This day in history - 13th April
13th April
On this day in history in ....
1994 - Diesel defeated Razor Ramon for the WWF Intercontinental Title in Rochester, New York. This would be the first singles title ever for Kevin Nash.
1996 - The USWA held it's 1000th live card.
1997 - ECW holds their first Pay-per-view event, Barely Legal, at the ECW Arena in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here are the results:
- The Eliminators, Saturn & Kronus, defeated The Dudley Boyz, Bubba Ray & D-Von, to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship after hitting Total Elimination on Bubba.
- Rob Van Dam defeated Lance Storm with a Van Daminator followed by a backflip splash for the pin.
- Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, & Masato Yakushiji defeated Taka Michinoku, Terry Boy (Men's Teioh), & Dick Togo when Sasuke pinned Michinoku with a Tiger suplex.
- Shane Douglas defeated Pitbull #2 with a belly to belly suplex to retain the ECW World Television Title. After the match, the masked man who had been haunting Douglas revealed himself to be Rick Rude, but not until after one last swerve, as Brian Lee unmasked first, turning on Douglas and chokeslamming him.
- Taz defeated Sabu with the Tazmission. After the match, Bill Alfonso turned on Taz and joined with Sabu & Rob Van Dam.
- Terry Funk won a three way dance to earn an ECW World Title match. Stevie Richards was eliminated first when Funk and The Sandman powerbombed him for a pin, then Sandman was eliminated after a Stevie Kick from Richards and a moonsault from Funk.
- Terry Funk defeated Raven with a small package to win the ECW World Heavyweight Title.
2000 - In an incredible story, WWF's Tazz defeated WCW's Mike Awesome for the ECW World Heavyweight Title in Indianapolis, Indiana. For part one of this story, which took place when Mike Awesome attempted to jump to WCW with the ECW title, click here. We pick up with the match in Indianapolis:
At the end of a Tommy Dreamer vs. Tajiri match, the whole locker room had emptied into the ring, then brawled to the back. At this point, Mike Awesome and Judge Jeff Jones entered the ring through the crowd. They were greeted with chants of "You sold out" and "RVD." Jones got on the mic and commented that since everyone in ECW had just "kicked each other's asses", there was no one left to face Awesome. He then said that no wrestler in any promotion could take out Mike Awesome. The EKG beeps that open Tazz' WWF music hit, and the whole building turned to the entranceway with open mouths and looks of "no way" across their faces. As the guitar riff came in, Tazz walked out to a thunderous ovation. The match started, and lasted only three minutes, as the referee was knocked out, and Awesome went for a chair. Tommy Dreamer then hit the ring and DDT'd Awesome (which was storyline payback for Awesome trying to collect a bounty on him). Awesome slowly got up, and Tazz applied the Tazzmission for the win. Awesome went back out through the crowd, and Tazz took the mic and explained that he came back because when he left he did business "the right way" and that he just showed Awesome the right way by making him tap out. Tommy Dreamer then raised his hand, and Tazz then did his old tag line "I'm Taz, the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. beat me if you can, survive if I let you."
So how did this all come about? Well, on Wednesday, April 12th, Paul Heyman knew that Awesome would drop the title on Thursday, as per the agreement with WCW, but had to decide who to give it to. He had the idea about Tazz, and contacted the WWF, who agreed (and probably loved the idea of a WWF wrestler defeating WCW's newest star on television) and it went to Tazz, who agreed to do the match. It was kept quiet, and had someone in the ECW locker room not called out with the info when Tazz arrived at the building, no one would have known until the match began. Still, the story leaked out too late for the crowd in Indianapolis to find out, and the match came off great.
At the actual event, Mike Awesome never came to the back. He stayed at his hotel with WCW security chief Doug Dillenger and several cops until the match was to begin. He showed up at the building 15 minutes before the match, went in, lost, and went back out through the crowd and left. All contact between Awesome and ECW for the purposes of this match was done over cell phones. Awesome was noticeably nervous during the match, and his hands were shaking. However, it was clear that Tazz was not going to "shoot" on Awesome or try to hurt him, unless he was in a situation where he had to defend himself.
2002 - WWA held their "Eruption" Pay-per-view in Melbourne, Australia,
taping the show for delayed broadcast in the U.S. Here are the results:
- AJ Styles defeated Nova.
- Jerry Lynn defeated Chucky Chaos.
- Tio defeated Puppet in a "Hardcore" midgets match.
- Brian Christopher & Ernest Miller defeated Buff Bagwell & Stevie Ray.
- Alan Funk defeated Pierre Oulette.
- AJ Styles defeated Jerry Lynn to win the vacant WWA International Cruiserweight Title.
- Sabu defeated Devon Storm in a steel cage match.
- Midajah defeated Queen Bee in an Evening Gown match.
- Scott Steiner defeated Nathan Jones to win the WWA Heavyweight Title.
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