July 14th – On This Day In Wrestling History

1986 – WWE held their second ever King Of The Ring tournament on a non-televised show in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Twelve men entered the one night event which was won by Harley Race with a win over Pedro Morales in the final. The other 10 competitors were Billy Jack Haynes, The Iron Sheik, George ‘The Animal’ Steele, ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper, Nikolai Volkoff, Dan Spivey, Don Muraco, Rudy Diamond, The Junkyard Dog and Paul Orndorff.

1991 – WCW presented their Great American Bash PPV from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. This was the first PPV after the departure of World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair to the WWF and fans voiced their displeasure about the departure with ‘We Want Flair’ chants a near constant presence throughout the night. The show is considered one of the worst PPVs in company history. In the main event, Rick Steiner and Missy Hyatt defeated Arn Anderson and Paul E. Dangerously in a cage match. In the semi-main event, Lex Luger captured the vacant World Heavyweight Championship with a cage match win over Barry Windham.

1994 – During the infamous trial of Vince McMahon on charges of steroid distribution, Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea in court) took the stand to testify. It is widely believed that his testimony was key to McMahon being spared jail. Although he declared that steroid use was common in the WWF in the 1980s, he denied McMahon ever instructed him to use the drugs or arranged for them to be supplied to him.

1997 – On an episode of ‘Raw Is War’ from San Antonio, Texas, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and Dude Love won the vacant WWF Tag Team Championships in a match against Owen Hart and The British Bulldog. The titles had been vacated (in kayfabe) when then champions Austin and Shawn Michaels fell out and refused to team. In reality, Michaels was suspended as punishment for a backstage fight with Bret Hart. Austin initially insisted he would fight for the titles on his own but finally accepted Dude Love as an unlikely partner.

1998 – At a Raw Is War taping in Binghampton, New York, D’Lo Brown defeated Triple H to capture the WWF European Championship.

2013 – WWE’s Money In The Bank 2013 PPV took place at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The two Money In The Bank matches were won by Damien Sandow (World Heavyweight Championship) and Randy Orton (WWE Championship) respectively.

2016 – At an Impact Wrestling taping at the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida, James Storm beat Eli Drake to win the TNA King Of The Mountain Championship.

2019 – Numerous title changes took place at the WWE Extreme Rules 2019 PPV from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Firstly, in a pre-show match, Shinsuke Nakamura captured the Intercontinental Championship from Finn Balor. In a three way tag team match, Daniel Bryan and Rowan dropped the SmackDown Tag Team Championship to The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods). Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker) also took part in the match. AJ Styles defeated Ricochet for the United States Championship and finally, Brock Lesnar cashed in his Money In The Bank briefcase to defeat Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship. The Beast struck after Rollins and Becky Lynch had defeated Lacey Evans and Baron Corbin in the main event.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays:

• Diamante (1991)
• Hiroki Sumi (1989)
• Bubba Ray Dudley (1971)