Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
March 29th
On this day in history in ....
1939 - Steve Casey defeats Gus Sonnenberg for the AWA World Heavyweight Title in Boston, Massachusetts. This is the second of five runs with the Boston-based AWA Title for Casey. This belt should not be confused with Verne Gagne's AWA Title.
1965 - WWWF ran at Madison Square Garden in New York City with the following results:
- Miguel Perez defeated Golden Terror via DQ.
- Argentina Apollo defeated Smasher Sloan.
- Gorilla Monsoon defeated Don McClarity.
- Wahoo McDaniel defeated Jerry Graham.
- WWWF World Champion Bruno Sammartino defeated Bill Watts via DQ.
- Sonny Boy Cassidy & Pancho Lopez defeated Fuzzy Cupid & Billy The Kid.
- United States Tag Team Champions Gene Kiniski & Waldo Von Erich vs. Bobo Brazil & Haystacks Calhoun ended in a draw.
1969 - WWWF World Champion Bruno Sammartino defeated The Sheik in a steel cage match in Boston, Massachusetts in the main event of an event at the Boston Garden.
1976 - WWWF ran at Madison Square Garden in New York City with the following results:
- Pat Barrett defeated Johnny Rodz.
- Jose Gonzalez defeated Gene Dundee.
- Chris Taylor defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna.
- Kevin Sullivan defeated Pete Sanchez.
- Dominic DeNucci defeated Crusher Blackwell.
- Bobo Brazil defeated Louis Cyr.
- Andre The Giant & Ivan Putski defeated Ernie Ladd & Bugsy McGraw.
- Bruno Sammartino & Tony Parisi defeated Superstar Graham & Ivan Koloff in a three falls match.
1979 - WWWF undergoes a name change, dropping the second "W" and goes from being the World Wide Wrestling Federation to the simpler World Wrestling Federation. The WWF name would last for over two decades.
1980 - Andre The Giant vs. Hulk Hogan main evented a WWF event at the Civic Center in Baltimore, Maryland over WWF World Champion Bob Backlund vs. Ken Patera. Andre vs. Hogan ended in a double-countout, while Patera beat Backlund when the match was stopped due to Backlund's excessive bleeding (the title did not change hands).
1981 - Andre The Giant defeats Hulk Hogan in the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, six years to the day before their famous Wrestlemania III encounter.
1987 - Wrestlemania III takes place. Mike Johnson penned the following:
WRESTLEMANIA III
Location: Pontiac, Michigan
Arena: The Pontiac Silverdome
Announced Attendance: 93,173 (See Attendance Note Below)
RESULTS
*The Can-Am Connection, Rick Martel and Tom Zenk, defeated Don Muraco and Bob Orton when Martel hit a highcross body on Muraco for the pin. Muraco and Orton were managed by Mr. Fuji. The Can-Ams were scheduled to have a huge push over the next year, which was derailed when Zenk walked out on the promotion.
*Hercules Hernandez fought Billy Jack Haynes to a double countout while Haynes had a full nelson locked on Hercules, they fell out of the ring and Haynes kept it locked on as the referee counted. The Hernandez-Haynes feud was built around the idea of who had the stronger full nelson, and was the highlight of Haynes' WWF career.
*In a mix tag match, Hillbilly Jim & midgets the Haiti Kid & Little Beaver defeated King Kong Bundy & Lord Little Brook & Little Toyko via DQ when Bundy attacked, bodyslammed, and squashed Beaver. The storyline was that the midgets could only work against each other. This was pure comedy and a major comedown from the year before for Bundy when he was headlining the event.
*In a match where the loser had to bow to the winner, Harley Race (then-promoted as the King of Wrestling) pinned The Junkyard Dog with a belly-to-belly suplex. The feud had been built around JYD's refusal to get on his knees before Race. JYD did bow (like a actor would at the end of a play) before Race, then attacked him. Race would later be coronated the King again by The Fabulous Moolah. There were plans for British pop star Samantha Fox to do the coronation at one point, but she pulled out.
*Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake defeated Jacques and Raymond Rougeau in their farewell as a team in WWF. Dino Bravo and Johnny Valiant were at ringside for the Dream Team, setting up Bravo interfering and hitting Raymond to set up a Valentine pin. Beefcake is abandoned in the ring by his former allies. This had been set up in the weeks prior during a six man tag when Adrian Adonis had accidentally cut Beefcake's hair (see Piper vs. Adonis) to set up a Beefcake babyface turn, which was really successful.
