May 12th – On This Day In Wrestling History
1989 – ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper makes a return to the ring after a two year ‘retirement’ at a WWF house show in Los Angeles, California. He beats Ted DiBiase in that match.
1996 – Ahmed Johnson defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley in the finals to win the WWF Kuwait Cup Tournament. At the same event in Kuwait City, Shawn Michaels retained the WWF World Title against ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin in the main event.
1997 – The live edition of WWF Raw from Delaware ended on-air with an infamous incident in the real-life rivalry between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, and was discussed in-depth by the two Hall of Fame legends in their sit-down interview with Jim Ross for the Rivalries DVD released in the early 2010s. During an in-ring promo segment between the two, Hart who was recovering from a legitimate injury was berating Michaels whilst sat in a wheelchair. Hart missed his “go-home” cue from the production team informing him that the live show on the USA Network was ending. As a result the show went off the air with Hart verbally lambasting Michaels, and the segment eventually ended with Hart’s exit line out of the segment of “you don’t have the guts, you don’t have the insides.” This was the cue for Michaels to deliver his superkick to Hart as planned, but the spot did not make it on-air, and was shown on the following week’s episode. The purpose of this segment was to set up the booked one-on-one match between Hart and Michaels at the King of the Ring, which subsequently did not happen due to Hart still being injured, and was three weeks prior to their shoot backstage fight in Hartford, Connecticut. On the same episode, Rob Van Dam makes his first ever appearance on Raw. He is presented as a guest of Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler from ECW and defeats a preliminary talent by the name of Jeff Hardy.
2003 – On WWE Raw from Philadelphia Kevin Nash and Chris Jericho fought to a no contest in the main event, and Goldberg defeated Christian in a Steel Cage match.
2004 – TNA Wrestling announce that they will begin production of a weekly TV show for Fox Sports Net in June. This would put an end to their weekly PPV model.
2006 – Christian Cage & Colt Cabana defeated Bryan Danielson & Christopher Daniels in the main event of ROH ‘How We Roll’ from Lake Grove in New York.
2007 – The first ever ROH ‘Respect Is Earned’ PPV takes place at the Manhattan Center in New York City. The tag team main event saw ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima and Bryan Danielson defeat Nigel McGuinness and KENTA.
2008 – Randy Orton pinned John Cena in the main event of WWE Raw from the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
2008 – At the TNA Impact taping in Orlando Christian Cage, Rhyno & Samoa Joe defeated Booker T, Brother Devon & Brother in the 6 Person Tag match main event. And Awesome Kong retained the TNA Knockouts Championship against Raisha Saeed.
2012 – Ultimo Dragon retained the NWA Junior Heavyweight Title in a Three-Way Elimination match against Hajime Ohara & Ultimo Guerreo in the main event of Toryumon Mexico Dragonmania VII from Mexico City.
2012 – Rob Terry defeated Johnny Spade for the OVW Heavyweight Title at the OVW Saturday Night Special in Louisville, Kentucky.
2012 – Johnny Gargano retained the Dragon Gate Open The Freedom Gate Championship against A.R. Fox in the main event of EVOLVE #13 from Concord, North Carolina.
2012 – At ROH ‘Border Wars’ in Toronto, Kevin Steen defeated Davey Richards to win the ROH World Heavyweight Title in the main event. The World’s Greatest Tag Team Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin beat The Briscoes in a Fight Without Honor to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship. Also, Roderick Strong pinned Fit Finlay to retain the ROH World Television Championship and Jay Lethal defeated Tommaso Ciampa.
2014 – Batista and Roman Reigns fought to a no-contest in the main event of WWE Raw from Greenville, South Carolina.
2018 – At the WOS Wrestling TV tapings in Norwich, England, the WOS Tag Team Championship changed hands when Grado and British Bulldog Jr. defeated Iestyn Rees and Kip Sabian.
2019 – Minoru Suzuki defeated Sha Samuels in the main event of RevPro Mayhem from Portsmouth, England.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays:
- Doug Basham (1971)