This Day in History - 16th June, 2016

[Kemo]

24 years ago today, WCW presented Clash of the Champions XIX from the McAllister Fieldhouse in Charleston, South Carolina.

The show featured the first round and the beginning of the second round of a tournament to crown new NWA World Tag Team Champions. The championships were vacated in early 1991 when WCW began referring the NWA world tag titles as the WCW world tag titles.

First round matches:

• Nikita Koloff & Ricky Steamboat defeat The Malenko Brothers (Dean Malenko & Joe Malenko).
• Rick Rude & Steve Austin (w/ Madusa) defeat Marcus Alexander Bagwell & The Z-Man.
• Steve Williams & Terry Gordy defeat Jeff O'Day & Larry O'Day.
• The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) defeat Miguel Perez Jr. & Ricky Santana via forfeit.
• Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes defeat Arn Anderson & Beautiful Bobby.
• The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin & Michael Hayes) defeat Los Cowboys (El Texano & Silver King).
• Flyin' Brian & Jushin Thunder Liger defeat Biff Wellington & Chris Benoit.
• Akira Nogami & Hiroshi Hase defeat The Headhunters (Arn Anderson & Bob Cook).

Second round match:

Steve Williams & Terry Gordy defeat The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner)

23 years ago today, WCW presented Clash of the Champions XXIII from The Scope in Norfolk, Virginia. The show was noted for the in-ring return of Ric Flair who, despite returning a few months earlier to WCW, had to sit out due to a non-compete clause.

• In a preshow dark match, Jim Neidhart defeated Shanghai Pierce.
• Ron Simmons defeated Dick Slater.
• Lord Steven Regal defeated Marcus Alexander Bagwell.
• Maxx Payne defeated Johnny B. Badd via forfeit.
• Barry Windham defeated Too Cold Scorpio to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
• Big Van Vader, Rick Rude, and Sid Vicious defeated Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes & Sting.
• The Four Horsemen (Arn Anderson & Ric Flair) defeated The Hollywood Blondes (Flyin' Brian & Stunning Steve) 2-0 in a best of three falls match for the WCW and NWA World Tag Team Championship. As the second fall was won via disqualification, the championships did not change hands. This was Flair's first television bout since his return to WCW earlier in the year (Flair could not wrestle due to a no-compete clause).

20 years ago today, WCW presented The Great American Bash from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. About 9,000 fans were in attendance, with 170,000 homes watching on PPV.

The show was noted for the Scott Hall and Kevin Nash returning to PPV for WCW. They were interviewed by Eric Bischoff. One of the questions asked in the interview was apparently for legal purposes: the Outsiders were asked if they still worked for the WWF. They both answered no. (The WWF alleged that WCW was implying that Hall and Nash still worked for them, thereby misleading fans.) Moments later, Bischoff was powerbombed through the stage when he did not give the names of the three people that would face the "outsiders" in a match.

• In a WCW Main Event preshow match, Rocco Rock defeated Jerry Sags.
• In a WCW Main Event preshow match, Michael Wallstreet defeated Jim Powers.
• In a WCW Main Event preshow match, Jim Duggan defeated Disco Inferno.
• The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) defeated Fire and Ice (Scott Norton and Ice Train).
• Konnan defeated El Gato to retain the WCW United States Championship.
• Diamond Dallas Page defeated Marcus Bagwell.
• Dean Malenko defeated Rey Mysterio, Jr. to retain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. This was Mysterio's WCW debut.
• John Tenta defeated Big Bubba Rogers.
• Chris Benoit defeated Kevin Sullivan in a falls count anywhere match.
• Sting defeated Lord Steven Regal.
• Ric Flair and Arn Anderson defeated Kevin Greene and Steve McMichael. Late in the match, McMichael turned on Greene. Post-match, Chris Benoit joined in the beatdown on Greene. The Four Horsemen were reformed with Flair, Anderson, Benoit, and McMichael.
• The Giant defeated Lex Luger to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

18 years ago today at a RAW is WAR taping in Austin, Texas, Adam Copeland makes his WWF television debut as loner/tortured soul Edge. His debut airs six days later.

