This Day In Wrestling History – June 24th
1925 – Bobby Roscoe defeats Matty Matsuda, to win the Ohio World Welterweight Title, in Columbus, OH.
1936 – George McCloud defeats Frank Sexton, to win the Midwest Wrestling Association Ohio Heavyweight Title.
1950 – Buddy Rogers defeats Bozo Brown, to win the Jack Pfefer-promoted World Heavyweight Title, in Akron, Ohio.
1966 – Luis Hernandez & Pedro Morales defeat Buddy Austin & El Mongol, to win the Worldwide Wrestling Associates World Tag Team Championship.
1972 – Stan Stasiak defeats Red Bastien, to win the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship. Elsewhere, Abdullah the Butcher defeats Ernie Ladd, to win the National Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship. Finally, Boris Malenko & Johnny Walker defeat The Professional (Doug Gilbert) & Mike Webster, to win the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship.
1974 – Jackie Fargo defeats Jerry Lawler, to win the NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship.
1978 – Roddy Piper defeats Moondog Lonnie Mayne, to win the San Francisco NWA United States Championship.
1984 – Wahoo McDaniel defeats Ricky Steamboat, to win the NWA United States Championship. The title would be vacated a week later, as Tully Blanchard interfered to help McDaniel, during a title defense.
1985 – Gino Hernandez & Chris Adams defeat The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers), to win the WCCW American Tag Team Championship.
1988 – Johnny Smith defeats Chris Benoit, to win the Stampede Wrestling British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championship.
1988 – Tatsumi Fujinami defeats Riki Choshu, to win the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Also, Shiro Koshinaka defeats Owen Hart, to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
1989 – Chicky Starr defeats Super Medico I, to win the WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship.
1995 – On WCW WorldWide, Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) defeat The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags), to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
1995 – The WWF Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is held at the Marriott Hotel, in Philadelphia. The Class of 1995 is listed below.
– Antonino Rocca (inducted by Kevin Nash)
– “Big Cat” Ernie Ladd (inducted by Bobo Brazil)
– George ‘The Animal’ Steele (inducted by Doink The Clown)
– Ivan Putski (inducted by Scott Putski)
– The Fabulous Moolah (inducted by Alundra Blayze)
– The Grand Wizard (inducted by Sgt. Slaughter)
– Pedro Morales (inducted by Savio Vega)
1996 – In the Monday Night Wars, WCW Monday Nitro (3.3 TV rating) beats WWF Monday Night RAW (2.7 rating). On Nitro, Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) defeat Sting & Lex Luger, to become the first 5-time WCW World Tag Team Champions.
2001 – In a tournament final, Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeats Juventud Guerrera, to become the first GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion.
2001 – WWF King of the Ring is held in East Rutherford, NJ in front of 17,777 fans. The event featured the WWF/E debut of Booker T.
Match airing on Sunday Night Heat:
– Matt Hardy (with Lita) defeats Justin Credible, to retain the WWF European Championship.
PPV:
– Kurt Angle defeats Christian, in a King of the Ring Tournament Semifinal Match.
– Edge defeats Rhyno, in a King of the Ring Tournament Semifinal Match.
– The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von) defeat Kane & Spike Dudley, to retain the WWF Tag Team Championship.
– Edge defeats Kurt Angle, to win the 2001 King of the Ring Tournament.
– Jeff Hardy defeats X-Pac, to retain the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship.
– Kurt Angle defeats Shane McMahon in a Street Fight.
– In a Triple Threat Match, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeats Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho, to retain the WWF Championship. Booker T (with the WCW Championship) made his WWF debut during the match, attacking Austin at the Spanish announcers’ table. This would be Benoit’s final appearance for a year, having suffered a neck injury after hitting a back-suplex off the top rope, on to Jericho.
2004 – In a Six-Way Match, American Dragon defeats Samoa Joe, Austin Aries, Colt Cabana, Mark Briscoe, and Homicide, to win the ROH Survival of the Fittest Tournament.
2007 – WWE Vengeance: Night of Champions is held in Houston, TX in front of 15,000 fans. This was final pay-per-view in the Vengeance chronology. All nine WWE championships were defended. It has become infamous as the event that Chris Benoit legitimately no-showed due to a ‘family emergency.’ Over the weekend Benoit had informed WWE officials that his wife and son were very sick due to food poisoning. He and his family were later found dead at their home.
