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THIS DAY IN HISTORY: ROAD WARRIORS MAKE HISTORY, THE DUDLEYS LEAVE ECW, AND MORE

August 26th

On this day in history in ....

1975 - Blackjack Lanza & Blackjack Mulligan defeat Irish Pat Barrett & Dominic DeNucci for the WWWF Tag Team Title in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Barrett was a substitute for Victor Rivera, who had left the company while holding the belts with DeNucci.

1979 - Harley Race defeats Dusty Rhodes for the NWA World Heavyweight Wrestling Title in Orlando, Florida. Race begins his third run with the belt, ending Rhodes' first World Title reign after only five days.

1991 - WWE holds their Summerslam Pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Billed as "The Match Made In Heaven/The Match Made In Hell" the show actually ended with the "wedding" of Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. The wedding went off without incident, and WWF gave their viewers a "happy ending" to the show, instead choosing to do an angle with Jake Roberts and Savage at the "wedding reception" which would air on television the following weekend. Here are the results from the show:
- In a dark match, Koko B. Ware defeated Kato.
- Ricky Steamboat, Davey Boy Smith & Kerry Von Erich defeated Paul Roma, Hercules Hernandez & The Warlord.
- Bret Hart defeated Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig with the Sharpshooter to win the WWF Intercontinental Title, Hart's first major singles championship in the U.S.
- Irwin R. Schyster defeated Greg Valentine.
- Earthquake & Typhoon defeated The Bushwhackers. Andre The Giant, in his final WWF television appearance, was in the corner of the Bushwackers.
- Big Bossman defeated The Mountie in a Jailhouse match. As a result, the Mountie was locked up in a New York City jail for the night.
- Virgil defeated Ted DiBiase to win the Million Dollar Belt.
- The Legion Of Doom (Road Warriors) defeated The Nasty Boys to win the WWF World Tag Team Title, making Hawk & Animal the only tag team to ever hold the AWA, NWA and WWF World Tag Team Titles.
- Hulk Hogan & The Ultimate Warrior defeated Sgt. Slaughter, Gen. Adnan (Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie) & Col. Mustafa (The Iron Shiek) in a handicap match. Sid Justice (Vicious) was the special referee.

1991 - The Dragon Master defeats Jerry Lawler for the USWA Unified Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee, ending Lawler's ninth reign with the belt.

1999 - ECW held a TV taping for the second edition of "ECW on TNN" at the Elk's Lodge in Queens, New York (aka, the Madhouse Of Extreme). The first edition of the show was an "introduction to ECW" special. At this event, Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley defeat Spike Dudley & Balls Mahoney to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship for the eighth time, shocking the fans, since it was known that this was the final ECW event for the Dudleys before going to the WWF. However, at the end of the show, the Dudleys came back out and goaded an injured Tommy Dreamer into fighting them. Raven, making his return to the company after leaving WCW, ran to the ring and won the belts with his longtime rival Dreamer. After the TV cameras were turned off, the fans chanted "Dudleyville" and gave Bubba & D-Von a standing ovation as a farewell.

2000 - On the second night of ECW's two consecutive shows at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom, Tony Marmaluke & Little Guido defeat Yoshihiro Tajiri & Mikey Whipwreck for the ECW World Tag Team Title, ending their title reign after one day. Also on the card, Kid Kash defeated Rhino for the ECW World Television Title.

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