Richard Carew of London publishes The Survey Of Cornwall. In it, he describes contemporary English wrestling in detail. According to Carew, Cornwall wrestlers wore short jackets and gripped one another’s sleeve and shoulders as in modern judo. A standard trick involved trapping the right arm and then backheel tripping. The Cornwall style was called “in-play.” Devonshire wrestlers wore straw shinguards and clogs, and were allowed to kick one another in the shins. Otherwise their techniques were similar. The Devonshire style was called “in-play.” Lancashire wrestlers wore tight jackets or underwear. The players stood well apart with their knees bent and hands outstretched. While kicking, hair-pulling, pinching, and the twisting of arms and fingers were prohibited, the full-nelson hold to the neck was allowed, probably because it is so easily escaped by standing wrestlers. Lancashire wrestling was also known as “catch-as-catch-can,” and is an ancestor of both Olympic free-style and American professional wrestling.

Near Westminster Bridge in London, a former cavalryman named Philip Astley establishes England’s first modern circus. The first shows were mostly equestrian acts, but within a few years they also included acrobatic acts, clowns, and humorous skits. In 1806, Astley moved his amphitheater into a building called the Olympic Theatre, and added boxing, wrestling, and horseracing to his venue.

During a North Country wrestling meet held at Soukerry, England, the 18-year old William Richardson of Caldbeck scores his first professional wrestling victory. A joiner by trade, Richardson never had a single fall recorded against him between 1801 and 1809, despite attending nearly every event in the country. A strongly built man with round shoulders and back, Richardson stood 5’9” in height and weighed about 200 pounds. His official prize was usually a leather belt with his name on it and enough cloth to make a pair of pants. As with boxing, the real money rode on the side bets.

The Marquis of Queensberry and the Earl of Lonsdale are among the 12,000 spectators who watch the wrestling matches held during the annual horse races at Carlisle. The promoters of the races preferred wrestling to boxing because the wrestling crowds were judged less likely to riot.

Irish immigrants introduce collar-and-elbow wrestling into New England. The style was often used by the Irish to settle arguments, and was known as “collar-and-elbow” after the initial stances taken as defenses against kicking, punching, and rushing. The style became widely known during the American Civil War, and formed the basis for the American professional wrestling techniques of the 1870s and 1880s.

The Highland Games are introduced at Braemar, Scotland. These games were the progenitors of modern track-and-field, and of professional sports in general. They also helped popularize Cumberland wrestling, which had been popular mainly in London and Northern England. To ensure proper decorum, a prize of a gold guinea was awarded for the neatest costume. (Said costume consisted of long underwear, stocking feet, and a pair of shorts.) To ensure equitable matches, four weight divisions were used. Matches only began when the wrestlers had fair holds behind one another’s backs, or five minutes had passed. Victory was determined by best of three falls. Failure to keep one’s hands gripped behind the other’s back or touching the ground with any part of the body other than the feet constituted a fall.

May 25: William Muldoon is born in Belfast, New York.

Due to a spate of crudely fixed matches, professional wrestling and savate are banned in Paris. This causes the Montesquieu salon to become a restaurant, and many French boxers and wrestlers to move to Belgium, Greece, and the Americas.

Wrestling’s first masked wrestler enters the ring, in Paris. He is known simply as The Masked Wrestler.

Viro Small, a former slave from Beaufort, South Carolina, becomes North America’s first known African American professional wrestler. Small’s training involved hauling beer kegs and sauerkraut barrels around New York City. His venue was a tavern named the “Bastille Of The Bowery.”

February 6: William Muldoon wins the Greco-Roman championship from French champion Christol in two straight falls of 10 and 17 minutes. He also wins about $2,000 in side bets.

April 27: Frank Gotch is born on a farm near Humboldt, Iowa.

July 20: George Hackenschmidt, later nicknamed “The Russian Lion,” is born in Dorpat, Russia; his mother is Swedish, his father is German.

January 19: William Muldoon defeats Thebaud Bauer at Gilmore’s Gardens (later site of Madison Square Garden) in a best-of-three-falls match to emerge with the Greco-Roman championship. The bout draws more than 3,000 fans. By defeating Thebaud Bauer of Germany, William Muldoon becomes the United States’ first famous wrestling champion. An avid physical culturalist, Muldoon also had done some prize fighting. He preferred wrestling, though, as the purses were larger: $7 to the winner and $3 to the loser, instead of $3 to the winner and $2 to the loser.

The National Police Gazette coins the phrase “the championship of the world.” The idea was to sell newspapers describing a bare-knuckle boxing match between the Irish-born Paddy Ryan and the Boston-born John L. Sullivan.

September 26: Australia’s first professional wrestling bout, William Miller vs. Clarence Whistler, is staged at Melbourne’s Theatre Royal. Whistler won, but died afterward. The cause of death was internal bleeding caused by ingesting glass while eating a champagne glass after the match.

Wrestler William Muldoon faces off against boxer John L. Sullivan before a crowd of about 2,000 in a baseball park in Gloucester, MA. According to boxing and wrestling historian Nat Fleischer, Muldoon slammed Sullivan, and “the crowd rushed in and stopped the combat.”

Circus magnate P.T. Barnum hires wrestler Ed Decker, the “Little Wonder From Vermont,” as a sideshow attraction. Barnum offered to pay $100 to anyone who could pin the 5’6”, 150-pound Decker, and $50 to anyone who could avoid being pinned within three minutes.

March 14: Evan “Strangler” Lewis (the original Strangler Lewis) beats Joe Acton in Chicago, IL, to win the American Catch-as-Catch Can championship.

Richard Kyle Fox and the National Police Gazette sponsor a women’s championship wrestling match in New York City. To prevent hair pulling, the women cut their hair short, and to keep everything “decent,” the women wore tights. (Not all matches were so prim; in 1932, Frederick Van Wyck recollected some matches of his youth that were between “two ladies, with nothing but trunks on.”) Fox’s wrestlers included Alice Williams and Sadie Morgan.

March 2: Evan “Strangler” Lewis defeats Ernest Roeber in New Orleans, Louisiana, to unify the American Catch-as-Catch Can and American Greco-Roman championships. The match is a best of five falls with alternating catch-as-catch can and Greco-Roman falls.

April 5: Joe Stecher is born in Dodge, Nebraska.

Despite his comparatively small size (5’10”, 170 pounds), Martin “Farmer” Burns wins the U.S. catch-as-catch-can heavyweight championship. Following this success, Burns started training other athletes, including Frank Gotch, who was arguably the best North American wrestler of the 20th century.

April 20: Martin “Farmer” Burns defeats Evan “Strangler” Lewis three falls to two in Chicago, to capture the American heavyweight championship.

September: George Hackenschmidt makes his wrestling debut.

January 2: Jim Londos is born Chris Theophelos in Argos, Greece. The youngest of 13 children, Londos’ father was a Greek amateur champion.

October 26: Dan McLeod beats Martin “Farmer” Burns in Indianapolis, Indiana, to capture the American heavyweight championship.

April 2: Frank Gotch makes his pro debut, defeating Marshall Green in Humboldt, Iowa.

After winning the Russian national wrestling championships, George Hackenschmidt follows up with convincing wins in Dresden, Budapest, and Paris. After these triumphs, Hackenschmidt then sets up camp in a London music hall. Hackenschmidt offered ú10 to any British wrestler he failed to throw in 10 minutes, ú25 to any British wrestler he failed to throw in 15 minutes, and ú100 to any British wrestler who succeeded in throwing him in 15 minutes. The stipulation “British wrestlers” was intentional, as it kept dangerous foreign wrestlers like Ghulam Pahelwan of Amritsar from walking on stage and ruining what was quickly becoming a lucrative business.

The first tag team matches are held in the United States, in San Francisco. San Francisco promoters introduce tag team wrestling as a way of improving the sport’s entertainment value. Another California innovation was 18-foot padded mats laid atop risers. While both are now almost traditional in American professional wrestling, neither innovation became especially popular outside San Francisco until the 1930s.

November 7: Tom Jenkins defeats Dan McLeod to win the American heavyweight championship.

In Vienna, George Hackenschmidt wins the European heavyweight wrestling championship. The event was billed as the “world championships,” but the omissions were so glaring that calling them the European championships seems much more precise.

December 26: Dan McLeod defeats Tom Jenkins in Worcester, Massachusetts, to regain the American heavyweight championship. Jenkins took the first fall in 59:00, while McLeod came back to win the second fall at 24: 00. Jenkins forfeited the match and the title 20 minutes into the third fall due to a leg injury (later revealed to be blood poisoning).

February 22: Tom Jenkins defeats Frank Gotch in Cleveland, Ohio, in the first meeting of the dominant American wrestlers of the era.

April 3: Tom Jenkins defeats Dan McLeod in Buffalo, New York, in straight falls (1:17: 00 and 14: 30) to regain the American heavyweight championship.

January 27: Frank Gotch beats Tom Jenkins in Bellingham, Washington, to win the American heavyweight championship for the first time. Gotch took the first fall by pinfall, while Jenkins was disqualified in the second fall for fouling Gotch.

February 2: Tom Jenkins is heavily criticized by his hometown press for running out of gas late in his unsuccessful title challenge against American heavyweight champion Frank Gotch in Cleveland. Jenkins took the first fall, with Gotch sweeping the last two.

March 15: Tom Jenkins defeats Frank Gotch at Madison Square Garden to regain the American heavyweight championship. After splitting the first two falls, Jenkins dug down and took the third fall in 10: 31 to win the title for a record third time.

May 5: World Greco-Roman champion George Hackenschmidt thoroughly dominates American heavyweight champion Tom Jenkins in two straight falls at Madison Square Garden in a match to crown the World Catch-as-Catch-Can heavyweight champion. The match is the origin of the World heavyweight title in the United States.

May 19: In the crowning moment of his career, Tom Jenkins comes back two weeks after his thrashing at the hands of Hackenschmidt to defeat Frank Gotch at Madison Square Garden to retain his American heavyweight championship. The match, arguably the most epic of the decade, sees Jenkins take the first fall in 1: 27: 57, and Gotch evening it up by taking the second fall in 36:27. Jenkins came back to overpower Gotch to take the third fall at 11: 10. A battered and exhausted Gotch had to be carried from the ring by his seconds.

May 23: Frank Gotch defeats Tom Jenkins to regain the American heavyweight championship. Jenkins takes the first fall in 26: 00, but Gotch finishes strongly to take the last two falls in 14: 00 and 17: 00.

December 1: Arguably the biggest upset in pro wrestling history sees Fred Beell, outweighed by 50 pounds, beat Frank Gotch in New Orleans, Louisiana, to win the American heavyweight championship. Beell won the third fall by throwing Gotch over the edge of mat, with Gotch striking his head on the floor. When the dazed Gotch was returned to the ring, Beell finished him off fast to take the title.

December 17: Frank Gotch beats Fred Beell in two one-sided falls in Kansas City, Missouri, to regain the American heavyweight championship and record-tying third time.

October 4: Leopold McLaglan (brother of actor Victor McLaglen) wrestles T.H. Kanada in a wrestling vs. jujitsu match held in New Westminster, British Columbia. While the referee called it a no-contest after watching McLaglan lay on top of Kanada for two hours, McLaglan subsequently advertised himself as the jujitsu champion of the world.

April 3: Frank Gotch beats George Hackenschmidt at Chicago’s Dexter Park Pavilion to win the World heavyweight title in a match that was three years in the making. The match was highly controversial, with Hackenschmidt claiming Gotch doused himself in oil or other substances to make himself impossible to grasp. In addition, all newspaper reports showed Gotch refusing to lock up and liberally using fouls and roughhouse tactics to damage the champion. After the ref turned a deaf ear to his appeals, Hackenschmidt finally quit the ring after two hours and three minutes. The referee ruled Hackenschmidt had forfeited and awarded the title to Gotch.

April 14: Frank Gotch, in his first big U.S. match following a U.K. tour, defeats Bulgarian wrestler Yussiff Mahmout in two straight falls (8:00, 9: 10) at Chicago’s Dexter Park Pavilion.

November 25: Frank Gotch beats Stanislaus Zbyszko in a non-title match in Buffalo, New York. It’s their first meeting, and the buzz begins for a title match between the two.

A Muslim wrestler known as Gama the Great easily defeats a highly regarded U.S. professional wrestler named Benjamin Franklin Roller in London. Gama then issued a challenge to George Hackenschmidt, but the Estonian dodged the bout by suddenly remembering a pressing engagement in Switzerland. Therefore Gama was instead paired with the European Greco-Roman champion Stanislaus Zbyszko. Although Zbyszko avoided being pinned by stalling for 2 hour 40 minutes, he too failed to show for the scheduled rematch. As a result, Gama was named the British national champion.

April: A Federal court convicts John C. Maybray, Joe Carroll, Bert Warner, and other wrestlers and promoters of using the U.S. mail to illegally rig the results of wrestling matches. All Maybray had to say was, “I never bilked an honest man.”

June 1: In what May have been his crowning achievement, Frank Gotch defeats Stanislaus Zbyszko in the first fall of a Chicago contest in 6.4 seconds! Gotch went on to take the second fall in 27: 33 to retain the World title.

February: Wrestler Charley Olson returns home to Indianapolis after accidentally killing a Texas wrestler calling himself McRay. Five years earlier, Olson had also accidentally killed another wrestler in Montreal. The Texan died after being driven into the mat using a crotch hold while the wrestler in Montreal died after being thrown from the ring and hitting his head on a chair.

September 4: Three years after their controversial first match, Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidt wrestle each other at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Gotch dominates to take straight falls over Hackenschmidt, who severely injured his knee in training for the match. The live gate of $87,053 (tickets range from $1 to $10) is the biggest ever at the time.

October 2: Legendary Texas promoter Paul Boesch is born in Brooklyn, New York.

April 1: Frank Gotch announces his retirement after beating George Lurich in Kansas City, Missouri.

July 4: Joe Stecher beats Charlie Cutler in Omaha, Nebraska, to become the first widely recognized World heavyweight champion after the retirement of Frank Gotch.

