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July 27th
On this day in history in ....
1945 - Buddy Rogers defeats Dave Levin to win the Texas Heavyweight Title in Houston.
1956 - Duke Keomuka & Tony Martin defeat Mike DiBiase & Danny Plechas to win the Texas Tag Team Title in Houston, ending DiBiase & Plechas' second reign.
1978 - During a New Japan Show at Budokan Hall in Tokyo, WWWF World Champion Bob Backlund wrestled Antonio Inoki to a one-hour draw in a three fall match. Inoki won the first fall twenty minutes into the match, and Backlund won the second at the 36 minute mark, before they went the distance.
1988 - Stan Hansen defeats Genichiro Tenryu in Nagano, Japan to win the PWF World Heavyweight and NWA United National Heavyweight Titles, which would later become part of the All Japan Triple Crown.
1990 - Stan Hansen defeats Mitsuharu Misawa in Matsudo, Japan to win the vacant All Japan Triple Crown (NWA International, NWA United National and Pacific Wrestling Federation World Titles). The title had been declared vacant when previous champion Terry Gordy was hospitalized.
1996 - Dr. Wagner Jr. defeats Aquarius (Yoshihiro Tajiri) to win the CMLL World Light-Heavyweight Title in Sapporo, Japan. Wagner had lost the title to Aquarius eight days earlier, and neither of these title changes (which took place on Big Japan cards) were authorized by EMLL, who control the title.
1991 - Steve Simpson & Chris Walker defeat Scott Anthony (Raven) & Rip Rogers in the tournament final to win the Global Wrestling Federation Tag Team Champions in Dallas, Texas.
2001 - Pro Wrestling Noah celebrated their 1st anniversary as a promotion with an event at Budokan Hall in Tokyo. The main event of the show saw Jun Akiyama defeat Mitsuharu Misawa to win the Noah Global Honored Crown, becoming the second man to hold the title.
2001 - Kayo Noumi defeats Miho Wakizawa to win the All Japan Women's Singles Title in a tournament final in Tokyo.
2002 - Low Ki defeats Spanky, Christopher Daniels & Doug Williams in a 60-minute Iron Man match to become the first Ring Of Honor Champion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
2003 - WWE held their Vengeance Pay-per-view, the first ever Smackdown brand-only event, in Denver Colorado at the Pepsi Arena. Here is Tim Whitehead's original report on the event:
Vengeance, WWE's first ever Smackdown brand PPV, was a big success. It was easily the best PPV since WrestleMania, and it highlighted how much stronger the Smackdown brand is when it comes to in-ring action. The show benefited from great heat from the live crowd in Denver. Commentary was also strong from Tazz & Michael Cole. Tazz has the ability to be funny without being silly and distracting from the seriousness of the matches. There were three terrific matches on the show. There were also three gimmick matches, two of which were better than expected. Only one was truly bad, and it was short. Some might question the booking for a couple of the matches, but any booking quirks were more than overridden by the strong match quality on the show.
