This Day In Wrestling History – June 10th
1960 – Ray Gunkel defeats Fred Blassie, to win the Georgia version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship.
1974 – Jerry Lawler defeats Ricky Gibson, to win the NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship.
1978 – Ricky Steamboat defeats Paul Jones, to win the NWA Television Championship. Also, Dutch Savage & Jimmy Snuka defeat Bull Ramos & The Iron Sheik, to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship.
1979 – Bruiser Brody defeats Mark Lewin, to win the NWA Texas Brass Knuckles Championship.
1983 – Harley Race defeats Ric Flair, to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the 7th time. Flair’s title reign ends at 631 days, dating back to September 17, 1981.
1984 – Superstar Billy Graham defeats Billy Jack Haynes, to win the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship.
1985 – Killer Tim Brooks defeats Scott Casey, to win the WCCW Television Championship.
1988 – Masa Saito & Riki Choshu defeat Kengo Kimura & Tatsumi Fujinami, to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Elsewhere, Atlantis defeats Kung Fu, to win the NWA World Middleweight Championship.
1988 – In Stampede Wrestling in Calgary, Johnny Smith defeated Chris Benoit, to win the British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championship.
1988 – In a Title Unification Match, Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu (PWF Tag Team Champions) defeat The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal, NWA International Tag Team Champions). The titles are unified and leads to the creation of the AJPW World Tag Team Championship, with Tsuruta & Yatsu the inaugural champions.
1995 – Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono defeat Junji Hirata & Shinya Hashimoto, to win the vacant IWGP Tag Team Championship.
1996 – In the Monday Night Wars, WWF Monday Night RAW (2.7 TV rating) beats WCW Monday Nitro (2.6 rating). RAW wouldn’t beat Nitro in the ratings again for almost two years (84 weeks).
1999 – On this evening’s WCW Thunder, Chris Benoit & Perry Saturn defeat Chris Kanyon & Diamond Dallas Page, to win the World Tag Team Championship.
2008 – Taryn Terrell makes her debut on WWE TV (ECW on Sci Fi) as Tiffany, an assistant to Teddy Long.
2012 – TNA Slammiversary X is held at the College Park Center, Arlington, TX. With an attendance of 5,500, the event broke the record for the largest TNA attendance in the USA (broken again when 7,200 were on hand at Lockdown 2013). During the show, Sting was announced as the inaugural TNA Hall of Fame inductee. Also, WWE-contracted wrestler Christian (under his former TNA ring name Christian Cage) made an appearance. At the time Christian was the WWE Intercontinental Champion.
– Austin Aries defeats Samoa Joe, to retain the X Division Championship.
– Hernandez defeats Kid Kash.
– Garrett Bischoff & Devon defeat Robbie T. & Robbie E.
– In a Three Way Match, Mr. Anderson defeats Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam, to become the #1 contender for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
– James Storm defeats Crimson.
– Miss Tessmacher defeats Gail Kim, to win the TNA Knockout’s Championship.
– Joseph Park defeats Bull Ray in a No Disqualification Match.
– Kurt Angle & AJ Styles defeat Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels & Kazarian), to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship.
– Bobby Roode defeats Sting, to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
2016 – Rey Cometa defeats Barbaro Cavernario, to win the Mexican National Welterweight Championship.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Current Mexican National Trios Champion Ephesto (52 years old); indy wrestlers C.J. Banks (29 years old) and Cueball Carmichael (57 years old); former NJPW & AJPW wrestler HANZO (50 years old); and former Renegade Wrestling Alliance (RWA) Women’s Champion Sara Dox (27 years old).
Today would have been the 85th birthday for former NWA star Dick Dunn.
