This Day in History - July 20th
July 20th
On this day in history in ....
1963 - Verne Gagne defeats The Crusher in Minneapolis, Minnesota to win the AWA World Heavyweight Title for the fourth time. Gagne also won the Omaha version of the World Title, which Crusher had won from Fritz Von Erich five months earlier.
1973 - Jack Brisco defeats Harley Race in Houston, Texas to win the NWA World Heavyweight Title, ending Race's first reign after less than four months. It would be over three years before Race would be champion again. This is the first of two runs with the title for Brisco.
1992 - Eddie Gilbert defeats Ricky Morton in Memphis, Tennessee to win the USWA Unified Heavyweight Title for the second time. On the same card, Brian Christopher defeats Tom Prichard for the USWA Southern Heavyweight Title, ending Prichard's fifth reign as champion and starting his own third run with the belt.
1992 - The Natural Disasters (Earthquake & Typhoon) defeat Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase & IRS) to win the WWF World Tag Team Title in Worcester, Massachusetts.
1998 - The Monday Night Wars between WWF's Raw and WCW's Nitro raged on, with WWF barely getting a win with a 5.0 rating to WCW's 4.7 rating.
Raw featured Kane & Mankind defeated Steve Austin by DQ in the main event, Intercontinental Champion The Rock defeating X-Pac by DQ, and D'Lo Brown defeating Triple H for the WWF European Title. There was also a Brawl For All match, as Steve Williams (a favorite to win the competition) defeated Quebecer Pierre.
WCW countered with Scott Hall & The Giant defeating Sting & Lex Luger for the WCW World Tag Team Championship, Curt Hennig defeating Lex Luger, and Bret Hart defeating Diamond Dallas Page for the vacant United States Championship (the title was vacated by Goldberg when he won the World Title). There was also a strong International presence on the show, as Masahiro Chono & The Great Muta defeated Disco Inferno & Alex Wright, Yuji Nagata defeated Perry Saturn and Ultimo Dragon defeated Tokyo Magnum.
1999 - The Suicide Blondes (Rip Rogers & Jason Lee) defeat Flash Flannagan & Trailer Park Trash to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Title in Louisville, Kentucky.
2000 - Tatsuhito Takaiwa defeats Jushin Liger in Sapporo, Japan to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. This ended Liger's eleventh (and to date, last) reign as champion. The closest to Liger's record is Koji Kanemoto, with four reigns.
2003 - At a WWE House show in San Jose, California at the HP Pavilion Triple H and Goldberg met in one-on-one action for the first time, with Triple H winning via pinfall after a low blow in a match that saw both Ric Flair and Randy Orton interfere.
