Wrestling History

March 17th – On This Day In Wrestling History

March 17th - On This Day In Wrestling History

Our full On This Day In Wrestling History section can be found here.

1981 – At a live event in Allentown, Pennsylvania, The Moondogs, Rex and King, defeated Rick Martel and Tony Garea for the WWF Tag Team Championship. Around eight weeks after the change, King was replaced by Spot on the Moondogs due to visa issues causing him issues travelling to the USA from Canada to work.

1993 – Six days after losing the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to Sting in London, England, Big Van Vader regained the title at an event in Dublin, Ireland.

2000 – One of the most acclaimed wrestling documentaries of all time, Beyond The Mat, was released nationwide in cinemas in the USA. The film, directed by Barry Blaustein, took a look at the professional and family life of professional wrestlers from the smallest independent companies all the way up to the top echelons of WWE.

2001 – Scott Norton defeated Kensuke Sasaki to become the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

2002 – WrestleMania X8 took place in front of 68,237 fans at The Skydome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The main event of the show saw Triple H defeat Chris Jericho to win the WWE Undisputed Championship. However, this match was completely overshadowed by the semi-main event match between The Rock and ‘Hollywood’ Hogan that saw the fans in Toronto completely embrace the heel Hogan, resulting in a face turn at the end of the match, which has gone down as one of the most iconic ‘WrestleMania moments’ of all time.

Also on the event, The Undertaker became the first man to notch ten WrestleMania victrories with a win over Ric Flair and Rob Van Dam defeated William Regal in the opening match for the Intercontinental Championship. Of note, this was the last WrestleMania to take place under the WWF branding. The company changed their name to WWE later that year.

2003 – On an episode of Raw from St Louis, Missouri, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin defeated Eric Bischoff in a no disqualification match. Ultimately, this was Austin’s final match on television. He retired following his match with The Rock at WrestleMania XIX six days later.

2009 – On SmackDown in Corpus Christi, Texas, MVP won the WWE United States Championship with a win over Shelton Benjamin.

2011 – TNA’s Lockdown PPV took place from the US Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. The main event of the show saw Fortune (Christopher Daniels, Robert Roode, Frankie Kazarian and James Storm) defeat Immortal (Abyss, Bully Ray, Matt Hardy and Ric Flair) in a Lethal Lockdown match.

Elsewhere on the card, Mickie James defeated Madison Rayne to win the Knockouts Championship in a title vs. hair match. Also, Jeff Jarrett defeated Kurt Angle in a 2 out of 3 falls ‘Ultra Rules’ match. This saw Angle win a submission match for the first fall, Jarrett win a pinfall only match for the second fall and Jarrett win a cage match for the final fall and the victory. The TNA World Heavyweight Championship was up for grabs on the show. Champion Sting retained the belt in a triple-threat match with Rob Van Damn and Mr. Anderson.

2016 – At an Impact Wrestling taping in Orlando, Florida, Jade won the Knockouts Championship when she defeated champion Gail Kim and Madison Rayne in a triple-threat match. Also, Drew Galloway (McIntyre) successfully defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Matt Hardy.

2021 – In the main event of the St Patrick’s Day Slam edition of AEW Dynamite, Thunder Rosa defeated Britt Baker in a brutal Lights Out match.

2021 – LA Knight made his in-ring NXT debut when he defeated August Grey, although he was distracted by Bronson Reed who came to the ring to antagonise him during the match.

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