February 12th – On This Day In Wrestling History
Our full On This Day In Wrestling History section can be found here.
1985 – Jimmy Hart made his WWF debut at a TV taping where he acted as manager for Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine and (separately) Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart.
1987 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championships changed hands when The Powers Of Pain (Warlord and Barbarian) and Ivan Koloff beat Road Warrior Hawk, Dusty Rhodes and Paul Ellering (who was substituting for Road Warrior Animal).
1990 – At the NWA Worldwide Wrestling taping in Rainsville, Alabama Brian Pillman & Z-Man defeated Jimmy Garvin & Michael Hayes (The Fabulous Freebirds) for the WCW United States Tag Team Titles.
1996 Hulk Hogan defeated Arn Anderson in the main event of WCW Monday Nitro from Tampa, Florida.
1999 – Rob Van Dam retained the ECW World Television Title against Jerry Lynn in the main event of ECW Crossing The Line in Queens, New York.
2000 – Gerald and Patrick, AKA Creative Control (The Harris Brothers) beat The Mamalukes (Johnny The Bull and Big Vito) in Oberhousen, Germany to win the WCW World Tag Team Championships.
2001 – Kevin Nash defeated Scott Steiner by disqualification in the main event of WCW Monday Nitro from Biloxi, Mississippi.
2001 – On WWF Raw, The Rock defeated Rikishi in the main event. Also on the show, Justin Credible made his WWF debut (in that particular gimmick) and Chris Jericho defeated Eddie Guerrero in the opening match.
2003 – At an NWA-TNA weekly PPV show in Nashville, Tennessee, Kid Kash became the new X-Division Champion with a victory over Sonny Siaki.
2005 – Austin Aries retained the ROH World Heavyweight Championship at FIP ‘Dangerous Intentions’ from Sebring, Florida. Also on the show, Homicide defeated Rocky Romero in the main event to retain FIP World Heavyweight Title.
2006 – TNA’s ‘Against All Odds’ PPV took place at The Impact Zone in Orlando. Florida. In the main event, Christian Cage snared the NWA World Heavyweight Championship with a win over Jeff Jarrett.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKsvwR_cSGM
2012 – History was made at NJPW’s ‘The New Beginning’ event in Osaka, Japan. In the main event, Kazuchika Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This would be Okada’s first title win in what would become arguably the most legendary stint as a title holder and contender in NJPW history. With the win, he became the second youngest champion of all time and ended Tanahashi’s reign at 404 days. At the time, this would be the second longest reign in history. Okada’s own history making fourth reign of 720 days would subsequently put it down into third place.
2012 – TNA’s ‘Against All Odds’ PPV took place at The Impact Zone in Orlando. Florida. In the main event, Bobby Roode retained his TNA Heavyweight Championship against Jeff Hardy, James Storm and Bully Ray in a four-way match with Sting acting as ringside enforcer. Earlier on the card, Magnus and Samoa Joe won the TNA Tag Team Championships from Crimson and Matt Morgan.
2017 – Bray Wyatt won his first WWE Championship in the main event of WWE Elimination Chamber from Phoenix, Arizona. The chamber match also included AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Dean Ambrose, John Cena and The Miz. Also on the card, Naomi defeated Alexa Bliss for the WWE Smackdown Women’s Title.
2019 – Pedro Morales passed away aged 76 in Perth Amboy in New Jersey. He is notable for his stints in the World Wide Wrestling Federation, and then WWF where he became the promotion’s first Triple Crown Champion winning the World Heavyweight, Intercontinental and Tag Team Championships. He was inducted in the WWF Hall of Fame in 1995.
2020 – Nyla Rose defeated Riho on AEW Dynamite from Austin in Texas for the AEW Women’s Championship.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays:
- One Man Gang/Akeem (1960)
- Outback Jack (1958)