Wrestling History

March 29th – On This Day In Wrestling History

March 29th - On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1979 – The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) officially rebrands as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

1987 – WWF WrestleMania III was held at the Pontiac Silverdome, in Pontiac, Michigan. A then-world record 93,173 fans were in attendance, but this number has long since been disputed with a more conservative estimate of 78,000. On the PPV:

  • Rick Martel and Tom Zenk defeated Bob Orton Jr. and The Magnificent Muraco.
  • Billy Jack Haynes vs. Hercules ended when Haynes locked in the Full Nelson outside the ring and both men were counted out.
  • Hillbilly Jim, The Haiti Kid and Little Beaver defeated King Kong Bundy, Little Tokyo and Lord Littlebrook by disqualification in a mixed tag team match. As per the rules of the match, Hillbilly Jim and Bundy (the two ‘regular’ sized wrestlers) could only fight each other but Bundy dropped an elbow on Little Beaver, causing the DQ.
  • In a ‘Loser Must Bow’ match, Harley Race defeated The Junkyard Dog.
  • The Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) defeated The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques and Raymond).
  • Roddy Piper defeated Adrian Adonis with a sleeper hold in a hair versus hair match. After the match, Brutus Beefcake helped shave the head of Adonis and Howard Finkel announced it was Pipers final match as he was retiring. (Piper was back a few years later.)
  • The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) and Danny Davis defeated The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid) and Tito Santana, with Davis getting the pin on Davey Boy Smith.
  • Butch Reed defeated Koko B. Ware.
  • Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat defeated ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship in what would go down in history as one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time. The match ended when Savage tried to dive on Steamboat from the top rope holding the ring bell, but George ‘The Animal’ Steele interfered just as the referee was coming round from being knocked out. Savage went to slam Steamboat but was caught up in a small package and The Dragon got the pin to become the new Intercontinental Champion.
  • The Honky Tonk Man defeated Jake Roberts.
  • The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff defeated The Killer Bees (Brian Blair and Jim Brunzell) by disqualification when ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan hit The Sheik in the back with his 2×4.
  • Hulk Hogan defeated André the Giant to retain the WWF Championship. The loss was billed as the first time Andre was defeated via pinfall and is mainly remembered for Hogan picking up the Giant and hitting what would be known as the ‘Bodyslam heard around the world.’ Hogan then finished him off with his legdrop and getting the pinfall.

1994 – At a house show in London, England, Men On A Mission won the WWF Tag Team Titles from The Quebecers when Mabel fell on Pierre and stunned him, which meant Pierre did not kick out as was scripted. To fix the error, they lost the belts back to The Quebecers two days later at another house show in Sheffield, England.

1998 – At the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts, 19’028 fans were at WrestleMania XIV with another 730,000 watching on PPV. The show is famous for being the coronation of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin as WWE Champion and the appearance of boxing megastar Mike Tyson as special enforcer in the main event.

  • Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal) won a 15-team battle royal to win a WWF Tag Team Championship match at Unforgiven. If one member of a team got eliminated, both team members were out. Apart from L.O.D. the other teams were Faarooq and Kama, Savio Vega and Miguel Pérez, Jose Estrada and Jesus Castillo, The Truth Commission (Recon and Sniper), Bradshaw and Chainz, Mark Henry and D’Lo Brown, The Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre), The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson), The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher), Too Much (Scott Taylor and Brian Christopher), Disciples of Apocalypse (8-Ball and Skull), New Midnight Express (Bombastic Bob and Bodacious Bart), Steve Blackman and Flash Funk and The Godwinns (Phineas and Henry).
  • Taka Michinoku defeated Aguila by pinfall after the Michinoku Driver to retain the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship.
  • Triple H defeated Owen Hart to retain the WWF European Championship with the help of Chyna, who delivered a low blow to Hart when the referee wasn’t looking.
  • Marc Mero and Sable defeated The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust and Luna in a mixed tag team match, with Sable getting the pin on Luna.
  • Ken Shamrock defeated The Rock by submission to win the Intercontinental Championship, but after the match the Nation of Domination got involved which led Shamrock to retaliate and then take out three officials. Because of this the match decision was reversed and Shamrock disqualified, meaning The Rock retained the Intercontinental Title.
  • Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie (Terry Funk) defeated The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn and Road Dogg) in a tag team dumpster match to win the WWF Tag Team belts. However, the next night on Raw it would be revealed that the wrong dumpster was used and the Outlaws went on to win back the titles.
  • In their first televised match, The Undertaker defeated Kane following three Tombstones, taking him to 7-0 at WrestleMania.
  • In the main event (with Mike Tyson as the special enforcer) ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin defeated Shawn Michaels to win the WWF Championship for the first time. The referee had been knocked out and so Tyson made the three count, then after the match knocked out Shawn Michaels with a huge right hand.

