May 22nd – On This Day In Wrestling History
1984 – A blockbuster card in Tokyo, Japan saw a double main event with NWA Champion Kerry Von Erich and Jumbo Tsuruta fighting to a double count-out and Harley Race defeating Ric Flair.
1989 – Lex Luger won the NWA United States Championship from Michael Hayes in Bluefield, West Virginia. This win kicked off a 523 day reign for Luger which still stands as a record today.
1992 – The first ever Smoky Mountain Wrestling Heavyweight Champion was decided in Knoxville, Tennessee when Brian Lee defeated Paul Orndorff by disqualification in the final of a one night tournament. Other participants in the tournament were Buddy Landel, Robert Gibson, Tim Horner, Jimmy Golden, The Dirty White Boy and Dixie Dynamite.
1994 – WCW Slamboree: A Legends’ Reunion took place in front of 4,000 fans at the Philadelphia Civic Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Two titles changed hands on the night. The first change saw Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan defeat The Nasty Boys in a ‘Broad Street Bully’ match to win the WCW Tag Team Championship. The main event saw Sting defeat Big Van Vader for the vacant WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. The title had been vacated a few days earlier by Sting. He had been defeated by Rick Rude in a title match in Tokyo, Japan but after the match the win was overturned and the title was offered to Sting who turned it down, thus leaving it vacant. The real life reason for this was because Rude had sustained a back injury in the Tokyo match that consequently ended his in-ring career. Also of note, this was the last WCW PPV to be held before they signed Hulk Hogan.
1995 – Jeff Jarrett defeated Razor Ramon at a house show in Quebec to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship in Quebec. He had lost the title to Ramon at a similar non-televised event in Montreal in a ladder match three days earlier. This began Jarrett’s third reign as champion.
2000 – WCW Monday Nitro took place in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On the show, Vince Russo stripped Ric Flair of the World Heavyweight Title. Jeff Jarrett defeated Kevin Nash to win the vacant title the same night. This was the fourth time the title had changed hands that month. Also on the show, Daffney defeated Crowbar to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship.
2001 – New WWF Tag Team Champions Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho (Who had won the belts on Raw a few days earlier) were forced by Mr. McMahon to defend the belts in a TLC match against The Hardy Boyz, The Dudley Boyz and Edge & Christian. They emerged from the bout victorious.
2011 – WWE’s Over The Limit PPV took place at the KeyArena in Seattle, Washington. No titles changed hands on the show. In the main event, John Cena defeated The Miz to retain the WWE Championship in a WWE Championship match. Also on the card, Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler beat Michael Cole in a match whereby Cole had to kiss Lawler’s foot for losing. If Cole had won, Lawler would have had to surrender his place in the WWE Hall of Fame to his rival and personally induct him.
2013 – British wrestling legend Mick McManus passed away at the age of 92.
2016 – WWE ‘Extreme Rules’ took place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The only title change of the night saw Rusev defeat Kalisto to win the WWE United States Championship. In the main event, Roman Reigns retained the WWE Championship against AJ Styles in an Extreme Rules match.
2020 – All Elite Wrestling pre-taped the main event of the Double Or Nothing PPV due to air the following day. The match in question was the ‘Stadium Stampede’ cinematic place that took place at the TIAA Bank Field, home of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. The match saw ‘Hangman’ Page, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Matt Hardy defeat the Inner Circle team of Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Santana, Ortiz and Sammy Guevara.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays on May 22nd
- Santana Garrett (1988)
- Bray Wyatt (1987)
- Hugo Knox (1985)
- Daniel Bryan (1981)
- Traci Brooks (1980)
- A-1 (1977)
- Scott Putski (1966)
- Brian Pillman (1962)