R.I.P. Gordon Solie

Hello everybody! ("Hi, Dr. Nick!") Welcome to another great edition of "This Week in Wrestling History." This is another two-for-one edition, because I won't be around next Wednesday to get this out.

You know, if I could get one of these in on the right day instead of a day late, I don't know what I would do! I would start these on Thursdays instead of Wednesdays, but then I'd end up sending them in on Fridays.

This week's typing background music... the Dave Matthews Band's "Under the Table and Dreaming." Gotta love the classics.

1998 - ECW gave us "Heatwave '98" as a treat for finding them lost in syndication. Here's brief rundown: Justin Credible d. Jerry Lynn ... Chris Candido d. Lance Storm ... Masato Tanaka d. Mike Awesome ... Tag champs Rob Van Dam & Sabu d. Jinsei Shinzaki & Hayabusa ... Taz d. Bam Bam Bigelow ... Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman & Spike Dudley d. Buh Buh Ray, D-Von & "Big" Dick Dudley. You know, you read that and it's like a who's who of the WWF and WCW... Candido, Storm, Awesome, Taz, Bigelow, Dudleys...

1992 - Ron Simmons became the first African-American world champ as he won the WCW World title from Vader.

1980 - The Louisiana Superdome in Nawlins was home to "Superdome Spectacular", a supercard featuring various people. See? Terry Latham d. Tommy Wright ... "Mr. Just OK" Terry Orndorff & Mike Miller d. John Mantel & Ron Cheatham ... The Assassin d. Steven Little Bear ... King Cobra d. Frank Dusek ... Masked Grappler d. Chief Wahoo McDaniel ... Dusty Rhodes & Col. Buck Robley d. Buddy Roberts & Terry Gordy ... Ray Candy d. Killer Khan ... Paul Orndorff d. Ken Mantell ... Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan went to a "technical draw" (whatever that might be) ... North American champ Ted DiBiase d. Mr. Wrestling II.

1997 - The gang at TitanSports brought us "SummerSlam" from East Rutherford, NJ on PPV. The main event basically went with the whole Bret-Shawn feud, as Shawn Michaels guest refereed The Undertaker giving Bret Hart a World title shot. If I remember correctly, the little stipulation was that if Bret lost, he could never wrestle in the U.S. again. Watch for WCW to use that soon with Lance Storm. Anyway, Shawn accidentally hit 'Taker with a chair and Bret won. The infamous "Owendriver" occured as well, as the late Owen Hart's piledriver on Steve Austin didn't quite work out and temporarily paralyzed Austin. To his credit, Austin did end up pinning Owen anyway to win the I-C belt. Also on the card: Mankind d. HHH in a cage match ... Goldust d. Brian Pillman ... LOD 1997 d. The Godwinns ... European champ British Bulldog d. Ken Shamrock by DQ ... Los Boricuas d. The Disciples of Apocalypse.

1996 - The Gangstas won the ECW World tag belts from The Eliminators.

1990 - A day later and another supercard.. this one the "Last Tangle in Tampa" in Tampa, FL. Jack Brisco d. Mr. Saito ... Wendi Richter won a seven-woman battle royal ... Jerry Brisco d. Lord Al Hays (hey, is that THE Lord Alfred Hays???) ... Jim Garvin d. Bobby Jaggers ... Super Destroyer d. Mr. Florida (that's just wrong... making the guy job in his own state) ... Southern champ Dick Slater d. Barry Windham ... NWA junior heavyweight champ Les Thornton d. Mike Graham ... Dick Murdoch & Bugsy McGraw d. Nikolai Volkoff & Ivan Koloff ... Andre the Giant d. Super Destroyer (That's what you get for beating Mr. Florida in Florida, punk!) ... WWF World champ Bob Backlund d. Don Muraco ... Dusty Rhodes d. NWA World champ Harley Race one fall to none in a two-out-of-three falls match (huh?).

1997 - Lex Luger won the WCW World title from Hollywood Hogan. Read on...

