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THIS DAY IN HISTORY: AWA'S FIRST (AND LAST) PPV, FLAIR LOSES AT STARRCADE, DYNAMITE KID INJURED, INOKI FIRED AND MORE

December 13th

On this day in history in ....

1883 - H.M. Dufur defeats John McMahon in Boston, Massachusetts, for the American Collar-and-Elbow Title, beginning his third reign.

1920 - Ed "Strangler" Lewis defeats Joe Stetcher to win the New York version of the World Heavyweight Title.

1940 - Buddy Knox defeats The Great Mephisto to win the Midwest Wrestling Association (Ohio) Light Heavyweight Title in Akron, Ohio.

1952 - Frank Stojack defeats Roger Mackay for the Pacific Coast Junior Heavyweight Title in Roseburg, Oregon, beginning his fifth reign.

1960 - Lee Fields defeats Pancho Villa for the NWA Gulf Coast Heavyweight Title in Pensacola, Florida, starting his third reign.

1961 - In Honolulu, Hawaii, The Masked Executioner defeats Lord James Blears for the NWA Hawaii Heavyweight Title.

1963 - Enrique Torres defeats Rock Hunter for the Central States version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Title in St. Joseph, Missouri.

1966 - The Infernos (Frankie Cain and Rocky Smith) defeat Jose Lothario and Sam Steamboat to win the Florida version of the NWA World Tag Team Title, their third, in Tampa, Florida.

1968 - Dusty Rhodes defeats Tommy Martin for the NWA Central States Heavyweight Title in St. Joseph, Missouri.

1969 - Vicente Febrer defeats Julian Pizarro to win Spain's Heavyweight Title.

1969 - Tony Borne and Moondog Mayne defeat Beauregard and Roger Kirby for the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title, beginning their eighth reign.

1971 - Antonio Inoki is fired from the Japan Wrestling Association because of an apparent plan to attempt to take over the promotion. Inoki's NWA United National Heavyweight Title was vacated as a result. The following year, Inoki would found New Japan Pro Wrestling. Giant Baba would also leave and form All Japan Pro Wrestling the same year, and the JWA closed in 1973.

1972 - Bob Kelly defeats The Spoiler to win his fourth City of Mobile Heavyweight Title in Mobile, Alabama.

1973 - Duke Miller defeats Ken Lucas for the NWA Mississippi Heavyweight Title in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, ending Lucas' fourth reign.

1975 - Duke Miller defeats Ken Lucas to win the NWA Alabama Heavyweight Title in New Brocton, Alabama. This ended Lucas' sixth reign and began Miller's third.

1976 - Don Leo Jonathan defeats John Quinn for the Vancouver version of the NWA Pacific Coast Heavyweight Title in Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning his fifth reign.

1981 - Perro Aguayo defeats Chris Adams to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Title in Mexico City, Mexico, Aguayo's third title win.

1982 - Mark Romero (later known as Mark Youngblood) defeats Hercules Hernandez for the NWA Central States Television Title in Kansas City, Kansas, beginning Romero's second reign.

1986 - The Rock 'n' Roll RPMs (Mike Davis and Tommy Lane) defeat Jeff Jarrett and Billy Travis to win the AWA Southern Tag Team Title in Memphis, Tennessee. At the same event, Badd Company (Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka) end the third CWA International Tag Team Title reign of Akio Sato and Tarzan Goto.

1986 - Rip Oliver defeats The Assassin in Portland, Oregon for the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title, beginning his 10th reign.

1986 - During a tag team match with British Bulldog partner Davey Boy Smith against Don Muraco & Cowboy Bob Orton, the legendary Dynamite Kid suffers a severe back injury in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Dynamite went down on the floor after being kneed in the back by Muraco and hit several times with a chair. Dynamite was rushed into a hospital for surgery to repair two torn lumbar discs. At first it was feared that his career was over, but he did manage to return to the ring a short time later. Dynamite later wrote in his autobiography that it was years of a high impact style, not this specific match, that caused the injury. The severe nerve damage to his back resulted in him never being the same in the ring, and while he would wrestle for another five years (and have a good run in All Japan Pro Wrestling), the glory era of the Dynamite Kid was over.

