July 13th – On This Day In Wrestling History
1982 – The WWF Tag Team Championship changes hands in Allentown, Pennsylvania when Mr. Fuji and Mr. Saito defeat Jules and Chief Jay Strongbow.
1995 – Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit) wins the ‘Best Of Super Juniors’ tournament in Tokyo, Japan with a win over Shinjiro Otani. This is Pegasus’ second win in three years after previously besting the tournament field in 1993.
1996 – ECW ‘Heatwave ’96’ took place at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The main event saw The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer and Terry Gordy defeat Raven, Stevie Richards and Brian Lee in a ‘Rage In The Cage’ match. A pre-match stipulation said that if anyone pinned Richards in the match, that man would win Raven’s ECW World Championship. Sandman pinned Raven for the win so the title change didn’t happen. One title change that did occur was Shane Douglas winning the ECW World Television title in a four-way elimination bout against reigning champion Chris Jericho, Too Cold Scorpio and Pitbull #2.
1997 – WCW’s Bash At The Beach PPV took place in the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. The main event saw Lex Luger and The Giant defeated Dennis Rodman and Hollywood Hogan. No titles changed hands but Chris Benoit defeated Kevin Sullivan to force Sullivan to leave WCW.
1998 – On an episode of Raw is War from East Rutherford, New Jersey, Kane and Mankind defeated The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) to win the WWF Tag Team Championship. A rematch later that night ended in a no contest.
2005 – Matt Hardy, who invaded Raw in a worked-shoot angle two days prior, called into WWE’s Byte This internet call in show to take aim at the guest on the show, Lita. The angle both were working was derived entirely from the very real life situation with Lita cheating on then-boyfriend Hardy with Edge whilst the former was off the road nursing an injury. On the show, Hardy aired all the dirty laundry from their real life and deliberately addressed her as Amy (Dumas, her real name) rather than Lita.
2017 – In Daytona Beach, Chris Benoit’s wife and son, Nancy and Daniel, were laid to rest at a private family funeral. Both were killed by Benoit at their family home before he committed suicide.
2008 – TNA’s Victory Road PPV took place at the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas. The main event saw Samoa Joe and Booker T fight to a non contest in a TNA World Heavyweight Championship match.
2012 – AJ Styles defeated Rob Terry to win the TNA Global Championship at an Impact taping in Orlando, Florida.
2015 – On an episode of Raw from Atlanta, Georgia, the ‘Divas Revolution’ truly kicks off when the acclaimed NXT trio of Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair make their main roster debuts.
2016 – A champion vs. champion match took place at the TNA Impact Wrestling tapings at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. TNA World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Lashley defeated X-Division Champion Eddie Edwards to win Edwards’ title.
2017 – WWE taped the first matches of their inaugural all-women Mae Young Classic tournament at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. It saw the debut of a number of women in the company who would go on to be well known names in the company such as Shayna Baszler, Mia Yim, Piper Niven, Rhea Ripley, Toni Storm and many, many more.
2019 – AEW’s Fight For The Fallen special event takes place at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. The main event was a family affair as The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) defeated the Rhodes brothers, Cody and Dustin.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays:
- Curt Stallion (1990)
- Jake Crist (1984)
- Necro Butcher (1973)
- Sean Waltman (1972)
- Akiro Hokotu (1967)