Wrestling Remembers • Stories worth remembering
WWE, AEW, and pro wrestling news in one place.
Summary Triple H said he considers WrestleMania 40 the first WrestleMania that was fully his as WWE Chief Content Officer, but he also made clear the handoff was not a clean one. S
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On August 22, 1999, Mankind won the WWF Championship at SummerSlam, and in a company full of swerves, that finish still stands out because of what it was really doing. On the surfa
On August 21, 2018, Arturo Díaz Mendoza, known to generations of wrestling fans as Villano III, died at 66 after suffering a brain hemorrhage. In one sense it was the passing of a
On August 20, 1995, Mick Foley did the kind of thing that only made sense in the wrestling world of that era. Working as Cactus Jack, he went into Kawasaki Stadium in Japan, surviv
Summary A short ROH clip shows Smart Mark Sterling taking a brutal-looking neck bump from the apron to ringside.
On August 19, 2018, WWE finally stopped waiting. Roman Reigns beat Brock Lesnar in the SummerSlam main event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, winning the Universal Championship in a
On August 18, 2013, WWE gave Daniel Bryan the kind of moment fans had spent all summer begging for, then took it away before the confetti had even finished falling. SummerSlam at S
On August 17, 1998, WCW got exactly what it wanted from Warrior's debut on Monday Nitro. It got noise. It got curiosity. It got one of those live-crowd explosions that makes a wres
On August 16, 1997, Plum Mariko died at 29 after suffering catastrophic injuries in a match the night before. There are deaths in wrestling history that feel distant because they b
On August 15, 1995, Keiji Muto beat Shinya Hashimoto in the G1 Climax final at Tokyo's Sumo Hall and gave New Japan one of those tournament endings that means more in hindsight wit
On August 14, 2011, WWE had the chance to give its hottest story of the year the kind of clean, lasting ending fans almost never get. For a few minutes at SummerSlam, it looked lik
On August 13, 2018, Jim Neidhart died at 63 after suffering a seizure and a fall at his home in Florida. Wrestling lost no shortage of famous names in that era, but Neidhart's deat
On August 11, 2019, WWE closed SummerSlam with something the company had not been especially good at delivering that year: a straightforward heroic payoff that people could feel in
On August 10, 2018, a wrestling ticket sale told the industry something it had been slowly inching toward for months, but had not fully proven yet. Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-
On August 9, 1997, ECW did not just stage another violent main event in South Philadelphia. It produced one of the matches that still gets talked about with a wince. At Born to Be
On August 8, 1993, Carlos Colón beat Terry Funk in Bayamón in what was billed as his final match ever, and the result mattered for more than the usual retirement-match sentiment. F
On August 7, 1994, Masahiro Chono beat Power Warrior in the G1 Climax final at Tokyo's Sumo Hall and gave New Japan one of those victories that matters more for what it confirmed t
On August 6, 2000, Pro Wrestling NOAH stopped feeling like a bold idea and started feeling real. The promotion had only just been born out of the chaotic All Japan split that summe
On August 5, 1996, The Great Sasuke beat Ultimo Dragon in Tokyo to become the first J-Crown champion, and in the process gave junior heavyweight wrestling one of its great visual s
On August 4, 1997, WCW reached one of those rare television nights where the building, the storyline, and the timing all lined up at once. It was the 100th episode of Monday Nitro,
On August 3, 1997, WWF arrived at SummerSlam with the kind of momentum that made every major angle feel louder than life. Bret Hart was in the middle of his bitter U.S. versus Cana
On August 2, 1992, WCW walked into Baltimore with Big Van Vader advertised to defend the world title against Sting. By the end of the night, the promotion had something much bigger
On August 1, 2019, Harley Race died at 76 after battling lung cancer. Wrestling loses famous names every year, but some deaths hit differently because they feel like the end of an
On July 31, 1994, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling brought one of its signature summer cards to Yokohama Bunka Gym and packed the building with 5,625 fans. The main event was exactl
On July 30, 2015, Roddy Piper died at his Hollywood home at 61 years old. The news became public the following morning, and it landed with the particular jolt that comes when wrest
