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June 26th
On this day in history in ....
1936 - Everett Marshall defeats Ali Baba for the NWA (National Wrestling Association) Heavyweight Wrestling Title Marshall was already the Midwest Wrestling Association Heavyweight Champion.
1942 - James J. Dillon (real name James Morrison) is born in Trenton, New Jersey.
1961 - Hard Boiled Haggerty defeats his former partner, Gene Kiniski, for control of their AWA World Tag Team Title in St. Paul, Minnesota, ending their second reign together. Haggerty chose Bob Geigel as his new partner.
1968 - Peter Maivia and Billy White Wolf defeat Curtis Iaukea and Ripper Collins to win the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Title in Honolulu, Hawaii, ending Iaukea and Collins' third reign.
1971 - Ripper Collins and Mad Dog Mayne defeat Sunni War Cloud and Steven Little Bear for the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Title in Honolulu, Hawaii, beginning their second reign.
1973 - Johnny Valentine defeats Ron Fuller for the Florida version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title in Tampa, Florida.
1974 - Matt Striker (real name Matthew Kaye) is born in Ossining, New York.
1975 - Antonio Inoki defeats Tiger Jeet Singh to win the National Wrestling Federation World Heavyweight Title in Tokyo, Japan, beginning his second reign.
1978 - The WWWF runs its monthly Madison Square Garden event. The results:
- Stan Stasiak defeated Special Delivery Jones.
- Chief Jay Strongbow defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna.
- Jack Brisco defeated Butcher Vachon.
- Mil Máscaras defeated Ken Patera.
- George Steele defeated Tony Garea.
- André the Giant and Ivan Putski defeated "Crazy" Luke and "Superstar" Billy Graham.
- The Yukon Lumberjacks (Eric and Pierre) defeated Dino Bravo and Dominic DeNucci to win the WWWF World Tag Team Title.
- Bob Backlund defeated Spiros Arion to retain the WWWF World Heavyweight Title.
1982 - Bret Hart wins his fourth Stampede North American Heavyweight Title, defeating Leo Burke, ending his seventh reign.
1982 - Invader I and Pierre Martel defeat The Kangaroos (Don Kent and Johnny Heffernan) for the WWC World Tag Team Title in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1983 - The Sheik's Army (Jerry Blackwell and Ken Patera) defeat The High Flyers (Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne) in Minneapolis, Minnesota to win the AWA World Tag Team Title. This ended The High Flyers' second reign, which lasted just over two years.
1987 - Frank Lancaster and Eric Embry defeat The Fantastics (Tommy Rogers and Bobby Fulton) to win the World Class Tag Team Title in Dallas, Texas, ending the Fantastics' second reign.
1988 - Bull Nakano defeats Yumiko Hotta in the finals of the fourth-annual AJW Grand Prix Tournament in Tokyo, Japan.
1992 - The original "Nature Boy", Buddy Rogers (born Herman Rohde, Jr.), a former NWA World Champion and the first WWWF World Champion, dies a short time after suffering three strokes, two of which happened on the same day. Rogers was on life support following this, and passed away. He was 71 years old.
1992 - New Japan Pro Wrestling holds an event at Tokyo, Japan's Budokan Hall. The results:
- Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Yamamoto defeated Koji Kanemoto and Osamu Nishimura.
- Super Strong Machine pinned The Pegasus Kid (Chris Benoit).
- Kokina and Samu defeated Scott Norton and The Killer Bee (Brian Blair), when Kokina pinned Bee.
- El Samurai pinned Jushin Liger to win the IWGP World Junior Heavyweight Title, ending Liger's fifth reign.
- Keiji Mutoh and Hiroshi Hase defeated Black Cat and Takayuki Iizuka, when Hashimoto pinned Cat.
- Hiroshi Hase pinned Kensuke Sasaki.
- The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott Steiner) defeated Big Van Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow, when Rick pinned Bigelow, to begin their second IWGP World Tag Team Title reign.
- Riki Choshu pinned Masahiro Chono to retain the IWGP World Heavyweight Title.
1995 - Yoshiko Tamura defeats Misae Watanabe for the vacant AJW Junior Title in Sapporo, Japan.
1995 - Billy Jack Haynes defeats Brian Christopher for the USWA Southern Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee. This ended Christopher's 17th run with the belt.
1996 - Masato Tanaka, Kouji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeat Super Leather and The Headhunters (A and B) to win the FMW World Street Fight Six-Man Tag Team Title in Tokyo, Japan.
1997 - J.C. Ice defeats Tyrin for the IWA Mid-South Light-Heavyweight Title in Louisville, Kentucky.
1997 - The Masked Maniac defeats Chris Michaels for the USA Pro Wrestling U.S. Heavyweight Title in New York.
