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May 8th
On this day in history in ....
1974 - Jimmy & Johnny Valiant defeat Dean Ho & Tony Garea for the WWWF Tag Team Title in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. This would be the only time this combination of the Valiant brothers would win the title. Johnny and Jerry Valiant would win them in 1979, right before they were renamed the WWF Tag Team Title.
1974 - Antonio Inoki defeats Killer Karl Krupp and Seiji Sakaguchi to win the 1st Annual New Japan Pro Wrestling World League. Inoki, Krupp and Sakaguchi had all tied each other in the round robin portion of the tournament.
1988 - Kerry Von Erich defeats Iceman King Parsons in Irving, Texas to win the World Class Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Title for the second time.
1988 - Tatsumi Fujinami defeats Big Van Vader for the IWGP Heavyweight Title in Tokyo, Japan. The title had been vacated by Antonio Inoki (who was the initial IWGP Champion after New Japan decided to make it a regular title, as opposed to a yearly tournament championship, which it had been since 1983) due to a broken foot.
1993 - Wolfie D defeats Danny Davis in Memphis, Tennessee to win the USWA Middleweight Title, becoming the final champion in the belt's short (four months) existence.
1999 -
ECW ran at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with the following
results:
- Little Guido defeated Mosco De La Merced with a Boston Crab.
- Justin Credible did an interview announcing that due to injury, Sabu was not
being allowed to wrestle. Credible bragged about putting Sabu out of
action.
- Danny Doring defeated Bill Whiles with a double arm DDT. Whiles was
actually working as a timekeeper, and chanted "boring" while Doring
and Roadkill were having an interview, leading to their match.
- TAKA Michinoku & Yoshihiro Tajiri defeated Super Crazy & Spike Dudley
when TAKA hit the Michinoku Driver #2 on Crazy for the pin. The match had
started with Crazy teaming with Super Nova, but the FBI attacked Nova, leading
to Spike Dudley substituting.
- Chris Candido defeated Chris Chetti when Chetti was injured and could no
longer continue. Candido attacked Chetti on the stretcher, leading to ECW
World Champion (and Chetti's cousin) Taz running off Candido. Taz then
beat up Chetti, saying if this is what he would do to his own cousin, Candido
could imagine what would be done to him.
- Steve Corino vs. Axl Rotten ended in a no-contest when the Dudleys attacked
Rotten, and Corino left.
- ECW World Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz defeated Axl Rotten & Balls
Mahoney after 3D on Balls.
- ECW World Television Champion Rob Van Dam defeated Skull Von Krush with the
five star frog splash.
- Tommy Dreamer, Jerry Lynn & Francine defeated Lance Storm, Justin Credible
& Dawn Marie when Francine pinned Storm after DDTing Dawn into Storm's
groin.
1999 - J.R. Smooth defeats Michael Hayes for the Memphis Power Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee.
2000 - Chris Benoit defeats Chris Jericho for the WWF Intercontinental Title in Uniondale, New York, ending Jericho's 3rd IC Title reign after only six days. This marked the beginning of Benoit's second run with the belt.
2002 - Tom Howard defeats Christopher Daniels in Santa Ana, California to win the Ultimate Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title. Howard, already the UPW Shoot Champion, unifies the two belts.
2006 - During an edition of Raw from Anaheim, California, Jim Ross returned as the play-by-play announcer after a seven month absence (during which Ross underwent colon surgery, which was actually mocked during an edition of Raw). Ross had previously come back to call an edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, then called the Raw matches for Wrestlemania before WWE brought him back on Raw following the angle where Joey Styles quit the show the previous week. On the show, Mick Foley turned heel during a Hardcore Triple Threat match with Edge and Tommy Dreamer, a bout that Foley was allowed to put together when Edge agreed to face Foley in a match of his choosing. Edge and Foley double teamed Dreamer, bloodying him with a barbed wire baseball bat and defeating him. Foley and Edge, who had been feuding, then shook hands and left together.
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