May 17th – On This Day In Wrestling History
1963 – Bruno Sammartino defeated the “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers by submission to win the WWWF World Heavyweight Title in Madison Square Garden in New York City. This was the first time the championship would change hands and Sammartino would go on to reign as champion for almost eight years.
1992 – The fourth and final WCW Wrestle War pay-per-view took place in Jacksonville, Florida. In the main event WarGames match, Sting’s Squadron Sting, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat & Nikita Koloff defeated The Dangerous Alliance Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton & Larry Zbyszko. Also The Steiner Brothers defeated Tatsumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka to become the number one contenders for the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
1993 – On the live edition of WWF Monday Night Raw from the Manhattan Center in New York Marty Jannetty defeated Shawn Michaels to win the Intercontinental Championship in the main event. Also, in one of the most memorable upsets in the WWF at the time the, enhancement talent The Kid scored an upset pin on Razor Ramon. The Kid was of course Sean Waltman who later became The 1-2-3 Kid with the angle leading to Ramon’s babyface turn, and Yokozuna defeated the Ugandan Giant Kamala. On the follow up taped editions of Raw, Adam Bomb made his WWF debut and Mr Perfect finally picked up a pinfall victory over Doink The Clown to advance in the King of the Ring tournament. This followed two draws between the pair in previous qualifying matches.
1997 – The Undertaker defeated Mankind and retained the WWF Championship in a Lumberjack match at a WWF house show in Madison Square Garden. In the main event The Legion of Doom & ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin defeated Hart Foundation members Brian Pillman, Owen Hart & The British Bulldog in a Six-person tag match.
1998 – In the main event of WCW Slamboree from Worcester, Massachusetts Sting & The Giant defeated The Outsiders Scott Hall & Kevin Nash for the WCW World Tag Team Championship. Also Diamond Dallas Page defeated Raven in a Bowery Death Match, Bret Hart picked up a disqualification win over Randy Savage and Dean Malenko defeated Chris Jericho for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. In addition, Eddie Guerrero pinned Ultimo Dragon, Goldberg defeated Perry Saturn to retain the United States Championship, and Ciclope won a Cruiserweight Battle Royal.
2003 – Samoa Joe retained the ROH World Heavyweight Championship against The Zebra Kid at ROH/FWA Frontiers of Honor at York Hall in London, England. A.J. Styles pinned Jonny Storm, and Christopher Daniels defeated Jody Fleisch in the main event.
2004 – On WWE Raw from San Diego in California, Kane won a 20-man Battle Royal and became the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship at the upcoming Raw-exclusive Bad Blood pay-per-view. Trish Stratus pinned Lita in the opening match, and Chris Benoit & Edge retained the World Tag Team Championship against Batista and Intercontinental Champion Randy Orton in the main event.
2009 – Edge pinned Jeff Hardy to retain the World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of WWE Judgement Day from Chicago. Also on the card John Cena defeated The Big Show and Batista won by disqualification over WWE Champion Randy Orton in the WWE Championship match. Rey Mysterio pinned Chris Jericho to retain the Intercontinental Championship.
2010 – Bret Hart defeated The Miz for the United States Championship in a No-Rules match on WWE Monday Night Raw from Toronto. Hart quickly vacated the title and this would be the last championship he won in his career.
2011 – At the TNA Impact Wrestling taping in Orlando Eric Young defeated Gunner for TNA Television Title.
2015 – In the main event of WWE Payback from Baltimore Seth Rollins retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Randy Orton, Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns in a Fata 4-Way match.
2020 – Shad Gaspard who was best known for his time in WWE where he performed under his real name as part of Cryme Tyme sadly passed away aged 39 in a tragic drowning accident on Venice Beach in California. Gaspard’s passing received widespread attention after he instructed rescuers to rescue his son first after they were caught up in a strong rip current with a group of other swimmers. Gaspard’s wrestling career started after being signed to OVW the WWE’s developmental territory. After WWE Gaspard took up an acting career and appeared in a number of films and TV series such as Think Like a Man Too, The Game and From Dusk till Dawn: The Series.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays:
- Cash Wheeler (1987)
- Dave Hebner (1949)
- Earl Hebner (1949)