*In his "retirement match", Roddy Piper used a sleeperhold to defeat Adrian Adonis. This was also a hair vs. hair match. Piper and Adonis had been feuding for months. Piper had returned to the WWF to find Adonis had taken the TV slot for his Piper's Pit with "The Flower Shop" and had usurped Piper's old bodyguard Bob Orton as well. The feud was an excellent one, with Piper declaring that "win, lose, or draw" he would retire. One of the three major highlights of Wrestlemania 3, Piper ran the long aisle to ring, as opposed to the small ringcarts (shaped like wrestling rings) that were used to bring everyone else to the ring. This was a hair vs. hair match with Roddy telling Adrian that he was "growing it out" in the weeks prior while Adrian began cutting the hair of enhancement talent he squashed along the way. Adrian accidentally cut the hair of Brutus Beefcake along the way, setting up Beefcake to hit the ring and revive Piper after a sleeper was locked on him. Brutus helped cut Adonis' hair after the match, setting him off on his new career path as babyface Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake. A great Wrestlemania segment!
*The Hart Foundation and Danny Davis defeated The British Bulldogs & Tito Santana when Davis pinned Smith after clocking him with Jimmy Hart's megaphone. Davis, a former heel referee, was making his "in-ring debut" after screwing both Santana and The Bulldogs out of championships in the past. Dynamite Kid was hurting here but everyone else was working hard and DK worked harder hurt than most who were healthy.
*Butch Reed pinned Koko B. Ware by hooking the tights on a rollup and following through. This would mark the Wrestlemania debut of both men as well as manager Slick.
*Ricky Steamboat defeated Randy Savage to win the WWF Intercontinental championship in the first "great Wrestlemania match." Steamboat had George Steele in his corner while Elizabeth was in Savage's. This grudge match had been built for months on end with Savage driving a ring bell into Steamboat's throat after Rocky obviously had him beat for the belt. For the next few months, they built up Steamboat's return to the ring. A tremendous match that still stands out today despite the evolution of the business. During a time when the promotion was built around characters, the work ethic of this match was the greatest seen to date on the Wrestlemania stage. The second of the "three great moments" of the night. A must see bout for fans of great wrestling. Steamboat had a short IC reign (he always had more steam as challenger than champion), while Savage headed for a babyface turn and Wrestlemania main events.
*The Honkytonk Man pinned Jake Roberts, using the ropes for leverage. Rock star Alice Cooper was in Jake Roberts' corner here and they teased he would fight manager Jimmy Hart afterward but Hart ended up with Damien the snake atop of him. This upset set up HTM for his huge run as Intercontinental champion which would start in just several months from this show.
*The Killer Bees, Brian Blair and Jim Brunzell lost to The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff by DQ when Hacksaw Duggan hit the ring with his trusty 2 x 4 and hit the Sheik as he captured Brunzell in a camel clutch.
*In the "third great moment" of the show, WWF champion Hulk Hogan pinned Andre the Giant following a bodyslam and a legdrop. Andre had been billed and promoted as the indestructible foe, with WWF going as far as to commission a new championship belt that could fit the Giant's huge frame. The visuals of Andre riding in the cart to the ring with manager Bobby Heenan as they are pelted with endless amounts of garbage and Hogan doing his distinct walk to the ring are tremendous Mania moments. They built early that Hogan couldn't life Andre including a near pin when Andre collapsed on Hogan during a bodyslam attempt. In reality, Andre wasn't in the best health at that point and the match isn't pretty to watch, but at the time, every WWF fan believed it to be an amazing story. Nothing will ever match this in terms of hype, interest, and payoff.
Celebrities: Bob Uecker was the guest ring announcer while Mary Hart was the guest timekeeper. They were also involved in backstage sketches....Aretha Franklin opened the show with "America The Beautiful."
Attendance Note: While WWE has long held steadfast to the live attendance figure of 93,173, the late Zane Bresloff, who handled local promotions for the event, has been quoted as saying the attendance was actually 78,000.