October 20: In the first World title meeting between the two wrestlers who would dominate the era, Joe Stecher beats Ed “Strangler” Lewis in Evansville, Indiana, to retain the title. Stecher won after 2: 03:00 of the first fall when Lewis was unable to continue after being driven out of the ring and hitting his head on the floor.

November 1915 to January 1916: An international tournament is held at the Manhattan Opera House featuring many of the top stars of the era. Among the wrestlers are Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Alex Aberg, Waldek Zbyszko, B.F. Roller, and Charles Cutler. The talk of the tournament is The Masked Marvel, a hooded wrestler who came out of the crowd and demanded to be entered. The promoters finally relent, allowing Marvel to debut on December 9. Aberg eventually beats Zbyszko in the tourney final, while Lewis finishes in third place.

January 27: Joe Stecher retains the World title by beating The Masked Marvel in straight falls at Madison Square Garden. The Marvel was revealed to be Mort Henderson.

July 5: Joe Stecher and Ed “Strangler” Lewis wrestle to a legendary five-hour draw In Omaha, Nebraska. Lewis was soundly hooted by the crowd for wrestling defensively and making no attempts to go on the offense against the champion. Some fans at points showered the ring seat cushions to show their displeasure.

July 18: Frank Gotch fractures his leg in an exhibition match with Bob Managoff Sr. at a Sells-Floto Circus performance in Kenosha, Wisconsin; the great champion would never wrestle again.

Jim Londos makes his professional debut.

April 9: Joe Stecher forfeits the World title to Earl Caddock in Omaha, Nebraska. Stecher won the first fall in 1: 22: 05. Caddock evened the match by taking the second fall in 1: 40:10. Stecher claimed he wasn’t pinned and was so livid that he refused to wrestle the third fall.

January 30: After beating Waldek Zbyszko and Ed “Strangler” Lewis in late-1919 to earn a title shot, Joe Stecher regains the World title by beating Earl Caddock in 2: 05:30 at Madison Square Garden.

December 13: Ed “Strangler” Lewis beats Joe Stecher in 1: 41:56 at the 71st Regiment Armory in New York to win the World title for the first time.

March: San Francisco’s Ad Santel leads a troupe of European and Japanese American professional wrestlers to Japan. They did not attract nearly as much media attention as some concurrent boxing vs. wrestling acts called “Merikan,” and as result, Santel said that in future he would not wrestle in Japan without first receiving cash guarantees from the Japanese promoters.

May 6: Nearly 11 years after his bitter defeat to Frank Gotch, Stanislaus Zbyszko finally wins the World title by beating Ed “Strangler” Lewis in 23: 17 at the 22nd Regiment Armory in New York.

September 22: The New York State Athletic Commission takes wrestling under its control and issues stringent rules regarding the use of “strange” holds. Headlocks, toelocks, and scissorsholds, which are used specifically to punish an opponent are to be foul methods, punishable by disqualification. Repeat offenders would have their licenses revoked.

November 8: New York State Athletic Commissioner William Muldoon redefines the Commission’s rules to make an exception for holds that are applied as decisive elements in producing a fall.

September 30: Joe Stecher plays first base for Salt Lake City Bees of the Pacific Coast League for San Francisco with Oakland as opposition. Stecher singles in two runs in the fourth inning, going 1-for-4 at the plate, handling nine chances without error in the field. He was originally set to finish the season with the Bees, but then decided not to risk injury that might cause him to miss his October 4 match with Ed Lewis in San Francisco (which Stecher won on a referee’s decision after a no-fall, two-hour bout).

Gobar Goho defeats Ad Santel in San Francisco to become the first Asian to win a “World Professional Wrestling Championship” in the United States.

December 30: Ed “Strangler” Lewis posts a $10,000 bond with a $25,000 side bet, agreeing to fight heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey. A Wichita oil syndicate offers $300,000 for the bout.

December 31: Ed “Strangler” Lewis meets a Fusen-ryu jujutsuka named Taro Miyake in Chicago for the “jujitsu championship of the world.” To no one’s surprise, Lewis, who was also Miyake’s employer, won.

December 2: Wrestler Nick Gotch defeats light heavyweight boxing champion Battling Siki in a wrestler vs. boxer match at Philadelphia.

January 8: In one of the bigger upsets of all-time, Wayne Munn beats Ed “Strangler” Lewis in Kansas City to win the World title.

Vince McMahon Sr.’s, father, Jess McMahon, promotes the first boxing card in the “old” Madison Square Garden.

September 16: In Dallas, Texas, Japanese American Matty Matsuda successfully defends his world welterweight title against Boston’s Joe Sylvio. Matsuda had started his wrestling career in 1905 after winning a sumo tournament held in Vancouver.

April 13: Antonio Biasetton, the man who would gain wrestling fame as Antonino (Argentina) Rocca, is born, along with a twin sister, in Treviso, Italy 

June 23: Angelo Taramacchi defeats Alexander Yermerkoff in 9: 22 at San Francisco’s Dreamland Rink, in the words of the Associated Press, “without using any recognized wrestling hold.”

October 27: Wrestler Joe Shimkus wins two pinfalls from boxer Johnn Mack at Fort Hayes, Ohio.

December: Ad Santel introduces American-style professional wrestling to the Leichardt Stadium in Sydney, Australia.

February 28: After chasing Joe Stecher for nearly three years, Ed “Strangler” Lewis wins the World title a third time, taking two out of three falls in just under 21/2 hours in St. Louis.

April 3: Joe Savoldi is secretly married to Audrey Koehler, age 19, at South Bend, Indiana. Savoldi never lived with her but was forced to withdraw from Notre Dame (and football stardom) on November 17, 1930. A month later, she sued for divorce, charging desertion.

June 7: The Grand Wizard is born Ernie Roth in Canton, Ohio.

August 23: Dick Shikat beats Jim Londos in Philadelphia to gain recognition as a World heavyweight champion from the New York and Pennsylvania State Athletic Commissions. The two commissions had withdrawn their recognition from reigning champion Gus Sonneberg.

April 4: Hugh Nichols beats Joe Banaski in the National Boxing (Wrestling) Association tournament final in Cincinnati, Ohio, to become the World light heavyweight champion.

June 6: Jim Londos beats Dick Shikat in Philadelphia to win the New York and Pennsylvania version of the World title.

November: Promoters Atholl Oakeley and Jeff Dickson introduce American-style professional wrestling to London. Although the promoters called it “all-in” wrestling, the British press responded by calling it “baboon wrestling” and saying that people didn’t want that kind of sport in England. By March 1934 even the staid William (“Apollo”) Bankier of the National Sporting Club was starting to replace boxing with American-style wrestling. All-in wrestling shows went out of fashion during World War II, but resumed in 1946 under the direction of Norman Morrell, Lord Mountevans, and Maurice Webb.

April 13: Ed “Strangler” Lewis beats Ed Don George in straight falls at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles to win a then-record fourth World championship.

May 4: The World title is fragmented further after a controversial finish in the Henri DeGlane-Ed “Strangler” Lewis match in Montreal. DeGlane claimed to have been bitten by Lewis, and the referee agreed and awarded the match and title to DeGlane. Lewis denied the foul and asserted that DeGlane bit himself to get a cheap win. As a result, DeGlane was recognized as champion in parts of New England and Canada, while Lewis was recognized in states such as California and Illinois.

June 29: What is presumed to be wrestling’s first sleeperhold is applied by Jim Londos against Ray Steele in the main event of a card at New York’s Yankee Stadium in front of 21,000 fans. The controversial hold helps Londos win victory at the 1: 09:12 mark. “Simply a new hold I’ve perfected which shuts off the jugular vein,” Londos said the next day in the New York Sun.

September 23: Former World champion Dick Shikat breaks arm in auto wreck in New York.

October 10: The New York Athletic Commission recognizes Ed “Strangler” Lewis as World heavyweight champion. The Commission had ordered Jim Londos to meet Lewis following Lewis’ June 9 victory over Dick Shikat. When Londos refused, the Commission stripped him of title recognition.

October 17: Cliff White, 185, wrestler, defeats Ed Petich, 180, boxer, in the third round of a wrestler vs. boxer match in Portland.

October 25: Paul Boesch makes his professional wrestling debut, wrestling and defeating Benny Ginsburg in Staten Island, New York.

Texas passes state laws legalizing and governing boxing and wrestling. Morris Siegel receives the first license issued in both sports.

February 20: Jim Browning brings Ed “Strangler” Lewis’ final World title reign to a close by beating him at Madison Square Garden.

March 1: Gus Sonnenberg testifies in a Lawrence, Massachusetts, trial that he had consumed ginger ale, not beer, when he hit and killed patrolman Richard L. Morrissey in July, 1932. It was alleged that Morrissey had been drinking.

April 7: Joe Savoldi scores a surprising pinfall win over Jim Londos Chicago. Savoldi would claim Londos’ version of the World title, and jumped to the New York wrestling promotions where he would lose to New York World champion Jim Browning. Londos ignored the loss to Savoldi and continued to bill himself as World champion.

April 13: A jury in Boston deadlocks on Gus Sonnenberg’s $1-million libel suit vs. Boston Herald, stemming from a 1929 article.

April 13: Daisy Florence Savoldi, second wife of wrestler Joe Savoldi, wins divorce in Los Angeles when she testifies the only time she knew her husband’s whereabouts was when papers chronicled his progress from city to city; they were married Aug. 20, 1931, separated October, 1932. She is granted $25 a week for two years as settlement.

April 14: Percy R. Gardner of Toronto pays $100,000 to wrestling promoters Jack Curley and Paul Bowser for a 50 percent share of Joe Savoldi’s contract.

May 21: Joe Savoldi marries Miss Lola Poole in Buchanan, Michigan.

May 27: Jim Browning, recognized as world heavyweight wrestling champion in New York and a number of other states, appears in a nationally distributed newspaper advertisement for Adam Pantara Hats; other sports icons, such as Jack Dempsey, Maxie Rosenbloom, Benny Leonard, and Carl Hubbell appear in the same ad.

June 7: Stanislaus Zbyszko declared bankruptcy with $26,869 in debts against $256 in assets

December 18: Jim Browning and Ed Don George meet in a unification World title match at Madison Square Garden. The match is declared a draw after 1: 40:00.

January 2: The New York State Athletic Commission investigates “secret agreements” and “title juggling” in wrestling, calling Rudy Miller, Jack Curley, Jim Londos, Toots Mondt, Ed White, Tom Packs, and Dick Shikat to a January 9 hearing. Peace is said to exist between the Londos-Curley factions, but Jack Pfeffer-Rudy Miller are on the outs, says New York Times.

January 9: After the witnesses testify, the New York State Athletic Commission says, in a statement: “We have heard all the testimony. We have sent it out to be translated into English. When that is done, we will consider it.”

January 15: An expose is published in New York, quoting Jack Pfeffer as saying that Londos was determined to be the next champion in August 1929, before Londos beat Dick Shikat on August 29, 1929, for the world title. Pfeffer says both Jim Browning and Ed Don George are managed by Paul Bowser of Boston.

January 17: Everett Marshall asks for reinstatement from the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission; he was suspended following a December 15 match with Jim Londos, after which Marshall attacked referee Ben Paul.

January 26: The New York State Athletic Commission issues new rules, outlawing syndicate agreements between promoters and banning the dropkick.

February 15: A Johannesburg, South Africa, council bans professional wrestling as “brutal and degrading.”

March 5: Leroy McGurk wins the NWA World lightweight title, beating Hugh Nichols in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

March 19: Detroit promoter Nick Londos challenges University of Michigan wrestling coach Clifford Keene; says Ray Steele can throw four his Wolvernine wrestlers “or even eight” and will pay Keene $1,000 if Steele can’t.

April 12: Former world middleweight wrestling champ Jack Reynolds, 38, is indicted by a Cincinnati grand jury for the second-degree slaying of James Meyers and Philip Citron on March 11. He is acquitted May 28, but thereafter is relegated to working the tank towns and promoting “athletic shows” or carnival bouts for the remainder of his mat career.

June 25: Jim Londos returns to New York and beats Jim Browning at the Garden Bowl in Queens, New York, to win the New York version of the World title.

September 20: Jim Londos scores the first win of his career against bitter rival Ed “Strangler” Lewis at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The match draws a then-record gate of $96,302. Ex-boxing champ Jack Dempsey referees the Jim Londos win.

October 9: Wrestler Abe Kashey pins boxer Charlie Retzlaff in the fourth round of a mixed bout before 7,500, with Jack Dempsey serving as referee. The next day, the Minnesota Athletic Commission says, “Never again.”

December 17: Man Mountain Dean is the defendant in a $60,000 damages suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by James Gordon McGinley, 20, who claims Dean beat him up in a San Pedro street fight; he asks $10,000 actual damages for an impaired right eye and $50,000 in punitive damages.

February 7: Gus Sonnenberg arrives in U.S. from Australia tour with a strangulated hernia.

April 17: The Masked Marvel, a.k.a. Jim Maloney, unmasks in order to wed Virginia Campbell in Walla Walla, Washington

April 22: Ex-Alabama All-American tackle Bill Lee says he’ll become a pro wrestler upon completion of his studies in May.

June 27: Danno O’Mahoney upsets Jim Londos at Fenway Park in Boston to win the New York version of the World title.

July 30: Danno O’Mahoney beats Ed Don George in Boston to become the undisputed World champion.

Jim Crockett Sr. forms Jim Crockett Promotions.

Vince McMahon Sr. promotes his first wrestling card.

Seventeen-year-old Mildred Bliss of Kansas City, Missouri, pesters a promoter named Billy Wolfe to teach her to wrestle. After a few months of this, Wolfe told one of his wrestlers to slam Bliss so hard she’d quit nagging him. Bliss pinned the man. Twice. After that, Wolfe hired her as a carnival wrestler, gave her the name “Mildred Burke.” Wolfe offered $25 to any man within 20 pounds of her weight who could defeat her within fifteen minutes. “I wrestled almost 200 men,” said Burke many years later, “and the only time I was defeated—it wasn’t because I was pinned, but I got knocked out.”

