Pro Wrestling Illustrated Achievement Awards

JAMES E. "Jim" CORNETTE 

Pro Wrestling Illustrated Manager of the Year

1985, 1993 and 1995

Pro Wrestling Illustrated Cover of the Week

Cover dated November 1995

10 Fascinating WWE SummerSlam 1995 Facts

10 Fascinating WWE Facts About WrestleMania 11

WWF Tag Team Champions (1990s)

The Smoking Gunns

(Billy and Bart Gunn)

Won their first WWF tag team titles on January 23rd 1995 edition of RAW by defeating The 1-2-3 Kid and Bob Holly.  They held the titles for 69 days before losing to Owen Hart and Yokozuna at Wrestlemania XI in Hartford CT, April 2nd 1995.

The 2nd title reigned started with a defeat of champions Owen Hart and Yokozuna on the September 25th edition of RAW from Grand Rapids MI.   They held the belts this time for 143 days before having to vacate the titles due to Billy's neck injury.  

The Smoking Gunns 3rd and final tag team title reign started May 26th 1996 when they defeated the Godwinns at the In Your House : Beware of the Dog  PPV in Florence SC.   They defended the belts for 119 days until losing on September 22nd 1996 to The British Bulldog and Owen Hart at the In Your House : Mind Games PPV in Philadelphia Pa.

WCW Wold Tag Team Champions (1990s)

Bunkhouse Buck and "Dirty" Dick Slater

Won the WCW World Tag Team titles on June 21st 1995 during a  WCW Saturday Night taping in Atlanta GA.

They defeated Harlem Heat and held the titles for 57 days before losing the back to Harlem Heat in a rematch at Fall Brawl 1995 in Asheville NC on September 17th 1995.  They held the belts for 57 days.

WWF Tag Team Champions (1990s)

Owen Hart and Yokozuna 

April 2nd 1995 Owen and Yokozuna won the tag team titles at Wrestlemania XI in Hartford CT by defeating The Smoking Gunns.

They held the belts for 175 days before a controversial loss to Diesel and Shawn Michaels on September 24th 1995 at In Your House :Triple Header in Saginaw MI.   Davey Boy Smith subbed in for a missing Owen Hart for the title match and when Owen ran in later in the match he was pinned and the belts were handed to Michaels and Diesel.  The next night on Monday Night RAW the belts were restored to Owen/Yokozuna since Owen wasn't officially a participant in the title match.   Later that night on RAW, The Smoking Gunns defeated Owen/Yokozuna and recaptured the belts.

Sting!

1995 WCW Magazine 

Wrestler of the Year

WE LOVE PRO WRESTLING

ECW Tag Team Champions

Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko

won the belts February 25th 1995 in Philadelphia PA.

defeated Sabu and Taz

WE LOVE PRO WRESTLING

The Dynamic Duo

(Al Snow and Unabomb ,now known as Kane)

SMW Tag Team Champions

(defeated The Rock N Roll Express April 7th 1995)

WE LOVE PRO WRESTLING

Sting

WCW Magazine 

Wrestler of the Year 1995

The Big Cat Ernie Ladd

Today would have been the 75th birthday of "The Big Cat" Ernie Ladd.

Ernie Ladd was a world class athlete and attended Grambling State University on a basketball scholarship but ended up getting drafted by the San Diego Chargers to play in the young American Football League in 1961. One of biggest men to play the game at 6 foot 9 nine inches tall he dominated the defensive line and led the Chargers to 4 AFL championship games and won the AFL Title game in 1963.  He started wrestling professionally during the AFL offseason but after stints in Houston and Kansas City his knee injuries forced him to retire and he went into wrestling full time in 1969.
He quickly became a top draw as a heel fueding against the biggest names in wrestling including Andre The Giant, Mr. Wrestling II, Wahoo McDaniel, Bruno Sammartino and Dick the Bruiser.  He also had the distinction of challenging 3 WWF champions in the 1970s, first was Sammartino, then Pedro Morales and finally Bob Backlund in 1978.   He became famous for using his taped thumb as a weapon to win controversial matches but wherever he went he would be the #1 contender to face the top babyface (good guy).
In 1986 due to ongoing knee injuries "The Big Cat" retired from the ring for good and in 1995 was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame.  He was also inducted into the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame in 1981.
He succumb to colon cancer at the way too young age of 68 in 2007.