Notes: Vince McMahon opened the show, welcoming fans to the ring, which would turn into a Wrestlemania tradition for years to come until the development of the Mr. McMahon heel character...Jesse Ventura and Gorilla Monsoon handled commentary for the show....The show was a huge success for the early days of Pay-Per-View, setting up the WWF with power that no other wrestling company could touch for years within the cable industry. Well, not until Ted Turner bought WCW, anyway....To this day, this is the Mania that all others will be judged from, as it was the greatest success in the history of the company. More shows may and have been more profitable, others have been better from an in-ring standpoint, but none will match the pure hype and synergy of this event. It was the promised land for professional wrestling....The promotion actually tried to get Arnold Schwarzenegger for the show, with Vince McMahon, Dick Ebersol (NBC Executive and close confidante of the McMahons), and Jesse Ventura going to the set of the feature film Predator to sway him in South America, but a deal wasn't able to be struck.
Dave Scherer: After the stinker of WrestleMania 2, Mania 3 was the exact opposite. It was a supershow that was actually super. Who can forget the Steamboat-Savage match? While it went against the grain of what the WWF was at that time, it was also something that made the WWF stand up and take notice that their fans would react to, gasp, wrestling!
Jess McGrath: Whatever misses there were for the WWF on the first two Manias, they more than made up for it with this one. For atmosphere alone, this was out of this world. At that point in time, there had only been one show to even come close to the crowd size of this one, and that was the WWF's house show in Toronto the previous year with Hogan vs. Orndorff. The one thing I remember really getting over the idea that Hogan might actually lose was the giant WWF belt. The promotion had a giant-sized title belt made up, which they showed on TV a few weeks before Mania, that they said Andre would get if he won the title, since obviously the belt Hogan wore would be too small for him. This was a true stroke of genius. The in-ring highlight was obviously Steamboat vs. Savage. And while it doesn't really stand the test of time next to the Flair-Steamboat matches that followed two years later, or the Wrestlemania X matches, it was a classic at the time, and compared to what WWE was doing then, it wasn't even in the same league. While there were some matches that I wouldn't consider "great" or even "good" on the show, the good far outweighed the bad.
Mike Johnson: The Pontiac Silverdone shook as Hulk Hogan bodyslammed Andre the Giant, but the roar was truly the force of the WWF hype machine as the promotion created the original Dome show event in the United States, the event that all future Wrestlemanias would be forced to compete with in the memories of fans worldwide. Visually, this is a great show to watch. The atmosphere of the show is just amazing. Steamboat vs. Savage had a match that wouldn't be touched all the way until Wrestlemania 10 and even then this is considered as good as those bouts. Hogan vs. Andre was classic David vs. Goliath booking as fans truly believed Hogan was going to lose. The storyline was built up perfectly. In an age where retirements were overdone nationally, Piper got to have an amazing sendoff. The fans were going to miss him and it showed, with one fan hopping in the ring to hug him after. The late Adonis did an amazing job as well, the highlight of his career, which would end just a year or so later tragically in a car crash. The bad was short, the good was fine, and the great was great. This is worth picking up and if WWE ever puts this out on DVD, they have a gold mine waiting as there was tons of fun stuff underneath from a storyline standpoint as well.
Buck Woodward: Wrestlemania III is the event that will probably never be touched. In this day and age of monthly PPV events, there can never be the kind of build up that this event had. EVERYTHING was focused on this. The show did a really good job of climaxing some feuds (Piper-Adonis, Savage-Steamboat, Roberts-Honky Tonk), starting new ones (Santana-Reed, Beefcake-Dream Team, Hacksaw-Sheik & Volkoff), and continuing others (Haynes-Hercules, Hogan-Andre, Bulldogs-Harts). ... After going way overboard with Wrestlemania II, they stayed away from celebrities this time, with only Uecker (who is actually a fan) and Hart being involved in the show itself, and it was minimal in both cases. ... From what I understand, Piper wasn't supposed to walk to the ring, as WWF only wanted Hogan to walk out, while everyone else used the carts. ... I was (and still am) a huge Andre fan, and I remember screaming at the screen when Andre apparently pinned Hogan a minute into the match after the failed bodyslam attempt. I still think Andre should have won right then. ... Steamboat and Savage were so determined to steal the show, that they actually planned out their entire match, and numbered each move and sequence. For weeks before the show, they would quiz each other by shouting out a number, and the other person would have to recite every spot from that point on in the match. ... As with 90% of all hair matches held outside of Memphis, the electric razor didn't work right, so Brutus hacked off the hair with scissors. Later, Adrian did have his head shaved completely bald, but left the company soon after. ... At the time, not knowing about Paul Orndorff's nerve problem, I thought it was strange that he wasn't on the show, especially since less than a year before, he and Hogan were doing sellout business everywhere. Back then, there wasn't an Internet to let us know the things that WWF neglected to tell us. ... This was also a good example of "spreading out the good stuff", something that hadn't been done on previous supercards. Instead of building from meaningless undercard to important feuds to main events, this show saw them place what would be considered undercard matches in between the feature bouts, allowing the fans to have a break and recharge between the matches they really cared about.