1987 - Miguel Perez, Jr. defeated Kareem Mohammed to win the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Title in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1988 - The AWA held their one, and only, Pay-per-view event, Superclash III, in conjunction with World Class Championship Wrestling and Memphis' CWA. The event, held in Chicago, Illinois at the UIC Pavilion, drawing less than 2,000 fans for the 12-match card. The card it notable for several stories and incidents, which will be covered in the results of the show. The show was not a success financially, with only 1,672 fans attending the show. Not long after SuperClash III, Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler bought World Class and merged it with the CWA to create the United States Wrestling Association.
The show results were:
- Hector, Chavo & Mando Guerrero defeated Cactus Jack & The Rock N' Roll RPMs (Mike David & Tommy Lane) when Chavo pinned Lane. This was the Pay-per-view debut of Cactus Jack. 15 years after this match, Chavo Guerrero confronted Verne Gagne (who promoted the show) at a wrestling convention over the fact that Verne has never paid him (and others) for appearing on the show.
- Eric Embry defeated Jeff Jarrett to win the World Class Light Heavyweight Title for the fourth time.
- Jimmy Valiant defeated Wayne Bloom in less than thirty seconds.
- World Class Texas Champion Iceman King Parsons defeated Brickhouse Brown.
- Paul Diamond, Pat Tanaka & Madusa Micelli (managed by Diamond Dallas Page) defeated Ricky Rice, Derrick Dukes & Wendi Richter.
- Greg Gagne defeated Ronnie Garvin via countout to win the AWA International Television Title. Garvin had actually beaten Gagne and was the defending champion going into this match, but he had signed a contract with the WWF and refused to job clean to Gagne before leaving. So, the AWA made up a story about the title being held up due to controversy over Garvin's championship win. As a result, this match was for a vacant title, and Gagne could win the belt on a countout.
- The Terrorist won a Street Fight Lingerie Battle Royal. Notables in the battle royal include Luna Vachon and Tina Ferrari (better known as Ivory in WWE).
- Sgt. Slaughter defeated Col. DeBeers in a Boot Camp match. Following the match, The Iron Sheik attacked Slaughter.
- World Class Tag Team champions The Samoan Swat Team (Samu & Fatu), managed by Buddy Roberts, defeated Michael Hayes & Steve Cox.
- Wahoo McDaniel defeated Manny Fernandez in an Indian Strap match.
- AWA World Champion Jerry Lawler defeated World Class Champion Kerry Von Erich to unify the titles. Lawler was later given a third belt by the USWA proclaiming him the "Unified World Champion". Before the match, Von Erich absentmindedly cut himself with a blade backstage, slicing open his bicep. As a result, Lawler grabbed Von Erich's arm at the start of the match and rammed it into the ringpost in an attempt to explain why Von Erich was bleeding. The match ended when the referee stopped the bout due to Von Erich's excessive bleeding from the head, despite the fact that Von Erich had Lawler in the claw and was in control of the match at the time. This match almost didn't take place, as WWF reportedly went to the Illinois State Athletic Commission and pointed out an ancient statute that stated that amputees could not compete in championship matches as a way of messing with the show. WWF claimed Von Erich was an amputee (at the time, it was not common knowledge that Von Erich was missing a foot) and that the match should be canceled. However, the Commission said it wouldn't begin it's investigation until December 14th (after the PPV), so WWF dropped their request.
- The Rock N' Roll Express vs. Jimmy Golden & Robert Fuller ended in a double countout.

1988 - Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy defeat Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada in the finals of All Japan's Real World Tag League to win the vacant All Japan World Tag Team Title.

1989 - The Colossal Connection (Andre the Giant and Haku) defeat Demolition (Ax and Smash) for the WWF Tag Team Title in Huntsville, Alabama, ending Demolition's second reign.  This would be Andre's last championship reign in wrestling.

