Shane Douglas tosses the NWA World Title on the floor and declares the NWA is dead on August 27, 1994. Then holds up the Eastern Championship Wrestling Title and renames it the EXTREME Championship Wrestling World Title, ushering in the most influential promotion in history, ECW, laying the groundwork for what would eventually be called the “Attitude Era”. ECW changed the wrestling business and this was the night ECW began.

The NWA Board of Directors grow dissatisfied with their World Champion, Buddy Rogers, and vote to strip him of that title. Against the wishes of Rogers and Vince McMahon Senior, Rogers loses the NWA World Championship to Lou Thesz on January 24, 1963. This prompted Vince Senior to withdraw his territory from the NWA and create his own “federation”, the WWWF.

Sometime in March-April 1962 (not sure of the exact date) Freddie Blassie flies to Japan to wrestle Japan’s biggest star, Rikidozan, opening up relations between Japanese and American promoters, a relationship that has lasted for decades. Blassie became a huge star in Japan, thanks to his TV appearances, opening up the Japanese fans to the American style of wrestling and it’s stars. To this day, American wrestlers are held in high regard by Japanese wrestling fans.

Starrcade 1983, Harley Race “passes the torch” to Ric Flair, ushering in a new era in the NWA. The NWA becomes more about entertainment than just pure old-school wrestling. The NWA, and Jim Crockett Promotions, prosper under the “leadership” of the extremely charismatic and entertaining new World Champion.

July 14, 1984. “Black Saturday” as it became known. Vince McMahon muscled his way into “Flair country” (Georgia Championship Wrestling) by taking over GCW’s Saturday afternoon time slot, putting one of his WWF “package” shows (it wasn’t even an original show) on TV to replace the weekly staple, Georgia Championship Wrestling. WCW fans didn’t want Vince’s “cartoon show” and were outraged that he had managed to invade their territory. The outrage was overwhelming, as fans wrote and called TBS by the thousands. Within a few short weeks, the WWF was gone and GCW was back on the air. Vince never could beat GCW, or WCW, in the south. Not even one time. It wasn’t until after WCW self-destructed that Vince was able to hold shows in the south and actually turn a profit. Had Vince and the WWF been able to outdraw WCW in the south, Vince would have taken over the wrestling business MUCH sooner.

December 13, 1988. Super Clash 3 PPV. A last-ditch effort by Verne Gagne, Fritz Von Erich, Jerry Lawler, and Jerry Jarrett to stop Vince McMahon from putting them out of business and taking over the wrestling business in North America. Didn’t work. Super Clash 3 didn’t draw worth a damn, the owners of the various promotions in the show couldn’t cooperate and the show was a dismal failure. All three promotions (AWA, WCCW, CWA) would continue down the toilet and be out of business within a year or two. And only Ric Flair and WCW stood in Vince’s way of total domination of the wrestling business in North America.

Great list!!!