Wrestling History

February 26th – On This Day In Wrestling History

February 26th - On This Day In Wrestling History

Our full On This Day In Wrestling History section can be found here.

1967 – Verne Gagne wins his eighth AWA World Heavyweight Championship with a win over Mad Dog Vachon in St Paul, Minnesota.

1997 – For the first time, WWF Monday Night Raw was taped in Europe. At the event, in Berlin, Germany, ‘The British Bulldog’ Davey Boy Smith was crowned the first ever WWF European Champion after a tournament final win over his fellow World Tag Team Champion and brother-in-law, Owen Hart. The final was the culmination of a tournament that took place over the course of a week-long tour of the country. The match aired on TV in the USA on March 3rd.

2000 – In Cincinnati, Ohio, at a taping of ‘ECW on TNN’, Tommy Dreamer and Masato Tanaka snared the ECW Tag Team Championship from The Impact Players, Lance Storm and Chris Candido.

2002 – At a SmackDown taping in Boston, Massachusetts, Goldust defeated Maven to win the WWF Hardcore Championship.

2007 – On a live episode of Raw from Fresno, California, John Cena and Shawn Michaels defeated Rated RKO (Randy Orton and Edge) to win the World Tag Team Championship.

2010 – WWE announces the mass release of a horde of talent including Maria Kanellis, Gregory Helms, Charlie Haas and Paul Burchill.

2011 – Ring Of Honor’s 9th Anniversary Show took place at Frontier Park Fieldhouse in Chicago, Illinois. In the main event, Mark and Jay Briscoe fell to defeat at the hands of Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. Earlier on the card, Roderick Strong defended the ROH World Championship against Homicide in a No Holds Barred match.

2016 – Ring of Honor presented the 14th Anniversary Show at Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the main event, Jay Lethal defeated Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly in a three-way match to retain his ROH World Championship.

2020 – All Elite Wrestling taped the 21st episode of Dynamite in Independence, Missouri. The highlight of the show was the opening match which saw Kenny Omega best PAC in a 30-minute Ironman match.

2021 – On Friday Night SmackDown, Bianca Belair announced she would challenge Sasha Banks for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania. In the main event, Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) and Jey Uso fought to a double count-out, in a match which Danielson had to win to get a shot at Roman Reigns and the Undisputed Championship at Fastlane.

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