This Day In History - September 9th
On this day in history in ....
1967 - WWWF World Champion Bruno Sammartino defeats Gorilla Monsoon in a Texas Death match at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
1980 - The Samoans defeat Tony Garea & Rene Goulet in a tournament final for the WWWF World Tag Team Title in Allentown, Pennsylvania, starting their second title run. The titles had been vacated when Pedro Morales & Bob Backlund defeated The Samoans, but Backlund was unable to defend the tag belts due to being WWWF World Heavyweight Champion.
1986 - Dusty Rhodes defeats Arn Anderson for the NWA Television Title in Columbia, South Carolina, starting his third reign with the belt.
1991 - Ric Flair wrestles his first match for the WWF following his departure from WCW the previous July. He defeats Jim Powers at a WWF Television taping in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
1993 - Shane Douglas won the ECW Heavyweight Title via forfeit from Tito Santana. In truth, this was a "phantom" title change, as the supposed show in Roanoke, Virginia where Douglas vs. Santana was to have taken place never really existed.
2000 - Rhino defeats Kid Kash in Mississauga, Ontario to become the last ECW Television Champion, as he would hold the title until the company officially shuts down in April 2001.
2002 - On an edition of Raw from Ames, Iowa, Rob Van Dam defeats The Big Show, Jeff Hardy and Chris Jericho in an elimination match to earn a title match with World Champion Triple H at Unforgiven. Show was disqualified with the referee caught him with a chair (which Show actually grabbed away from Jericho). Jericho pinned Hardy with a Lionsault after shoving Hardy off the top rope. Van Dam pinned Jericho with the five star frog splash after ramming him into an exposed turnbuckle (that Jericho had pulled the cover off of).
2003 - At a Smackdown taping in Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. Champion Eddie Guerrero defeated John Cena in a Parking Lot Brawl with a frog splash off the roof of a van onto Cena, who was laid out on the hood of a car. Also on the show, Stephanie McMahon was forced to wrestle Brock Lesnar by her father, Vince McMahon. The match, which wasn't much of a bout, quickly ended in a no-contest when Kurt Angle attacked Lesnar and Stephanie hit low blows on both Lesnar and her father.
2007 - Ric Flair shoots down rumors that he is quitting WWE, stating he has no intentions of leaving the company.
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