March 2: Dick Shikat shocks the wrestling world by beating Danno O’Mahoney for the World title. The promotional alliance that brought about an undisputed World champion the year before quickly dissolves and sends the title picture back into confusion.

March 31: Wrestler George Zaharias comes back from six first-round knockdowns to pin boxer Art (The Great) Shires in the second round in Indianapolis.

April 20: Climaxing an eight-week tournament, Albion Britt beats Ted Christy in finals at Hollywood Legion Stadium in California to become the first NWA World junior heavyweight champion.

June 5: A White Owl cigar advertisement in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer features Gus Sonnenberg, Yvon Robert, Chief Little Wolf, and Ernie Dusek.

Mud wrestling is invented in Seattle, Washington … by mistake. Promoter Paul Boesch used too much water on the dirt used for a “Hindu match” between Prince Bhu Pinder (real name: Ranjit Singh) and former champion Gus Sonnenberg. Mud wrestling then moved to San Francisco. There the ring was filled with mud and the bout filmed and shown in newsreels across the world. Women’s mud-wrestling soon followed. The first match was held in January 1938. Photos of this exhibition, which featured Mildred Burke and Babe Gordon, subsequently appeared in Life.

January 28: In New York, wrestlers on the Hippodrome weekly card donate blood for Dave Levin, who was in critical condition from an infection suffered in the wake of the previous week’s loss to Bobby Bruns.

February 9: Billy Wolfe defeats Clara Mortensen via disqualification in a man vs. woman bout in Atlanta.

March 11: Wrestlers, objecting to newspaper criticism, perform brief sit-down strike in a Washington, DC, ring.

June 30: Bronko Nagurski beats Dean Detton in Minneapolis to win one of the many versions of the World heavyweight title. Nagurski would go on to win the National Wrestling Association version of the World title on two occasions.

July 8: Lou Thesz claims National Wrestling Association title because, he says, Everett Marshall will not meet him in Kansas City in mid-July.

September 29: Japan’s first American-style pro wrestling match takes place at Tokyo’s Susaki baseball stadium. The main event starred a 208-pound Korean named Ken Gen vs. former Japanese Olympian Kiyoshi Kose. Before a small crowd, Gen lost in two straight falls. Joint wrestling and boxing cards continued to be staged until the start of the Pacific War in December 1941.

October 2: The first “Texas tornado” tag team match (in which all four men are in the ring at the same time) is held in Houston, the brainchild of promoter Morris Sigel: Milo Steinborn & Whiskers Savage vs. Tiger Daula & Fazul Mohammed.

October 7: King Levinsky, 204, kayoes wrestler Jack Conley, 195, in the second round of a mixed bout in Dubuque, Iowa.

October 11: Danny McShain beats Wild Red Berry at Hollywood Legion Stadium in California to win the NWA World light heavyweight title. McShain and Berry would dominate the division for the next decade, combining to win the title more than 20 times.

November 11: Dale J. Greif sues Sandor Szabo for $24,000, saying he was “mauled” after an October 8 bout in Santa Monica, California, and suffered a broken neck, dislocated shoulder, and displacement of several vertebrae.

November 16: Ray Steele is suspended 60 days by the New York State Athletic Commission for using a knee on Bronko Nagurski in a title match.

December 29: Lou Thesz beats Everett Marshall in St. Louis, Missouri, to win a version of the World title for the first time.

Paul Boesch helps promote the first mud wrestling match.

January: The Seattle Times says the real Red Shadow (Leo Numa) is afflicted with trachoma and that James Morrissey Casey, eventually unmasked as the Shadow, is an impostor.

January 23: Shohei “Giant” Baba is born.

February 11: Steve Casey beats Lou Thesz in Boston, MA to win the old AWA version of the World heavyweight title.

May 31: World hammer throw recordholder Dr. Patrick O’Callaghan, 240, makes his pro wrestling debut in San Francisco, pinning veteran toughie Cy Williams in 4: 26.

August 8: Wrestler Man Mountain Dean withdraws from the race for the Georgia State Legislature, noting: “The things they say about in politics no honest man can take. If I stay in politics, I’ll slug somebody for sure. When a wrestler gets personal in the ring, I let him have one right on the jaw, or May be I pick him up and slam him to the mat. But if I tried that on one of these politicians, I’d land in jail and be sued for all I own. Wrestling is on the level, but politics … “

August 23: Bronko Nagurski beats The Purple Shadow in San Francisco. The Purple Shadow is unmasked and is revealed to be Bill Longson.

September 14: Everett Marshall is awarded the National Wrestling Association’s version of the World title.

November 18: Jim Londos beats Bronko Nagurski in Philadelphia to win a claim to the World title. Londos never loses this version of the title, defending it successfully across the country until he retires.

December 5: Danny McShain beats Leroy McGuirk at Hollywood Legion Stadium in California to regain the NWA World light heavyweight title. McGuirk moves up in weight to concentrate on winning the World junior heavyweight title.

January 19: Wrestlers Steve Casey and Marv Westenberg, the latter under a mask as The Shadow, grapple 2 hours 45 minutes, until 1: 23 a.m. the next morning, before collapsing, exhausted, in a Boston ring; each man had secured one fall.

March 16: Wrestler Gene Barutha pins boxer John Wrobell in three minutes at Milwaukee’s South Side Armory.

April 19: After being disqualified in a Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium match with Sandor Szabo, Man Mountain Dean is stabbed by an irate fan wielding a pen knife.

May 24: Richard Smith, 28, described as a WPA worker from Plesant Green, Missouri, died after being in a Pilot Grove, Missouri, ring three minutes with Dale (Swede) Hanson, a wrestler traveling with a carnival. The Associated Press said “Hanson gripped Smith around the neck and applied a tight squeeze. When Hanson released the hold, Smith slumped to the ring floor and died. J.C. Tincher, Cooper County coroner, said no inquest would be held as the accident appeared to be ‘unavoidable.’”

June 19: Leroy McGuirk beats John Swenski at Hollywood Legion Stadium in California to win the NWA World junior heavyweight title.

August 16: Jim Londos, 39, marries Arva Esther Rochwite, 27, daughter of a St. Louis architect, in the Los Angeles home of theater magnate Charles P. Skouras. met her in St. Louis in 1935; the new couple embarks on a “working” honeymoon to Honolulu, where Londos beats Vic Christy and Oki Shikina, and then moves on to subsequent bouts in New Zealand and Australia.

December 21: Rhode Island bans Gus Sonnenberg from competition due to a heart condition.

March 7: After a decade of being a top contender, Ray Steele finally wins a World heavyweight title by beating Bronko Nagurski in St. Louis for the National Wrestling Association crown.

July 15: Boxer Jack Dempsey defeats wrestler Bull Curry in 1: 05 of the second round of a match in Detroit.

August 9: Bill Longson beats Frank Sexton in San Jose, California, to win the Pacific Coast title.

August 29: Primo Carnera, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, takes up wrestling at age 34, the Associated Press reports from Rome.

December 1: Billy Varga wins the NWA World light heavyweight title for the first time by beating Wild Red Berry at Hollywood Legion Stadium in California.

Toward reducing factional violence between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs, the British stop all Indian professional wrestling championships. Regional championships resume after Partition in 1947, and Indian national championships resume in 1953. The driving force behind their resumption was a Bombay millionaire named Gustad Irani.

With so many men off to war, women’s wrestling becomes popular in the United States. The audiences were about half men and about half women and school-age boys. The wrestlers were working-class women who viewed the business as a way of earning good money—up to $100 a week for a champion—while staying physically fit.

California bans women from participating in public combat (boxing and wrestling) for profit. Illinois, on the other hand, upheld the right of women to wrestle in 1955. By 1972, most other states had followed suit.

January 21: The City Auditorium in Houston, Texas, hosts one of the most unusual nights of wrestling ever: a joint benefit with wrestlers and the Houston Symphony Orchestra that brought in over a million dollars in war bonds (ringside seats were had for a $500 war bond purchase). Wild Bill Longson battles Lou Thesz in the main event. A match between Ellis Bashara and Dave Levin is set to symphonic arrangement by the Orchestra; Bashara, after winning the bout, pushes the conductor aside to lead the Orchestra himself!

April 25: Associated Press sportswriter Russ Newland suggests a circular ring to promoter Joe Malcewicz in San Francisco’s Civic Auditorium. Malcewicz has one constructed and uses it in his next week’s show; the innovation does not catch on.

April 2: Babe Ruth, legendary baseball slugger, announces he’ll become a wrestling referee and works shows the next two nights in Portland, Maine, and Boston.

February 23: Gory Guerrero beats Tarzan Lopez in Mexico City to win the NWA World middleweight title. Guerrero, the father of Chavo, Mondo, Hector, and Eddy Guerrero, would go on to win the NWA World titles in the welterweight and light heavyweight divisions.

March 15: El Santo beats Pete Pancof in Mexico City to win the NWA World welterweight title (now part of the unified eight title J-Crown). El Santo would go on to become the biggest star in the history of Mexican wrestling. He was the father of current superstar El Hijo del Santo.

May 19: Andre the Giant is born in Grenoble, France.

June 14: Bruiser Brody is born.

Killer Kowalaski makes his pro debut.

Former boxer Tony Galento makes his pro debut, defeating “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers.

A New York match between Buddy Rogers and Billy Darnell is such a wild brawl, a ringside fan dies of a heart attack. Both wrestlers are disqualified from New York competition for two years.

Fred Blassie suffers a head injury that places him on the verge of retirement when he is bounced out of the ring by Rudy Dusek

Portland, Oregon, promoter Don Owen’s cards are first aired on television.

Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon represents Canada in wrestling in the Olympic Games.

July 19: The current version of the National Wrestling Alliance is formed, in Waterloo, Iowa. The first NWA president is P.L. “Pinkie” George.

Later in the year, Orville Brown is recognized as the first NWA World champion.

Sky Low Low wins a 30-man tournament in Paris to emerge as midget world champion.

Antonino Rocca arrives in the U.S.

January: Paul Boesch announces his first televised wrestling match

February 22: Gorgeous George headlines the first Madison Square Garden wrestling card in 12 years, against Ernie Dusek; George pins Dusek in 26: 57 in front of 4,197 fans. The New York press is not impressed by George’s theatrics. One New York Times sportswriter writes two days later: “Gorgeous George? Phooey!”

April 18: Verne Gagne announces he’ll turn pro, spurning football offers from the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Bears. He makes pro debut by beating Abe Kashey via disqualification in 22: 10 before 2,724 in Minneapolis on May 3.

April 20: Primo Carnera’s winning streak ends at 321 when he is defeated by Antonino Rocca.

October 4: Lillian Ellison (later known as Fabulous Moolah) defeats Cecilia Blevins, 15: 33, at Kansas City, Missouri, on the undercard of the Orville Brown-Bill Longson National Wrestling Alliance title match.

November 1: Orville Brown, 38, and Bob Bruns, 35, are severely injured as their car collides with stalled transport line truck three miles north of Eagleville, Missouri, returning to Kansas City from Des Moines.

November 27: The National Wrestling Alliance recognizes Lou Thesz as its World heavyweight champion. Thesz, the National Wrestling Association World champion, was scheduled to meet the Alliance’s World champion Orville Brown on November 25 in a title unification match, but Brown suffered a career ending injury on November 1.

Primo Carnera is thrown off his feet for the first time, by Don Eagle.

Jim Londos comes out of retirement to wrestle Primo Carnera at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The match draws wrestling’s biggest gate of the year: $54,000.

February 4: The Crosley Broadcasting Corp. inaugurates studio TV wrestling in Cincinnati.

July 27: Lou Thesz defeats Gorgeous George in Chicago to merge the old AWA version of the World title into the NWA World title.

October: Former All-Japan judo champion Masahiko Kimura becomes the first Japanese (rather than Japanese American or Canadian) wrestler to tour the Americas since the 1920s. His promoter was a retired Hawaiian professional wrestler named Tetsuro “Rubberman” Higami.

November 13: Verne Gagne beats Sonny Myers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to win the vacant NWA World junior heavyweight title.

Japan’s first professional wrestling card is held.

October 24: In Brazil, Masahiko Kimura defeats Helio Gracie in 13 minutes of unexciting wrestling. This was the same Helio Gracie whose sons subsequently popularized Gracie jiu-jitsu in the USA.

November 19: Danny McShain beats Verne Gagne at the Ellis Auditorium in Memphis, TN, to win the NWA World junior heavyweight title. McShain joins Leroy McGuirk as the only men to win both the NWA World junior heavyweight and World light heavyweight titles.

Gagne moves up to the heavyweight division.

The Sheik makes his pro debut.

May 21: Lou Thesz beats Baron Michele Leone in Los Angeles to merge the California version of the World heavyweight title into the NWA World title. Thesz is, at that moment, the closet any one man would get in the last half century to being the undisputed World heavyweight champion. The match draws the first $100,000-plus gate in U.S. wrestling history: $103,277.

Capt. Lou Albano makes his pro debut in Montreal, Canada, by defeating Bob Lozaro.

March 6: The first brass knuckles match is held, pitting “Irish” Danny McShain against “Wild” Bull Curry. The match, promoted by Paul Boesch in Houston, Texas, is won by Curry.

May 11: New York lifts a state ban on tag team wrestling.

September 3: Verne Gagne is awarded the NWA United States heavyweight title.

U.S. bodybuilder John Grimek becomes the first strength athlete known to have used anabolic steroids on a regular and systematic basis. His source of supply was John Ziegler, a physician working for a Swiss pharmaceutical company associated with the CIA. (Anabolic steroids are an outgrowth of artificial testosterone research done during World War II by both the Germans and the Americans. During both World War II and the Cold War, international militaries wanted chemically assisted soldiers, and were willing to do whatever it took to get them.)