1999 – WCW Nitro was in Toronto, Canada and the WCW Tag Team Titles changed hands when Billy Kidman and Rey Misterio Jr. defeated Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko by pinfall.

1999 – In East Rutherford, New Jersey on WWF Monday Night Raw, Goldust pinned Road Dogg to become the new Intercontinental Champion for the third time.

2003 – At the IWA-MS Clarksville Show was held in Clarksville, Indiana. J. C. Bailey became the new IWA:MS Lightheavyweight champion after defeating Spyder Nate Webb. In the main event Chris Hero retained the IWA:MS Heavyweight Title against B.J. Whitmer.

2005 – At a SmackDown taping, Paul London won an eight-man battle royal to win the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Billy Kidman was the last man eliminated.

2013 – Reid Flair, the son of Ric and sister of Charlotte Flair, was found dead at the age of 25 following an accidental drug overdose.

2014 – AIW Girls Night Out is held in Cleveland, Ohio. The main event is a ‘No Disqualification Falls Count Anywhere’ match in which Athena is victorious against Allysin Kay, becoming the new AIW Women’s Champion.

2015 – WrestleMania 31 was held at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. 76,976 were in attendance and an estimated 1,326,000 watched at home on either PPV or the WWE Network. As well as the matches, following a promo The Rock and Ronda Rousey took down Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, and earlier Rusev made his entrance on a tank. The event is most notable as showcasing the in-ring WWE debut of WCW icon Sting as well as Seth Rollins cashing in the Money In The Bank contract in the middle of the Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns main event to win the WWE Championship.

  • On the Kickoff show, Tyson Kidd and Cesaro defeated The Usos (Jimmy and Jey), Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando), and The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) in a fatal four-way tag team match to retain the WWE Tag Team belts.
  • Also on the Kickoff show there was the second ever Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The match was won by The Big Show who last eliminated Damien Mizdow. Other participants in order of elimination were Curtis Axel, Adam Rose, Fandango, Alex Riley, Zack Ryder, Bo Dallas, Hideo Itami, Diego, Fernando, Sin Cara, Tyson Kidd, Mark Henry, Konnor, Viktor, Darren Young, Heath Slater, Titus O’Neil, Jack Swagger, Big E, Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston, Erick Rowan, Goldust, Kane, Jimmy Uso, Cesaro, Ryback, and The Miz. Big Show eliminated 10 out of a possible 19 wrestlers.
  • In a seven-way ladder match, Daniel Bryan defeated Bad News Barrett, Dean Ambrose, R-Truth, Luke Harper, Dolph Ziggler, and Stardust to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship for the first time.
  • Following one of the best RKOs of his career, Randy Orton pinned Seth Rollins.
  • In a no-disqualification match Triple H defeated Sting, featuring plenty of interference and distractions by both the NWO (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Hulk Hogan) and DX (Billy Gunn, Road Dogg, and X-Pac).
  • AJ Lee and Paige defeated The Bella Twins (Brie and Nikki) when AJ made Nikki tap out with the Black Widow submission.
  • John Cena defeated Rusev to win the WWE United States Championship.
  • The Undertaker pinned Bray Wyatt after countering Sister Abigail into a Tombstone.
  • In the main event, Brock Lesnar defended the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Roman Reigns. During the match Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase, making the match a triple-threat, which Rollins went on to win after pinning Reigns to become the WWE Champion for the first time.

2015 – At DDT Judgement in Tokyo, Japan, Akito won the DDT Extreme Title from Shiori Asahi in a ’10-minute fall count match’ The match was a 10-minute Iron Man match in which instead of scoring one point for each pinfall, wrestlers scored a point for each count the referee made during pinfalls (one-counts were worth one point, two-counts were worth two points, etc). The time limit expired while Akito and Asahi were tied 17-17, leading to the referee continuing the match in sudden death overtime. Akito scored a final one-count to win the match 18-17.

2019 – RISE 13: Legendary was held in Berwyn, Illinois. Kylie Rae defeated Mercedes Martinez in a no rope submission match to become the new Phoenix Of RISE champion, but she would then lose the title to Zoe Lucas in the very next match.

2019 – PCW ULTRA Wrestle Summit was in Wilmington, California. In a three-way tag match Jacob Fatu and The Almighty Sheik became double champions with both the DEFY Tag Team 8XGP Titles and the PCW ULTRA Tag Team Titles after beating the teams of Dan Maff and Shawn Donavan, and Jorel Nelson and Royce Isaacs. In the main event of the night, Mil Muertes took the PCW ULTRA Heavyweight Title after defeating Shane Strickland.

2021 – On Monday Night Raw, The Miz and John Morrison released their new single, ‘Hey Hey, Hop Hop’.

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