Wrestling History

October 9th – On This Day In Wrestling History

October 9th - On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1982 – Nick Bockwinkel begins a 501-day reign as AWA World Heavyweight Champion with a victory over Otto Wanz in Chicago, Illinois.

2000 – He did it for The Rock. After a months-long investigation by Commissioner Mick Foley to find out who ran over ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin at the Survivor Series the year before, it was revealed on Raw that the culprit was Rikishi who claimed to have done it to benefit his cousin, The Rock. Rock was of course appalled as Rikishi turned heel to feud with the man he tried to run over 11 months prior.

2001 – Billy Kidman defeated X-Pac on SmackDown to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship.

2002 – At an NWA-TNA TV taping in Nashville, Tennessee, Syxx-Pac defeats Kid Kash, Tony Mamaluke, Ace Steel, AJ Styles, Jose Maximo and Joel Maximo to win the vacant TNA X-Division title in a ladder match.

2004 – The IWGP Heavyweight Championship changed hands in Tokyo, Japan when Kensuke Sasaki defeated Kazuyuki Fujita.

2005 – The Toyota Center in Houston, Texas was the venue of WWE’s ‘No Mercy’ PPV. In a strong main event of a forgettable event, Batista retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Eddie Guerrero.

2006 – Kurt Angle made his highly anticipated TNA Wrestling debut when he confronted Samoa Joe to conclude an episode of Impact. The debut marked the start of the feud that led to TNA’s largest-ever PPV buy rate at Lockdown later that year.

2017 – NJPW presented ‘King Of Pro Wrestling’ from Tokyo. The event saw two major title changes. In the first, Sho and Yoh defeated Ricochet and Ryusuke Taguchi to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships. Later in the card, Will Ospreay won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against KUSHIDA. The main event of the night saw Kazuchika Okada defend the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against EVIL.

2016 – WWE presented ‘No Mercy’ from the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. In this situation, the main event of the show took place in the opening match due to the final minutes of the card clashing with the US presidential debate between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump. The match saw AJ Styles defend his WWE Championship against Dean Ambrose and John Cena. Elsewhere on the card, Dolph Ziggler won the Intercontinental Title against The Miz in a title vs. career match.

2017 – In the main event of Raw, Kalisto defeated Enzo Amore for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.

2020 – The WWE Draft for the year kicked off with one of the biggest splits in its history, as SmackDown Tag Team Champions Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston were sent to Monday Night Raw whilst Big E was drafted by SmackDown.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays:

Notable Wrestling Deaths: