This Week In Pro Wrestling History (November 2 – 8): Several Inaugural Champions, WWF Pays The Hart Family $18 Million

Major Wrestling Events

WWF The Wrestling Classic – November 7, 1985

Source: Basic Bloganomics

This was WWF’s first pay-per-view event after the success of Wrestlemania on closed-circuit television, and it also featured WWF’s first ever tournament.

Every match of the 16 man tournament was held in one night and competitors included future legends of the business such as Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, Davey Boy Smith, Terry Funk, Nikolai Volkoff, The Iron Sheik, Tito Santana, Don Muraco, Paul Orndorff, Bob Orton Jr., the eventual winner Junkyard Dog, and several others.

There was only one other match on the card that was independent of the tournament and it was a match for the WWF Championship between then title holder Hulk Hogan and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. It was the equal third longest match of the night at 7 minutes in length.

ECW November to Remember – November 5, 1994

Some of the matches on the card included:

• The Pitbulls vs. Ian & Axl Rotten
• Tommy Dreamer vs. Tommy Cairo
• Dean Malenko vs. The Tazmaniac (Taz)
• Shane Douglas (c) vs. Ron Simmons for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship

AAA When Worlds Collide – November 6, 1994

This event was promoted along with WCW and is widely recognized as being one of the first events to showcase the Mexican high-flying lucha libre style to the American viewers.

Some of the matches on the card included:

• Rey Mysterio & Heavy Metal & Latin Lover vs. Psicosis & Fuerza Guerrera & Madonna’s Boyfriend
• The Pegasus Kid (Chris Benoit) & 2 Cold Scorpio & Tito Santana vs. La Parka & Jerry Estrada & Blue Panther
• Octogon & El Hijo del Santo vs. Art Barr & Eddie Guerrero in a Two out of Three Falls Mask vs. Hair match
• Konnan vs. Perry Aguayo in a Steel Cage match

Source: Vsplanet

ECW November to Remember – November 7, 1999

Some of the matches on the card included:

• Jerry Lynn vs. Steve Corino vs. Super Crazy in a Three-Way Dance
• Sabu vs. Chris Candido
• Rob Van Dam (c) vs. Taz for the ECW World Television Championship
• Rhino & Justin Credible & Lance Storm vs. Raven & Tommy Dreamer & The Sandman

Source: Vsplanet

ECW November to Remember – November 5, 2000

Some of the matches on the card included:

• Kid Kash vs. C.W. Anderson
• Rhino (c) vs. New Jack for the ECW World Television Championship
• The F.B.I. (c) vs. Mikey Shipwreck & Yoshihiro Tajiri for the ECW World Tag Team Championships
• Jerry Lynn (c) vs. Steve Corino vs. Justin Credible vs. The Sandman in a Double Jeopardy match for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship

Source: Vsplanet

WWF Rebellion – November 4, 2001

Some of the matches on the card included:

• Edge (c) vs. Christian in a Steel Cage match for the Intercontinental Championship
• The Dudley Boyz (c) vs. APA vs. The Hardy Boyz in a Triangle match for the WCW World Tag Team Championships
• Chris Jericho (c) vs. Kurt Angle for the WCW Championship
• Steve Austin (c) vs. The Rock for the WWF Championship

Source: Vsplanet

TNA Victory Road – November 7, 2004

This was the first TNA PPV to run for 3 hours, so it was a big milestone in the company’s history.

Some of the matches on the card included:

• Abyss vs. Monty Brown vs. Raven in a Monster’s Ball match
• Petey Williams (c) vs. AJ Styles for the X Division Championship
• America’s Most Wanted vs. Triple X in an Elimination Last Team Standing match
• Jeff Jarrett (c) vs. Jeff Hardy in a Ladder match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship

The event as a whole was rated a 5 out of 10 by the Canadian Online Explorer, but the Elimination Last Team Standing match received a 0 out of 10.

Title Changes and Other Significant Events

November 2

• Hiroshi Hase & Kensuki Sasake d. Keiji Mutoh & Masahiro Chono for the IWGP Tag Team Championships (1990)
• Mankind is awarded the new WWF Hardcore title by Vince McMahon (1998)
• Mankind & Al Snow d. Bob & Crash Holly for the WWF Tag Team title (1999)
• Negro Casas & El Hijo del Santo d. Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship (2001)
• Ernie Osiris wins the ROH Top of the Class Trophy on night one of Glory By Honor VI (2007)
• Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero d. Negro Casas & Mistico for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship (2007)

