June 13th – On This Day In Wrestling History
1982 – ‘High Chief’ Peter Maivia, the grandfather of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson passed away aged only 45 after a long cancer battle.
1990 – NWA Clash Of The Champions XI: Coastal Crush took place from McAllister Field House in Charleston, South Carolina. The main event saw The Junkyard Dog defeat Ric Flair via disqualification in a match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
1993 – WWE presented the first ever King Of The Ring PPV from the Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio. The centrepiece of the show was an 8 man tournament to crown the King Of The Ring. After three classic matches against Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect and Bam Bam Bigelow, Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart was declared the winner. His crowning ceremony was ruined by Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler who attacked Hart and began an on-off rivalry that last for a number of years. The other major happening on the show saw Yokozuna defeat Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship in what would be Hogan’s last televised bout in the company until 2002.
1999 – WCW’s Great American Bash took place at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. It was considered an all round horrible show and was headlined by Kevin Nash retaining the WCW World Heavyweight Championship over ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage via disqualification. The only title change on the card saw two members of The Jersey Triad (Diamond Dallas Page and Kanyon) defeat Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn for the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
2000 – Mitsuharu Misawa resigns as president of All Japan Pro Wrestling.
2004 – WWE’s ‘Bad Blood’ PPV took place at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The Raw brand show was headlined by Triple H defeating Shawn Michaels in a 47-minute Hell In A Cell match. To this day, this is the longest HIAC match in WWE history. Also on the show, Chris Benoit retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship with a win over Kane.
2006 – WWE officially revived ECW as a weekly show, broadcast on SyFy in the USA with their debut show taking place in Trenton, New Jersey. Rob Van Dam was officially presented with the revived ECW World Championship and Sabu won a battle royal for the right to face John Cena at the upcoming Vengeance PPV. Also on the show, Kurt Angle defeated Justin Credible and Sandman defeated…The Zombie?
2009 – All Japan Pro Wrestling icon Mitsuharu Misawa died in the ring after a tragic accident caused fatal spinal trauma in a match where he teamed with Go Shiozaki against Bison Smith and Akitoshi Saito. He was aged only 46.
2009 – Austin Aries became the first man to win the Ring Of Honor World Championship for a second time with a win in a three-way dance against Jerry Lynn and Tyler Black at ‘Manhattan Mayhem III’ at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.
2010 – TNA’s ‘Slammiversary VIII’ took place in The Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida. The main event saw Rob Van Dam defeat Sting to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays:
- Jason Cross (1979)
- Glen Ruth (1969)
- Jacques Rougeau Jr. (1960)
- Antonio Pena (1951)
- Otto Wanz (1943)