Less than a minute in, he hits a somersault on Jose Estrada to the outside, with his right leg landing badly on Estrada's head and injuring his neck. Edge wins by countout. Though Estrada returned to the ring, he never competed on RAW again, wrestling a few Super Astros tapings until his release in August 1999.

As for Edge, he goes on to a somewhat moderately successful career, winning 11 world championships, 14 tag team championships, the 2001 King of the Ring tournament, the 2005 Money in the Bank ladder match, and the 2010 Royal Rumble (the only man to win all three). At the time of his retirement in 2011, he amassed 31 total championships, more than anyone in WWE history.



4 years ago today, New Japan Pro Wrestling presented Dominion 6.16 from Bodymaker Coliseum in Osaka, Japan. The show's main event was named the match of the year by Tokyo Sports Magazine.

• Daisuke Sasaki and Golden☆Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi) defeated Bushi, Kushida and Prince Devitt.
• Chaos (Rocky Romero, Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi) defeated Seigigun (Captain New Japan, Wataru Inoue and Yuji Nagata).
• Jushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask defeated Suzuki-gun (Taichi and Taka Michinoku) to win the vacated IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The championship was stripped from No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards and Rocky Romero) when Richards could not make the show due to travel issues.
• Black Dynamite (MVP and Shelton Benjamin) defeated Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga.
• Low Ki defeated Ryusuke Taguchi to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
• Chaos (Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano) and Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) fought to a double countout for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. The match was restarted and the teams fought to a no contest.
• Chaos (Masato Tanaka and Shinsuke Nakamura) defeated Hirooki Goto and Tetsuya Naito.
• Togi Makabe defeated Minoru Suzuki.
• Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Kazuchika Okada to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

3 years ago today, WWE presented Payback from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. 14,623 were in attendance, with 186,000 homes watching on PPV.

• In a preshow match, Sheamus defeated Damien Sandow.
• Curtis Axel defeated Wade Barrett and The Miz in a triple threat match to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. The win made Axel and his late father Curt Hennig the first father-son duo to win a singles championship in WWE history.
• AJ Lee defeated Kaitlyn to win the WWE Divas Championship. AJ would hold the championship for nearly 10 months, then a WWE record. She would not lose it until the night after Wrestlemania XXX when Paige defeated her in her debut match.
• Dean Ambrose defeated Kane by countout to retain the United States Championship.
• Alberto Del Rio defeated Dolph Ziggler to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
• CM Punk defeated Chris Jericho. This was Punk's first match since his loss to The Undertaker at Wrestlemania XXIX.
• The Shield (Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins) defeated Team RKNo (Randy Orton & Daniel Bryan) to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship.

John Cena defeated Ryback 2-1 in a Three Stages of Hell match to retain the WWE Championship.
Stage 1: Ryback defeated John Cena in a lumberjack match.
Stage 2: John Cena defeated Ryback in a tables match.
Stage 3: John Cena defeated Ryback in an ambulance match.


3 years ago today, AAA presented Triplemania XXI from Arena Ciudad de Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico.

The show was to be AAA's first Internet PPV event, but Ustream were unable to air the show due to technical difficulties, forcing Ustream offered refunds to anyone purchasing the event. The event was posted in its entirety for free on AAA's Youtube channel two days later.