On July 29, 2001, Atsushi Onita did something that still sounds slightly unreal when you say it out loud. One of the most chaotic and influential figures in modern Japanese wrestli
On July 28, 2007, Karl Gotch died in Tampa at 82, just days before his 83rd birthday. For a lot of American fans, that news may have landed like the passing of an old legend whose
On July 27, 2003, WWE ran Vengeance in Denver and got something it badly needed out of the night. Kurt Angle, only months removed from neck surgery, walked into the first SmackDown
On July 26, 2009, Jeff Hardy beat CM Punk at Night of Champions and turned a summer-long chase into one of the last great feel-good title wins of his WWE run. That is what makes th
On July 25, 2011, WWE managed to make a single episode of Raw feel like a month of television crammed into one night. By the time the show ended in Hampton, Virginia, Rey Mysterio
On July 24, 1995, All Japan Pro Wrestling returned to Budokan Hall with the kind of main event that felt less like a routine title defense and more like a referendum on the entire
On July 23, 2002, WWE taped a SmackDown in Indianapolis that felt different from the minute it started. The show was leaner, more wrestling-heavy, and built around the idea that fr
On July 22, 2001, WWF finally found the scale fans thought the invasion angle was supposed to have all along. InVasion came to the Gund Arena in Cleveland with 17,876 fans in the b
On July 21, 1996, WWF brought In Your House: International Incident to General Motors Place in Vancouver and landed on one of the more revealing nights of its entire pre-Attitude E
On July 20, 1998, WCW put two championship changes on one episode of Nitro and finally gave Bret Hart something tangible to hold onto. By the end of the night in Salt Lake City, Sc
On July 19, 2016, WWE did more than hold a draft. It used the first live Tuesday episode of SmackDown to redraw the company in public, with Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan building
On July 18, 2005, Pro Wrestling NOAH went back to the Tokyo Dome with a card loaded for an important statement night. Mitsuharu Misawa was facing Toshiaki Kawada for the first time
On July 17, 2011, WWE walked into the Allstate Arena with a hot title feud and walked out with something much bigger. By the end of the night, CM Punk had beaten John Cena for the
On July 16, 2001, wrestling lost Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, and the news carried a particular kind of sadness. Gordy was only 40, young enough that fans could still imagine one more co
On July 15, 2002, WWE did something that would have sounded absurd only a year earlier. Vince McMahon stood on the Raw stage in East Rutherford, New Jersey and introduced Eric Bisc
On July 13, 2015, WWE took a division that had been stuck in place for years and tried to jolt it forward in one loud burst. That was the night Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Ban
On July 12, 2020, New Japan Pro-Wrestling did something the whole industry was still trying to figure out how to do. It put thousands of paying fans back in a building during the p
On July 11, 2005, WWE took one of the ugliest real-life stories it had on its hands and pushed it straight into the middle of Raw. Matt Hardy's surprise return in East Rutherford,
On July 10, 2004, Pro Wrestling NOAH walked into the Tokyo Dome for the first time and bet its biggest stage on the match it had spent years keeping in reserve. Kenta Kobashi vs. J
On July 9, 2000, WCW somehow produced two world title changes, a worked-shoot meltdown, and the first world championship win of Booker T's career, all in the same pay-per-view. Tha
On July 8, 1996, WCW put one of its biggest long-term ideas into focus in less than ten minutes. That night on Nitro from Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Rey Mysterio beat Dean Male
On July 7, 1996, World Championship Wrestling pulled off one of the few true gasps in wrestling history. Fans bought Bash at the Beach expecting to finally learn who would stand be
On July 6, 1998, WCW did something that felt almost impossible in real time. It took the hottest undefeated star in the company, put him in front of a packed Georgia Dome, and actu
On July 5, 2016, TNA aired something that barely looked like a wrestling match and somehow felt more alive than most wrestling television at the time. That night, Matt Hardy and Je
Nobody in wrestling has ever been turned into a top babyface more suddenly than Lex Luger was on July 4, 1993. That afternoon on the deck of the USS Intrepid in New York City, the
On July 3, 2019, Pedro "Perro" Aguayo died at 73, and with him went one of the most important box office forces lucha libre has ever produced. That is not empty obituary language.