January 11: Wilber Snyder beats Mr. Moto at Hollywood Legion Stadium in California to win the International TV title.

December 22: In Tokyo, a former sumotori called Rikidozan defeats Masahiko Kimura to become the first All-Japan professional wrestling champion.

March: Wrestling from Marigold Garden in Chicago is cancelled in New York after being telecast six years every Saturday night on the Dumont network.

August 4: Channel 5 in New York debuts a new wrestling series, broadcast from the Dumont Telecenter on East 67th Street, rather than an arena. Pat O’Connor and Don Leo Jonathan appear on the first show, which is announced by former Olympic sprinter Marty Glickman.

August 5: Pepper Gomez beats Mr. Moto in Houston to win the NWA Texas heavyweight title for the first time.

April 7: Wilber Snyder beats Verne Gagne in Chicago to win the NWA U.S. title, ending Gagne’s 31-month title reign.

June 2: Joe Louis announces that his wrestling bout with Cowboy Rocky Lee in Huntington, West Virginia, will be his last “until the government men lay off me.” Louis, who owes the Internal Revenue Service some $1,180,000, including interest, is paid a $500 guarantee against a percentage of the gate by promoter Dick Deutsch.

June 21: Announced as a summer replacement for the Channel 5 studio show, which had run 46 weeks, wrestling is presented from the Capitol Arena in Washington, D.C., with Vince McMahon Sr. as promoter. The show became a permanent fixture.

September 8: Boxing champion Archie Moore kayoes wrestler Roy Shire in the third round of a bout at Ogden, Utah, just 83 days before fighting Floyd Patterson in Chicago as part of an elimination series for the heavyweight championship.

November 26: The first Madison Square Garden show promoted by Vince McMahon Sr. draws a dismal 10,400 ($30,300 gate) to see Antonino Rocca battle Dick the Bruiser.

February 4: A sellout crowd of 19,300 pay $61,250 at Madison Square Garden to see Antonino Rocca and Verne Gagne against Hans Schmidt and Karl Von Hess.

April 1: Danny Hodge appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

June 14: Edouard Carpentier beats Lou Thesz in Chicago when Thesz is injured and unable to wrestle the third fall. Carpentier is announced as the NWA World champion in the building, but the NWA rules Thesz is still champion. A number of midwestern promoters recognize Carpentier as a World champion, creating the first crack in the NWA title being seen as the undisputed title.

October 7: Lou Thesz meets Rikidozan in Tokyo for the first-ever NWA World World title match held in Japan. The match ends in a 60-minute time-limit draw.

November 11: Ray Stevens beats Tor Yamata in Birmingham, Alabama, to win the Southern junior heavyweight title.

November 19: Two police officers are injured as a riot in Madison Square Garden ensues following a tag team bout pitting Antonino Rocca and Edouard Carpentier against Dick the Bruiser and Dr. Jerry Graham.

April 12: Verne Gagne beats Dick the Bruiser in Chicago to win the NWA U.S. title for the second time.

June 5: Dory Funk Sr. beats Angelo Savoldi in Amarillo, Texas, to win the NWA World junior heavyweight title.

August 27: Rikidozan beats Lou Thesz in Los Angeles to win the NWA International title. The title is now the crown jewel of All-Japan’s Triple Crown title.

Bruno Sammartino makes his pro debut.

Legendary St. Louis wrestling television program Wrestling At The Chase (named after the Chase-Park Plaza Hotel, where matches initially were held) makes its debut broadcast.

A crippled Argentine youth named Carlos tells reporters asking him why he liked watching the professional wrestler Antonino Rocca: “When I see him in the ring, I become Rocca. He gives me the feeling that I am living in the ring with him. I am big and strong. I am a conqueror. My legs are jumping with him.” Added Rocca, who popularized professional wrestling’s karate-style kicking, “You put a guy in a position to smile, and that is greatness. In the ring, I try to transmit the desire to smile.” If this was a true statement of Rocca’s philosophy, then he probably did not kill a Japanese wrestler named Okitaro in 1949 as his press agents have sometimes claimed.

February 13: Dory Dixon beats Al Kashey in Mexico City to win the NWA World light heavyweight title. The belt rapidly becomes the most prized in Mexico.

April 15: The Verne Gagne & Hans Schmidt vs. Boris & Nicoli Volkoff match sets off small riot at Milwaukee Arena before crowd of 3,434; Arena-Auditorium board bars wrestling for nearly a year in its aftermath.

April 28: Danny Hodge loses by TKO to Nino Valdes in Wichita, Kansas, and announces his retirement from boxing shortly thereafter.

May 16: Enrique Torres, 36, is critically injured when his car hits another at some 100 miles an hour near Van Nuys, California. The other driver, Everett DeWynn, 45, suffered a broken back.

October 7: “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers faces “Jersey” Joe Walcott in a wrestler-boxer contest at The Forum in Montreal.

May 13: Rikidozan beats Leo Nomellini in Tokyo to win the second annual World League singles tournament.

May 27: Edouard Carpentier beats Lou Thesz in Los Angeles to retain the WWA heavyweight title.

July 22: Danny Hodge wins the NWA World junior heavyweight for the first of an eventual seven times by beating Angelo Savoldi in Oklahoma City.

September 30: Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki both debut in Tokyo for the Japanese Wrestling Association.

March 4: Promoter Roy Shire presents his first wrestling card at San Francisco’s famed Cow Palace.

June 12: Fred Blassie beats Edouard Carpentier in Los Angeles to win the WWA heavyweight title for the first of four times.

October 17: Jackie Fargo and Lester Welch beat Mephisto and Dante in Nashville, Tennessee, to win the Southern tag team title.

Ray Stevens does the “bombs away” off a ladder onto Pepper Gomez’ throat, injuring Gomez. Their grudge match sells out the San Francisco Cow Palace to the tune of 17,000 fans paying a gate of $65,000.

March 28: Rikidozan beats Fred Blassie at the Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium to win the WWA heavyweight title and become the first Japanese to win a major U.S. title.

April 27: Dick Beyer dons The Destroyer mask for the first time, beating Seymour Koenig in San Diego, California.

June 9: Cheree Dupre, 33, divorces Gorgeous George, 47, after nearly four years of marriage.

August 2: Bruno Sammartino is awarded the NWA World title after defeating champion Buddy Rogers in Toronto, Ontario, but refuses to accept the title because Rogers had wrestled with an injury.

November 7: Gorgeous George is shaved bald after losing a hair vs. mask match to The Destroyer at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.

January 24: Lou Thesz defeats NWA World champion Buddy Rogers in one fall in Toronto, Ontario. Shortly after, promoters in the Northeast break away from the NWA to form the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), later renamed the WWF. WWWF promoters continue to recognize Rogers as champion.

February 7: NWA World champion Lou Thesz defeats Buddy Rogers in a return two-out-of-three falls match in Toronto, Ontario. The result has largely been forgotten in wrestling history.

March 15: Veteran boxer Archie Moore knocks out wrestler Mike DiBiase in the third round of a bout at Phoenix.

April 15: Lou Thesz pins “Jersey” Joe Walcott in 1: 30 of the fourth round of a wrestler-boxer bout in Memphis.

April 27: Dick the Bruiser defeats football player Alex Karras in 11: 21 of a bout held before approximately 10,000 fans at the Olympia in Detroit. Bruiser suffers a five-stitch wound over his right eye in the match.

May 19: The Destroyer beats Rikidozan in Osaka, Japan, in one of the most famous matches in Japanese wrestling history and becomes an instant legend in Japan. It’s the last singles match Rikidozan would ever lose.

October 15: Bobo Brazil vs. Tino Tim Anderson marks the first professional bout involving black male wrestlers in Tampa, Florida.

December 15: The Father of Japanese Wrestling, Rikidozan, dies from stab wounds suffered on December 8. His last singles match was a successful title defense of the NWA International title over top rival The Destroyer on December 4 in Osaka.

Andre the Giant makes his pro debut.

Mil Mascaras makes his pro debut.

March 11: Antonio Inoki makes his U.S. debut in Honolulu.

May 12: Toyonobori beats Gene Kiniski in Tokyo, Japan, to win the sixth annual JWA World League tournament. Toyonobori is the first wrestler other than Rikidozan to win the tournament.

Jack Brisco, representing Oklahoma State, captures the NCAA wrestling title in the 191-pound class.

June 5: Jack Brisco makes his pro debut, defeating Terry Garvin in 14 minutes in Oklahoma City.

November 24: Giant Baba beats Dick the Bruiser in Osaka, Japan, to win the NWA International heavyweight title. The title had been vacant since Rikidozan died.

February 24: Tarzan Tyler beats Bob Orton Sr. in Jacksonville, Florida, to win the NWA Southern title.

October 14: Lou Thesz beats Buddy Austin in Los Angeles to win the WWA heavyweight title. It’s the last major title Thesz would win in the United States.

February 2: Ex-wrestling champion Everett Marshall is inducted into the Colorado Hall of Fame.

February 13: “Moondog” Lonnie Mayne eats can of Ken-L-Ration during a Sacramento television interview after beating Jerry Monti with his Arkansas Stomp.

July 15: In a WWWF heavyweight title vs. U.S. heavyweight title match, Ray Stevens beats Bruno Sammartino in San Francisco via countout after delivering the “bombs away.” Stevens’ claims the WWWF title, but the WWWF doesn’t recognize his claim as Federation rules state that titles cannot changes hands via countout.

October 31: Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki beat Bill Watts and Tarzan Tyler in Osaka, Japan, to win their first of four NWA International tag team titles.

November 11: Bearcat Wright eliminates Ray Stevens to win the first of the famous Cow Palace battle royals in San Francisco.

February 19: In the main event of the first wrestling card at the “new” Madison Square Garden, Bruno Sammartino defeats Bull Ramos.

May 17: Giant Baba beats Killer Kowalaski to win the 10th annual JWA World League tournament. It’s the third of a record six times that Baba would win the tournament.

August 4: Fritz Von Erich beats Johnny Valentine in Fort Worth, Texas, to win the NWA American title.

December 2: In the first NWA World title match in Japan in 12 years, Dory Funk Jr. and Antonio Inoki wrestle to a 60-minute draw. Inoki’s strong showing elevates him to superstardom.

Bob Backlund captures the NCAA Division II 190-pound amateur wrestling championship at North Dakota State.

March 26: Antonio Inoki beats John Tolos in Los Angeles to become the United National champion. The belt is now part of All-Japan’s Triple Crown.

August 27: The Freddie Blasie vs. John Tolos feud reaches a climax, drawing 25,847 fans to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Tolos, whose Americas title is not on the line, is deemed unfit to continue when Blassie opens a deep cut on his head.

May 18: Andre the Giant wins the annual IWA round-robin tournament in Japan. Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson finish tied for second.

June 1: Andre the Giant makes his Canadian debut at Verdun in Quebec.

Ken Patera represents the U.S. at the Olympic Games in super heavyweight weightlifting.

March: Japan-based New Japan Pro Wrestling is formed. At the time, its top stars include Antonio Inoki, Osamu Kido, and Tatsumi Fujinami.

September 16: Harley Race beats Pak Song in St. Louis to become the first NWA Missouri State champion.

October: Japan-based All-Japan Pro Wrestling, featuring such stars as Shohei “Giant” Baba, Motoshi Okuma, Akio Sato, and Mitsuo Momota, holds its first card.

December 18: Mil Mascaras becomes the first masked wrestler to compete in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Ironically, he defeats The Spoiler, who had previously been denied the right to compete with his mask in New York.

December 19: Giant Baba beats The Destroyer in Niigata, Japan. As a stipulation in the match, The Destroyer agrees to wrestle full-time in Japan as one of Baba’s partners. He would spend the next five years in Japan as the first American full-time worker in Japanese wrestling history. 

February 27: Giant Baba completes a series of 10 matches with the record of eight wins, no losses, and two draws, against Bruno Sammartino (one win, one draw), Terry Funk, Abdullah the Butcher, The Destroyer, Wilber Snyder (one win, one draw), Don Leo Jonathan, Pat O’Connor, and Bobo Brazil.

Baba is declared the first All-Japan PWF heavyweight champion. The belt is now part of All-Japan’s Triple Crown.

March: Jim Duggan captures the New York State high school wrestling championship in the 250-pound division.

May 18: Bill Watts beats Mr. Wrestling II in Atlanta to win the NWA Georgia title.

December 10: Antonio Inoki beats Johnny Powers in Tokyo to win the NWF heavyweight title. The belt becomes New Japan’s top title prior to the creation of the IWGP title.

February 16: In a battle of pro football stars in Cincinnati, Bengals linebacker Ron Pritchard defeats Cleveland Browns tackle Walter Johnson by disqualification.

May 9: Bruno Sammartino and Giant Baba meet in Tokyo with Sammartino putting up his WWWF title and Baba putting up his PWF title. It’s the first ever WWWF title match held in Japan, and ends in a no-decision.

October 4: Ric Flair suffers a broken back when the Cessna 310 he is riding in crashes near Wilmington, North Carolina. Also on the plane: Johnny Valentine and Bob Bruggers. Doctors say Flair will never wrestle again.

“Bad News” Allen Coage wins a bronze medal in judo for the U.S. in the Olympic Games.

March 17: Light heavyweight great Dan Hodge suffers a broken neck as the result of a car wreck near Monroe, Louisiana, and never wrestles again.

April : Bruno Sammartino suffers a broken neck at the hands of Stan Hansen at Madison Square Garden.

May 24: Ric Flair beats Wahoo McDaniel in Charlotte, North Carolina, to win the Mid-Atlantic heavyweight title. The match stipulated that McDaniel put up his title against Flair’s hair.

June 25: Boxer Muhammad Ali and wrestler Antonio Inoki go to a 15-round draw in Tokyo. The match is aired live on closed-circuit TV as part of a card at New York’s Shea Stadium that draws 32,000 fans and features a boxer vs. wrestler bout between Chuck Wepner and Andre the Giant and the Bruno Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen return match.