1995 - WCW and New Japan gave us a pay-per-view called "Collision in Korea." Basically, it was a collection of matches that happened in (guess) Korea on April 28 and 29th of the same year. Since it was shown on PPV on this day, you get the results on this day! Yay! Here goes: Akira Hokuto d. Bull Nakano ... The Steiners d. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki ... Road Warrior Hawk d. Tadao Yasuda ... Scott Norton & Masa Chono d. Takayuki Iizuka & Akira Nogami ... Wild Pegasus d. 2 Cold Scorpio ... Black Cat d. El Samurai ... Hiro Saito d. Yuji Nagata ... Yuji Nagata (didn't I just type that?) d. Tokumitsu Ishizawa ... Bull Nakana & Akira Hokuto (didn't they just wrestle each other?) d. Manami Toyota & Mariko Yoshida ... Hiroshi Hase d. Wild Pegasus ... Masa Chono & Hiro Saito d. El Samurai & Tadao Yasuda ... 2 Cold Scorpio d. Shinjiro Otani ... Kensuke Sasaki d. Masa Saito ... Shinya Hashimoto and Scott Norton went to a time-limit draw ... Antonio Inoki d. Ric Flair.

Birthdays - Dean Malenko is 40. Saaaaaay... why hasn't Steven Richards gone after Deano yet? It's also Kensuke Sasaki's birthday... he's 34.

1993 - Scott Norton & Hercules ("Hercules! Hercules! Hercules!" - insert palm-only clapping) won the IWGP International tag belts from Kenuke Sasaki & Hawk.

1986 - Akira Moeda & Osamu Kid won the IWGP International tag belts from Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura.

1995 - WCW gave the good ol' Ocean Center (Andy wuz here) in Daytona Beach the 31st "Clash of the Champions." World champ Hulk Hogan faced his toughest opponent EVER... Kamala. Guess who won? The main event, (well, co-main event... Hogan won't be out of any top billing) was Vader defeating both Arn Anderson & Ric Flair. Also on the card: The Nasty Boys d. Las Especialistas ... Sting & Hawk d. Meng & Kurosawa ... DDP d. Alex Wright ... TV champ Renegade d. Paul Orndorff ... Harlem Heat & Sensational Queen Sister Sherri Martel (OK, Sister Sherri at the time) d. Dick Slater, Bunkhouse Buck & Col. Parker.

1993 - The Dark Patriot & Eddie Gilbert won the ECW World tag belts from The Sandman & Salvatore Bellomo.

1966 - Ed "Strangler" Lewis died at the age of 76 at his home in Muskogee, OK.

1965 - Larry "The Ax" Hennig & Harley Race won the AWA World tag belts from Crusher & Verne Gagne.

1998 - WCW/nWo "Road Wild" was brought to us by... I don't remember, but it was a motorcycle gear company. Anyway, WCW was in the midst of celebrity-mania, so we were lucky enough to not only get a match with celebrities, but also a concert! Hurray! The concert saw Travis Tritt go on and on for half-an-hour. The match saw DDP & Jay Leno (with Kevin Eubanks) beat 'Wood Hogan & Eric Bischoff. Leno pinned Bisch after Eubanks did a Kanyon Cutter on him. Yawn. "nWo Night Cap" anyone? Also on the card: Meng d. The Barbarian ... Public Enemy d. Alex Wright & Disco Inferno ... Perry Saturn d. Kanyon and Raven in a three-way dance ... Ron Misterio, Jr. d. Psicosis ... Stevie Ray d. Chavo Guerrero, Jr. ... Steve McMichael d. Brian Adams (that must've been a joy to watch) ... Air Quasi Guerrera d. Cruiserweight champ Chris Jericho to win the belt with guest referee Dean Malenko ... Goldberg won a nine-man battle royal. Let's see... Goldberg eliminated Scott Hall, Kevin Nash eliminated himself to chase after Hall (stupid), Goldberg eliminated Konnan, then Curt Hennig, then Scott Norton and Sting, The Giant eliminated Lex Luger, and 'Berg pinned The Giant following a jackhammer to win. Got all that?

Meanwhile in the land o' the rising sun, Masa Chono won the IWGP heavyweight champ from Tatsumi Fujinami.

1997 - Dutch Mantel won the USWA heavyweight title from Jerry Lawler. The USWA folded shortly afterwards. It's kind of sad that the USWA couldn't go out with "The King" as champ.

1993 - Tito Santana won the ECW heavyweight title from Don Muraco. What do you mean you don't think ECW when you hear the name "Tito Santana"?

1981 - Chief Wahoo McDaniel won the NWA U.S. title from Roddy Piper.

1963 - The AWA World title switched hands from Fritz Von Erich to Verne Gagne.

1961 - Verne Gagne became the first two-time AWA World champ when he won the belt from Gene Kiniski.

1960 - Red & Lou Bastien won the WWWF U.S. tag titles from Al Costello & Roy Heffernan.