On July 2, 2001, World Championship Wrestling was supposed to feel alive again. That was the promise behind Booker T defending the WCW Championship against Buff Bagwell in the main
On July 1, 2002, Jeff Hardy lost the biggest singles match of his career. That is the official result. It is also only part of the story. What happened that night on Raw in Manches
On June 30, 2008, WWE finally let CM Punk feel like more than a cult favorite. That was the real importance of the night in Oklahoma City. Yes, Punk beat Edge in eight seconds to w
June 29, 2014 was one of those WWE nights that felt huge in the moment and even more revealing in hindsight. John Cena had already been world champion so many times that another ti
On June 28, 1998, The Undertaker and Mankind took a stipulation that was still new, still mysterious, and turned it into one of the defining images in wrestling history. Hell in a
On June 27, 2011, CM Punk walked onto the Raw stage in Las Vegas, sat down cross-legged, and changed the mood of WWE in a single segment. The promo would come to be known as the pi
On June 26, 2019, Riki Choshu walked into Korakuen Hall for one last match, and Japanese wrestling got the kind of farewell that feels impossible to stage unless the man at the cen
On June 24, 2001, Edge won the King of the Ring tournament in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and the crown ended up meaning more than the costume jewelry that came with it. It was th
On June 23, 1996, Steve Austin won the King of the Ring tournament in Milwaukee and left with something much bigger than a crown. By the end of the night, he had a catchphrase, a c
On June 22, 1996, ECW staged the kind of night that only ECW could have staged. Hardcore Heaven 1996 was loud, messy, overheated, half out of control and impossible to forget. The
On June 21, 2000, Nippon TV aired its final All Japan Pro Wrestling broadcast. In pure television terms, it was just one show ending after nearly three decades. In wrestling terms,
On June 19, 1995, WCW had not yet launched Nitro, had not yet won a ratings battle and had not yet turned Monday nights into wrestling's most famous weekly fight. What it did on th
On June 18, 2018, wrestling lost one of the few monsters who never had to choose between spectacle and skill. Leon White, known around the world as Vader and Big Van Vader, died th
On June 17, 2007, TNA went back to the building where its national story started and tried to tell the audience what the next chapter was supposed to be. Slammiversary that year wa
On June 16, 2012, Hiroshi Tanahashi did more than win back the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. He restored the center of gravity in New Japan Pro-Wrestling without killing the futur
On June 15, 2015, WWE did not need a long mystery to close Raw. It just needed Brock Lesnar to walk out. That moment, saved for the final stretch of the post-Money in the Bank epis
On June 14, 1993, the Steiner Brothers beat Money Inc. at a WWF Wrestling Challenge taping in Columbus, Ohio and finally got their hands on the tag team titles. It was a title chan
On June 13, 1993, Bret Hart walked into the Nutter Center in Fairborn, Ohio with a chance to win the first King of the Ring pay-per-view and walked out having turned the whole nigh
On June 12, 2000, there was no title switch, no famous finishing sequence and no single match that can carry the whole story. What happened instead was something rarer. The wrestli
On June 11, 2006, WWE walked into the Hammerstein Ballroom with its top championship and one of its biggest stars. By the end of the night, Rob Van Dam was holding the belt, Paul H
On June 10, 1996, WCW's invasion angle stopped feeling like a weird one-man stunt and started feeling like a hostile takeover. Scott Hall had already walked into Nitro and made vie
On June 9, 2018, Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada met for the fourth time, and by the end of the night there was no argument left about whether their rivalry belonged in wrestling h
On June 8, 1997, Hunter Hearst Helmsley won the King of the Ring tournament in Providence, Rhode Island, and with it claimed the moment that finally pushed his WWF career back onto
On June 7, 2009, Batista got the win that had been hanging over one of WWE's hottest rivalries for months. Inside a steel cage at *Extreme Rules* in New Orleans, Batista beat Randy
