage) but D'Lo ducked and Pat Patterson, working as an agent, was "accidentally" slopped instead.
1999 - WWF taped "Raw Saturday Night" at the Skydome in Toronto, Ontario. The show, which aired on February 13, 1999, would draw 41,432 fans, the largest crowd ever for an edition of Raw. In the main event, The Corporation defeated Steve Austin in a gauntlet match. Austin defeated Ken Shamrock, Test, Kane, Chyna and Big Bossman via DQ, as they just continuously beat on Austin together (and got disqualified, one after the other), allowing Vince McMahon, the last member of the Corporation team, to pin Austin.
2000 - During a taping of Sunday Night Heat in Austin, Texas, Essa Rios & Lita made their WWF debut, with Rios defeating Gillberg with a moonsault in under a minute to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Title. Following the win, Lita gave Gillberg a moonsault as well. Later that night, during a taping of Smackdown, Kurt Angle defeated Val Venis with the Angle Slam to win the WWF European Title.
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