1998 - Buck Quartermaine defeats Freedom Ryder for the Indepenent Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title in Pinellas Park, Florida.
1999 - ECW held "Hostile City Showdown" at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The results were:
- Rhino pinned Christopher Daniels.
- Spike Dudley pinned Rhino.
- Skull von Crush pinned Lance Diamond.
- Danny Doring and Roadkill beat Nova and Chris Chetti when Roadkill pinned Nova.
- El Mosco pinned Kid Kash.
- Little Guido pinned Super Crazy.
- Taz defeated Yoshihiro Tajiri by submission to retain the ECW World Heavyweight Title.
- Rob Van Dam pinned Balls Mahoney to retain the ECW World Television Title.
- The Impact Players (Justin Credible and Lance Storm) defeated Sabu and Jerry Lynn in a Death match when Storm pinned Lynn.
2000 - WWF RAW is WAR solidly defeats WCW Monday Nitro in the Monday Night War this week. RAW, featuring WWF Champion The Rock defeating Triple H and Kurt Angle in a three-way non-title match in the main event, scored a 6.4 rating. That edition of RAW also included former WWF Commissioner Shawn Michaels appointing Mick Foley his successor. Nitro would only muster less than half of RAW's rating, getting a 2.8. That show featured a main event of WCW World Champion Jeff Jarrett defeating Kevin Nash, Goldberg and Scott Steiner in a four corners match.
2000 - Mick Foley was named WWF Commissioner during an edition of Raw. Here is Tim Whitehead's original report on that show.
The 6/26 RAW aired live from the Worcester Centrum......Rock came out with the WWF World Title belt to a huge ovation. He said Vince McMahon should consider himself lucky that he still owns a multi-million dollar company, a big house, expensive cars, and his penile implant. He said the era of the McMahon-Helmsley Faction is over and the Rock era has begun. Vince arrived and congratulated Rock on his title victory. He said that as he lay there on the mat, a beaten man at the hands of Rock, he realized that the reason Linda has been throwing so many obstacles in his path is because she loves him. He said he loves Linda, too, and from now on he'll give Linda all the love she can handle, either soft & tender or rough & ready. He said he thinks Linda wants another baby and called himself a "genetic jackhammer" and said he's going to go home and give her total attention. Vince offered to shake Rock's hand. Rock shook it but then said that no matter what Vince says, he's still a total asshole. Rock left Vince laying with the Rock Bottom......A limo arrived and Shawn Michaels emerged......Vince limped out to his limo with Stephanie wondering what he was doing. He said he was going home and to tell Hunter Hearst Helmsley that he's sorry. Stephanie just looked baffled, which is understandable since it really was baffling.......Rikishi defeated Chris Benoit in 2:25 by DQ to retain the IC Title. Clips were shown of Benoit "injuring" Rikishi's shoulder at the PPV. Rikishi kept selling the bad shoulder in this match. Tazz made his return, running in and hitting Rikishi with a chair for the DQ. Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler wondered aloud why Tazz would hit Rikishi instead of his rival Benoit. After the match, Benoit mauled Rikishi's shoulder more, including a diving headbutt onto it.......HHH arrived and Stephanie tried to explain to him about Vince's behavior and conveyed Vince's "I'm sorry" message. HHH was seething and looked angry enough to explode.......X-Pac beat Chris Jericho in 2:43. Clips were shown of Jericho kissing Stephanie at the PPV. Jericho described it by saying that kissing Stephanie was like kissing roadkill and said "Kirk Angel" owes winning the King of the Ring to a bottom feeding (etc.) ho. Stephanie was with X-Pac instead of Tori, who suffered a shoulder injury at the PPV. Jericho tried to kiss Stephanie again but Road Dogg made the save. Jericho hit the lionsault but Stephanie distracted the ref. Dogg walloped Jericho and rolled X-Pac on top as the ref returned to action for the pin. Afterward, Dogg & X-Pac held Jericho and Stephanie slapped him and kicked him in the balls.......Kurt Angle was polishing his crown backstage and bragging about himself.......They cut to the WWF restaurant in New York where Godfather arrived with four cute hos. They later showed them partying there.......Val Venis defeated Eddie Guerrero by DQ in 2:55 in a European Title match. Trish Stratus kept interfering. She didn't get caught, but Chyna did when she interfered and Eddie was DQ'ed, but retained the belt. Eddie & Chyna double DDT'd Val afterward and Chyna gave Trish a killer powerbomb. The heat for this was great and Chyna looked like she was really enjoying herself. She and Eddie hugged before leaving.......Kurt Angle had an arena employee with him, boring the guy (whom he called a commoner) by asking whether he should call himself King Angle or King Kurt.......Shawn Michaels came out and destroyed the throne they had set up for the King of the Ring coronation by shoving it off the ramp. Michaels said he has business to take care of before any coronation can take place, and that the announcement concerned the #1 contendership to the WWF Title. HHH suddenly arrived. He reminded Michaels that they were