EDDIE GUERRERO defeated CHRIS BENOIT in the finals of the U.S. Title tournament in 22:12. They need fewer titles, not more, and this one is supposedly the revived WCW version of the U.S. belt which traces its lineage back to the Mid-Atlantic area. They at least had two awesome competitors for the finals. They started out trading fast mat spots. Guerrero went on offense, and got a babyface reaction. He wasn't the only supposed heel to get a face reaction on this show. Guerrero used a kick to win a test of strength. He hit a huracanrana on Benoit and they traded twos as each kept reversing the pin attempt. Benoit bailed out for a while. Guerrero locked on a headlock. They traded tombstone piledriver attempts, with Benoit eventually nailing Guerrero with a shoulderbreaker and hooking the crossface. Guerrero made the ropes. Guerrero went to the floor and Benoit caught him with a tope. Guerrero did a huracanrana off the top. Guerrero scored some twos until Benoit came back with a high backdrop and a superplex. Benoit scored a two. Benoit hit two German suplexes but Guerrero blocked a third. Benoit hooked the crossface again. The crowd popped big for the crossfaces, as that hold is over big time. Guerrero made the ropes once again. Guerrero hit some suplexes and a high superplex. He went for the frog splash but Benoit rolled clear. Benoit hooked yet another crossface, with Guerrero again making the ropes. There was a ref bump. Guerrero got the title belt and laid Benoit out. He then hit the frog splash but the revived ref only counted two before Benoit kicked out. Guerrero then hit the ref with the belt and tried to set it up to look like Benoit did it. The ref stayed down forever, and Guerrero became frustrated when he wouldn't revive. Meanwhile, Benoit revived and hooked the crossface. Guerrero tapped but the KO'ed ref didn't see it. Benoit tried to revive the ref. Guerrero tried to use the tite belt again. Benoit ducked and caught Guerrero with a suplex. Benoit went for the diving headbutt but hit the ref when Guerrero moved. The ref stuff was starting to get old and it hurt the match a little. At this point, Rhyno ran in and turned on Benoit, nailing him with a gore. This turn had been building off and on for weeks, but as of the most recent TV Rhyno was fully in Benoit's corner. Anyway, Guerrero hit the frog splash on the gored Benoit as the ref finally revived and counted the pin. The ending was way overbooked but the match was a great opener.
Vince McMahon gave daughter Stephanie a small bouquet of artificial flowers. He had a huge bouquet of real flowers for Sable. Steph didn't appreciate the size difference. Vince also reported that he'll appear on RAW on Monday to confront Kane over his attack on Linda.
JAMIE NOBLE beat BILLY GUNN in 4:59. The stipulation here was that Noble would get to "sleep" with Torrie Wilson on Smackdown if he won the match. He came out with a briefcase, saying it was full of sex toys. Gunn kicked the case into Noble's face. He opened it and looked inside. The cameras only caught a glimpse but it appeared to be a lot of lotions and various "objects". Noble gave Gunn a plancha and pounded him on the floor. Nidia came out, jealous because Noble wants to have sex with Torrie. Gunn went on offense and scored some twos. Noble hit Gunn with a DDT, but when he went for the pin, Nidia put Gunn's foot on the rope to break the count. Noble went out and confronted her and ended up getting his face slapped by both Nidia and Torrie. Noble, by the way, was another supposed heel treated by the fans as a face. The finish saw Gunn almost collide with Torrie, which allowed Noble to roll him up and score the pin with a handful of tights. Noble got a big babyface pop from the crowd. Torrie acted horrified that she will now have to have sex with Noble on Smackdown, but of course it'll be a lame screwjob (no pun intended), since technically she promised to "sleep" with him. Guess she'll show up with a bottle of Sominex and take a nap. Noble was later shown drooling over a well "used" copy of the Torrie Playboy issue. This was an okay short match.
BRADSHAW won a barroom brawl in 4:32. They had a fake barroom set up, and the rules were that the last man left standing would win. The other participants were (and forgive me if I miss someone here, as they didn't do intros for most of the guys) Faarooq, Spanky, Nunzio, Chuck Palumbo, Johnny Stamboli, Matt Hardy, Shannon Moore, the Basham Brothers, Kanyon, Sean O'Hair, Funaki, Orlando Jordan, Brooklyn Brawler, Doink the Clown, Brother Love, and some guy dressed as the Easter Bunny. Brother Love asked everyone to bow their heads for a pre-fight prayer, but then sneak attacked someone with a bar stool. They just sort of brawled around using beer bottles, bar stools, and assorted other objects as weapons. It was a mess. One guy after another went down and stayed down. Funaki just sat and drank beer. It came down to Bradshaw, Brother Love, and Funaki. Bradshaw broke a beer bottle over Love's head and he went down. Funaki then passed out drunk. Bradshaw was declared the winner. Faarooq was standing there, too, but I guess he went down at some point. It was pretty bad.
