This Day In History - May 17th
May 17th
On this day in history in ....
1963 - Bruno Sammartino defeats WWWF World Champion Buddy Rogers in under a minute with an over-the-shoulder backbreaker to win the championship at Madison Square Garden in New York City, starting the longest WWWF/WWF/WWE Title reign in history, lasting seven years.
1965 - WWWF ran at Madison Square Garden in New York City, headlined by WWWF World Champion Bruno Sammartino defeated Bill Watts when Watts was unable to continue.
1976 - WWWF ran at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The scheduled main event was to be WWWF World Champion Bruno Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen, but Hansen had broken Sammartino's neck at the previous MSG show. Instead Hansen wrestled Ivan Putski in the main event, defeating him via countout.
1986 - Playboy Buddy Rose & Doug Somers defeat Scott Hall & Curt Hennig in Hammond, Indiana, to win the AWA World Tag Team Championship. The finish of the match saw Col. DeBeers (who Hall had run off during an interview segment where DeBeers was ripping on Americans) come to ringside and ram Hall headfirst into the steel ringpost. A bloodied Hall was then counted out of the ring, and for some reason, the referee gave the tag team championship belts to Rose & Somers. It was later explained that for this one match, titles could change hands on a countout (although they never gave a reason why).
1992 - WCW held their "WrestleWar" Pay-per-view at the Jacksonville Coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida. Here are the results:
- Dark match: Diamond Dallas Page & Tommy Rich defeated Bob Cook & Firebreaker Chip.
- The Freebirds (Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin) defeated Terry Taylor & Greg Valentine to win the United States Tag Team Championship.
- Johnny B. Badd defeated Tracey Smothers.
- Scotty Flamingo defeated Marcus Bagwell.
- Ron Simmons defeated Mr. Hughes.
- Super Invader defeated Todd Champion.
- Big Josh defeated Richard Morton.
- WCW World Tag Team Champions Rick & Scott Steiner defeated Tatsumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka.
- WCW Light Heavyweight Champion Brian Pillman defeated Tom Zenk.
- Sting, Nikita Koloff, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat & Barry Windham defeated Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Rick Rude, Steve Austin & Larry Zbyszko in a War Games match. The finish saw Zbyszko accidentally hit Bobby Eaton in the arm with a steel connecting pole from the turnbuckle that Eaton had taken apart during the match. Sting then put Eaton in an armbar for the submission win.
1993 - Monday Night Raw was broadcast live from the Manhattan Center in New York City, and provided one of the more memorable one-hour shows in the history of the program. Here are the results:
- The Smoking Gunns defeated Tony Vadja and Glenn Ruth.
- The Kid pinned Razor Ramon with a top rope moonsault on a standing Ramon. This was the match where the 1-2-3 Kid gimmick for Sean Waltman was created. The Kid, who had wrestled as "Lightning Kid", "Cannonball Kid", and "Kamikaze Kid" over the previous weeks on WWF television (and lost to the likes of Doink The Clown and Mr. Hughes) scored the huge upset. After the match, color commentator Randy Savage led the crowd in a chant of "1-2-3" to infuriate Ramon.
- Tatanka defeated Scott Taylor (who later would become Scotty 2 Hotty).
- Yokozuna defeated Kamala.
- Marty Jannetty defeated Shawn Michaels to win the Intercontinental Title. Earlier in the show Jannetty, who had not been seen in months, came in from the crowd in street clothes, his face hidden by a hood and sunglasses, to accept an open challenge Michaels had made to anyone who wanted a shot at the Intercontinental Title.
1997 - WWF ran in Madison Square Garden in New York City with the following results:
- Leif Cassidy (Al Snow) defeated Bob Holly.
- Crush defeated Jesse James.
- The Godwins defeated Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon.
- Rockabilly defeated Flash Funk.
- Savio Vega defeated Rocky Maivia.
- WWF World Champion The Undertaker defeated Mankind in a Lumberjack match.
- Faarooq defeated Ahmed Johnson after Savio Vega, who originally came out to help Johnson against the Nation Of Domination, turned on Ahmed and beat him down with chairshots. Savio then joined with the Nation.
- Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Goldust.
- Steve Austin & The Legion Of Doom defeated Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith & Brian Pillman.
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