old friends and said that surely it must hurt him to know that he (HHH) was screwed out of the belt at the PPV since he wasn't pinned. He complained that people had been pointing at him all day and saying "loser". HHH was confident that Michaels would do the right thing and make him top contender. Michaels agreed that HHH had a point and should be #1 contender, but reminded him that he is no longer commissioner. He then introduced Mick Foley, to a huge pop, as the newly appointed commissioner. Foley came out with his new short haircut and a "commissioner"" T-shirt. He told HHH that he now has a lot of power courtesy of Linda and that with Vince apparently gone he'll have even more power. He said he was going to see to it that no one ever has to listen to boring 20 minute HHH promos again. HHH was furious and said he'd beat the hell out of Foley if he didn't give him the contendership. Foley said he won't be intimidated and would make the decision based on who was most deserving. Kurt Angle arrived with crown and scepter. He said he deserves the contendership by beating three guys and becoming King of the Ring and that even the commoners in Worcester (he pronounced it War-ches-ter) know it. Foley laughed at Angle's regal outfit. He then ruled that there will be a three-way match later on the show between HHH, Angle, and Rock. If Rock wins, then both HHH and Angle are eliminated as contenders, but if either HHH or Angle win, they will get a title shot at Rock on Smackdown. HHH slugged Angle and hurled him from the ring.
Hour two saw Dean Malenko shooting pool as several babes fawned over him. Terri was worried about the upcoming match where she would have to strip if Malenko loses. As incentive, she promised him a private viewing if he wins. Malenko was so excited he missed a shot...... Kat promised Jerry Lawler that if he wins, she'll give him the bronco ride he's been wanting........Lawler beat Malenko in the strip gimmick match in 3:15. The rules were that every time a man went over the top to the floor, the gal he represented had to remove an article of clothing until someone was topless. Both guys bumped over twice and the girls stripped accordingly. Malenko then bumped over and Terri had to take off her top but Stevie Richards came out wearing a suit and looking very clean-cut and held up a sign that said "censored" so no puppies could be seen. Everyone, including me, hated Richards, who I assume will do a prude gimmick.......Edge & Christian told Foley that they want their own locker room like Rock has now that they're World Tag Team Champions for the second time. Foley didn't treat their request seriously at first, but finally got them a room of their own.......Lawler was furious that Richards had "censored" Terri's puppies......Edge & Christian were in their room, talking like Foley was some kind of pushover since he gave them their request so easily. He came in and they told him to get them some sodas. Foley shocked them by announcing that he had scheduled them for a non-title match against Undertaker & Kane. ....... The Acolytes won a tag team battle royal in 3:52 to become top contenders to the tag titles. The other teams were the Hardy Boyz, the Dudleys, Too Cool. Al Snow & Steve Blackman, Perry Saturn & D-Lo Brown, Test & Albert, and Taka Michinoku & Sho Funaki........They promoted the USA Weekly "Wrestling vs. Baseball" special featuring Rock. They also showed the clip of Donald Trump at the Madison Square Garden house show again.......Foley brought Edge & Christian each a soda to try and be a nice guy. They acted like they wouldn't agree to fight UT & Kane but Foley said he'd strip them of the belts if they didn't.........Undertaker & Kane beat Edge & Christian in 1:26. Edge & Christian whined about it being unfair that they had to wrestle them and cancelled their pose in protest. The match didn't last long with UT & Kane pinning both foes with chokeslams. .......Footage aired of Jerry Toliver winning a drag race in Madison, IL in the WWF racer.......Rock beat HHH and Kurt Angle in the three-way in 8:54. Rock got a huge ovation again. The match was pretty good though much of it was the usual routine where the third man breaks up any pin attempt. HHH almost had it won when he Pedigreed Angle but Chris Jericho broke up the pin and snapped HHH's neck on the top ropes. The ref didn't see this since he was arguing with Stephanie. Hmmmm. Anyway, HHH staggered back and Rock gave him the Rock Bottom for the pin. Overall an okay show which elevated Angle to the top and brought back the much-needed Mick Foley.
2001 - At a SmackDown! taping at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, Albert defeated Kane to win the WWF Intercontinental Title.
2001 - Tom Howard defeats Tony Jones to win the UPW Southern California Title in Santa Ana, California.
2001 - Albert (A-Train) defeats Kane for the WWF Intercontinental Title in New York City at Madison Square Garden during a taping of Smackdown.
2002 - TNA Wrestling's second weekly pay-per-view event, which was taped one week prior along with TNA's first-ever event which aired live, airs on television. The results: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!
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