Wrestling History

July 5th – On This Day In Wrestling History

July 5th - On This Day In Wrestling History

1915 – In Omaha, Nebraska, Joe Stecher defeated Charlie Cutler to win the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship. 22 year old Stecher won the the first two falls in a Best 2 out of 3 falls match, winning both by using body scissors on Cutler until he was exhausted and then getting the pin.

1986 – Night Four of the NWA The Great American Bash ’86 took place at the American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. In the main event of the show Ric Flair retained the NWA World Heavyweight Title in a Steel Cage match against Ricky Morton.

1992 – At a house show in Atlanta, Georgia, The Miracle Violence Connection (Terry Gordy and Steve Williams) defeated The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott Steiner) to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship belts. Also on the show, Brad Armstrong defeated Scotty Flamingo to win the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship.

1994 – At an SMW TV taping in Warrensville, North Carolina, Chris Candido defeated Scott Studd to win the vacant SMW “Beat The Champ” Television Title in less than 90 seconds. The concept of the title was that the champion would defend his title every week against a “randomly drawn” opponent. For each successful defense the wrestler won $1,000, and if the champion could win five title matches in a row the champion received a $5,000 bonus, but they had to vacate the title.

1998 – The OVW Jeffersonville Show was held at the Davis Arena in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Doug Basham became the new OVW Heavyweight Champion after beating David C.

2000 – Flash won the OVW Heavyweight Title in a No Disqualification match against Nick Dinsmore in Jeffersonville, Indiana, at the OVW TV tapings.

2000 – AAA Triplemanía VIII took place at the Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan, in front of 1,700 fans, the first time it had been held in Japan and only the second time it was held outside of Mexico. On the PPV:

  • Octagóncito III defeated Mini Abismo Negro.
  • Gran Apache defeated Óscar Sevilla.
  • El Oriental and Esther Moreno wrestled Pentagón and Xóchitl Hamada to a double count out.
  • El Alebrije, Pathfinder, and Perro Aguayo, Jr. won a Four-Way Twelve-Person Tag Team Four-Corners Elimination match after outlasting the teams of Los Vatos Locos (El Picudo, Charly Manson, and Espíritu), Team Japan (Naomichi Marufuji, Minoru Tanaka, and Genki Horiguchi) and Los Vipers (Histeria, Psicosis, and Maniaco).
  • Heavy Metal and Tiger Mask IV defeated Kick Boxer and Yoshinobu Kanemaru.
  • Octagón, Jushin Thunder Liger, Latin Lover, and Hector Garza defeated Cibernético, Shiima Nobunaga, Abismo Negro, and Electroshock in an Eight-man Atómicos Tag Team match.

2002 – The Zebra Kid defeated Mark Sloane at ‘FWA: Vendetta’ in Telford, England, to become the FWA All-England Title holder.

2009 – Day One of NJPW Circuit ’09 New Japan Soul was held at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. In the main event of the show Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) defeated The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship belts.

2014 – NOAH Great Voyage ’14 in Tokyo Vol. 2 was held at the Tokyo Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo, Japan. Atsushi Kotoge and Taiji Ishimori became the new GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team champions after beating Yoshinari Ogawa and Zack Sabre Jr, and then in the main event Naomichi Marufuji defeated Yuji Nagata for the GHC Heavyweight Title.

2014 – At the OVW Saturday Night Special show in Louisville, Kentucky, Big Jon and The Bodyguy won the OVW Southern Tag Team Titles in a handicap match against Robbie Walker. In the main event of the night Marcus Anthony won a Last Man Standing match against Jamin Olivencia to take the OVW Heavyweight Championship.

2015 – NJPW Dominion 7.5 was held at the Osaka-jō Hall in Osaka, Japan, in front of 11,400 fans. It was the first NJPW event at the venue in 21 years. On the show:

  • Manabu Nakanishi, Mascara Dorada, Ryusuke Taguchi, Sho Tanaka, and Yuji Nagata defeated TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima), Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, and Yohei Komatsu.
  • The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) defeated Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero), and reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly) in a Three-Way match to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
  • Tetsuya Naito and Tomoaki Honma defeated The Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale and Yujiro Takahashi).
  • Katsuyori Shibata defeated Kazushi Sakuraba.
  • KUSHIDA defeated Kenny Omega by submission to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
  • Togi Makabe defeated Tomohiro Ishii to retain the NEVER Openweight Championship.
  • The Bullet Club (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) defeated The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Michael Bennett) to win the IWGP Tag Team titles.
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Toru Yano.
  • Hirooki Goto defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to retain the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
  • Kazuchika Okada defeated AJ Styles with the Rainmaker to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

2016 – Impact Wrestling aired what is considered to be the first true ‘Cinematic’ match in wrestling titled The Final Deletion. The match pitted Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy and was filmed at the Hardy compound in North Carolina. This match introduced the wrestling world to the ‘Broken Universe’ and led to a career resurgence for both Hardys who were resigned by WWE the following Spring. It also led to creative acclaim for the segment’s producer, Jeremy Borash, who made the leap to WWE in the aftermath of this series of productions airing. The legacy of cinematic matches heightened in 2020 during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic when traditional wrestling matches became harder to film. The most notable match saw The Undertaker face AJ Styles in the ‘Boneyard Match’ which was also produced by Borash. This match not only main-evented night one of WrestleMania 36 but also served as the last match of Taker’s illustrious career.

2017 – At the GFW Impact/Xplosion Tapings in Orlando, Florida, Ethan Carter III defeated Moose to win the Impact Wrestling Grand Championship.

2019 – ‘Impact Wrestling: Bash at the Brewery’ was held at the Freetail Brewery in San Antonio, Texas. The Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Titles were won by The North (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander) after they defeated The Latin American Xchange (Ortiz and Santana).

Notable Wrestling Birthdays:

  • Adam Cole (1989)
  • Tatsuhito Takaiwa (1972)
  • Jerry Sags (1964)
  • Hillbilly Jim (1952)
  • Little Tokyo (1941)