December 25: Ric Flair wins his first world title when he teams with Greg Valentine to beat NWA World tag team champions Gene and Ole Anderson in Greensboro, North Carolina.

September 25: El Canek beats Lou Thesz in Mexico City to win the UWA heavyweight title. It’s the last major title Thesz would ever hold, remarkably nearly 40 years after winning his first world title.

September 26: Bob Backlund makes his Madison Square Garden debut.

December 15: Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk beat Abdullah the Butcher and The Sheik in Tokyo in a wild match to win the first annual World Tag League tournament. The match, legendary in Japan for its sheer violence, turned the Funks fan favorites in Japan.

October 6: NWA World champion Harley Race bodyslams Andre the Giant.

January 23: Tatsumi Fujinami beats Jose Estrada in Madison Square Garden to win the WWWF junior heavyweight title.

Brad Rheingans, who would later hold the AWA World tag team title with Ken Patera, wins the World Cup in Greco-Roman wrestling.

January: Bruiser Brody causes a sensation on his first tour of All-Japan 

April : The WWWF (World Wide Wrestling Federation) drops one “W” to become known as the WWF (World Wrestling Federation).

July: The first edition of Pro Wrestling Illustrated, cover-dated September 1979, hits the newsstands.

July 8: “Nature Boy” Ric Flair uses the figure-four leglock to defeat “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers in Greensboro, North Carolina.

August 26: Bitter promotional rivals Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki set aside their differences for one night to team up and beat Abdullah the Butcher and Tiger Jeet Singh in an all-star dream match held in Tokyo, Japan.

November 30: Antonio Inoki pins Bob Backlund in 28:16 in Tokushima, Japan, to win the WWF title. The title change is never officially recognized in the U.S. by the WWF.

December 6: Backlund pins Inoki in the rematch in Tokyo to regain the title.

Tatsumi Fujinami, the reigning WWF junior heavyweight champion, beats Steve Keirn in Sapporo, Japan, to win the NWA International junior heavyweight title.

February 8: Stan Hansen beats Antonio Inoki in Tokyo to win the NWF heavyweight title. It’s the first of many major Japanese titles Hansen would win.

April : Ken Patera pulls off a double by beating Pat Patterson on April 21 to win the WWF Intercontinental title, and then beating Kevin Von Erich in St. Louis on April 25 to win the Missouri State title.

August 3: The “Last Tangle In Tampa” main event finds Harley Race retaining his NWA World title in a best-of-three-falls match against Dusty Rhodes; Fritz Von Erich serves as special referee.

August 9: Bruno Sammartino defeats Larry Zbyszko in the main event of a steel cage match at New York’s Shea Stadium. Also on the card: Andre the Giant pins Hulk Hogan, Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales win the WWF World tag team title from The Samoans, and Intercontinental champion Ken Patera is counted out against Tony Atlas.

April 23: The original and revolutionary Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) debuts for New Japan by beating Dynamite Kid.

April 30: Dory Funk Jr. beats Bruiser Brody and Terry Funk in Matsudo, Japan, to win the vacant NWA International title.

May 2: Killer Khan leaps off the top rope onto Andre the Giant during a match in Rochester, New York, breaking Andre’s left ankle and igniting the feud of the year.

May 10: AWA World champion Verne Gagne retires after a successful title defense against Nick Bockwinkel.

May 10: Stan Hansen beats Hulk Hogan in Tokyo in New Japan’s annual MSG Tournament.

June 7: Terry Taylor beats Les Thorton in Roanaoke, Virginia, to win the NWA World junior heavyweight title. Thorton would regain the belt two weeks later in the same city.

September 23: In Tokyo, Andre the Giant and Stan Hansen wrestle to a wild, out-of-control no-contest in one of the most anticipated matches of the year.

December 13: In the one of the biggest stories of the year in Japan, Stan Hansen secretly jumps from New Japan to All-Japan. Brody makes a surprise appearance, seconding Bruiser Brody and Jimmy Snuka in their match against Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk in the finals of All-Japan’s annual tag tournament. Hansen interferes in the end to help Brody and Snuka win, setting off a melee that sets the tone for the run of violence Brody and Hansen would cause over the next two years as a team.

December 21: Andre the Giant is the subject of a profile in Sports Illustrated; up to that time, it is the longest profile of any individual athlete ever published by SI. The article is later condensed for Reader’s Digest’s June 1982 issue, and reprinted in its entirety in the Summer 1987 edition of Wrestling 87.

Steve Williams, at the time a senior in college, loses in the NCAA finals to Bruce Baumgartner by a score of 4-3; Baumgartner would go on to compete in the 1984 Olympics and capture the gold medal in wrestling.

WTBS’ Georgia Championship Wrestling is renamed World Championship Wrestling.

May : The original Tiger Mask scores an amazing double by winning both the NWA and WWF versions of the junior heavyweight title on consecutive nights. First, on May 25 in Shizuoka, Japan, Tiger beats Les Thorton to win the NWA title. On the following night in Osaka, he beats Black Tiger to win the WWF title.

June: Vince McMahon Jr. and TitanSports purchases Capitol Wrestling Corporation from his father and other shareholders.

June 28: In one of the most memorable and dramatic moments in Madison Square Garden wrestling history, Jimmy Snuka performs his “superfly” flying bodypress from the top of the steel cage in a match against WWF World champion Bob Backlund. He misses, and Backlund escapes from the cage with his title reign intact.

July 4: WWF World champion Bob Backlund battles NWA World champion Ric Flair in Atlanta’s Omni. The bout ends in a double-disqualification after about 20 minutes of furious action.

July 29: Comedian Andy Kaufman and Memphis mainstay Jerry Lawler appear on the Late Night With David Letterman show. Kaufman, wearing a neck brace due to an injury sustained in a match against “The King,” gets into an obscenity-laced shouting match with Lawler, then throws Letterman’s coffee in Lawler’s face. The confrontation makes headlines on the entertainment pages of newspapers nationwide.

October 8: In a six-man tag bout in Koichi, Japan, Riki Choshu turns on partners Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami. The turn marks the birth of the landmark Ishingun vs. Seikigun feud that flames all across Japan for the next two years as Choshu’s Seikigun group rebels against the established New Japan powers, Inoki and Fujinami’s Ishingun group.

December 25: Kerry Von Erich battles NWA World champion Ric Flair in a steel cage in Dallas, with Freebird Michael Hayes serving as special referee. When Von Erich and Flair are both dazed after a mid-ring collision, Hayes places Von Erich on top of the champion. Von Erich won’t accept the title that way, and Hayes becomes outraged, calling Von Erich an “idiot.” As Von Erich leaves the cage, Hayes’ Freebird partner, Terry Gordy, slams the cage door shut on Von Erich’s head. That act ignited the Freebird-Von Erichs war that subsequently embroiled Texas for nearly five years.

March 20: Larry Zbyszko pays Killer Brooks $25,000 for the NWA National title. NWA President Bob Geigel strips Zbyszko of the title.

June 2: Hulk Hogan defeats Antonio Inoki to become the first IWGP heavyweight champion.

July 15: In between runs as NWA World champion, Ric Flair beats David Von Erich in the finals of a 20-man tournament to be crowned the Missouri champion. The title became vacant when Missouri champion Harley Race beat Flair for the NWA World title on June 10.

October 23: The Tommy Rich-Buzz Sawyer feud, which has been raging for more than 18 months, comes to a bloody climax at “The Last Battle Of Atlanta” cage match in The Omni. Rich defeats Sawyer, but hardly looks like a winner.

November 24: The first Starrcade card is held, in Greensboro, North Carolina. A crowd of 15,447 in the Greensboro Coliseum is joined by about 30,000 fans in closed-circuit locations throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. In the main event, Ric Flair captures his second NWA World heavyweight title from Harley Race.

January 22: Two-time NWA World champion and pro football Hall of Famer Bronko Nagurski, 75, is given the honor of tossing the coin at the start of Super Bowl XVIII in Tampa, Florida. The Los Angeles Raiders win the toss—and the game, defeating the Washington Redskins, 38-9.

February 7: Dynamite Kid beats The Cobra in Tokyo Japan to win the vacant WWF junior heavyweight title. Kid beats British Bulldog teammate Davey Boy Smith in the semifinals of what is considered one of the greatest junior heavyweight tournaments in wrestling history.

March: Ric Flair and Harley Race exchange the NWA World titles in a pair of matches never acknowledged at the time by the NWA. Race beats Flair on March 21 in Wellington, New Zealand, while Flair regains the title on March 23 in Kallang, Singapore. The title changes were finally recognized by the NWA in the 1990s as “official.”

April : Japan-based UWF is formed, at the time featuring such stars as Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiko Takada, and Rusher Kimura.

April 6: Ken Patera and Mr. Saito throw a 30-pound boulder through the window of a McDonald’s in Waukesha, Wisconsin, when they are refused service after hours. A brawl with Waukesha police officers takes place shortly thereafter at the Holiday Inn where Patera and Saito are staying.

April 25: Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen thrash the field to win All-Japan’s tournament to crown the first PWF tag team champions.

May 29: The first card of NWA wrestling in the New York area in 20 years, dubbed “The Night Of Champions,” is held in New Jersey’s Byrne Meadowlands Arena.

June 14: Antonio Inoki beats Hulk Hogan to win the IWGP heavyweight title.

July 14: The WWF takes over the NWA’s airtime on Atlanta SuperStation WTBS’ World Championship Wrestling. Hundreds of calls of complaint are received, to which WWF head Vince McMahon responds in an Atlanta Constitution news article: “We’ll show those complainers the difference between a major league and a minor league production, given time.” NWA wrestling is quickly reinstated on TBS on Saturday mornings, and returns to the Saturday evening time slot about nine months later.

September: In the top Japanese story of the year, the JWP (Japan Wrestling Promotion) is formed and affiliates itself with All-Japan. The organization features top New Japan stars who walked out in a dispute with the promotion: Riki Choshu, Masa Saito, Kuniaki Kobayashi, and Yoshiaki Yatsu. New Japan is crippled by their departure, while All-Japan enjoys banner years in 1985 and 1986 with Choshu’s Army wrestling at the top of their cards against such All-Japan stars as Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu.

September 17: Sports Illustrated checks in with this sartorial criticism of Lord Al Hays, who at the time is serving as co-host of the WWF’s Tuesday Night Titans program: “Lord Alfred Hays is a syrupy British wimp who wears frilly tuxedos of the type fashionable in Las Vegas in the late-’60s.”

September 29: In an attempt to counter the rising power of the WWF, a new wrestling program, Pro Wrestling USA, makes its debut on New York’s WPIX. The program, also aired in Japan, features a combination of NWA and AWA talent, and most notably brings Bob Backlund back into the public eye just months after the birth of Hulkamania in the WWF.

December 28: The Cobra beats Black Tiger in Madison Square Garden to win the vacant WWF junior heavyweight title.

February 18: “The War To Settle The Score” is broadcast live on MTV. The Madison Square Garden bout pits Roddy Piper against WWF World champion Hulk Hogan, who wins by disqualification when Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper interfere.

February 21: ABC airs an installment of 20/20 during which “Dr. D” David Shultz hits reporter John Stossel in the ears; Stossel later sued and received a $280,000 settlement from the WWF.

March 9: The Road Warriors make their Tokyo wrestling debut and are an instant sensation.

March 10: Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling debuts on WTBS, but its run lasts only a few months.

March 28: Richard Belzer is injured when Hulk Hogan drops him on the floor while demonstrating a front facelock during a broadcast of Belzer’s cable-TV show, Hot Properties. He received nine stitches in his head and an undisclosed sum of money following a lawsuit in which he sought $5-million in damages.

March 31: The first WrestleMania card is held, in New York’s Madison Square Garden. The card is made available to 135 closed-circuit locations, drawing an estimated viewership of 400,000. In the main event, Hulk Hogan and Mr. T defeat Paul Orndorff and Roddy Piper when Hogan pins Orndorff.

April : The first-ever wrestling videotape—Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Lords Of The Ring—is released by Vestron Video.

April : In need of revenue, Vince McMahon sells his TBS time slot to Mid-Atlantic-based promoter Jim Crockett for a reported $1-million.

April 11: Bruiser Brody jumps from All-Japan to New Japan.

April 18: Brody wrestles his first ever singles match against Antonio Inoki at Tokyo’s Sumo Hall before a packed house.

April 29: Hulk Hogan appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated; next to the swimsuit issue, the magazine is the year’s best seller.

May 11: Professional wrestling returns to network television after a 30-year absence as the WWF’s Saturday Night’s Main Event premieres on NBC. In the main event, WWF World champion Hulk Hogan battles Bob Orton, with Roddy Piper, Mr. T, and Paul Orndorff at ringside.

June 5: Steve Williams receives 108 stitches in his right eye following a match against Brad Armstrong in Shreveport, LA. He wrestles again just hours after being stitched up.

June 6: After seven hours of deliberation, a jury finds Ken Patera and Mr. Saito guilty of several assault charges stemming from a fight with police officers in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Patera is convicted of two counts of battery on a peace officer and one count of criminal damage to property; Saito is convicted of three counts of battery on a peace officer and one count of obstructing an officer. Both men are sentenced to two years in prison.

July 2: Pro Wrestling Illustrated reinstates world title recognition for the WWF heavyweight title after more than two years of viewing it as a regional championship.

August 22: Mike Von Erich is operated on at Granville C. Morton Cancer and Research Hospital in Dallas, Texas, for an injured shoulder. He is released four days later with no apparent complications, but readmitted a day after that with a 105-degree fever. His temperature soars to 107 degrees as he begins a month-long battle against toxic shock syndrome.

August 27: ESPN airs wrestling for the first time as it begins broadcasting a weekly AWA program.

September 2: A Florida-based “Battle Of The Belts” card from Tampa is aired on free TV throughout Florida as well as in Boston, Dallas, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

September 20: The St. Louis Wrestling Club holds its final card at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

September 20: Fred Blassie and Lou Albano “wrestle” each other inside a steel cage at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.