CHARLIE HAAS & SHELTON BENJAMIN defeated REY MYSTERIO JR. & BILLY KIDMAN in 14:53 to retain the Smackdown World Tag Titles. Let me start off by saying the Haas & Benjamin are improving at an amazing rate. WWE needs to start building some regular tag teams who stay together long term. And by long term I mean years and years and years. Haas & Benjamin are good enough that I'm afraid there are already plans to break them up. As for Mysterio & Kidman, they were off the charts here. Mysterio started off against Benjamin. Mysterio hit a spinning headscissors. Kidman hit a dropkick and another spinning headscissors. Haas came in and was caught by Mysterio with a springboard legdrop. Haas gave Mysterio a sit-down slam and a powerslam. Haas vaulted Mysterio high for a huge bump. Mysterio kept kicking out of pin attempts at two. Benjamin came back in and did a great roll through on a huracanrana, but Mysterio then caught him with a dropkick out of nowhere. Benjamin evaded a 619 but Mysterio still caught him with a springboard splash to the floor. The Denver altitude certainly didn't hurt anyone in this match. Kidman did a shooting star press to the floor onto both opponents. Haas recovered and posted Kidman, who got worked over for a while. Kidman made the tag but the ref disallowed it since he didn't see it. They doubled on Kidman some more until he finally made the hot tag. Mysterio hit a somersault springboard dropkick on Benjamin. He then kicked Haas from the ring. Benjamin tried for a suplex but Mysterio reversed it into a DDT. Mysterio hit Haas with the 619 and went for the West Coast Pop. It ended up as more of a springboard Thesz press, leading to a near fall. Kidman vaulted Mysterio up and he gave Haas a huracanrana off the top. They've been teasing a Kidman turn but I'm glad they didn't do it here. The finish saw Haas hoist Mysterio on his shoulders, allowing Benamin, who made a blind tag, to crossbody him off to the mat for a clean pin. Excellent match with great heat!
They aired a great SummerSlam promo. It was a takeoff on the movie "Jaws", with everyone on a beach running from a shark. But Brock Lesnar ran into the water and gave the shark an F5.
SABLE beat STEPHANIE McMAHON in 6:25. This was billed as a no-countout catfight. Steph attacked Sable on the ramp. Sable fled into the crowd, with Steph chasing her down and throwing her back across the barrier. Sable came back and stomped Steph through the mat. Sable kicked and bitch slapped Steph. Steph got a chair but the ref took it from her. They fought some on the floor to tease the no-countout stips. This wasn't good, but it wasn't nearly as bad as one would expect. It was actually passable. Steph tore off Sable's top and the ref took his shirt off to cover her up. While this was going on, A-Train ran in and gave Steph a lariat. I guess they needed to find something for A-Train to do. Sable crawled on top of Steph and got the pin on the boss' daughter. Steph had to be helped to the back afterward, selling it as a rib injury even though A-Train gave her a lariat.
UNDERTAKER defeated JOHN CENA in 16:01. Undertaker manhandled Cena for the first few minutes. He unceremoniously kicked Cena out to the floor. Cena got mauled on the floor by UT's methodical offense. UT did the legdrop on the apron and the old school rope walk. He chokeslammed Cena, but pulled him up at the two count to inflict more punishment. UT went for the last ride but Cena blocked it and hit a DDT. Cena removed the padding from a turnbuckle and UT hit the exposed steel on a charge. Cena went on offense. which included bumping UT off the apron onto the ring barrier. UT began coughing up blood, and it was sold that he had internal injuries. Cena kept it up, stomping on UT's rib area. Cena scored a bunch of twos. The pace slowed as they were out there a long time in the Denver thin air. UT came back with a lariat and went for the tombstone, but Cena blocked it. UT blocked the FU. UT caught Cena with a boot to the face for a near fall. Cena hit UT with UT's bike chain. Cena hit the FU but UT kicked out at two. Cena, by the way, was yet one more heel who got his fair share of cheers. Cena backed UT into the corner with punches but UT lifted him up and nailed him with the last ride for the pin. It was a little long, but an okay match. A good case could be made that Cena should have gone over here, but if they do a follow-up at SummerSlam with Cena winning, this will turn out okay, as UT did sell it big as if he had been through a war at the end.
