This Day In Wrestling History – October 18th

1957 –  Ray Gunkel defeats Kurt Von Brauner, to win the NWA (Georgia) Southern Heavyweight Championship.

1960 – Lester and Herb Welch defeat Kurt and Karl Von Brauner, to win the NWA (Mid-America) World Tag Team Championship.

1969 – Tarzan Tyler defeats Stan Pulaski, to win the AWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship.

1980 – Barry Windham and Scott McGee defeat The Assassins, to win the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship.

1997 – In a taping of Hardcore TV, The Full Blooded Italians (Little Guido and Tracy Smothers) defeat The Gangstanators (Kronus and New Jack), to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship.  The match would air on TV on November 1st.

1998 – WWF Judgement Day: In Your House is held in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago) in front of 18,153 fans.  A total of 13 matches were on the card, with the first four airing on Sunday Night Heat.

– In the Sunday Night Heat matches: Steve Blackman defeats Bradshaw;  The Godfather defeats Faarooq;  Scorpio defeats Jeff Jarrett;  and in a six-man tag team match, The Oddities (Giant Silva, Kurrgan, and Golga) defeat Los Boricuas (Jose Estrada, Miguel Perez, Jr., and Jesus Castillo).

-Al Snow defeats Marc Mero.

-In a six-man tag team match, LOS 2000 (Droz, Hawk, and Animal) defeat The Disciples of Apocalypse (Paul Ellering, 8-Ball, and Skull).

-Christian defeats Taka Michinoku, to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship.

-Goldust defeats Val Venis.

-X-Pac defeats D’Lo Brown, to win the WWF European Championship.

-In a match for the WWF Tag Team Championship, The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) defeat The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) via disqualification.  The New Age Outlaws retain the titles.

-Ken Shamrock defeats Mankind, to retain the Intercontinental Championship.

-Mark Henry defeats The Rock.

-A match between Kane and The Undertaker, for the vacant WWF Championship, ends in a no-contest.  “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, serving as special guest referee had to crown a champion or else he would be fired.  Due to the no-contest decision, Vince McMahon fires Austin;  it was the first time McMahon used his trademark “You’re fired” phrase.

1999 – In the Monday Night Wars, WWF Raw Is War (5.4 TV rating) defeats WCW Monday Nitro (3.3 rating).  On Raw, Hardcore and Crash Holly defeat The Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection (The Rock and Mankind), to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.  This was essentially a handicap match;  Mankind had given The Rock an autographed copy of his new book, Have A Nice Day! but later found it in the trash. He confronted and cursed out The Rock for throwing the book away.   As retaliation, Mankind sat despondently on the steel steps facing away from the ring while The Rock was facing the Holly cousins one-on-two.  NOTE:  It was later revealed that Al Snow had trashed the book.

Over on Monday Nitro, The Filthy Animals (Konnan and Rey Mysterio, Jr.) defeat Harlem Heat (Stevie Ray and Booker T), to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship.  Also, Jeff Jarrett, one night after competing at WWF’s No Mercy pay-per-view, appears on Nitro;  attacking Buff Bagwell with a guitar and proclaiming himself to be “The Chosen One.”

2003 – Brandon P. and Jeremy V. defeat Bulldog Raines and Tank, to win the NWA Wildside Tag Team Championship.

2006 – In Ohio Valley Wrestling, Cody Runnels and Shawn Spears defeat The Untouchables (Deuce and Domino), to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship.

2008 – In Ohio Valley Wrestling, Ryback defeats Anthony Bravado, to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship.

2009 – Carnage defeats Spoiler 2000, to win the NWA Oklahoma Heavyweight Championship.

2009 – TNA Bound for Glory is held in Irvine, California in front of 2,400 fans.

-The pre-show match was a tag team match, for entry into the Ultimate X Match, for the TNA X Division Championship.  The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) defeat Lethal Consequences (Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed).

-In the Ultimate X Match, Amazing Red retains the X Division Championship.  The other competitors were Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Suicide, Homicide, and Daniels.

-Sarita and Taylor Wilde defeat The Beautiful People (Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne), to retain the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship.

-In a Three-Way Match, Eric Young defeats Kevin Nash and Hernandez, to win the TNA Legends Championship.

-In a Three-Way Match, ODB defeats Awesome Kong and Tara, to retain the Women’s Knockout Championship.

-Bobby Lashley defeats Samoa Joe in a Submission Match.

-In a Four-Way Full Metal Mayhem Tag Team Match with both the TNA and IWGP Tag Team Titles on the line, The British Invasion (Brutus Magnus & Doug Williams) and Team 3D (Brother Devon & Brother Ray) defeat The Main Event Mafia (Booker T & Scott Steiner) and Beer Money, Inc. (James Storm and Robert Roode).  Magnus and Williams lose the IWGP Tag Titles to Team 3D;  but win the TNA Tag Team Titles previously held by Steiner and Booker T.

-In a Monster’s Ball Match, Abyss defeats Mick Foley;  Dr. Stevie served as special guest referee.  Abyss would’ve been disqualified if he used thumbtacks as a weapon during the match.

-Kurt Angle defeats Matt Morgan.

-A.J. Styles defeats Sting, to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.

2010 – WWE launches it’s “Stand up for WWE” campaign, as a way for fans to respond to criticism against the company from mainstream media.  Some felt the campaign was just an effort to obtain more support for Linda McMahon’s run for Senator in Connecticut (if that was the case it was all for naught;  McMahon lost in the general election in November).

2013 – Chase Owens defeats Jason Kincaid, to win the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.

2014 – In Shimmer Women Athletes, Nicole Matthews defeats Cheerleader Melissa, to win the SHIMMER Championship.  Melissa had been champion since April 6, 2013, a span of 560 consecutive days.

2014 – In Combat Zone Wrestling, Sozio defeats Biff Busick, to win the CZW World Heavyweight Championship.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: former NXT Tag Team Champion Simon Gotch from The Vaudevillains (34 years old);  4-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion & 2-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Atsushi Kotege (31 years old);  2-time GHC Tag Team Champion Maybach Taniguchi (40 years old);  former WWF, WCW, AJPW, & AWA wrestler John “The Berserker” Nord (57 years old);  and the Spanish announcer for WWE Raw, SmackDown, NXT, Superstars, & pay-per-views Carlos Cabrera (56 years old).

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