October 8: New York State Senator Abraham Bernstein opens hearings to ban professional wrestling in New York.

November 19: Lex Luger captures the Southern heavyweight title from Wahoo McDaniel in Tampa, FL—less than three weeks after making his pro debut.

December 12: Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura beat Antonio Inoki and Seiji Sakaguchi to win the annual New Japan tag tournament and become the first IWGP tag team champions. The end is a major upset as Fujinami scores his first pin ever over his mentor, Inoki, at 31:53.

February: Dallas-based World Class Championship Wrestling secedes from the NWA.

February 6: Shiro Koshinaka beats The Cobra in Tokyo in the finals of New Japan’s tournament to crown the first IWGP junior heavyweight champion.

February 7: WTBS airs its first prime time wrestling special, Superstars On The SuperStation, more than two years before the first Clash of the Champions.

March 1: MTV airs the WWF’s first-ever “Slammys” awards program.

April 19: The Superdome in New Orleans hosts the first-ever Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup tag team tournament. The Road Warriors emerge from the 24-team field to defeat Magnum T.A. and Ronnie Garvin and claim the $1-million prize.

May : The Four Horsemen are formed, a quartet consisting of Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, and Ole Anderson, with management by James J. Dillon.

June 4: Kerry Von Erich, driving his motorcycle south on U.S. 373 in Argyle, Texas, pulls to his left on a two-lane two-way highway to pass a van. Von Erich skids into the rear of the police car that had stopped in front of the van to make a left turn, then flies 50 feet through the air and lands in the road. He suffers a dislocated hip and a severely damaged right knee and ankle.

June 17: Antonio Inoki beats Andre the Giant via submission in 9: 30 in Nagoya, Japan.

September 16: Chris Adams is convicted of misdemeanor assault for headbutting an airline pilot on a June 30 flight from Puerto Rico to Texas. He is sentenced to three months in prison.

October 9: Antonio Inoki pins former boxing world champion Leon Spinks in the eighth round of a wrestler-boxer bout in Tokyo before a sellout crowd of 11,520 fans. On the undercard, rising star Akira Maeda beats Don Neilsen in a thrilling match that steals the show.

October 14: Magnum T.A. crashes his Porsche into a utility pole at 2: 30 a.m. in Charlotte, North Carolina. Magnum’s fifth cervical vertebra from the top explodes, sending bone fragments into his spinal cord and resulting in extensive surgery and physical therapy. Remarkably, he beats the odds to survive and walk again.

December 12: “Dr. Death” Steve Williams defeats UWF champion One Man Gang in 21: 43 in Houston, Texas, to become the winner of the $50,000 Pro Wrestling Illustrated/UWF Challenge Cup Tournament.

December 13: Dynamite Kid collapses due to a severe back injury during a match in Hamilton, Ontario.

February 28: Jim Neidhart is indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of assaulting and interfering with a flight attendant; he is subsequently acquitted.

February: Riki Choshu decides to jump back to New Japan from All-Japan. Masa Saito, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Super Strong Machine, and Hiro Saito follow Choshu back to New Japan. Yoshiaki Yatsu, Choshu’s regular tag team partner, stays with All-Japan.

March 1: Two-time former WWF World champion Bruno Sammartino is inducted into the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame at a banquet in his hometown of Pittsburgh.

March 12: The Road Warriors beat Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu in Tokyo to win the International tag team title, at the time the oldest and most prestigious tag title in Japan.

April : The Global Wrestling Alliance becomes the first publicly traded wrestling organization, with seven million shares of stock hitting the market at an initial offering of 40 cents per share.

April 9: Jim Crockett Promotions purchases the Universal Wrestling Federation, headed by Bill Watts.

April 10-11: The Baltimore Arena hosts the second Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup tag team tournament. Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff down Tully Blanchard and Lex Luger in the final round of the 24-team tournament to capture the $1-million prize.

April 27: Jerry Lawler and Austin Idol wrestle a hair vs. hair cage match for the Southern title in Memphis. Tommy Rich comes out from underneath the ring to aid Idol in winning, causing Lawler to lose not only the match but his hair. The Mid-South Coliseum crowd nearly riots in outrage.

May 11: Kevin Von Erich collapses in the middle of the ring during an eight-man bout pitting him, The Fantastics, and Bruiser Brody against Brian Adias, Black Bart, Al Madril, and Al Perez. Fantastic Tommy Rogers, seeing Von Erich turning blue, administers cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

May 26: Hacksaw Duggan and The Iron Sheik are arrested by New Jersey state police. Duggan is charged with possession of marijuana and drinking alcohol while driving; Sheik is charged with possession of cocaine and marijuana. Duggan receives a conditional discharge; Sheik receives one year probation.

November 19: Akira Maeda takes a cheap shot kick at Riki Choshu’s face, breaking Choshu’s orbital bone. Maeda never wrestles again for New Japan, as he and New Japan cannot come to terms on a suitable punishment. The following year, Maeda reopens the Japanese UWF, which becomes a red hot promotion.

December 27: Big Van Vader debuts in Japan, destroying and pinning Antonio Inoki in 2: 27 in the main event of the Sumo Hall card. The match incites a riot, causing New Japan to be banned indefinitely from its home major arena. On the undercard, Hiroshi Hase wrestles his first professional match in Japan and defeats Kuniaki Kobayashi to win the IWGP junior heavyweight title 

February 5: Wrestling returns to prime-time network television after a 33-year absence with the broadcast of WWF’s Main Event program.

March 27: Bruiser Brody pins Jumbo Tsuruta in Tokyo to win the International heavyweight title for the third time. It would be the final major title Brody would ever hold.

March 27: The first-ever Clash of the Champions card is held, in Greensboro, North Carolina. In the main event, Sting and Ric Flair battle to a 45-minute draw.

April 22-23: The third Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup tag team tournament is held in Greenville, South Carolina, and Greensboro, North Carolina. Sting and Lex Luger combine to win the $1-million prize, defeating Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson in the final round.

June: In Japan, Jumbo Tsuruta and Yoshiaki Yatsu pull off a double in a week. On June 6 in Sapporo, they beat top rivals Genichiro Tenryu and Ashura Hara to win the PWF tag team titles. In Tokyo on June 10, they end The Road Warriors’ 15-month International tag title reign by winning a double title match, thus creating All-Japan’s Unified tag team title.

July 16: Bruiser Brody is stabbed to death in the showers of Bayoman Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Jose Gonzales is charged with the murder but later aquitted.

July 27: Riki Choshu scores his first-ever singles pin over Antonio Inoki, in Sapporo, Japan.

October 17: Forbes magazine reports that the estimated worth of the World Wrestling Federation is $100-million.

November: Ted Turner purchases NWA cornerstone Jim Crockett Promotions, renaming the organization World Championship Wrestling.

November 7: TitanSports promotes its first-ever non-wrestling pay-per-view, a boxing match between Sugar Ray Leonard and Donny Lalonde.

December 13: Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy beat Genichiro Tenryu and Toshiaki Kawada in Tokyo to win All-Japan’s annual tag tournament and the vacant Unified tag team title.

April 18: International champion Jumbo Tsuruta beats PWF and United National champion Stan Hansen in Tokyo to become All-Japan’s first Triple Crown champion.

May 25: A month after putting on the costume, Jushin Liger beats Shiro Koshinaka in Osaka to win the IWGP junior heavyweight title for the first time.

May 28: Jake Roberts undergoes surgery to remove a ruptured disk from his neck. He is sidelined for nearly four months.

June 6: After a two-year feud, Genichiro Tenryu finally pins Jumbo Tsuruta in a singles match, winning the Triple Crown in the process. The match, held at Budokan Hall in Tokyo, is the consensus Japanese Match of the Year.

June 25: Boxer Leon Spinks loses to Greg Wojokowski in a boxer-wrestler bout in Toledo, Ohio.

July 4: Davey Boy Smith, Jason the Terrible, and Chris Benoit are injured in a head-on automobile accident in Jasper, Alberta. Smith suffers a cracked vertebra in his back and needs 100 stitches in his head after being thrown through the windshield of the vehicle. Jason suffers two fractures in his left leg, while Benoit suffers an injured right knee. All three eventually return to ring action.

August 11: Art Barr, also known as Beetlejuice, is arrested in Eugene, Oregon, and is charged with raping of a 19-year-old fan on July 16.

August 28: The first issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated Weekly, cover-dated September 11, is published.

September 16: Terry Allen—Magnum T.A.—marries Tracey Cedarburg in Chesapeake, VA.

November 22: Big Van Vader beats El Canek in Mexico City to win the UWA heavyweight title. With the win, Vader simultaneously holds major heavyweight titles in Asia (New Japan’s IWGP title), Europe (CWA title), and North America (UWA title).

November 28: Veteran NWA referee Tommy Young suffers career-ending neck and back injuries while officiating a match between Mike Rotundo and Tommy Rich at Center Stage Theater in Atlanta.

November 29: The Japanese wrestling world is shocked as Akira Maeda’s UWF promotion draws 60,000 fans to sell out the Tokyo Dome. Maeda beats Willie Wilhelm in the main event. February 6: Sting suffers a ruptured left patella tendon at Clash of the Champions X. He’s forced to bow out of an upcoming title match against Ric Flair, and Lex Lugar takes his place.

February 10: Rival promotions New Japan and All-Japan work together for only the second time. The result is a sold-out Tokyo Dome crowd of 63,900 fans, paying $3.2-million. Among the 11 matches, Genichiro Tenryu and Tiger Mask II beat Riki Choshu and George Takano, and Big Van Vader retains the IWGP title by going to a double-countout against Stan Hansen.

February 23: Twelve days after kayoing Mike Tyson in Tokyo for the undisputed heavyweight boxing championship, special referee Buster Douglas kayos Randy Savage during an argument following a Savage-Hulk Hogan bout (part of an NBC prime time special). Tyson had originally been scheduled to serve as special referee in the bout, but that changed with Douglas’ Tokyo win.

April 13: All-Japan, New Japan, and the WWF put on a combined show at the Tokyo Dome. The top matches see Hulk Hogan pin Stan Hansen and Genichiro Tenryu pin Randy Savage.

May 14: After nearly six years as the second Tiger Mask, Mitsuharu Misawa takes off the mask in the middle of a tag match in Tokyo to reveal his identity.

June 8: A new superstar is born at Tokyo’s Budokan Hall as Mitsuharu Misawa upsets long-time top All-Japan star Jumbo Tsuruta. In the semifinal, Stan Hansen pins Terry Gordy to win the Triple Crown for the first of a record four times.

July 4: Brutus Beefcake suffers massive facial injuries in a parasailing accident in Lutz, Florida, as the knees of a parasailer crash into his head. He undergoes 81/2 hours of surgery during which eight steel plates, 40 screws, and more than 100 staples are inserted into his head.

September: Tully Blanchard announces his retirement from wrestling to devote his life to the ministry.

September 1: Eddie Gilbert, driving his brother Doug’s car, attempts to run down Jerry Lawler during a broadcast of USWA Championship Wrestling. Lawler was trying to save USWA matchmaker Eddie Marlin, who had just fired Eddie and Doug Gilbert from the USWA and was escorting them from the building. Remarkably, Lawler escapes the incident with just a bruised hip.

November 6: Jesse Ventura is elected May or of Brooklyn Park, MN, defeating 18-year incumbent Jim Krautkremer.

December 26: Lou Thesz, 74, wrestles impressively, but is defeated by his former student, Masa Chono, 27, on a New Japan card in Hamamatsu, Japan. In the main event, Tatsumi Fujinami beats old Ishingun rival Riki Choshu to regain the IWGP heavyweight title.

March 21: New Japan and WCW hold a joint show that draws 64,500 fans to the Tokyo Dome. The main event sees IWGP heavyweight champion Tatsumi Fujinami pin NWA World champion Ric Flair in a double title match to “win” the NWA title. In Japan, Fujinami is recognized as the NWA champion, while in the U.S., WCW disputes the finish. In the summer of 1991, the NWA Board “officially” recognizes the match as a title change, and that Flair had regained the title by pinning Fujinami on May 19 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

June 8: AWA and PWA wrestler Derrick Dukes squares off against former New York Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau in Salem, Virginia, in Gastineau’s pro boxing debut. Dukes, 2-1 as a boxer coming into the bout, is kayoed by Gastineau in the first round. He later admits to having taken a dive.

June 12: Scott Steiner’s left biceps tendon is torn from the bone when he is attacked by Dick Slater and Dick Murdoch following a successful defense of the Steiners’ WCW World tag team title against Hiroshi Hase and Masa Chono at Clash of the Champions XV.

June 27: Dr. George T. Zahorian, a physician who formerly served as a ringside physician at WWF events in Pennsylvania, is convicted on 12 of 14 counts of selling anabolic steroids to four pro wrestlers and a weightlifter in a trial held in Harrisburg, PA. He is subsequently sentenced to three years in prison.

July 2: In one of the decade’s most shocking events, NWA/WCW World champion Ric Flair quits/is fired by WCW.

July 16: At a press conference in New York, WWF head Vince McMahon announces that WWF stars will now undergo mandatory testing for anabolic steroids as part of its anti-drug policy. The policy is called into question when testing does not begin until November, and the second round of tests are not taken until early-1992.

July 16: Appearing on The Arsenio Hall Show, WWF World champion Hulk Hogan sternly declares, “I’ve trained 20 years, two hours a day, to look like I do. But the thing I am not, is I’m not a steroid abuser, and I do not use steroids.” Hogan would contradict those statements at Vince McMahon’s 1994 trial.

August 3: Cactus Jack and Eddie Gilbert wrestle a best-of-three series in Philadelphia. The first match is a fall-counts-anywhere bout, the second is a stretcher match, and the third is a cage match.

August 11: Masahiro Chono wins New Japan’s first Grade One (G1) tournament by beating The Great Muta (Keiji Muto) in the finals in Tokyo. Chono beats Riki Choshu, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Shinya Hashimoto on the way to the finals.

