Today In Wrestling History 5/24: Initial Owen Hart Death Repercussions, Vince McMahon Sr. Dies, More
* 42 years ago in 1973, Harley Race won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the first time by defeating Dory Funk Jr. in in Kansas City, Missouri. Originally, this was supposed to be Jack Brisco winning the title in Houston, but Funk claimed to be in a truck accident that delayed that match.
There were a lot of people who were skeptical, even when Funk provided medical records. This was because there were a bunch of weird political conflicts, including over topics as petty as Dory Funk Sr. not wanting his son to drop the title to someone from Oklahoma.
In the end, Race, who it was well known was not someone Dory Jr. could mess with, was given a shot as transitional champion to move the title to Brisco, with the promise he'd get his big run down the line. He eventually did in 1977.
* 39 years ago in 1976, Ramón Ibarra Banda made his pro debut as Remo Banda in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. He was already a veteran when, in 1990, EMLL booker Antonio Pena gave him a new gimmick, Volador, which is Spanish for "flying."
The father of current CMLL star Volador Jr., he was one of the best high flyers of the era, at least until his knees were completely blown out by around 1996 or 1997. He turned a negative into a positive by taking on a new gimmick, Super Parka, essentially La Parka (his cousin) with a Superman logo on his costume. Relying on comedy extended his career dramatically.
* 31 years ago in 1984, Ric Flair regained the NWA World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Kerry Von Erich in a 2/3 falls match on an All Japan Pro Wrestling card in Yokasuka. It was done in Japan for a few reasons. Even though World Class Championship Wrestling aired nationally via syndication, several territories didn't acknowledge Von Erich's title win at Texas Stadium, continuing to bill Flair as champion so as to promote upcoming title matches without confusing the issue.
Switching it back in Japan was a nice way to keep the switch out of sight. In Texas and on the World Class syndicated show, the title switch could be whitewashed with the claim that Kerry was screwed by a "sumo referee" who didn't know pro wrestling rules. The quickie switch was not acknowledge on TBS until a year later in a segment where Flair went over his greatest career moments to set up an angle with Magnum T.A.
* On the same day in 1984, Vincent James McMahon died of cancer at 69 years old. In the previous few months, it had become clear that he was no longer running the WWF when his son, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, made aggressive moves to expand the company nationally.
What wasn't well known in wrestling, at least initially, was that today's Vince had purchased the company in 1982. It's not really an exaggeration that other promoters didn't see what happened coming at all.
* 16 years ago in 1999, one of the most famous episodes of Monday Night Raw aired live: The tribute to Owen Hart from St. Louis, Missouri. This was the show that established the format used for the 9/11 tribute, Eddie Guerrero's death, and, unfortunately, "the death of Mr. McMahon."
The WWF didn't have a lot of options if they were gonna put on the show. That said, it probably could've done without the shoehorned sex and drug references when the wrestlers would mention Hart in their in-ring promos, and they probably would've avoided some additional controversy that way.
What was originally scheduled to be the big match of the night was on the WCW side...but it wasn't supposed to be on Nitro. Instead, WCW had secured a major coup in arranging for Kevin Nash to defend the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Bret Hart on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Bret was actually on the plane to Los Angeles when he found out about Owen's death. Eric Bischoff met him at the airport and made arrangements to get him back to Calgary as soon as possible.
While Hart has been vocal about his issues with Bischoff (as well as Hulk Hogan) in WCW, he's always been complimentary to the support offered in the aftermath of his brother's death. As for Leno, he opened the Tonight Show by explaining what had happened and offering his condolences to the Hart family.