• Dinastía, El Elegido, Faby Apache and Pimpinela Escarlata defeated Mamba, Mini Abismo Negro, Silver Kain and Taya.
• Heavy Metal defeated Chessman.
• Los Mexican Power (Crazy Boy and Joe Líder) defeated Angélico and Jack Evans, Drago and Fénix, Los Mamitos (Mr. E and Sexy B), and Los Perros del Mal (Daga and Psicosis) in a five-team elimination match to win the vacant AAA World Tag Team Championship.
• Jeff Jarrett, Matt Morgan, and Monster Pain defeated Los Psycho Circus (Monster Clown, Murder Clown and Psycho Clown).
• El Texano, Jr. defeated Heavy Metal to retain the AAA World Heavyweight Championship.
• Blue Demon, Jr. defeated El Mesías to win the vacant AAA Latin American Championship
• Dr. Wagner, Jr., Electroshock, La Parka, and Octagón defeated Canek, Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000 and Villano IV.
• El Hijo del Perro Aguayo defeated Cibernético in a best of three falls hair versus hair match.

1 year ago today, WWE begins announcing the roster for its annual video game, WWE 2K16. The first names announced were then-WWE Champion Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Daniel Bryan, Paige, Wade Barrett, and Finn Balor.

1 year ago today, WWE Hall of Famer, real estate developer, and ex-reality television star Donald Trump announces he is running for President of the United States. Though it was seen as a gag in the eyes of many at the beginning, Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency.

1 year ago today, WWE announces via press release that they've launched a gaming channel on Youtube. The press release on UpUpDownDown:

STAMFORD, Conn. - WWE today launched UpUpDownDown, a new YouTube channel focusing on the world of video gaming, hosted by WWE Superstar and avid gamer, Xavier Woods. Woods, also known to online players by his handle "Austin Creed," will be joined by YouTube celebrities, WWE Superstars and video game editors who will star in daily programming about everything in the world of gaming - from current hits like "WWE 2K15" and "The Witcher" to classic series like "FIFA" and "Grand Theft Auto."

"By leveraging WWE's massive influence on YouTube and tapping into a content vertical that scores highly among our fans, we're poised to make an immediate impact with this new channel," said Lisa Fox, WWE Executive Vice President, Content. "We're confident that UpUpDownDown will entertain not only WWE fans, but gamers everywhere."

WWE has a powerful presence on YouTube, having served more than 5 billion video views in the last 12 months and boasting more than 6.4 million subscribers, making it the No. 1 Sports channel on the platform ahead of the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, ESPN and NASCAR.

Programming for UpUpDownDown will include:

UpUpDownDown Plays (Mondays) - A "Let's Play" style show featuring Woods and other personalities playing through today's hottest titles.

For the Lolz (Wednesdays) - Woods and others explore the vast worlds of popular sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto V, where just about anything and everything can happen.

Jump Scares (Fridays) - Delving deep into the horror genre, players push their intestinal fortitude to the limit by creeping through the industry's most bloodcurdling games

Superstar Savepoint (Saturdays) - Guests are tasked with jumping into a random game totally "cold," and must help lead Woods to gaming glory in this unpredictable co-op experiment.

Gamer Gauntlet (Sundays) - Woods and friends challenge each other for more than gaming bragging rights, with losers suffering pre-determined penalties.

The channel as of this writing has over 550,000 subscribers and 43 million views.


It's a happy 53rd birthday to James Fullington, best known to wrestling fans as The Sandman.

He had stints in WCW, TNA, WWE, and XPW (where he won their heavyweight title once), but his greatest success came in ECW, where he won the ECW World Heavyweight Championship five times (his record-breaking fifth title run came on the promotion's last PPV, Guilty as Charged in 2001, and lasted only a few minutes) and was a tag team champion with 2 Cold Scorpio. In 2007, he was inducted into the Hardcore Hall of Fame.


Today would have been the 57th birthday of James Brian Hellwig, best known to wrestling fans as The Ultimate Warrior, but lived the latter part of his life under the name Warrior.

Born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Hellwig was the oldest of five children. He was raised by his mother and later his stepfather after his biological father left when he was 12. A graduate of Fountain Central High School in Veedersburg, Indiana, he attended Indiana State University for a year.