August 26: After the SummerSlam PPV ends, Jake Roberts, and The Undertaker crash the reception of Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. The incident launches a heated and twisted feud between Roberts and Savage, that includes at one point Savage being bit by one of Roberts’ snakes. The feud climaxes with a Savage win at the Tuesday in Texas PPV on December 3.

September 8: The NWA Board strips Ric Flair of recognition as NWA champion.

September 10: Ric Flair wrestles his first WWF bout, forcing Jim Powers to submit to the figure-four leglock in Cornwall, Ontario.

October: Ralston Purina Co. launches WWF Superstars cereal in television commercials broadcast on the West Coast.

October 23: The first-ever match between WWF World champion Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair takes place in Dayton, Ohio; Flair wins the bout by countout.

December 6: Dynamite Kid, long a legend in Japan and best known in the U.S. as part of The British Bulldogs tag team with Davey Boy Smith, announces his retirement from the ring during a ceremony in Budokan, Japan. Also on the card, Terry Gordy and Steve Williams become the first team to win All-Japan’s annual tag team tournament in consecutive years.

January 20: Dino Bravo wrestles his last match before retiring, defeating The Barbarian at The Forum in Montreal.

February 8: Kerry Von Erich is arrested in Richardson, Texas, for attempting to falsify two drug prescriptions. Shortly after he is released on $6,000 bond, his father, Fritz Von Erich, says that Kerry would be entering a drug rehabilitation program.

March 2: Two top-ranking WWF officials—Pat Patterson and Terry Garvin—resign their positions on the heels of allegations of sexual misconduct leveled by former WWF employees, wrestler Barry Orton, a former front office worker, and two former ring attendants.

March 6: Former WWF star Paul Roma’s pro boxing debut results in a fourth-round loss to Jerry Arentzen in Callicoon, New York, when Roma’s manager, Kevin Rooney, throws in the towel.

March 13: WWF head Vince McMahon appears on CNN’s Larry King Live to address allegations of sexual misconduct and steroid abuse in the WWF. McMahon says the allegations of sexual misconduct are “a bunch of bunk.”

March 16: The WWF denies allegations of sexual misconduct within its organization and promises to conduct its own investigation into the charges. “We do not believe the charges in these stories to be true,” the statement says, in part, “and we are so outraged that we have asked our attorneys to determine what legal action might be appropriate.”

April 1: Former WWF star Paul Roma scores his first win as a pro boxer, a 47-second TKO victory over Norman Fortini in Randolph, Massachusetts.

April 4: The USA Network debuts WBF Body Stars, TitanSports’ new weekly bodybuilding program. The show, featurings former WCW World champion Lex Luger, is a ratings failure.

May 30: After 68 years in the wrestling promoting business, Don Owen relinquishes control of Pacific Northwest Wrestling and says goodbye to the fans.

July 31: WWF World champion Randy Savage appears on The Arsenio Hall Show and admits that he experimented with steroids, pointing out that the muscle-enhancing drugs were legal when he did so.

September 2: WCW’s Clash of the Champions XX celebrates 20 years of wrestling on TBS. It also marks the last U.S. appearance of Andre the Giant.

October 1: Kerry Von Erich is sentenced on six felony counts of prescription forgery. He receives a 10-year suspended sentence, 10 years of supervised probation, and a $6,000 fine.

October 30: Eric Embry suffers a badly bruised liver and severe ligament and cartilage damage to his left knee when his car is run off the road in Beaver Dam, KY.

December 14: The Hellraisers—Road Warrior Hawk and Power Warrior (Kensuke Sasaki)—beat Scott Norton and Tony Halme in Tokyo to win the IWGP tag team title. For Hawk, the win marks a unique accomplishment: winning the top tag team titles of the five major promotions in the U.S. and Japan. He previously had held (with Animal) the AWA, NWA, and WWF World tag titles along with All-Japan’s International tag title.

January 4: In a rematch of a feud started in All-Japan in 1985, WAR’s Genichiro Tenryu pins New Japan’s Riki Choshu in the main event of New Japan’s annual Tokyo Dome card. In the semifinal, IWGP champion The Great Muta (Keiji Muto) pins NWA champion Masahiro Chono in a title vs. title match.

January 29: The WWF donates $100,000 to relief efforts in Somalia during a ceremony at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

February 21: Ric Flair returns to WCW, at SuperBrawl III in Asheville, North Carolina, after approximately 18 months of competing in the WWF.

April 2: The All-Japan Women’s promotion holds a multipromotional card at Yokohama Arena to celebrate the promotion’s 25th anniversary. The show draws a sellout crowd of 16,500 and shatters the all-time women’s gate record with $1.2-million in receipts. The top matches see AJW’s Akira Hokuto beat LLPW’s Shinobu Kandori in the women’s singles match of the year, while AJW’s Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada beat FMW’s Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyoda.

April 30: AAA draws 48,000 fans to Plaza de Toros in Mexico City for Triple Mania. In the main event, Cien Caras wins a retirement match over Konnan due to the interference of Jake Roberts.

May 28: Riki Choshu suffers a broken bone around the rim of his right eye as the result of a Kengo Kimura elbowdrop during a match in Tokyo.

June 12: Jushin Liger suffers a broken left leg in a match against 2 Cold Scorpio in Chigasaki, Japan.

July 4: Lex Luger bodyslams Yokozuna on the deck of the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York City.

August 28: The Mexico-based AAA organization runs a card at the Los Angeles Sports Arena that draws a sellout of 16,742 fans paying $243,000—and turns away nearly 8,000 fans at the door. In the main event, Konnan beats Cien Caras and Jake Roberts in a triangle match.

October 28: An early-morning brawl at the Moat House Hotel in Blackburn, England, takes place between Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson. Both men are rushed to a local hospital. Anderson receives approximately 20 stab wounds from a pair of scissors, while Vicious suffers four puncture wounds.

November 18: WWF head Vince McMahon is indicted on charges of possession of anabolic steroids and conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids, facing up to eight years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted on both counts.

December 5: UWFI champion Nobuhiko Takada forces WCW World champion Big Van Vader to submit to the cross armbreaker in a non-title match at Tokyo’s Jingu Baseball Stadium. The matchup of two major champions draws a sellout crowd of 46,168.

February 28: Promoter Jim Crockett holds a taping in New York for a new venture entitled World Wrestling Network. Stars appearing at the taping include Sabu, Terry Funk, Road Warrior Hawk, Public Enemy, Jake Roberts, and Missy Hyatt.

March 16: Two-thirds of Cactus Jack’s right ear is severed when he becomes entangled in the ropes during a match in Germany against Big Van Vader.

April 13: Jesse Ventura is awarded $809,958 by a federal jury in St. Paul, MN, as the result of a lawsuit against TitanSports, parent company of the WWF. All but $8,625 was for royalties on videotapes on which Ventura did color commentary. Ventura originally sought $2-million in the case.

April 16: New Japan’s “Wild Pegasus” Chris Benoit wins the seven-promotion “Super J Cup” junior heavyweight tournament at a sold-out Sumo Hall in Tokyo. In the finals, Benoit beats Michinoku Pro’s Great Sasuke in the junior heavyweight match of the decade, sparking comparisons to the revolutionary Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid matches of the early-1980s. It’s Sasuke, though, who’s the show’s true revelation, beating New Japan’s El Samurai and then current IWGP junior heavyweight kingpin Jushin Liger on the way to the finals.

April 16: Across town at Tokyo’s Budokan Hall, Toshiaki Kawada pins Steve Williams with a power bomb in a thrilling 25: 49 match to win All-Japan’s annual Champions Carnival singles tournament.

April 29: Charles Austin, a preliminary wrestler left paralyzed after a 1990 WWF tag team match in Tampa, Florida, against The Rockers, is awarded $26.7-million in a lawsuit against the federation.

June 3: For the third year running, Triple Crown champion Mitsuharu Misawa turns back the challenge of former tag team partner and now bitter rival Toshiaki Kawada at Budokan Hall in Tokyo. This one was the hardest-fought bout yet, as Kawada pushes Misawa for an epic 35:50 before Misawa knocks him out with his most lethal finisher, the dangerous and rarely used Tiger Driver ‘91.

June 9: Fred Blassie, Bobo Brazil, James Dudley, Gorilla Monsoon, Buddy Rogers, Arnold Skaaland, and Chief Jay Strongbow are inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame during ceremonies at the Omni Inner Harbor Hotel in Baltimore.

June 11: Hulk Hogan signs with WCW.

July 5: The trial of WWF head Vince McMahon on steroid distribution charges gets underway in Uniondale, New York.

July 22: WWF head Vince McMahon is acquitted of conspiracy to distribute steroids to wrestlers following 16 hours of jury deliberations. The announcement of the decision, at a federal courtroom in Uniondale, New York, saw spectators applaud.

August 7: “Mr. August” Masahiro Chono beats Kensuke Sasaki in Tokyo to win his third New Japan G1 tournament championship in four years.

August 27: Eastern Championship Wrestling renames itself Extreme Championship Wrestling.

September 24: IWGP junior heavyweight champion Jushin Liger breaks his leg in a tag team match. The injury forces him to vacate the title, and puts him out of action for nearly 11 months.

November 20: All-Japan Women’s draw 42,500 fans to the Tokyo Dome for the biggest show in the history of women’s wrestling. The 10-hour, 23-match card is headlined by the V-Top tournament of champions. In the finals, EMLL champion Akira Hokuto beats WWWA champion Aja Kong. Also on the card, Bull Nakano beats Madusa for the WWF Women’s title.

December 3: After more than a decade of competing in the WWF, “Macho Man” Randy Savage makes his WCW debut on a live broadcast of WCW Saturday Night.
January 7: Tully Blanchard comes out of retirement to wrestle ECW champion Shane Douglas to a 60-minute draw at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia.

January 24: Former NWA World champion Harley Race suffers a broken hip and two broken hands in a car accident in Kansas City, Missouri.

February 18: Eddie Gilbert dies of a heart attack in his apartment in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico; he was 33.

February 18: Roddy Piper makes a rare appearance at a wrestling card to present longtime Portland promoter Don Owen with a plaque commemorating Owen’s decades-long career in the sport.

February 22: The New York Post publishes a scathing article regarding the deaths of Eddie Gilbert and several other wrestlers who tragically died young. Two-time former WWF World champion Bruno Sammartino is quoted as saying, “It’s time to clean up this business or abolish it, because it’s nothing like it used to be. Right now, it’s filled with human junk.”

February 26: Smoky Mountain Wrestling shows signs of financial trouble when its supercard, Sunday Bloody Sunday II, draws only 1,100 fans—less than a third of the 4,000 in attendance just a year earlier.

March 13: Crush is arrested at his home in Kona, Hawaii, after narcotics officers search his home and discover 500 units of anabolic steroids and several unregistered semi-automatic guns. He is released on $10,275 bail.

March 28: Lawrence Taylor receives major mainstream publicity when he has a public workout in New York’s Times Square in preparation for his WrestleMania XI bout against Bam Bam Bigelow.

April 2: The 13-promotion Weekly Pro card draws a sellout crowd of 60,000 fans to the Tokyo Dome. Each promotion sends what it believes is its best matchup, sparking a competition among the promotions for the best match on the card. The card reaches its emotional climax as All-Japan’s wrestlers appear at the Tokyo Dome for the first time in five years. The “Best Six” match, featuring Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, and Stan Hansen vs. Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue, and Johnny Ace electrifies the crowd and goes to a 30-minute draw.

April 7: NWA champion Dan Severn wins the Ultimate Fighting Championship V in Charlotte, North Carolina.

April 28: Fred Blassie suffers a heart attack that results in triple-bypass heart surgery on May 3. The former wrestler and manager makes a full recovery.

April 28: Approximately 150,000 fans attend a New Japan Pro Wrestling event in Korea, setting an attendance record that stands for one day, as nearly 190,000 fans attend the second day of wrestling at the Korean cultural festival.

April 28 & 29: New Japan draws 320,000 fans over two nights to shatter the wrestling attendance record.

April 30: In an incident that launches the hottest Mexican feud of the year, Mascara Ano Dos Mil breaks a beer bottle over the head of Perro Aguayo in Guadalajara, allowing Dos Mil’s brother Cien Caras to win a triangle match over Aguayo and Konnan.

May 5: In Japan, FMW’s top star, Atsushi Onita, retires after beating Hayabusa at Kawasaki Baseball Stadium in front of 48,000 fans.

May 6: The Sheik, still semi-active at age 70, suffers a heart attack while getting into a taxi in Tokyo. He makes makes a full recovery.

May 13: The Boston Garden hosts its last pro wrestling show ever, the WWF’s “A Night To Remember.”

June 9: Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue beat Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi to win All-Japan’s Unified tag team title. Kawada pins Misawa for the first time ever to end the 42:37 match that is the consensus Japanese Tag Team Match of the Year.

June 13: Chris Benoit wins New Japan’s annual Super Juniors round-robin tournament for the second time by beating Shinjiro Otani in Hiroshima.

June 24: The Grand Wizard, Fabulous Moolah, Antonino Rocca, Ivan Putski, George “The Animal” Steele, Pedro Morales, and Ernie Ladd are inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame.

July 12: WWF President Jack Tunney resigns.

July 22: The Ultimate Warrior wrestles his first match in more than two years before 2,000 fans in Las Vegas, Nevada; he defeats the Honky Tonk Man.

July 23: Pro wrestler Hiroshi Hase is elected to the Japanese House of Councilors.

August: WWF preliminary wrestler Chuck Austin, to whom a federal jury awarded $26.7-million in an April 1994 lawsuit against the WWF, settles his dispute with the federation out of court. According to the settlement, Austin will receive approximately $7-million, while his legal team will receive approximately $3-million.

August 15: Keiji Muto beats Shinya Hashimoto to win New Japan’s annual G1 tournament. It marks the first time in the tourney’s five-year history that the “sitting” IWGP champion wins the G1.

August 20: Cactus Jack beats Terry Funk to win the IWA King of Death Matches tournament at Kawasaki Stadium in Japan.

