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THIS DAY IN HISTORY: TRIPLE H IS HANDED THE WORLD TITLE

September 2nd 

On this day in history in ....

1972 - WWWF runs at Madison Square Garden in New York City, headlined by WWWF World Champion Pedro Morales defeating Ernie Ladd and Bruno Sammartino defeating George "The Animal" Steele. After Bruno's win, the final match of the evening, it was announced that Sammartino would face Morales (a battle between the top two babyfaces in the company) at Shea Stadium on September 30th, WWWF's first ever stadium show. Over 22,000 fans would attend that event, with Sammartino vs. Morales ending in a draw. 

1984 - WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs. UWA World Champion El Canek in Mexico City ends in a draw in a two out of three falls match. Hogan won the first fall via pinfall, Canek won the second via DQ, and the third fall ended in a double DQ. The match received a great deal of attention in Mexico, has Canek had defeated Andre The Giant the previous February, and only Hogan's WWF title was on the line, giving Canek the chance to become a dual World Champion. 

1985 - World Class Championship Wrestling held their Labor Day Weekend "Star Wars" event in Ft. Worth, Texas. Here are the results: 
- Kelly Kiniski defeated Jim Powers.
- World Class Television Champion John Tatum defeated Steve Casey.
- Gino Hernandez defeated Brian Adidas to win the World Class Texas Heavyweight Title. 
- Bruiser Brody defeated One Man Gang via disqualification.
- Kevin Von Erich defeated Chris Adams. 
- Mark Lewin defeated Iceman Parsons. 
- Kerry Von Erich, Kevin Von Erich & Brian Adidas defeated One Man Gang, Mark Lewin & Jack Victory to win the World Class Six Man Tag Team Title. 

2002 -During an edition of Raw, Eric Bischoff creates a new World Heavyweight Title and awards it to Triple H. WWE Champion Brock Lesnar had been signed "exclusively" to Smackdown by Stephanie McMahon, so a new title was needed for the Raw brand. The championship belt was a recreation of the "big gold belt" that had been identified with the WCW and NWA World Title. 

Triple H would defend the belt against Ric Flair that night, defeating him with a Pedigree following a low blow. Chris Jericho, angry over not being given a title shot, would then come in and put Flair in the Walls Of Jericho. Rob Van Dam would make the save, setting up a tag team main event for Raw in which Ric Flair & Rob Van Dam would defeat Triple H & Chris Jericho when RVD pinned Triple H with a Five Star Frog Splash after kicking the championship belt into the face of the new champion. 

Here is Tim Whitehead's original report on the show: 

The 9/2 edition of RAW IS UNDERSTAFFED aired live from Milwaukee. It was once again a bland show, which highlighted how lopsided the talent roster now is in favor of Smackdown. In addition, the decision to create a second world title for RAW was not a good idea. It creates a dispute over Brock Lesnar's status as champ right at the point where he, as a newcomer still needing to get over, should be the sole focus. Also, title controversies like this hurt the title's credibility no matter who is champ. 

Eric Bischoff came out to the ring carrying a briefcase. He said that Brock Lesnar may call himself the Undisputed World Champion, but by becoming exclusively a Smackdown wrestler, he has rendered his belt very disputed. He stated that RAW fans deserve a world champion, calling RAW the top brand in the history of sports entertainment. Continuing, Bischoff asserted that Stephanie McMahon may want a Lesnar vs. Undertaker match at the Unforgiven PPV, but the whole world knows that Triple H is the rightful number one contender. HHH came down to the ring as Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler both agreed with Bischoff that RAW fans deserve to have a world champion. HHH began ragging on Lesnar, accusing him of wanting to stay on Smackdown because he knows he isn't in his league. He buried Lesnar pretty well, saying the Next Big Thing has no balls. Bischoff agreed 100% and repeated his claim that, had he signed HHH to WCW, Nitro would have won the Monday Night Wars. He kept heaping the praises on HHH, which led to him opening the briefcase and presenting HHH with his own RAW WWE World Title. It was the old WCW title belt. HHH said that most guys would act modest and say they don't really deserve the belt, but he isn't most guys and he bragged that he does indeed deserve to have the title presented to him. He praised Bischoff as being a better judge of talent than his ex-wife. At this point, Ric Flair came down to the ring. The Nature Boy agreed that the title has become disputed and that RAW fans deserve to have a champion. He said HHH is The Man, but added that he (Flair) has been The Man 16 times, and each of those times he won his championship in the ring through blood and sweat and busting his ass, not by having it handed to him. Actually, Kevin Nash handed the WCW Title to Flair once during one of those Vince Russo angles but I don't think Flair counts that one among his 16 "official" reigns. In any event, Flair was right about it being a bad idea to hand belts out like that. Bischoff set up a HHH vs. Flair title defense for later, with the idea of giving legitimacy to HHH's reign. HHH said it would be an honor to defend the belt against Flair. Flair offered to shake HHH's hand, but HHH shook Bischoff's hand instead and then sucker punched Flair. HHH walked off with a smirk on his face, shouting out a sarcastic "whoooo!" 

