May 10th – On This Day In Wrestling History
1985 – The first ever episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event is taped at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. The most high profile match on the card saw Hulk Hogan take a disqualification win over Bob Orton with Hogan’s WWF Championship on the line.
1999 – Monday Night Raw took place in Orlando, Florida. With an 8.1 Neilsen rating in the USA, it became the most watched episode of Raw in its home country in history. It is a record unlikely to be broken. It a star-studded main event, The Rock, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and Vince McMahon defeated the Corporate Ministry team of Shane McMahon, The Undertaker and Triple H. Also on the card, Debra won the Women’s Championship in curious circumstances. She was set for an Evening Gown match with champion Sable. However, the champion replaced herself in the match with Nicole Bass who quickly defeated the challenger. Commissioner Shawn Michaels then came to the ring to announce that the match was actually subject to a reversal of the usual rules for that match type and as the woman to be stripped first, Debra was the winner of the match and the new champion. This also marked Sable’s last appearance in the company until 2003.
2001 – It was announced via press release that the Vince McMahon owned XFL American Football league would be closing its doors after just one season, primarily due to poor and declining ratings. The company would be re-started in 2020, still under the ownership of Vince McMahon but this time lasted even less time after its inaugural season was curtailed after just a few weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making its future untenable. The company would then be purchased by an investment group fronted by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson with an aim of another relaunch in 2022.
2014 – Global Wars, a card co-promoted by Ring Of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling took place at the Ted Reeve Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In the main event, Adam Cole retained the ROH Championship against Kevin Steen.
2015 – At a TNA Impact Wrestling taping in Orlando, Florida, Rockstar Spud won a gauntlet match to win the X-Division Championship. At the same taping, Spud ‘cashed in’ and vacated the championship for a shot at Kurt Angle’s World Heavyweight Championship. He lost this match.
2018 – ITV in the UK taped a number of episodes of WOS Wrestling at Epic Studios in Norwich, England. Two title changes took place on the card. The first saw Rampage take the WOS Title from champion Grado in a three way match that also include Justin Sysum. In another three way match, Kay Lee Ray became the first WOS Women’s Champion with a win over Viper and Bea Priestley.
2019 – Two title changes took place at RevPro ‘Epic Encounter 2019’ at York Hall in London, England. In the main event, El Phantasmo defeated David Starr to win the British Heavyweight Title in a ladder match. Aussie Open (Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher) defeated Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr. to win the British Tag Team Titles.
2020 – WWE taped the in ring portion of the Money In The Bank PPV at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. In the main event matches, Drew McIntyre defeated Seth Rollins to retain the WWE Championship and Braun Strowman successfully defended the Universal Championship against Bray Wyatt.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays:
- Makato Hashi (1977)
- Hiromi Amada (1973)
- William Regal (1968)
- Humberto Garza Jr. (1966)
- Paul Diamond (1961)
- Tito Santana (1953)
- Mark ‘Rollerball’ Rocco (1951)