1989 - The NWA held the seventh annual Starrcade at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. In a surprising move, the decision was made to throw out the usual "supercard" format, and instead go with a pair of round robin tournaments, calling the show "Future Shock: Night Of The Iron Men". All of the matches had a 15 minute time limit, with no titles on the line. Here are the results:
- In the Iron Team tournament: Rick & Scott Steiner defeated Doom via countout.
- In the Iron Man tournament: Lex Luger defeated Sting.
- In the Iron Team tournament: The Road Warriors defeated Doom.
- In the Iron Man tournament: Ric Flair defeated The Great Muta in less than two minutes. This was Muta's first pinfall loss in the NWA. By the end of the night, he would have suffered two more losses.
- In the Iron Team tournament: Rick & Scott Steiner defeated The Road Warriors.
- In the Iron Man tournament: Sting defeated The Great Muta.
- In the Iron Team tournament: The Samoan Swat Team defeated Doom.
- In the Iron Man tournament: Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair ended in a draw.
- In the Iron Team tournament: The Samoan Swat Team defeated Rick & Scott Steiner via disqualification.
- In the Iron Man tournament: Lex Luger defeated The Great Muta via disqualification.
- In the Iron Team tournament: The Road Warriors defeated The Samoan Swat Team.
- In the Iron Man tournament: Sting defeated Ric Flair. This was Flair's first clean loss at a Starrcade event.

Final standings for Iron Team tournament:
Road Warriors - 40 points.
Rick & Scott Steiner - 35 points.
Samoan Swat Team - 30 points.
Doom - 0 points.

Final standings for Iron Man tournament:
Sting - 40 points.
Lex Luger - 35 points.
Ric Flair - 25 points.
Great Muta - 0 points.

1992 - Gran Hamada defeats Black Power II in a tournament final for the vacant UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Title in Mexico City, Mexico, beginning his third reign. The title was vacated in January 1992 when champion Perro Aguayo left the UWA for CMLL.

1992 - Bat Yoshinaga and Tomoko Watanabe defeat Takako Inoue and Mariko Yoshida to win the All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Tag Team Title in Tokyo, Japan.

1993 - Alundra Blayze (Madusa) defeats Heidi Lee Morgan in the finals of a tournament to win the revived WWF World Women's Title.

1994 - Shinjiro Ohtani defeats Norio Honaga in Osaka, Japan for the UWA Welterweight Title.

1996 - Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie to win the Pro Wrestling eXpress Tag Team Title in North Versailles, Pennsylvania.

1997 - Timber defeats C.W. Anderson for the NWA 2000 American Heritage Heavyweight Title in Hope Mills, North Carolina.

1997 - La Ley defeats Jerry Estrada in Caguas, Puerto Rico, to win the WWC Junior Heavyweight Title.

1997 - Canadian Destroyer defeats Gene Austin for the Southern Michigan Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Championship in Michigan Center, Michigan.

1998 - Rob Van Dam and Sabu defeat The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) to win the ECW Tag Team Title in Tokyo, Japan, ending the Dudley's fifth reign.

1998 - Olimpico defeats Halcon Negro, Jr. to win the CMLL Welterweight Title in Mexico City, Mexico.

1998 - Cima Nobunaga defeats Dr. Cerebro for the IWRG Intercontinental Welterweight Title in Naucalpan, Mexico.

1998 - The Wrecking Crew (Big Q and Billy D) defeat Krazy KC and Knightmare to win the Empire Wrestling Federation Tag Team Title in San Jacinto, California, their second title win.

2002 - Ultimo Guerrero defeats Shocker for the CMLL Light Heavyweight Title in Mexico City, Mexico.

2002 - Dark Ninja defeats Bruiser to win the NWA Hawaii Hardcore Title in Waikiki, Hawaii.

2002 -Sting defeats champion Lex Luger and Malice (who Sting pinned to win the match) in a three way bout in Zurich, Switzerland to win the World Wrestling All-Stars World Heavyweight Title.

2003 - Dan Maff defeats champion Jerry Lawler and Shane Douglas in a three way bout to win the Jersey All Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title in Rahway, New Jersey.

2003 - Jerrelle Clark defeats champion Roderick Strong, Justice and Naphtali in a four-way match to win the NWA Florida X Division Title in St. Petersburg, Florida.

2003 - Sinn wins the NWA Bluegrass Heavyweight Title from Chance Prophet in Paintsville, Kentucky. At the same show, The Redneck Express (Chris Vega and The Rebel) defeat Vinnie Viagra and Billy Maverick win their second NWA Bluegrass Tag Team Title.

2005 - Batista and Rey Mysterio defeat MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro) for the WWE Tag Team Title in Springfield, Massachusetts.

2005 - Brian Jennings and Kimera defeat Matt Stryker and Tack to win the Heartland Wrestling Association Tag Team Title in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Thanks to Ryan Martinez for his help with the above.

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