Backstage, Steven Richards and Johnny Stamboli congratulated HHH. But Bubba Ray Dudley didn't seem as good-natured. HHH asked Bubba if he had a problem, and accused him of being jealous. He told Bubba to get in line and that maybe he could work his way up to a title shot, adding that unlike Lesnar he'll be defending his belt. Bubba said he isn't jealous, he's hungry, and that for every hungry guy in the locker room, the world title is their salvation. Bubba told HHH to wipe that smug expression off his face, because eventually someone will slap it off. Bubba then excused himself, saying it was time to put someone through a table. 

Bubba Ray Dudley & Trish Stratus defeated Christopher Nowinski & Molly Holly in an intergender tables elimination match in 6:35. They aired an earlier interview with Nowinski where he said that after bursting Bubba & Trish through tables, he would burst through something else. Yes, he actually said he would burst through Molly's hymen. Lawler acted like he didn't know what a hymen is. JR said, "You of all people don't know what a hymen is?" Maybe Lawler only knows it by its slang term. The match began and was pretty much what you would expect. Molly's pants got pulled down, exposing her unaphrodisiac undies. I think she bought those at a mall store called Great-Grandmother's Secret. Trish got a pop for flashing her thong. A "we want puppies" chant started and Lawler shouted "we want hymen". They did a spot where Nowinski ended up face down in Molly's private (i.e., hymen) area. I'm trying to find discrete ways of writing about this. Nowinski took a wazzup from Trish. Molly plastered Trish with a somersault splash off the top. She laid Trish out on a table on the floor and was going to splash her through it from off the top, but Bubba blocked it. Nowinski then tried to splash Trish through, but Trish moved and Nowinski crashed hard through the table. It was counted as an elimination, even though in the past offensive moves haven't been counted that way. So much for consistency. Trish gave Molly a huracanrana off the top and Bubba then put Molly through another table for the win. 

Jonathan Coachman interviewed Lance Storm & Christian about their upcoming handicap match against Kane. Coach noted that their tag belts wouldn't be on the line, but their pride would be. Christian said Americans know nothing about pride. Storm said the Un-Americans aren't the bad guys, but are just trying to help us change our ways by pointing out our hypocrisy, such as when a bunch of fat unemployed people celebrate Labor Day. Test showed up with a blowtorch and boasted that they'll finish the job they started last week by burning a U.S. flag. 

Bischoff invited Terri and Stacy Keibler to his office. They were in robes. Bischoff boasted that he was making history by booking them in the first ever lingerie pillow fight match. Terri complained that she just wants to conduct interviews. Bischoff made them give him a peek beneath their robes. He said Stacy had the best assets (emphasis on ass) while Terri had the best pillows. Stacy said at least her pillows are natural. And nature is a beautiful thing. 

Chris Jericho confronted Flair. Y2J was angry that Bischoff gave a world title shot to a 53 year old has-been. Flair reminded Jericho that he beat him at SummerSlam. Jericho told Flair he wants him to beat HHH so he can then kick Flair's ass and take the title from him. 

Booker T beat William Regal in 3:13. Just a regular, short TV match. Booker won, but his momentum seems to have been stalled. I think the scientific term for that is TripleH-us Interruptus. Booker scored the pin with a scissor kick and did the spinaroonie afterward. 

Highlight footage aired from SummerSlam of the HHH vs. Shawn Michaels match, including HHH's post-match attack with the sledgehammer. JR & Lawler then conducted an interview with Michaels via satellite. Michaels was in a wheelchair. He said he has feeling in his legs but his mobility isn't good. He vowed to make it through rehab and to get out of the wheelchair. Lawler asked if the match was worth it. Michaels said he wondered going in if he could live up to his past performances, and thinks he did so. He thanked God and the fans for allowing him to do what he loves to do. So he felt the match was worth it, noting also that his injury came not in the match, but in HHH's attack afterward. JR asked if Michaels had anything to say to HHH. Michaels said HHH should never hurt what he can't kill and said what goes around comes around. Michaels then held up a sledgehammer as the segment ended. 

Hour two began with HHH beating Flair in 9:38 to retain the RAW World Title. Flair did some takedowns and then strutted. He hit some chops and let out a "whooooo!' They did some traditional mat stuff. Flair took his bump over the top in the corner. He fell short on that one at SummerSlam but did it this time. HHH went on offense and Flair sold like a heel. Flair hooked the figure four but HHH made the ropes. HHH then hit a low blow and won with the pedigree. This was another Flair match that could have been saved for a specialty bout at a PPV, but was given away. It was just an average match. Afterward, Jericho ran in and attacked Flair, putting him in the walls. Rob Van Dam ran in for the save. He bumped HHH while running in, which caused HHH to go back in the ring after RVD. RVD, however, caught HHH with a spinkick. Both HHH and Jericho retreated. 