August 29: Big Van Vader and Paul Orndorff are involved in a locker room brawl at Atlanta’s Center Stage Theater that results in Vader’s suspension and eventual dismissal from the organization.

August 30: JWP’s Dynamite Kansai beats Aja Kong to win All-Japan Women’s WWWA Women’s title. Kansai is the first “outsider” ever to win AJW’s top prize.

September 4: WCW debuts Monday Nitro, live from The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Top WWF star Lex Luger shocks the wrestling world by appearing on the show, speaking derisively about the WWF and its stars, and claiming he wants a shot at Hulk Hogan and the WCW World title; Hogan gives him that title shot a week later, and the match ends in disqualification when members of The Dungeon of Doom enter the ring.

September 11: WCW wins the first head-to-head meeting of Monday Nitro vs. Monday Night Raw, posting a 2.5 rating to Raw’s 2.2.

September 11: Jesse Ventura scores a major victory when the U.S. Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit Court in St. Paul, Minnesota, affirms an April 3, 1994, verdict awarding Ventura $809,958 in a lawsuit against the WWF over his participation in wrestling videotapes.

September 25: Ted Turner agrees to sell TBS and all its holdings, including WCW, to Time Warner Inc., which would take control in 1996.

October 9: In the biggest singles match in Japanese wresting history, New Japan’s IWGP heavyweight champion beats UWFI’s Nobuhiko Takada with the figure-four in 16: 16. The match draws 67,000 fans, paying $6.1-million, the largest live gate in pro wrestling history.

October 14: A sleeping Shawn Michaels is pulled out of a car in front of Club 37 in Syracuse, New York, and beaten by several men (reports range from four to 10), who flee the scene before police arrive.

October 28: Crush is sentenced to five years probation after pleading no-contest to 11 counts of drug and weapons charges.

October 28: A near-riot occurs at ECW Arena in Philadelphia when Cactus Jack brings a chair wrapped in a flaming towel that ignites part of Terry Funk’s clothing. Funk flings the towel into the crowd, the lights go out, fire entinguishers are squirted toward the crowd, and panic ensues.

October 29: Hulk Hogan pushes The Giant off the roof of Cobo Hall in Detroit following a monster truck battle between the two men.

October 29: Jimmy Hart, manager and confidante to Hulk Hogan for years, turns against the “Hulkster.”

November 20: Shawn Michaels collapses in the ring in Richmond, Virginia, during a match with Owen Hart.

November 22: The New York Post reports that federal prosecutors and the FBI are investigating the possibility of witness tampering prior to last year’s Vince McMahon steroid trial.

November 26: Smoky Mountain Wrestling announces in Cookeville, TN, that it is closing down operations.

December 4: Manami Toyota brings the WWWA World title back to the All-Japan Women’s promotion by beating JWP’s Dynamite Kansai at the Sumo Hall in Tokyo.

December 9: Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi beat top rivals Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue to become the first team to three-peat in All-Japan’s annual tag tournament.

December 13: At Tokyo’s Sumo Hall, Jushin Liger firmly states that he’s “back” by winning the second Super J Cup one-night, multipromotional juniors tournament. After defeating Ultimo Dragon in the semis, Liger beats Gedo in the finals.

January 4: Hulk Hogan files a lawsuit against a Minneapolis woman and her attorney, charging them both with extortion relating to their allegations of sexual assault.

January 5: No longer “The Dean,” Shane Douglas makes a triumphant return to ECW in Philadelphia and makes some derogatory comments about the WWF.

January 22: Big Van Vader’s second night in the WWF results in a suspension after he attacks WWF President Gorilla Monsoon. Roddy Piper is named acting president while Monsoon recuperates.

January 23: The long-awaited reunion of The Road Warriors finally occurs at WCW’s Clash of the Champions event in Las Vegas. Elizabeth also returns at the side of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage (temporarily).

February 3: The NWA holds the inaugural Eddie Gilbert Memorial Brawl in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

February 19: Days after announcing the signing of a Razor Ramon-Goldust streetfight for WrestleMania XII, the WWF suspends Ramon for six weeks due to “unprofessional conduct.”

March 5: The WWF issues a statement that “Big Daddy Cool” Diesel (Kevin Nash) will be leaving for WCW. His last day with the federation is to be June 6.

March 11: Rick and Scott Steiner make a surprise return to WCW ring wars to face The Road Warriors on WCW Monday Nitro.

March 17: Diesel officially turns rulebreaker when he attacks his best friend, Shawn Michaels, in front of a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden.

March 24: “Diamond” Dallas Page’s wrestling career apparently ends when he is pinned by The Booty Man at WCW Uncensored. According to a prematch stipulation, Page has to retire. He would be reinstated several months later when a legal loophole in the match contract is found.

March 31: The ongoing “Billionaire Ted” saga finally ends at WrestleMania XII when referee “Billionaire Ted,” “The Huckster” and “The Nacho Man” expire during their match. The event also features the return of The Ultimate Warrior to active competition, the return of Gorilla Monsoon to the office of WWF president, and the WWF debut of Marc Mero (Johnny B. Badd in WCW).

April 13: Jerry Jarrett Promotions holds its 1,000th live card at Memphis’ WMC-TV studios.

April 15: Brian Pillman suffers numerous injuries in a serious automobile accident in Kentucky. He has yet to return to active competition.

May 18: After several years of wrestling as a rulebreaker in the WWF and a fan favorite in the USWA, Jerry Lawler finally turns rulebreaker in the USWA.

May 19: “Diamond” Dallas Page becomes the WCW Lord of the Ring by winning the Battlebowl battle royal at Slamboree. He earned a World title shot but never received it because officials determined that he had cheated during the battle royal.

May 27: During the first two-hour Monday Nitro broadcast, Scott Hall (a.k.a. Razor Ramon) emerges from the audience to declare war on WCW.

May 28: Ted DiBiase is forced to leave the WWF due to a prematch stipulation after his charge, “Stone-Cold” Steve Austin, loses a Caribbean strap match to Savio Vega.

June 1: The first World Peace Festival, organized by Antonio Inoki, is held at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles; it features wrestlers from promotions such as WCW, EMLL, AAA, and New Japan. The WWF chooses not to send any of its wrestlers

June 1: Brian Pillman, restricted to a wheelchair because of an ankle injury, makes his first appearance in a wrestling arena since his April automobile accident when he shows up at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia.

June 10: Brian Pillman signs with the WWF in an eventful and, thanks to Pillman, chaotic press conference at Titan Towers.

June 10: Kevin Nash (formerly Diesel) returns to WCW at the side of Scott Hall and reveals himself to the be the second of three “Outsiders.”

June 16: Scott Hall and Kevin Nash attack Eric Bischoff at The Great American Bash. Nash power-bombs the WCW senior vice president through an interview stage when Bischoff claims he can’t tell them whom he has selected to answer their challenge.

June 16: The Four Horsemen return to full-force when former Nitro commentator Steve McMichael attacks his tag team partner, current NFL great Kevin Greene, and joins the quartet.

June 29: Sid Vicious ends his retirement and returns to the WWF (as a substitute for The Ultimate Warrior) and defeats Owen Hart in Detroit.

July 7: Hulk Hogan reveals himself to be the third “Outsider” when he joins Scott Hall and Kevin Nash in their main event match at Bash at the Beach against Randy Savage, Sting, and Lex Luger. After the match, the group formally christens itself the New World Order.

July 8: WWF President Gorilla Monsoon suspends The Ultimate Warrior for his failure to appear at several WWF arena cards. The suspension was to be lifted only if the Warrior agreed to post an appearance bond. He never did.

July 13: Pit Bull I’s neck is broken in a match by Shane Douglas in Philadelphia.

July 22: Ahmed Johnson suffers a ruptured kidney after WWF newcomer Faarooq (a.k.a. Ron Simmons), with manager Sunny, sneak-attacks him on a live edition of WWF Monday Night Raw.

August 7: Jushin Liger holds a press conference to announce that doctors have discovered a tumor on his brain. Test results later reveal the tumor to be benign and, after surgery to remove it, Liger is able to return to action.

August 18: Paul Bearer turns against his long-time charge, The Undertaker, at SummerSlam in Cleveland. Bearer’s betrayal allows Mankind to defeat Undertaker in a “Boiler Room Brawl.”

August 19: The tournament for the WWF Intercontinental title begins after Ahmed Johnson is stripped of the belt due to injuries. Marc Mero would go on to win the title.

Ausust 19: Ted DiBiase makes his first Nitro appearance when he sits at ringside to observe the matches. He would later reveal himself to be the “money man” of the NWO.

September 2: The Giant shocks WCW by joining the NWO just 23 days after losing the WCW World title to Hulk Hogan.

September 6: Jim Ross confuses everyone when he announces on a special Friday edition of Raw that Razor Ramon and Diesel have been negotiating to return to the WWF. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall vehemently deny the claim.

September 9: Millions of Nitro viewers witness what appears to be Sting attacking Lex Luger and driving off in a limousine with the New World Order. Later, it would be revealed that it was an NWO replica of the popular WCW star.

September 16: Syxx (formerly The 1-2-3 Kid in the WWF) joins the NWO

September 16: Sting declares himself a “free agent” with no loyatly to WCW or the NWO.

September 22: ECW makes its presence known at a WWF In Your House pay-per-view when The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, and Paul E. Dangerously buy ringside tickets. The three are escorted out of the building after Sandman spits beer on Savio Vega during a match.

September 23: For a second straight night, ECW wrestlers upset a televised WWF event, as Taz and Bill Alfonso break through security barriers and further taunt WWF wrestlers. The same night, Jim Ross lashes out at WWF head Vince McMahon for firing him twice. He also introduces The New Razor Ramon and The New Diesel.

September 30: WCW U.S. champion Ric Flair is attacked by the New World Order and aggravates a shoulder injury he suffered in Japan several weeks earlier. Flair opts for surgery and is expected to be out until spring.

October 7: Amidst speculation that he will join the NWO, Jeff Jarrett makes his Nitro debut and aligns himself with WCW.

October 21: Bret Hart ends months of speculation and announces that he has turned down a generous offer from WCW to return to the WWF. A match with “Stone-Cold” Steve Austin, whom Hart and McMahon both call the best wrestler in the WWF, is immediately signed for Survivor Series.

October 22: Three-time former WWF World tag team champions The Smokin’ Gunns officially break up when Billy attacks Bart in Cincinnati.

October 27: “Rowdy” Roddy Piper confronts WCW World champion Hulk Hogan after his title match at Halloween Havoc in Las Vegas. Their old WWF feud is rekindled as the two men argue over who is the bigger wrestling icon.

November 4: After nearly four years in the same timeslot, WWF Monday Night Raw moves to one hour earlier in an effort to boost ratings. That night features the infamous gun confrontation between Brian Pillman and Steve Austin.

November 16: The WWF inducts Capt. Lou Albano, Killer Kowalski, Vince McMahon Sr., Pat Patterson, Johnny Rodz, Baron Mikel Scicluna, Jimmy Snuka, and Jimmy and Johnny Valiant into its Hall of Fame

November 18: WCW Senior Vice President Eric Bischoff reveals his allegiance to the NWO, embracing Hulk Hogan on a live Nitro and watching the NWO attack Roddy Piper

November 25: Eric Bischoff announces on Nitro that all WCW wrestlers have 30 days to convert their WCW contracts to NWO contracts or risk becoming targets of the NWO. Long-time WCW fan favorite Marcus Bagwell is the first to sign up.

December 9: Ric Flair and Roddy Piper appear side by side on Nitro as Flair offers assistance to his long-time rival in his feud with Hulk Hogan. Piper respectfully declines the offer.

December 29: Roddy Piper deals Hulk Hogan his first clean loss since WrestleMania VI (1990) when he beats him in a non-title match with a sleeperhold at Starrcade. After the match, Hogan, Hall, and Nash exchange angry words with The Giant, who failed in his attempt to choke-slam Piper during the bout.

December 30: The Giant is officially booted out of the NWO as the rest of the group attacks him under orders from Hogan.

January 4: Shotgun Saturday Night debuts at the Mirage Nightclub in New York. The Sisters of Love make their first and last WWF appearance and Marlena reveals her “assets” to The Sultan.

January 19: “Stone-Cold” Steve Austin wins the Royal Rumble after eliminating Bret Hart. Austin was eliminated previously by Hart, but WWF officials did not see it.

January 20: Randy Savage returns to WCW as a free agent. He stages a sit-in on Nitro.

January 24: Goldust wrestles two matches in one day. He loses to Hunter Hearst Helmsley in the WWF and goes on to defeat Lance Diamond in Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling.

January 25: The New World Order promotes Souled Out, its first pay-per-view. Even though the NWO was largely successful, the show itself was a critical failure … Savio Vega turns against tag team partner Ahmed Johnson and joins The Nation of Domination at Madison Square Garden during a match against the NOD’s Faarooq and Crush.

January 27: Referee Randy Anderson is fired by Eric Bischoff after having declared the Steiners winners and new WCW World champions in a match against The Outsiders at Souled Out. Anderson had come out of the stands to make a three-count when original referee Nick Patrick was knocked out. He would be reinstated several weeks later.

February 13: Weeks after winning the WWF World title, Shawn Michaels relinquishes the belt on a live Thursday Raw Thursday, citing a knee injury and the loss of his “smile.”

February 17: After Bret Hart’s WWF World title loss to “Psycho” Sid Vicious, the “Hitman” physically and verbally attacks Vince McMahon.

February 23: Randy Savage officially joins the New World Order after attacking Roddy Piper and causing the “Rowdy Scot” to lose his SuperBrawl World title match to Hulk Hogan.

February 24: ECW wrestlers debut on Raw one week after Jerry Lawler’s diatribe criticizing the independent federation. Paul E. Dangerously serves as color commentator and heavily plugs Barely Legal, ECW’s first PPV … The Road Warriors return to the WWF, beating The Headbangers.

March 16: Sting makes his intentions and loyalties clear when he attacks his so-called “comrades” in th