Wrestling History

October 30th – On This Day In Wrestling History

October 30th - On This Day In Wrestling History

Our full On This Day In Wrestling History section can be found here.

1969 – In Gifu, Japan, Antonio Inoki (who would go on to create New Japan Pro Wrestling) and Michiaki beat Buddy Austin and Mr Atomic to win the JWA All-Asian Tag Team belts, which had been declared vacant a few weeks earlier after a controversial finish between the same teams.

1990 – At a TV taping for ‘The Main Event’, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, one of the most famous ‘phantom’ title changes in wrestling history took place. The Rockers defeated The Hart Foundation for the WWF Tag Team Championship. The title change reportedly took place because Jim Neidhart was due to leave the company and a title change was required. A few days later, he agreed on a new contract, so management decided to treat the title change like it hadn’t happened, despite The Rockers making a number of house show defences. WWF management blamed the top rope breaking during the match making the result null and void and not able to be broadcast on television.

2000 – Monday Night Raw occurred in the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts. The opening match saw Eddie Guerrero defend his Intercontinental Championship against Chyna. Eddie got the pin after Steven Richards interfered and hit Chyna with the Stevenkick. Elsewhere on the show ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin pinned Rikishi in a Steel Cage match and the Rock beat Chris Jericho to become the number one contender for Kurt Angle’s WWF Championship. After the Rock/Jericho match, Rikishi attacked the Rock furthering the ‘I Did It For The Rock’ storyline where Rikishi was revealed as the person who ran down Steve Austin the previous year.

2001 – Christian defeated Bradshaw on SmackDown to win the European Championship and Booker T & Test won the WWF Tag Team Championship from Chris Jericho and The Rock.

2007 – Six weeks after making his debut in TNA Wrestling, Junior Fatu (formerly known as Rikishi) left the company over a pay rise dispute.

2016 – WWE Hell In A Cell PPV was held in the TD Bank North Garden, Boston, Massachusetts and three matches took place inside the cell itself. In the first, Roman Reigns pinned Rusev to retain the United States Championship and then Seth Rollins was pinned by Universal Champion Kevin Owens in the second. The main event in the cell was between Women’s Champion Sasha Banks and challenger Charlotte Flair, who jumped Banks before the match officially started. Flair would go on to win the match and the title after (twice) trying to throw Banks through a table before hitting her Natural Selection move and getting the pin to become a three-time champion.

2019 – AEW Dynamite was held in Charleston, West Virginia. In the AEW Tag Team Championship Tournament Finals, SCU (Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) took on the Lucha Bros. (Pentagon Jr. and Fenix.) The match ended via pinfall after Sky rolled up Fenix for the win to crown SCU as the first-ever AEW Tag Team Champions.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays:

Notable Wrestling Deaths: