Wrestling History

July 19th – On This Day In Wrestling History

July 19th - On This Day In Wrestling History

1997 – ECW Heatwave ’97 took place at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The main event was one of the most heated bouts in ECW history, pitting Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler, Rob Van Dam and Sabu against Rick Rude, Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman. Lawler was depicted as invading the company he called ‘Extremely Crappy Wrestling’ with the help of the two men who believed they were better than the company that gave them their first national break. ECW originals Sandman and Dreamer teamed with Rude who was coming out of a three year retirement. In the end, Rude, the longtime WWF and WCW competitor turned on the ECW loyalists and allowed Lawler, Sabu and RVD to take the win. This would be Rude’s last ever match. Earlier on the card the ECW Tag Team Championship changed hands when The Gangstas (New Jack & Mustafa) defeated The Dudley Boyz (D-Von & Buh Buh Ray) in a Steel Cage Weapons match.

2003 – Ring Of Honor presented the first ‘Death Before Dishonor’ event at the Rex Plex in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The most high profile bout on the show saw CM Punk defeat Raven in a bloody Dog Collar match to bring their storied ROH feud to an end. In the main event, Samoa Joe retained the ROH Championship with a win over Paul London.

2009 – TNA’s Victory Road PPV took place at The Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida. The main event saw Kurt Angle retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Mick Foley. Booker T and Scott Steiner defeated Beer Money Inc. (James Storm and Bobby Roode) to win the TNA Tag Team Championship and Taz made his first appearance for the company.

2015 – WWE’s Battleground PPV took place at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. It was an unremarkable PPV headlined by Brock Lesnar defeating Seth Rollins by disqualification in a match for Rollins’ WWE World Heavyweight Championship. After the bout, The Undertaker made his return to the company to set up a match with Lesnar at SummerSlam that year.

2016 – WWE marked the reintroduction of their brand split as they once again divided their roster between Raw and SmackDown on the premiere of SmackDown as a live (rather than taped) show in Worcester, Massachusetts. The top picks were Seth Rollins for Raw in the top spot and WWE Champion Dean Ambrose to SmackDown in the second spot. The highest drafted woman was WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair who was drafted third overall to Raw. The highest placed NXT talent was Finn Balor who was taken by Raw as the fifth overall pick.

2020 – WWE taped the in ring portion of their ‘The Horror Show At Extreme Rules’ PPV. Considered the worst major event of WWE’s period without fans in attendance, the show was headlined by Drew McIntyre defeating Dolph Ziggler to retain the WWE Championship in an Extreme Rules match.

2020 – The night after their Slammiversary PPV, Impact Wrestling taped multiple episodes of Impact at Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. The highlight of the tapings saw the newly returned Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) defeat The North (Josh Alexander and Ethan Page) to win the Impact Wrestling Tag Team Championship.

2021 – WWE held their first edition of Raw in front of fans since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas. The show saw Nikki A.S.H cash in the Money In The Bank briefcase she had won the night prior to win the Raw Women’s Championship from Charlotte Flair. Other notable events on the night saw John Cena and Keith Lee make their long-awaited returns to the programme and then NXT Champion Karrion Kross made his main roster debut in a disappointing loss to Jeff Hardy.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays:

  • Daga (1988)
  • HoHo Lun (1987)
  • Jinder Mahal (1986)
  • Tony Mamaluke (1977)
  • Rey Bucanero (1974)
  • Mike Modest (1971)
  • Robert Gibson (1958)