Dark Match:
– Super Crazy defeats Carlito.
PPV:
– Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch defeat The Hardy Boyz (Matt & Jeff), to retain the World Tag Team Championship.
– Chavo Guerrero defeats Jimmy Wang Yang, to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.
– Johnny Nitro (subbing for Benoit) defeats CM Punk, to win the vacant ECW World Championship.
– Santino Marella defeats Umaga, via disqualification, to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
– MVP defeats Ric Flair, to retain the WWE United States Championship.
– Deuce n’ Domino (with Cherry) defeat Sgt Slaughter & Jimmy Snuka, to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship.
– In a Last Chance Match, Edge defeats Batista, via countout, to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. Per match stipulation, Batista can no longer contend for the title as long as Edge is champion.
– Candice Michelle defeats Melina, to win the WWE Women’s Championship.
– In a Five-Pack Challenge, John Cena defeats Mick Foley, Bobby Lashley, Randy Orton, and King Booker (with Queen Sharmell), to retain the WWE Championship.
2007 – WWE & WCW Triple Crown Champion Chris Benoit takes his own life at the age of 40. This comes after Benoit had killed both his wife Nancy and his son Daniel, over the previous two days. After missing the weekend’s house shows (he had told WWE officials his wife and son were suffering from food poisoning), Benoit no-showed the Night of Champions pay-per-view without an explanation. He was scheduled to face CM Punk for the vacant ECW World Championship. The bodies of the Benoit family weren’t discovered by police until June 25th. WWE had requested a ‘welfare check’ after being unable to reach Chris Benoit since June 23rd.
2012 – Ring of Honor’s Best in the World: Hostage Crisis is held at the Hammerstein Ballroom, in New York City.
– The Briscoe Brothers (Mark & Jay) defeat The Guardians of Truth (with Truth Martini). The Guardians of Truth were not identified on the show, but are widely reported to have been played by Glenn Ruth and Charles Warrington, better known as The Headbangers.
– Homicide defeats Eddie Edwards.
– Adam Cole defeats Kyle O’Reilly, in a Hybrid Fighting Rules Match.
– Michael Elgin (with Truth Martini) defeats Fit Finlay.
– Mike Mondo defeats Mike Bennett (with Maria Kanellis & Bob Evans).
– In a Three-Way Elimination Match, Roderick Strong (with Truth Martini) defeats Tommaso Ciampa and Jay Lethal, to retain the ROH World Television Championship.
– The All Night Express (Rhett Titus & Kenny King) defeat Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin), to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship.
– In an Anything Goes Match, Kevin Steen (with Jimmy Jacobs) defeats Davey Richards (with Jim Cornette), to retain the ROH World Championship.
2015 – On a live edition of Impact Wrestling, Tigre Uno defeats Low Ki and Grado, to win the vacant TNA X Division Championship (Three-Way Elimination Match).
2016 – Ring of Honor’s Best in the World 2016 is held in Concord, NC in front of 800 fans.
– Kyle O’Reilly defeats Kamaitachi.
– ACH defeats Silas Young.
– Mark Briscoe defeats Roderick Strong.
– In a Tornado Rules Six Man Tag Team Match, The Bullet Club (Adam Cole, Matt Jackson, & Nick Jackson) defeat Moose and War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe).
– The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) defeat The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin), to retain the ROH World Tag Team Championship.
– BJ Whitmer defeats Steve Corino, in a Fight Without Honor.
– Bobby Fish defeats Dalton Castle, to retain the ROH World Television Championship.
– Jay Lethal (with Taeler Hendrix) defeats Jay Briscoe, to retain the ROH World Championship.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Seven-time WWC World Tag Team Champion Chicky Starr (59 years old); former WWF & WCW wrestler Tom ‘Zeus’ Lister, Jr. (59 years old); NWA Hall of Famer Adam Pearce (39 years old); and former CZW Iron Man Champion Mad Man Pondo (48 years old).
Today would’ve been the 54th birthday for two-time Mexican National Tag Team Champion Angel Azteca, and the 84th birthday for NWA & WWC star Don Kent.
SOURCES: wrestling-titles.com