VINCE McMAHON defeated ZACH GOWEN in 14:00. You didn't think two McMahons would job on this show, did you? Vince looks totally freakish for a man his age. He toyed with Gowen, who got a fair number of boos, for the first half of the match. He kept bodyslamming Zach and kicking his one leg out from under him. Yes, Vince also strutted and smirked. Vince lariated the hell out of Zach. Zach made a comeback when Vince bumped out to the floor. He hit the Asai moonsault on Vince. Vince grew enraged and went after Zach's one leg. He hooked a crab hold, and Zach nearly tapped. In fact, he did a spot where he pounded his fist on the mat to gain strength, and it looked like a tap, but wasn't. Zach made the ropes. Zach hit a dropkick and crotched Vince on the post. He also wrapped Vince's leg around the post. Vince came up limping and was hit with a missile kick. Vince got his foot on the rope to keep from being pinned. Vince got a chair, but as he fought with the ref over it, Zach dropkicked it into Vince's face. It appeared to cut Vince hardway, as he juiced a major gusher. I mean, seriously, Vince was spouting blood like a fountain. Blood was all over the mat. Zach went up for a moonsault off the top, but Vince rolled clear and scored the pin when Zach crashed to the mat. Vince limped out with blood all over his face, but victorious. Zach got a standing ovation for his loss. This one was good for a gimmick match, and everyone worked hard. The crowd liked it.
KURT ANGLE defeated BROCK LESNAR and BIG SHOW in a three way no-DQ match to capture the WWE World Title in 17:29. Lesnar and Angle attacked Big Show to start things off. Show shook them off, hurling Angle out to the floor and chokeslamming Lesnar. Angle broke Show's pin attempt up. They've done a real good job rehabbing Show after he was reduced to a gimmick jobber on RAW. He didn't look out of place at all in this match. Show overpowered Angle, including using his ass as a weapon. Show blocked an Angle ankle lock attempt. Show legdropped Angle, with Lesnar stopping the pin. Show scored two on Lesnar with a neckbreaker. Angle and Lesnar used garbage can lids on Show. Show suplexed them both. They came back and chokeslammed Show. Lesnar covered Show for the pin but Angle broke it up. Angle and Lesnar then went at it. Lesnar gave Angle an F5, but on the bump Angle rolled out to the floor, saving him from being pinned. Lesnar went back after Show and gave him an F5. Angle recovered enough to pull the ref out of the ring to stop his three count when Lesnar went for a pin. Lesnar rammed Angle into the stairs and posted him. Angle juiced. Show tried to superplex Lesnar but Lesnar, in an amazing move, gave Show a running powerbomb. Angle stopped Lesnar's pin with two chairshots, the second of which busted Lesnar open and he juiced. Show recovered and laid Angle out on the floor. Show cleared the Spanish broadcast desk and was preparing to smash Angle through it. But Angle recovered and Olympic slammed Show through the desk. By this point, the altitude was getting to Show and this KO'ed him long enough to get some rest. Angle and Lesnar brawled, both in the ring and on the floor. Angle gave Lesnar two German suplexes, the second one flipping Lesnar all the way over when released. Lesnar hit a spinebuster for a near fall. Lesnar hooked a choke submission hold on Angle but Show recovered and legdropped them both. He then chokeslammed both but only scored twos when trying to pin them. Angle put the ankle lock on Lesnar. Show broke it up and got Olympic slammed by Angle. Angle then Olympic slammed Lesnar and got the surprise three count to win the title. The thinking was that they put Show in to do the job for either other guy but it didn't come down like that, and it was better that the title changed with a pin on the champ. A great main event to cap off a hot show.
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