1993 - The Moondogs defeat Brian Christopher & Scotty Flamingo (Raven) for the USWA World Tag Team Title in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning the fourth title reign of Spot & Splat.
1997 - Brian Christopher defeats Spellbinder for the USWA Southern Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee. This would begin Christopher's 25th (and last) run with the belt.
1998 - Wrestlemania XIV takes place. Mike Johnson penned the following:
Wrestlemania XIV
Location: Boston, MA Arena: The Fleet Center Announced Attendance: 19,028
*The LOD 2000 (Hawk and Animal with a new name, new gear and Sunny as a manager) won a Tag Team Battle Royal, tossing out The New Midnight Express (Bob Holly and Bart Gunn) to win. All they needed was a Scaffold and it could have been Starrcade 2000 as well. Neither team ended up taking off.
*WWF Lightheavyweight champion TAKA Michinoku pinned Mr. Aguilla (later known as Papi Chulo and Essa Rios before returning to Mexico under this name). WWF had brought in the Lightheavyweight division to combat Nitro's Cruiserweight championship which took off huge. WWF never truly got behind the championship and TAKA was eventually delegated to comedic undercard work. Aguila would later become most famous for being liked with Lita when she debuted.
*WWF European champion Triple H pinned Owen Hart. Hart was supposed to return to the company with a huge babyface run after Bret's depature but it never happened due to politics. This was a really good singles showing for both men and Hart's best Mania bout since defeating Bret at 10. It would also be Owen's final singles bout at Mania.
*Sable and Marc Mero defeated "The Artist Formerly Known as" Goldust & Luna Vachon in a mixed tag. This was Sable's in ring debut as she was one of the hottest performers in the company at the time. The crowd popped huge for Sable doing Mero's TKO finisher. A fun back and forth bout.
*WWF Intercontinental champion The Rock defeated Ken Shamrock via DQ. Shamrock actually wins via submission with the anklelock but the decision is reversed after he refuses to release it. Rocky is stretchered out, holding the belt high and above his head. A decent bout.
*Cactus Jack and Terry Funk defeated The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn and Road Dogg Jesse Jammes) in a dumpster match to win the WWF Tag Team championships. Funk makes his seocnd Wrestlemania appearance, after debuting at Mania 2 all the way back in 1986. Funk is powerbombed into a dumpster and a sickening bruises forms on his back. The brawl goes to the back where they dump the outlaws in a second dumpster. The titles are actually held up due to the usage of the second dumpster (seriously) and the Outlaws win them in a Cage match the next night on Raw.
*The Undertaker pins his brother Kane with three (count them three) tombstones. Pete Rose is the special guest ring announcer and rips apart Boston. Kane ends up tombstoning him before the match in a brilliant piece of booking that sets Rose off on his way to being a proud member of the WWE Hall of Fame. This was Kane's Wrestlemania debut. The finish was surprising given he was built so strong in the months before but he would turn into a WWF workhorse and a trusted worker over the next few years.
*Steve Austin pinned Shawn Michaels to win the WWF championship. Michaels had the DX band playing the DX theme live as he entered the ring. Mike Tyson was the special guest enforcer for the bout and had turned heel and become a member of DX. He ended up counting the pin for Austin at the end, then revealing an Austin 3:16 shirt on. Michaels got in his face after the match and was "knocked out." Michaels went into the bout with a horrible back injury and busted his butt although you could see he was dying in the ring. There's a famous story that Michaels balked at cleanly dropping the belt at one point and was told by Undertaker that if he returned at any point without dropping it, Taker would be waiting for him at the curtain. Considering how banged up Michaels and Austin (neck) were at this point, this is a tremendously put together match.
