October 5th – On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1997 – WWE presented In Your House: Badd Blood from the Kiel Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The event became a landmark in wrestling history, featuring Shawn Michaels facing The Undertaker in the very first Hell In A Cell match. The finish to this brutal, classic contest. Ultimately, Michaels won the bout and became the number-one contender for the WWF World Championship. He would receive his title shot the following month at Survivor Series in Montreal against Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart.

The bout famously saw the debut of one of the most enduring characters in wrestling history, Kane. Long teased as The Undertaker’s secret little brother by Paul Bearer, the newcomer directly led to the finish of the match by ripping the door from the cell and Tombstoning his ‘brother’ allowing HBK to get the win.

1997 – Hours, before he was due to appear at In Your House, Badd Blood, Brian Pillman, was found dead in his St. Louis hotel room. He was 35 years old.

1999 – At A SmackDown taping in Uniondale, New York, Darren ‘Droz’ Drozdov was injured following an accident in a match with D-Lo Brown. The injury would result in Drozdov’s permanent paralysis.

2004 – Carlito Caribbean Cool made his WWE debut on SmackDown. In his first match that night he defeated John Cena to win the United States Championship.

2006 – AAA founder Antonio Peña passed away in Mexico City due to a heart attack. He was 55 years old.

2008 – WWE presented their No Mercy PPV from The Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. In the night’s main event, Chris Jericho retained his World Heavyweight Championship against Shawn Michaels in a classic Ladder match. Elsewhere on the card, Kane took on Rey Mysterio in a match where the latter would have to unmask if he lost.

2009 – On an episode of Raw from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, The Miz defeated Kofi Kingston to win the United States Championship.

2014 – At a TV taping in Los Angeles, California, Ricochet (wrestling as Prince Puma) won an Aztec Warfare match to become the first Lucha Underground champion. He last defeated Johnny Mundo to win the multi-man match.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays:

• Joaquin Wilde (1986)
• Terri Runnels (1966)

Notable Wrestling Deaths:

• Brian Pillman (1997)
• Antonio Peña (2006)