1999 - Live on "Raw", the countdown to the millennium hit 0:00:00 and out came the millennium man... CHRIS JERICHO! Woohoo! Markout moment! Kane & X-Pac won the World tag belts from The Acolytes as well.. Meanwhile on "Nitro", we saw David Flair lose the U.S. belt to Chris Benoit. Meanwhile on Wall Street, the WWF filed for an initial public offering of stock and changed the company name from TitanSports to WWFE, Inc.

1997 - WCW in Sturgis minus no sponsorship from Harley-Davidson equals "Road Wild." One title change, with 'Wood Hogan regaining the World title from Lex Luger. Also on the card: Harlem Heat d. Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton ... Konnan d. Ron Misterio, Jr. in a Mexican death match (no death is involved) ... CHris Benoit & Steve McMichael d. Jeff Jarrett & Dean Malenko in an elimination match ... Cruiserweight champ Alex Wright d. Chris Jericho ... Ric Flair d. Syxx ... Curt Hennig d. DDP ... The Giant d. Randy Savage ... The Steiners d. World tag champs The Outsiders by DQ. Meanwhile in Philly, Sabu won the ECW heavyweight belt from Terry Funk.

1991 - Jushin Liger lost his IWGP junior heavyweight belt to Akira Nogami.

1989 - Big Van Vader became a two-time IWGP heavyweight champ with a win over Riki Choshu.

1986 - Ric Flair won the NWA World title from Dusty Rhodes in St. Louis.

1980 - "Showdown at Shea" was held at a certain stadium in Flushing, NY that's home to a baseball team that I'm not that fond of. Among the matches: Beverly Slade & Fabulous Moolah d. Kandi Malloy & Peggy Lee (Leather?) ... Dominic DeNucci d. Baron Mikel Scicluna ... Angel Marvilla d. Jose Estrada ... The Hangman d. Rene Goulet ... Greg Gagne d. Rick McGraw ... Pat Patterson d. Tor Kamata ... WWF junior heavyweight champ Tatsumi Fujinami d. Chavo Guerrero ... National Wrestling Federation champ Antonio Inoki d. Larry Sharpe in a martial arts match (much like the Meng/Duggan classic at "WCW Uncensored '95") ... Ivan Putski d. Johnny Rodz ... Andre the Giant d. Hulk Hogan ... Tony Atlas d. I-C champ Ken Patera by countout ... Bob Backlund & Pedro Morales d. WWF World tag champs The Samoans to win the belts, but had to give them back because Backlund was already World champ ... Bruno Sammartino d. Larry Zbyszko in a cage match.

1998 - Live on "Raw is War", the team of Kane & Mankind won the World tag belts from champs Steve Austin & The Undertaker as well as the teams of the New Age Outlaws and The Rock & D'Lo Brown in a four-way match. Meanwhile on that other show, Lex Luger won the U.S. title from Bret Hart. Chris Jericho also tasted some more gold, as he won the TV belt from Stevie Ray. Stevie was defending on behalf of "real" champ Booker T, who was injured.

1997 - Kensuke Sasaki & Kazuo Yamazuki defeated Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi to win the IWGP International tag belts. Same card, different belt... El Samurai's IWGP junior heavyweight belt switched hands to Shinjiro Otani.

1996 - Because there's nothing like a bunch of bikers around the ring, WCW gave us "Hog Wild" from Sturgis. 'Wood Hogan, a month or so into his "bad guy" stage, won the World title from The Giant with a little help from the Outsiders and also turned on Brutus Beefcake (shucks... where is that Disciple now?). Also on the card: Cruiserweight champ Ron Misterio, Jr. d. Ultimo Dragon ... Scott Norton d. Ice Train (he's smoooooth) ... Madusa d. Bull Nakano in a "winner smashes the loser's bike and since Bull Nakano's bike was foreign you knew it was going to be smashed" match ... Chris Benoit d. Dean Malenko ... World tag champs Harlem Heat d. The Steiners ... U.S. champ Ric Flair d. Eddie Guerrero ... The Outsiders d. Lex Luger & Sting.

1989 - Noaki Sano won the IWGP junior heavyweight belt from Jushin Liger.

Birthdays - Up in Cobb County (or down... depending on where you are, I guess), they'll be celebrating The Big Bossman's 38th birthday. Remember Typhoon/Tugboat (and something about some guy crashing through a wall, too)? He's 44. And remember Savio Vega? He's 36.