Big Show got in Bischoff's face, moaning about how Bischoff had Rosie & Jamal (the Island Boyz) attack him two weeks ago. He also was pissed over HHH being given the new RAW championship. Bischoff told him he could have a title shot if he put in an impressive performance in his scheduled match against Tommy Dreamer. I think Shakespeare wrote a play about Show's chances of being champion. It was called Much Ado About Nothing. The phone rang and whoever was on the other end told Bischoff that one of his wrestlers was going to defect to Smackdown to be with a family member. Bischoff was pissed and called Stephanie a bitch. By the way, throwing in all the fake and real family storylines, this defection theoretically could have been Jeff Hardy, Crash or Molly Holly, Kane, Bubba Ray or Spike Dudley, Christian, or even Rosie & Jamal. 

Kane beat Christian & Storm in the non-title handicap match in 5:22. Kane's lost a lot of weight. Kane controlled almost the entire match, tossing the tag champs all over the place. Christian & Storm finally doubled on Kane and scored some twos on him. Storm accidentally kicked Christian. Kane pinned Storm with a chokeslam. Afterward, Test ran in and gave Kane the boot to the face. The Un-Americans were once again about to burn Old Glory when Bradshaw charged in. He and Kane cleaned house and captured the flag, saving it yet again from destruction. 

Big Show beat Tommy Dreamer by DQ in 2:42. I actually got several e-mails last week objecting to the phase-out of the Hardcore Title, so that belt apparently had a constituency. Show just bullied Dreamer around for a couple of minutes. Show got a chair, but decided not to use it since he might get DQ'ed. So Dreamer used it instead, and got DQ'ed. He really laid in some sick chairshots, with Show taking some scary blows. Dreamer was doing his full ECW gimmick here and earned an "ECW" chant from the crowd. Show won, but didn't look very impressive in doing so. 

HHH told Bischoff he wanted to fight RVD. Bischoff said RVD was already scheduled to defend the IC belt against Jericho. HHH said he's the champ and is entitled to get whatever he wants. Jericho overheard all this and naturally didn't want to lose his IC shot. But lose it he did, as Bischoff agreed to cancel that match and replace it with HHH & Jericho vs. RVD & Flair. So HHH screwed Jericho again. 

Jeff Hardy vs. Crash Holly never got started. Bischoff came out and said he had been tipped off that someone was about to defect to Smackdown to be with a family member. He assumed it was Jeff, wanting to get at brother Matt for attacking him a few weeks ago. Bischoff was furious, and sent in Rosie & Jamal to do the weekly squash job. Jeff was flattened with the big splash. Bischoff boasted that anyone defecting in the future will face a similar beating at the hands of Rosie & Jamal. But to Bischoff's dismay, Crash announced that he was the one defecting, and fled. I guess they'll revive the Hollies gimmick on Smackdown. 

Terri beat Stacy in the lingerie pillow fight in 1:43. Lawler was special ref. Shakespeare also wrote a play about him called King Leer. They had a bed set up in the ring with pillows and stuffed animals. There was also a night table with an alarm clock, which was there for foreign object purposes. JR said, correctly, that this match wouldn't be like Bruiser and Crusher (Milwaukee legends) being in the ring. It was one of those matches that sucks as far as wrestling is concerned, but I still liked it, for reasons upon which I don't need to elaborate. The two babes fought with pillows in their lingerie, doing a few sexually charged spots before Terri pinned Stacy, who always seems to lose. With her long legs, she should learn the figure four. Stacy attacked Terri after the match and hit her with clock (Lawler said Terri got "clocked"). She then retrieved a bowl of syrup, or some similar sticky substance, which for some reason was under the ring. She poured it on Terri and then dumped feathers from the pillows on her, leaving Terri tarred & feathered and looking like Foghorn Leghorn would look if he had a sex change operation and got implants. 

Flair & RVD beat HHH & Jericho in 9:35. HHH & Jericho attacked RVD before Flair got to the ring. RVD hit a flip splash on Jericho. Jericho responded with a spin kick. Flair got pounded and again sold it big. RVD did his kicks. Jericho hit RVD with a hard chairshot but HHH only scored a two when he went for the pin. The crowd got into this match after not being too hot overall for most of the show. They were hot for RVD. Jericho put the walls on RVD but Flair broke it up. Flair threw a bunch of chops on both opponents. RVD scored two on HHH with the rolling thunder. RVD blocked a pedigree, kicked HHH, and went to the top for the frog splash but Jericho shoved him off. Jericho hit a lionsault on RVD, scoring two. Flair pulled Jericho out and put the figure four on him on the floor. Jericho tapped but it didn't count since they were outside, and HHH was the legal man. RVD then scored the upset pin by laying HHH out with a kick and hitting the frog splash. The first half of the match wasn't all that good but the latter half was okay and the ending was good. The show ended with RVD holding up his IC belt and also the RAW World Title, indicating that he should be in line for a shot at HHH's belt.

2007 - WWE releases Nick Dinsmore, who had portrayed the Eugene character.  He would be brought back in 2009, but after one appearance on Raw, would be released again.

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