Today In Wrestling History 7/2: WCW Invasion Disaster, WWE Fires Emma, WWE Un-Fires Emma, & More

* 27 years ago in 1988, Jim Crockett Promotions ran a Great American Bash show at Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina that doubled as a TV taping for NWA Main Event. Main Event had been introduced a few months earlier with the idea that not only would fans be getting an hour of star vs. star matches each week, but the wrestlers would be paid as if it was a house show and not a TV taping (those usually paid just $25). Of note:

The Rock 'n' Roll Express defeated The Sheepherders. The Rock 'n' Rolls had just returned, but were gone within weeks, so this was one of their few televised matches. Gibson quit first when he saw the Bash payoffs were down so much from the previous two years, while Morton stayed a little bit longer as Nikita Koloff's partner before he bolted, as well.

The Road Warriors defeated Ivan Koloff and the Russian Assassin in a scaffold match that didn't even reach the five minute mark. The backstory is that this series was supposed to be the blowoff for the Road Warriors-Powers of Pain feud, but Barbarian and Warlord (rightfully) balked at taking night after night of bumps off a scaffold at their size. They immediately jumped to the WWF and kept their name since Crockett didn't trademark it. Koloff was an ally of the Powers of Pain, so he and his new protege got the nod.

The main event was Wargames, with Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger, Sting, Nikita Koloff, & Paul Ellering defeating the Four Horsemen and J.J. Dillon. For years, none of the Wargames matches from 1988 were available to the public on video, but WWE broke out the holy grail when they released the "Ric Flair & the Four Horsemen" DVD, which included the July 16th match from Greensboro, which had Steve Williams in the Sting spot. That said, since this was a TV taping, WWE may have a tape of this match, as well.

* 14 years ago in 2001, the WWF ran a live Monday Night Raw from the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma Washington, The big story was the first WCW match on WWF programming, which has since become the stuff of legend.

On the "simulcast" that aired on Raw and the final Nitro a few months earlier, Vince McMahon threw out a few names to gauge crowd reactions. One got a much bigger pop than expected, and that was Buff Bagwell. In light of that, he was signed, and being the biggest name WCW heel under WWF contract, he got the nod for a WCW World Heavyweight Championship shot against Booker T in the main event of this show.

The match main evented this edition of Raw, and they made a point of trying to make it feel like WCW. Not only Was the new WCW logo in the corner instead of WWE's, but the crowd was bathed in the weird colored lighting used by WCW in its last year or so. Longtime WCW Senior Official Nick Patrick was the referee while Stacy Keibler was the ring announcer for some reason, Commentary was handled by the duo of Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson.

With the exception of Hudson's performance, it was a disaster in every way. Bagwell understandably had declined greatly since breaking his neck in 1998, but that still didn't excuse his performance here, where he sat in a chinlock for too much of the match. Keibler was actually fine in the sense she read off the cards smoothly and didn't stumble at all, but she didn't have the voice for ring announcing at all. Patrick was constantly fiddling with his new in-ear monitor. Anderson's speaking abilities didn't translate to being good on color, at least the first night in. And the weird lighting just reminded people of how bad WCW attendance got towards the end,

The crowd turned on the match about as vociferously as you'll ever hear. We don't know if anyone from WCW could've gotten a better reaction, but the terrible match didn't help. When Steve Austin and Kurt Angle, who were both heels, ran in, the crowd cheered them like the biggest babyfaces in the world. They kicked Booker and Bagwell out of the building to end the show. And the angle as it had been planned: We were supposed to get the brand extension a year early, with WCW getting Raw (the weaker brand needing the stronger show) and the WWF getting SmackDown, but that went out the window. Not only would there be no WCW touring brand, but...well, we'll get to that in seven days.

* 1 year ago in 2014, WWE had a really, really weird day. First, there was an anthrax scare at Titan Towers, as a mysterious package containing mysterious white powder showed up. The police checked it out and all was good.

Meanwhile, WWE fired Emma. Then they unfired her. Wait, what?

it had come out that two days earlier, Emma had been arrested for shoplifting at a WalMart in Hartford, Connecticut, the location of that night's Monday Night Raw. This led to her being taken off the show (she was going to be in Santino's segment) after WWE found out.

This is the Hartford Police Department's Version:

On June 30, 2014 at approximately 1:00pm, Hartford Police Officers were contacted by Walmart Security (asset protection) Officers regarding a potential Larceny/shoplifter. Based on the investigation by HPD, Tenille A. Dashwood, 25, of Australia and Winter Park Fl. was arrested and charged with Larceny in the 6th degree, with a referral to the Hartford Community Court. Dashwood was booked at HPD and issued a WPTA. The unpaid item for which the larceny charge was applied was an 'iHome 'Slim Swivel' iPad mini case' color red with a value of $21.14. Mug shot attached.

WWE followed up with their own statement:

WWE is aware that Tenille Dashwood (WWE Diva Emma) was arrested for shoplifting. Ms. Dashwood is ultimately responsible for her personal actions.

For her part, she swore that she just forgot to properly scan the case when using the self-checkout machine, something that's not at all uncommon. With Hartford having a "community court" for minor misdemeanors to keep the regular criminal court from getting too crowded, she was able to appear right away and get the charges dropped in exchange for one day of community service and some kind of online class. But then WWE fired her anyway.

A lot of wrestlers and fans were outraged since multiple wrestlers on the roster had drunk driving charges and were kept on, plus her story was believable and there was reason to believe something was amiss: WalMart doesn't usually pursue charges for theft of items that go for less than $25 total. On top of that, contrary to internet speculation that day, she hadn't endangered her work visa, It kept building and building until WWE released this statement three hours later:

Upon further evaluation, WWE has reinstated Tenille Dashwood (WWE Diva Emma) but will take appropriate punitive action for her violation of the law.

And that was that.