November 3

• Atlantis and Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. d. The Headhunters for the CMLL World Tag Team Championships (1995)
• Perry Saturn d. Disco Inferno for the WCW Television title (1997)
• Hiroyoshi Tenzan d. Yoshihiro Takayama for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (2003)
• Mitsuya Nagai & Masayuki Naruse d. Masanobu Fuchi & Genichiro Tenryu for the AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship (2004)
• Petey Williams d. Matt Bentley and Chris Sabin in an Ultimate X match on an episode of Impact to become the X Division No. 1 contender (2005)

November 4

• 2 Cold Scorpio d. Jason for the ECW Television title (1994)
• Dean Malenko d. 2 Cold Scorpio for the ECW Television title (1994)
• The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships are vacated after one half of the reigning team, Koji Kanemoto, fractures a cheekbone (2003)
• Davey Andrews d. Derrick Dempsey and Shane Hagadorn to become the inaugural ROH Top of the Class Trophy winner (2005)
• Magnitude Kishiwada d. Masaaki Mochizuki for the Dragon Gate Open the Dream Gate Championship (2005)

November 5

• Norio Honaga d. Akira Nogami for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (1991)
• Hiroshi Hase & Keiji Mutoh d. The Steiner Brothers for the IWGP Tag Team Championships (1991)
• El Hijo del Santo & Octagon d. Art Barr & Eddie Guerrero to become the inaugural AAA World Tag Team Champions (1993)
• Public Enemy d. Cactus Jack & Mikey Whipwreck for the ECW Tag Team title (1994)
• Steve Corino d. Jerry Lynn, Justin Credible and the Sandman in an elimination tournament for the ECW Heavyweight title (2000)
• Test d. Edge for the WWF Intercontinental title (2001)
• The Rock d. Chris Jericho for the WCW Heavyweight title (2001)
• Edge & Rey Mysterio d. Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit for the WWE Smackdown Tag Team title (2002)

November 6

• Animal Hamiguchi & Mighty Inoue d. The Great Kojika & Motoshi Okuma for the AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship (1977)
• Jake Roberts d. Ron Garvin to win the NWA National TV Title (1983)
• Koji Kanemoto and Hiroyoshi Tenzan from New Japan Pro Wrestling make their pro wrestling debuts in a 22-man battle royal (1990)
• The Dudley Boys d. Masato Tanaka & Balls Mahoney for the ECW Tag title (1998)
• Bull Buchanan & the Goodfather d. the Hardy Boyz for the WWF Tag Team title (2000)
• Crowbar d. Reno for the WCW Hardcore title (2000)
• Jerry Lynn d. AJ Styles for the NWA-TNA X title (2002)

November 7

• Tom Jenkins d. Dan McLeod for the American Heavyweight title (1901)
• Harley Race d. Giant Baba for the NWA Heavyweight Wrestling title (1979)
• Paul Orndorff d. Masked Superstar for the Georgia National Heavyweight title (1982)
• The WWF agreed to pay $18 million to the Hart family as settlement of the Owen Hart wrongful death suit (2000)
• The Italian Connection (Milano Collection AT & Anthony W. Mori & YOSSINO) d. Shuji Kondo & Takuya Sugawara & YASSHI in a tournament final to become the inaugural Dragon Gate Open the Triangle Gate Championship (2004)

November 8

• Nick Bockwinkel d. Verne Gagne for the AWA Heavyweight title (1975)
• Tony Parisi & Louis Cerdan d. Blackjack Lanza & Blackjack Mulligan for the WWWF Tag Team title (1975)
• Tony Garea & Rick Martel d. The Samoans for the WWWF Tag Team title (1980)
• The New Age Outlaws d. Mankind & Al Snow for the WWF Tag Team title (1999)
• Scott Hall d. Bret Hart, Sid Vicious & Goldberg in a Ladder match for the WCW US Heavyweight title (1999)

Birthdays

"Maniac" Mike Davis - November 2, 1956 (Source: Obsessed With Wrestling)

Sharmell - November 2, 1972 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)

Domino - November 2, 1979 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)

Dawn Marie - November 3, 1970 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)

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Ken Patera - November 6, 1943 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)

Brutus Magnus - November 6, 1986 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)

King Kong Bundy - November 7, 1957 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)

Tony Schiavone - November 7, 1957 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)

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Takako Inoue - November 7, 1969 (Source: Joshipuroresu.com)

Ted Dibiase, Jr. - November 8, 1982 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)

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Posthumous Birthdays

Bronko Nagurski - November 3, 1908 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)

Everett Marshall - November 4, 1905 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)

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Deaths

The Fabulous Moolah - November 2, 2007 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)

Evan Lewis - November 3, 1919 (Source: Bodyslamming.com)

Danno O'Mahoney - November 4, 1950 (Source: Bodyslamming.com)

Crash Holly - November 6, 2003 (Source: Online World Of Wrestling)