May 8th – On This Day In Wrestling History
1988 – The fifth and final ‘Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions‘ event was held by World Class Championship Wrestling at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. The main event saw Kerry Von Erich defeat Iceman Parsons to win the WCWA World Heavyweight Championship.
2000 – In a match on Raw is War, refereed by Triple H, Chris Benoit defeated Chris Jericho by submission to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
2002 – J Sports Entertainment (Owned by Jerry and Jeff Jarrett) announce the launch of their new NWA affiliate that would be known as TNA: Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling. The press release confirms that the promotion will launch with a unique weekly PPV model on June 19th 2002.
2002 – WWE announces the release of Mr. Perfect (Curt Hennig) as a result of the incidents that took place on a recent flight back from Europe, dubbed by the media as ‘The Plane Ride From Hell’.
2007 – Edge cashed in his newly won Money In The Bank briefcase to claim the World Heavyweight Title from The Undertaker. it was Edge’s second successful cash-in of the MITB case after first doing so in January 2006. He had won this opportunity with a victory over Mr. Kennedy on Raw earlier that week. This cash-in came in the aftermath of a huge SmackDown main event in which ‘Taker went to a draw with Batista in a cage match and was then viciously attacked by Mark Henry. These actions were designed to write The Deadman off TV due to an injury that would keep him out of action for a number of months.
2008 – WWE announces the release of Torrie Wilson after an 8 year stint with the company.
2010 – Ring Of Honor’s ‘Supercard Of Honor V’ took place at The Manhattan Center in New York City. The main event saw Tyler Black defeat Roderick Strong to retain the ROH World Championship.
2019 – In the main event of SmackDown from Louisville, Kentucky, Kofi Kingston defeated AJ Styles and Sami Zayn in a triple threat match to retain the WWE Championship.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays:
- Io Shirai (1990)
- Tommaso Ciampa (1985)
- ‘The Twisted Genius’ Dean Ayass (1976)
- Akebono (1969)