Hellwig took up amateur bodybuilding in the early 1980s after spending most of his early life training with weights (he began weight training at age 11). After moderate success, including winning the NPC Mr. Georgia in 1984 and finishing fifth in the Junior USAs the next year, Hellwig accepted an offer to join a group of wrestling bodybuilders: Powerteam USA.



Trained by Red Bastien and Rick Bassman, Hellwig made his professional wrestling debut as Jim "Justice" Hellwig. He would team with Steve "Flash" Borden (Borden would go on to great success himself as Sting) and form first the Freedom Fighters, but later the Blade Runners. Hellwig was Blade Runner Rock, while Borden was Blade Runner Flash. The duo teamed for about a year in the Continental Wrestling Association, and later in Bill Watts' version of the UWF. The group disbanded when Hellwig left UWF in 1986.



Hellwig went to Texas-based World Class Championship Wrestling in 1986, adopting the name "Dingo Warrior" after someone in the locker room remarked the looked like a warrior. In late 1986, Dingo Warrior and Lance Von Erich defeated Master Gee and Matt Borne to win the WCWA Tag Team Championship. They only held the title for two weeks before losing them to Al Madril and Brian Adias. In early 1987, Warrior won the WCWA Texas Heavyweight Championship. Two months later, he vacated the title when he left the company. He briefly returned, but would leave again for good later in the year to join the WWF.



Initially promoted as the Dingo Warrior, Hellwig made his WWF debut in June 1987. By the time he made his television debut in October, he would be known as The Ultimate Warrior. Where the name came from exactly depends on who's telling the story. Bruce Pritchard remarked that Vince McMahon didn't know what a Dingo Warrior was, and that since there were more than a few warriors around (i.e. Kerry Von Erich, the Modern Day Warrior and the Road Warriors), there should be an Ultimate Warrior. Warrior himself claimed that after an early match, he cut a promo, but was instructed not to say Dingo. Then Warrior proclaimed he wasn't this warrior or that warrior, but The Ultimate Warrior.



Warrior feuded with Hercules Hernandez and Bobby Heenan (the latter mostly on the house show circuit in a series of weasel suit matches) through most of the year. In August at the first Summerslam, fortune smiled on the Warrior. Substituting for the injured Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, Warrior ended the longest Intercontinental Championship reign in WWF/E history by defeating the Honky Tonk Man in just 27 seconds.



Warrior would spend most of 1989 feuding with "Ravishing" Rick Rude. After a "super posedown" at the Royal Rumble PPV, Rude attacked Warrior with a steel bar and attempted to choke him. The two met at Wrestlemania, where with the help of Bobby Heenan, Rude defeated Warrior to win the Intercontinental title. This was Warrior's first televised pinfall loss (Warrior by this point had a few pinfall losses on the house show circuit, most notably Andre the Giant in Italy, Dino Bravo in Montreal, and Rick Rude in Richfield, Ohio a couple months after his TV debut). He wouldn't be without the title long; Warrior got it back just four months later at Summerslam. He spent the remainder of the year feuding with Andre the Giant, defeating him in short bouts to establish him as a main eventer. The highlight came when Warrior eliminated Andre at the 1989 Survivor Series via countout, then getting the final two falls of the match, defeating Arn Anderson and Bobby Heenan.



The build to Ultimate Warrior as a main eventer was no accident; he was to be the successor to Hulk Hogan, who had been the WWF's top star for most of the 1980s. After a teased confrontation at the 1990 Royal Rumble, the two met at Wrestlemania VI in a match billed as "The Ultimate Challenge". The classic saw Ultimate Warrior defeat Hulk Hogan to win the WWF Championship. However, WWF rules at the time prohibited him from holding that and the Intercontinental title at the same time, so the Intercontinental Championship was vacated. Warrior's primary feuds would be Rick Rude (leading to a steel cage at Summerslam), Mr. Perfect, and Macho Man Randy Savage.