On June 6, 1993, Shawn Michaels beat Marty Jannetty in Albany, New York to regain the WWF Intercontinental Championship. On paper, that sounds like a routine title change. In pract
On June 5, 2019, Jon Moxley had his first match after leaving WWE, and he made sure nobody could mistake it for a fresh coat of paint on an old act. That night at New Japan's *Best
On June 4, 2004, TNA stopped being a promotion you had to go out of your way to find. That was the day the first episode of *Impact* aired on Fox Sports Net, giving the two-year-ol
On June 3, 1994, All Japan Pro Wrestling put one match in front of the house and trusted it to carry the night. That match was Mitsuharu Misawa defending the Triple Crown against T
On June 2, 2014, WWE found the fastest possible way to turn triumph into heartbreak. The night before, The Shield had just swept Evolution at Payback in Chicago, beating Triple H,
On June 1, 1996, Antonio Inoki tried to stage a wrestling version of world diplomacy in Los Angeles. That sentence sounds grand, maybe even a little ridiculous, and that is exactly
On May 31, 2015, WWE gave Kevin Owens the kind of debut most wrestlers spend an entire career chasing. He did not show up, trade a few lines, and lose a respectable first match to
On May 30, 2016, WWE took a meeting fans had waited years to see and twisted it into something much better than a respectful handshake. John Cena returned to Raw that night after m
On May 29, 2016, DDT did not just crown a new champion. It told its audience that the promotion's future had arrived right on schedule. That afternoon at Korakuen Hall, Konosuke Ta
On May 28, 2002, Calgary stopped pretending that wrestling grief could be kept behind the curtain. That day became the public farewell for Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldog, jus
On May 27, 1996, WCW took one of the biggest creative swings in modern wrestling history and landed it clean. Scott Hall walked through the crowd on Monday Nitro, stepped into the
On May 26, 1996, WWF tried to run another routine In Your House pay-per-view and wound up producing one of the weirdest nights in company history. Beware of Dog was supposed to be
On May 25, 2019, All Elite Wrestling stopped being a promise and became a promotion. That distinction mattered. For months, AEW had money, executive vice presidents, a television d
On May 24, 2015, AAA tried something that felt almost rebellious for modern wrestling. Instead of protecting borders, guarding contracts, and pretending the rest of the industry di
On May 23, 1999, wrestling collided with real life in the ugliest way imaginable. Owen Hart died that night at Over the Edge in Kansas City after falling during a planned Blue Blaz
On May 22, 2005, John Cena did more than beat JBL again. He survived him, bled with him, and finally looked like a WWE champion fans could believe in. That is what made Judgment Da
On May 21, 2001, WWF put one of its best television main events of the era on free TV and accidentally changed the shape of its entire summer. That night on Raw in San Jose, Chris
On May 20, 2011, wrestling lost one of the few stars who never needed a surname, a title belt or even a proper introduction. Randy Savage was simply the Macho Man, and by the time
On May 19, 1996, WWF ran what should have been just a hot Madison Square Garden house show. Instead, it became one of the most replayed and re-litigated nights in wrestling history
On May 18, 1997, Ric Flair returned to the ring in Charlotte, North Carolina, and for one night WCW stopped feeling like a company renting his legend and started feeling like a com
On May 17, 1993, Monday Night Raw still felt new enough that it could surprise people in a way wrestling television rarely does now. That night at the Manhattan Center, the surpris
On May 16, 1999, ECW put on a pay-per-view that easily could have been remembered for everything that was going wrong around the company. Instead, it is remembered for Rob Van Dam
Summary Athena says she still wants another match with Asuka, even as questions continue to surround what comes next for the former WWE Women's Champion after her recent goodbye wi