Celebrities: Well, obviously Mike Tyson was involved as it was the biggest WWF news for years and helped the company shoot like a rocket to ultrasuccessful again...The Rock did a backstage interview with Gennifer Flowers, who was once Bill Clinton's mistress. The idea behind the celebrities was to have someone with a little scandal behind them to add to the "Attitude" aura....Of course, Pete Rose was mentioned above as well.
Notes: This was billed as Wrestlemania DX-Rated during the build to the show....It would prove to be Michaels' last Wrestlemania for 5 years....Referee Earl Hebner was in the hospital with an aneursym and missed the PPV. Michaels tells the camera, "This is for you Earl" before he heads to the ring. WWF had wired Hebner's hospital room in order for him to be able to see the PPV....Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross hosted the PPV....There were plans to do a Mick Foley vs. Terry Funk exploding ring match at the Double Cross Ranch for this show and air it "via satellite" but they were dropped once Tyson became involved.
Mike Johnson: This is a fun show. The crowd was so into Steve Austin, it was incredible. Plus, for me, Terry Funk and Mick Foley teaming on the biggest stage of the year was fun to watch. There is just a lot of hard work on the show as the company revamped itself and felt the freshest it had since Wrestlemania 10. The Rock, Sable, Owen, and Helmsley all worked hard here as well. This show was the show that showed not only was the company on the right path, but they knew it and were running with it.
Buck Woodward: To me, this show is symbolic of a few good moves, and several lousy ones. ... The idea of repackaging the Legion Of Doom and having a "new" Midnight Express was atrocious. Although, I did dig Sunny's outfit. ... TAKA Michinoku vs. Mr. Aguila is a reminder of WWF's occasional half-hearted attempts at pushing Light Heavyweights. It never lasted. ... Owen Hart losing to Triple H is a reminder of how the clique abused their power. Owen should have had a huge headlining feud with Shawn Michaels over the Montreal Screwjob, and they kicked it off with a great angle at the DeGeneration X PPV, but then HBK pulled a powerplay, and we see Owen at Wrestlemania doing the job. ... Mixed tags tend to blow chunks, and watching Sable do a powerbomb was not going to save this one. ... I hated the finish with Shamrock and Rock. The whole "he won't release the hold, so he is disqualified" but is annoying, especially when a title is on the line. ... Cactus & Funk vs. The New Age Outlaws was an example of something done right. This match set up the bout the next night at Raw where DX laid out Cactus & Funk. The fans chanted for Austin instead of Funk or Foley, which led to a great Mick Foley promo about not being appreciated, and set the stage for the Dude Love heel turn. ... I was very surprised they gave Undertaker such a dominating win over Kane in their big match. I think it hurt Kane, as he had been built to be such a monster prior to the bout. ... Mike Tyson gave the show a big publicity boost, and showed how a celebrity, used properly, can get you attention. ... Shawn Michaels actually did the job to Austin, which was amazing, and necessary. Of course, he still had to be Shawn, which is why, after Mike Tyson knocked him out, HBK could be seen laying on the mat chewing his gum. ... I was told that Undertaker actually took a chair and sat in front of a monitor by the entranceway, taping his hands, and telling everyone "If he doesn't drop the strap, I'm dropping him". When Triple H and Chyna were sent to the back during the match, they quickly distanced themselves from Taker.
Jess McGrath: I wouldn't call this a great Wrestlemania, but it definitely was a fun one. The Mike Tyson angle was very well done in the weeks building up to the show, and with the crowd so into Austin and wanting to see him finally win the title, it played out great as well. Undertaker-Kane was another angle they built for months that had a good payoff. And the New Age Outlaws-Funk & Cactus match was a good brawl. There were a few duds on the undercard (LOD 2000, the light heavyweight division), but generally there was more good than bad here. They began to turn it around with the in-ring product by this point.
Dave Scherer: This show was a lot of fun. It was nice to see the new direction play out over the course of the year. The guys worked hard and the company finally started to realize that good wrestling was a draw to some fans. Attitude was off and running.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