In January 1991, Warrior was defeated for the title by Sgt. Slaughter thanks in part to Sensational Sherri and Randy Savage. The two would face off in a "career ending" bout at Wrestlemania VII, with Warrior winning. The match came just two days after Warrior's divorce to his first wife, Shari Lynn Tyree, was made final.

Warrior was set to feud with Undertaker and Jake "The Snake" Roberts after Roberts tricked Warrior into trusting him for his battle with the Undertaker. The feud never launched, as Roberts left for WCW. About a month before Summerslam 1991, Warrior requested a new contract in a letter written to Vince McMahon. McMahon acquiesced to most of his demands a few days later, including a $550,000 bonus for Wrestlemania VII. But following Summerslam, Warrior was handed another letter: a letter of indefinite suspension. Warrior refused and left the company altogether in October 1991. He offered his resignation, but it wasn't accepted as he was still under contract for another year.



Warrior returned to the WWF at Wrestlemania VIII rescuing Hulk Hogan from an assault by Sid Justice and Papa Shango. He looked drastically different from the last time he was on WWF programming: he was shorter, his hair was blonder, and his physique was smaller, leading many to believe it was someone else playing Ultimate Warrior. It wasn't. Despite rumors of his death, it was Warrior all along.



His return came with some creative control; one storyline involved Papa Shango cursing Ultimate Warrior, causing Warrior to convulse, bleed, and vomit. Warrior claimed he had no control over that storyline. Warrior was set to have another run with the WWF Championship, but his return came around the time of a federal steroid investigation. About a month after defeating Randy Savage by countout in a WWF title match at Summerslam, Warrior was popped for steroids and/or HGH, Warrior was suspended and/or released (the story changes depending on who's telling it).

In 1993, Warrior would become Jim Hellwig's legal name. The one-word name appears on all legal documents, and his children carry his surname. He remained mostly retired for the next few years, opening a wrestling school in Scottsdale, Arizona, and wrestling for the International Wrestling Federation in late 1992 and touring with the Catch Wrestling Association in Europe in 1995. Warrior also had a small role in the movie Firepower in 1993.

Warrior returned to the WWF at Wrestlemania XII in 1996. He made quick work of Hunter Hearst Helmsley at the event, then went into a feud with Goldust. Warrior tried unsuccessfully twice to get the Intercontinental title from Goldust, both resulting in countouts. Warrior's last PPV match for the WWF came at King of the Ring when he defeated Jerry Lawler.

Warrior was set to take part in a six-man tag team match at In Your House: International Incident in July, but the WWF fired Warrior--again, allegedly after missing some house shows to grieve the death of his father. McMahon saw this as a move to hold out for more money; however, Warrior claimed he no showed those events due to a breach of contract. Warrior and the WWF would be in litigation over the next two years over who owned the rights to the Ultimate Warrior trademark and name. In the end, a court ruled that Warrior owned the rights and he was legally entitled to use the character as he saw fit.



In 1998, Warrior was signed to WCW. He would form the One Warrior Nation; its acronym, the oWn, was a play on the nWo (New World Order). The group would have just one other member: a kidnapped and converted Disciple. His storyline with Hollywood Hogan was seen as controversial and hokey, particularly in part due to use of "magic smoke" that would incapacitate anyone other than Hogan. He would move appear and disappear through a trap door; said trap door nearly paralyzed Davey Boy Smith in September 1998 at Fall Brawl.

Warrior wrestled all of three matches in his brief run in the company: a three-on-three-on-three match at Fall Brawl in the War Games match won by Diamond Dallas Page, a tag team match where he and Sting defeated Hogan and Bret Hart, and a rematch of their classic Wrestlemania VI encounter at Halloween Havoc. The Havoc bout is considered among the worst main event bouts in professional wrestling history. Hollywood Hogan would win the bout with help from Horace Hogan. Warrior's final appearance for WCW came in November when he rescued the Disciple from the nWo. Warrior would retire from wrestling in early 1999.