1990 - D.J. Peterson & The Trooper (a.k.a. "Who Are These Guys?") won the AWA World tag titles from Wayne Bloom & Mike Enos, who at the time were not brothers with the last name Beverly.

Birthdays - Crack your own joke here... Hulk Hogan is 47.

1997 - The ayatolla of rock 'n rolla Chris Jericho won his second of many WCW Cruiserweight belts by defeating Alex Wright.

1992 - Johnny Hot Body became the first ever ECW TV champ by defeating Larry Winters.

1991 - Jerry Lawler won his ninth USWA heavyweight title from Awesome Kong.

1972 - VBarious groups (I guess) put on the supercard that was "The Superbowl of Wrestling" from Cleveland, Ohio. Looks like they went tournament crazy. Rundown, please... Tag team tournament opening round matches: Manuel Sato & Victor Rivera went to a double-DQ with Waldo Von Erich & Karl Von Stroheim, Tony Marino & Toni Parisi dwon by default ... Luis Martinez & Sal Dominguez d. Tex McKenzie & Lil Abner (legend of the Sunday comics) ... Semifinals: Koma & Okuma d. Luis Martinez & Sal Dominguez ... Finals: Tony & Toni d. Koma & Okuma ... Women's tournament final: Sue Greene & Lily Thomas d. Tippy Wells & Peggy Patterson ... Midget tournament (yes!) finals: Sky Low Low & Little Brutus d. Frenchy Lamont & Haiti Kid ... NWF tag champs The Fargo Brothers d. Chief Wahoo McDaniel & Chief White Owl ... Women's tag champs Toni Rose & Donna Christantello d. Sandy Parker & Debbie Johnson ... World women's champ Fabulous Moolah d. Vicki Williams ... U.S. champ Bobo Brazil d. Killer Brooks ... Ernie Ladd and Abdullah the Butcher went to a double-DQ ... North American champ Johnny Powers d. Johnny Valentine. Whew.

1999 - Buh Buh Ray & D-Von Dudley won the ECW World tag belts from Spike Dudley & Balls Mahoney in Cleveland, Ohio. Next day, please...

1998 - Live on "Thunder" (or taped and broadcast the next week... I forget), Bret Hart won the U.S. title back from Lex Luger.

1994 - Mikey Whipwreck lost the ECW TV belt to Jason.

1992 - Masa Chono won the NWA World title in a tournament final against "Ravishing" Rick Rude in Tokyo, Japan to become champ.

1999 - Another year, another group of bikers, and another "Road Wild"! Yay! Let's see... another celebrity appearance as Randy Savage beat Dennis Rodman in a match that pretty much went everywhere (including a Port-a-Potty). World champ Hulk Hogan beat Kevin Nash in a retirement match, also known as a "take a few months off and then come back" match. Also on the card: Ron Misterio, Jr., Eddie Guerrero, and Billy Kidman d. Vampiro & Insane Clown Posse ... Shane Douglas, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn d. Curt Hennig, Barry Windham & Bobby Duncam, Jr. ... Harlem Heat d. World tag champs Bam Bam Bigelow & Kanyon (of the Triad) to win the belts ... Buff Bagwell d. Ernest Miller ... U.S. champ Chris Benoit d. DDP ... Goldberg d. TV champ Ric Steiner in a non-title match ... Sid Vicious d. Sting.

Meanwhile in Toledo, Ohio, Buh Buh Ray & D-Von lost those belts back to Spike & Balls.

Birthdays - "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton is 42.

1996 - Denver was the lucky home of the 33rd "Clash of the Champions", less than a week after "Hog Wild." World champ 'Wood Hogan lost by DQ to Ric Flair and that's about the whole excitement. We were also given the following matches thanks to the good folks at Superstation TBS: Ron Misterio, Jr. d. Dean Malenko ... V.K. Wallstreet d. Hacksaw Jim Duggan ... Konnan d. Ultimo Dragon ... Meng d. Randy Savage by forfeit ... Madusa d. Bull Nakano ... Eddy Guerrero d. DDP ... The Giant d. Chris Benoit ... World tag champs Harlem Heat d. The Steiners and Sting & Lex Luger in a triangle match by DQ when The Outsiders interfered.

Coming next week on the 16th or so... it's my first day as a college sophomore! Woohoo! Maybe I'll remember to do this column on time! Maybe I'll actually do that People's Column I keep saying I'm going to do! Or that neato idea that I have that I haven't told ya'll about yet!