Bobby "Pretty Boy" Heenan with his WWA Tag Team champions:

Baron Von Raschke and Ernie Ladd in 1973

Today in Wrestling History

WWF In Your House - Triple Header

September 24th 1995

Saginaw Civic Center

Saginaw, MI

The main event of this 3rd In Your House PPV involved the 3 big titles in the WWF.  The WWF Champion Kevin Nash and Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels teamed up and put both belts on the line against the WWF Tag Team Champions Yokozuna and Davey Boy Smith (subbing for injured Owen Hart). Whichever wrestler was pinned would lose his title.

Results

No.	Results	Stipulations	Times
Dark match	Goldust defeated Bob Holly	Singles match	Unknown
Dark match	Ahmed Johnson defeated Skip	Singles match	Unknown
Dark match	Fatu defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley	Singles match	Unknown
1	Savio Vega defeated Waylon Mercy	Singles match	07:06
2	Sycho Sid (with Ted DiBiase) defeated Henry Godwinn	Singles match	07:23
3	The British Bulldog defeated Bam Bam Bigelow	Singles match	12:00
4	Dean Douglas (with Bob Backlund) defeated Razor Ramon	Singles match	14:53
5	Bret Hart defeated Jean-Pierre Lafitte	Singles match	16:37
6	Diesel and Shawn Michaels defeated Yokozuna and The British Bulldog(with Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji)	Tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship, WWF Intercontinental Championship and WWF Championship	15:42
Dark match	The Undertaker defeated King Mabel	Singles match	07:04
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

SummerSlam in 60 Seconds: SummerSlam 1995

The Undertaker - The Streak (4-0)

The Undertaker takes his Wrestlemania win streak to 4-0 in Chicago

Wrestlemania XI

April 2nd  1995

Hartford Civic Center

Hartford  CT

This Week in Wrestling History

I missed it yesterday but on March 4th 1995 Stan Hansen defeated Toshiaki Kawada for the All Japan Triple Crown.

Royal Rumble 1995

I will try this again and hope it doesnt get taken down by the WWE again.

The 1995 Royal Rumble

January 22nd

USF Sundome

Tampa, Florida

Today in Wrestling History - October 22nd

1979 - Tito Santana and Ivan Putski defeat Johnny and Jerry Valiant for the WWF Tag Team Titles in Madison Square Garden, New York City.


1984 - The Fabulous Ones (Steve Keirn & Stan Lane) defeat Rick Rude and King Kong Bundy to win the AWA Southern Tag Team Title in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning Keirn and Lane's eighth of 14 reigns as champions




1994 - Toshiaki Kawada defeats "Dr. Death" Steve Williams for the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight in Tokyo, Japan. 





 1995 - WWF held their fourth In Your House Pay-per-view in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada at the Winnipeg Arena. 

Here are the results: -

Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Fatu.

WWF World Tag Team Champions The Smoking Gunns defeated The 1-2-3 Kid & Razor Ramon when Billy pinned The Kid. - 

Goldust, in his WWF debut, defeated Marty Janetty.

Yokozuna vs. Mabel ended in a double disqualification. 

Shawn Michaels, who had been beaten up outside of a bar (legitimately) and was unable to wrestle, forfeited the WWF Intercontinental Title to Dean (Shane) Douglas. 
Razor Ramon defeated Dean Douglas to win the WWF Intercontinental Title. 

Davey Boy Smith defeated WWF World Heavyweight Champion Diesel via disqualification.

Superbrawl 1993 and 1994 - Legends Reunion

From the 1993/94/95 WCW PPV the "inductions" of wrestling legends into the "WCW Hall of Fame".  I dont know if they even have these plaques up anywhere anymore, if they ever did.  Its a shame because they were doing it right by getting "ALL" of the legends induction as soon as possible and giving them the respect they so deserved.

You cant really argue with any of the inductees of any of classes.  I was kind of surprised how nervous and sloppily Gordon Solie handled the first year...maybe he wasn't used to being live on tv in front of that size of crowd or maybe WCW just threw him out there and just wanted it fast and over.
1995 clip starts at about 3:50. This ended after 1995 when Gordon Solie resigned from WCW in protest over the induction of Angelo Poffo. Gordon felt he was unqualified for the Hall of Fame and was only inducted as a favor to one WCW top draws Randy Savage, since Angelo was his father.

Your Match of the Night

From 1995 a great match between 2 all time greats but sadly both died tragically too young.  

This was from WCW Saturday Night :  

Eddie Guerrero and Christ Benoit