Summary TNA has added an Ultimate X match for the X Division Championship to Slammiversary 2026, giving the promotion's signature high-risk stipulation a spot on its biggest show o
Summary Mercedes Moné made a public appearance in Los Angeles for the premiere of *The Mandalorian and Grogu*, which is set for a nationwide release on May 22. The appearance fits
Summary John Cena says the newly announced John Cena Classic is being designed less like a standard tournament and more like a WWE version of an All-Star game, with main roster tal
Summary Cedric Alexander left the May 14 episode of TNA iMPACT as the new X-Division Champion, ending Leon Slater's reign one day before Slater was set to become the longest-reigni
Summary Ring of Honor's May 14 episode of ROH TV streamed on HonorClub and pushed multiple championship stories forward ahead of Supercard of Honor. The biggest development came in
Summary TNA has made two title bouts official for the May 21 episode of iMPACT on AMC, headlined by Mike Santana defending the TNA World Championship against Steve Maclin. The matc
Summary The May 14 episode of TNA iMPACT moved several of the promotion's active stories at once, with Eric Young earning a TNA World Title opportunity, Steve Maclin being cleared
Summary House of Glory has added Kevin Knight vs. Amazing Red to its Waging War event on May 22 at NYC Arena in Queens, New York. The match gives the show a meeting between one of
Summary Kit Wilson said one of his early ideas after Elton Prince went down with a neck injury was to join Chelsea Green's Secret Hervice, but WWE ultimately moved in a different d
Summary WWE NXT drew 498,000 viewers on The CW for its May 12 episode, a sharp drop from the 641,000 viewers the show posted one week earlier. The episode also delivered a 0.06 rat
Summary WWE's newly announced summer 2026 live events in the United States are expected to come with lower ticket prices than many of the company's recent shows, according to Bryan
Summary The first hour of WWE Backlash averaged 998,000 viewers on ESPN2 and drew a 0.33 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The special presentation also streamed on ESPN Unlimited,
Summary A new report says the teams working on WWE games were hit hardest by the latest company-wide layoffs at Visual Concepts. According to that report, the cuts affected both th
On May 15, 1992, AAA did not look like an institution yet. It looked like a gamble. Antonio Peña had broken away from the old order, lined up television backing, pulled major stars
Summary Sami Zayn believes WWE live events still serve an important purpose, especially for younger wrestlers who need more time in front of live crowds, but he also sees why a ful
Summary Karl-Anthony Towns has put a $60,000 bounty on John Cena's 1-of-1 WrestleMania 41 patch autograph card, adding another high-profile chase to the recent market around WWE me
Summary Sami Zayn says the Gingerbread Man material in his feud with WWE United States Champion Trick Williams only works when everyone involved fully commits to it. Speaking on HU
Summary Teddy Long says there is nothing to recent talk about him returning as SmackDown general manager when the show moves back to two hours this summer. Long addressed the rumor
Summary Ronda Rousey says she once mapped out an extended singles program with Becky Lynch after WrestleMania 35, only for the idea to lose momentum by the time she returned to WWE
Summary Tony Khan says AEW's relationship with Jazwares could change after reports that the company's full AEW team was laid off. Khan addressed the situation during the pre-ROH Su
Summary Nyla Rose is heading back to Japan for Dream Star Fighting Marigold's Shine Forever event on May 23 at Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo. Rose has been announced for an e
Summary Tony Khan said Sareee and Persephone are both still expected to take part in the 2026 AEW Owen Hart Cup, with their tournament matches now likely to happen in June. The upd
Summary RJ City addressed the idea of wrestling again on Thursday and made it clear he believes he still has something left physically, even if he is not looking to step back into
Summary Athena says she still wants another match with Asuka, even as questions continue to surround what comes next for the former WWE Women's Champion after her recent goodbye wi