Almost immediately following his retirement, Warrior married for a second time; this time to Dana Viale in January 1999. The couple would have two daughters: Indiana, born in 2000, and Mattigan, born in 2002.

Warrior became a motivational speaker following his retirement and often denounced left-wing politics and homosexuality; in a 2004 speech at the University of Connecticut, Warrior remarked "queering doesn't make the world work", and later echoed that statement saying that the human race would die if everyone in the world was a homosexual. He also maintained a personal blog where he commented on many topics from celebrities in the news to politics to his legacy as a wrestler and his personal life.

In late 2005, WWE released The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior, a less than flattering look at Warrior's WWF run. Considering Warrior alleged libel against WWE in the past, this was a seen as a highly controversial move. Warrior was asked to help with the production of the DVD, but he refused. In January 2006, Warrior sued WWE over the depiction of his career. The lawsuit in an Arizona court was dismissed in 2009.



Warrior would wrestle just one match following his retirement, a win over Orlando Jordan to win the Nu-Wrestling Evolution World Heavyweight Championship in Barcelona in 2008. Warrior immediately vacated the title and went back into retirement.



Largely alienating his peers in the wrestling business following his retirement, Warrior began to reconcile with the wrestling industry in his final years. In February 2013, Warrior announced via his Youtube Channel that he would appear at Wrestlecon. Demand was so great for him a second print run of tickets had to be ordered. He also spoke of Vince McMahon in a positive light for the first time on his channel.



That summer, Warrior would be the star of a trailer for the WWE 2K14 video game. In January 2014, The Ultimate Warrior was announced as the first inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2014. The week of Wrestlemania XXX, WWE released a new DVD painting Warrior in a far more positive light. The DVD, entitled Ultimate Warrior: The Ultimate Collection, spans his entire career and includes stories from his career in an extensive sit-down interview with Warrior himself. Warrior was inducted on April 5, and made an appearance at Wrestlemania XXX the next night.



The night after Wrestlemania, Warrior appeared on RAW for the first time since June 1996 and channeled his inner motivational speaker:

"No WWE talent becomes a legend on their own. Every man's heart one day beats its final beat. His lungs breathe their final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others and makes them believe deeper in something larger than life then his essence, his spirit, will be immortalized. By the story tellers, by the loyalty, by the memory of those who honor him and make the running the man did live forever. You [...] are the legend makers of Ultimate Warrior. In the back I see many potential legends. Some of them with warrior spirits. And you will do the same for them. You will decide if they lived with the passion and intensity. So much so that you will tell your stories and you will make them legends, as well. I am Ultimate Warrior. You are the Ultimate Warrior fans. And the spirit of The Ultimate Warrior will run forever!"

It would turn out to be his final public appearance. The next day while walking with his wife outside of a hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona, Warrior collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Though he appeared to be in great spirits (he was seen taking photos with fans just hours before his death), many say he appeared frail, sweating profusely and breathing heavily in his final days. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office concluded Warrior suffered from a heart attack due to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Almost immediately following his death, WWE sent two senior officials to assist his widow in handling personal matters.



Posthumously, Warrior was given a ten-bell salute on the next week's RAW, and an entire week of programming was dedicated to Ultimate Warrior on the WWE Network's streaming service. A wrestling-themed episode of The Goldbergs and the 2015 animated film The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age Smackdown, was also dedicated in Warrior's memory. Warrior posthumously won the 2014 Slammy for Comeback of the Year.

In 2015, the WWE introduced the Warrior Award, given to one person who best embodied the spirit and passion of the Ultimate Warrior. The award was posthumously given to superfan Connor "The Crusher" Michalek. Connor's father Steve accepted on his behalf. The 2016 award was given to journalist and breast cancer survivor Joan Lunden.

A biography, Ultimate Warrior: A Life Lived Forever: The Legend of a WWE Hero, was released last September.

[DUKE NUKEM]

nice read thanks Kemo