Today In Wrestling History 6/7: CM Punk Cashes In, Nexus Debuts On Raw, Sable Sues The WWF, And More

* 25 years ago in 1990, El Hijo del Santo defeated Fuerza Guerrera to win the WWA World Welterweight Title on a Universal Lucha Libre card at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo Japan. If you're into old school, technical, title match-style lucha libre, or want a good place to start, you could do a lot worse than this match.

Unlike its spiritual successor promotions such as Michinoku Pro, which featured more of a hybrid style incorporating both lucha libre and Japanese junior heavyweight wrestling, Universal was straight-up lucha libre. It was one of the first promotions to almost exclusively target the super-hardcore wrestling fans the way the major American independent groups do now, as it's not like there was a gigantic demand for a lucha libre promotion with primarily Mexican talent in Japan. There were, however, definitely enough to support it through 1993.

This had the interesting side effect of introducing the male audience to the stars of the All Japan Women promotion. They would regularly guest on ULL shows and it was a major factor in AJW transitioning from an audience of exclusively teenage girls to a more diverse audience with more hardcore male fans who were into the in-ring work.

* 16 years ago in 1999, Rena "Sable" Mero filed a lawsuit against the WWF asking for $110 million and the Sable name. She had last worked for the company three weeks earlier at the No Mercy UK pay-per-view event. In the complaint, she was seeking relief on claims of negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, negligent infliction of emotional distress, unlawful discharge, and violation of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. These are some notable excerpts from the complaint:

"After repeatedly refusing to have her gown torn off on national television, and after refusing to expose her breasts on national television (by a 'scripted mistake'), she was advised by Defendant that her championship belt was to be lost in her next match. She was, according to Defendant's chief executive, Vince McMahon, being a 'prima donna' and the WWF would move on to its next queen."

"Subsequently, she found her appearances canceled and her merchandise pulled from store shelves. Soon thereafter, Mrs. Mero found her personal effects in her dressing room smeared with feces."

"Mrs. Mero raised with McMahon her concerns regarding the safety of appearing in Defendant's wrestling events. In this regard, she told McMahon that she had no training as a wrestler and had undergone breast implant surgery which could pose a serious health risk if she were to experience a frontal fall. McMahon again represented to and assured Plaintiff that wrestling events staged by the WWF were safe and that she need riot be concerned about safety or health risks."

"Mrs, Mero bitterly complained about her concerns and the humiliation that she was constantly facing, which was not only interfering with her well-being, but with her safety and state of mind. For example, men would routinely walk into the women's dressing room as if by accident; men would cut holes in the walls to watch the women dressing; extras were hired as WWF regulars to expose their breasts; big nipple contests were engaged in; men regularly bragged about their sexual encounters without regard to the women present; WWF produced catalogues and tee-shirts depicting Mrs. Mero In a degrading fashion offering sexual favors; Mrs. Mero was requested to display affection to women to promote a 'lesbian angle'; Mrs. Mero was asked to have her gown ripped off repeatedly (notwithstanding promises to the contrary), and Plaintiff was asked to expose her breasts by 'mistake' on national television during a wrestling contest."

There was a fairly substantial backlash against Mero in the sense that the safety complaints were perceived by wrestling fans as her trying to exploit Owen Hart's death, which happened two weeks earlier. The case was settled later in the year, and she didn't get the Sable name. She returned to WWE four years later, where she met her current husband, Brock Lesnar.

* 6 years ago in 2009, WWE had the Extreme Rules pay-per-view event live from New Orleans, Louisiana. The big news coming out of the show was that in the main event, Jeff Hardy beat Edge to win the World Heavyweight Championship in a ladder match main event, only for CM Punk to immediately cash in the Money in the Bank contract and win the title himself.

This set up Punk's first heel run in WWE, as this was the first time that a babyface cashed in on a compromised babyface. The idea was that Punk, having done the same thing to Edge (who had done it himself twice) the year before, rightfully felt that he did nothing wrong, but was bing singled out for cashing in on a more popular wrestler. Eventually, this led to Punk belittling Hardy for his struggles with substance abuse and going full heel.

* 5 years ago in 2010, the Raw main event of John Cena vs. CM Punk ended in a no contest when the entire cast of the first season of the original NXT debuted as The Nexus as attacked everyone. Punk and Luke Gallows quickly escaped, so that led to the Nexus members who weren't beating up Cena targeting announcers Jerry Lawler, Matt Striker, and Justin Roberts at ringside. They also took turns dismantling the ring.

In the long run, since the Nexus fizzled out a bit too quickly, this segment is best remembered for two things: The wasted potential and it being the catalyst for Daniel Bryan getting fired. During the attack, Bryan had stripped Roberts' shirt and jacket off, leaving just his tie, so he went over to Roberts, got on top of him, and yanked back on the tie, choking him with it. Back in the ring, Bryan also spat on John Cena. Both were not allowed on WWE television at the time, but that hadn't been explained to the Nexus members.

Some outside force complained, and while the choking was, if anything, the fault of the director for cutting to that shot as the spot was ongoing, Daniel Bryan was fired personally by Vince McMahon. He got to have a lucrative return to the indies while being paid his WWE severance and was back within 90 days for SummerSlam.