Summary John Cena says the newly announced John Cena Classic is being designed less like a standard tournament and more like a WWE version of an All-Star game, with main roster tal
Summary Kit Wilson said one of his early ideas after Elton Prince went down with a neck injury was to join Chelsea Green's Secret Hervice, but WWE ultimately moved in a different d
Summary WWE's newly announced summer 2026 live events in the United States are expected to come with lower ticket prices than many of the company's recent shows, according to Bryan
Summary The first hour of WWE Backlash averaged 998,000 viewers on ESPN2 and drew a 0.33 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The special presentation also streamed on ESPN Unlimited,
On August 22, 1999, Mankind won the WWF Championship at SummerSlam, and in a company full of swerves, that finish still stands out because of what it was really doing. On the surfa
On August 21, 2018, Arturo Díaz Mendoza, known to generations of wrestling fans as Villano III, died at 66 after suffering a brain hemorrhage. In one sense it was the passing of a
On August 20, 1995, Mick Foley did the kind of thing that only made sense in the wrestling world of that era. Working as Cactus Jack, he went into Kawasaki Stadium in Japan, surviv
Summary A short ROH clip shows Smart Mark Sterling taking a brutal-looking neck bump from the apron to ringside.
On August 19, 2018, WWE finally stopped waiting. Roman Reigns beat Brock Lesnar in the SummerSlam main event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, winning the Universal Championship in a
Summary Mercedes Moné made a public appearance in Los Angeles for the premiere of *The Mandalorian and Grogu*, which is set for a nationwide release on May 22. The appearance fits
Summary House of Glory has added Kevin Knight vs. Amazing Red to its Waging War event on May 22 at NYC Arena in Queens, New York. The match gives the show a meeting between one of
Summary Tony Khan says AEW's relationship with Jazwares could change after reports that the company's full AEW team was laid off. Khan addressed the situation during the pre-ROH Su
Summary Nyla Rose is heading back to Japan for Dream Star Fighting Marigold's Shine Forever event on May 23 at Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo. Rose has been announced for an e
Summary Tony Khan said Sareee and Persephone are both still expected to take part in the 2026 AEW Owen Hart Cup, with their tournament matches now likely to happen in June. The upd
Summary TNA has added an Ultimate X match for the X Division Championship to Slammiversary 2026, giving the promotion's signature high-risk stipulation a spot on its biggest show o
Summary Cedric Alexander left the May 14 episode of TNA iMPACT as the new X-Division Champion, ending Leon Slater's reign one day before Slater was set to become the longest-reigni
Summary Ring of Honor's May 14 episode of ROH TV streamed on HonorClub and pushed multiple championship stories forward ahead of Supercard of Honor. The biggest development came in
Summary TNA has made two title bouts official for the May 21 episode of iMPACT on AMC, headlined by Mike Santana defending the TNA World Championship against Steve Maclin. The matc
Summary The May 14 episode of TNA iMPACT moved several of the promotion's active stories at once, with Eric Young earning a TNA World Title opportunity, Steve Maclin being cleared
Summary A new report says AAA could bring Night One of Triplemania 34 to the United States, though nothing has been officially announced yet. Triplemania 34 is already set as a two
Summary Trevor Lee recently looked back on his Haunted House of Terror match with Dexter Lumis at NXT Halloween Havoc 2020, calling it one of the more enjoyable projects he worked
Summary The Wyatt Sicks will reunite for WrestleCon during WWE SummerSlam weekend in Minneapolis, with the group scheduled to appear across all three days of the convention from Ju
Summary Jimmy Wang Yang said The Undertaker stepped in during his WWE run and told him to stop wearing an entrance jacket with a Confederate flag on the back. Yang discussed the ol
Summary Sting has been announced for WrestleCon during SummerSlam weekend in Minneapolis, and the booking is being billed as his first convention appearance without face paint. The
