Today In Wrestling History 8/12: Owen Hart & Curt Hennig's WWF TV Debuts, NWA Title Revived, & More

* 27 years ago in 1988, the WWF ran a house show at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in Los Angeles California, which was broadcast live on The Z Channel. The Z Channel was a west coast-based premium movie channel that was beloved by hardcore cinephiles for being ahead of its time when it came to their eclectic selection, running movies letterboxed, airing director's cuts, and so on. It was even the subject of a well-received 2004 documentary, "Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession," which was directed by Alexandra Cassavetes, the daughter of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. This was the second Sports Arena card they aired (the first being the previous month's show), and is historically significant for featuring the televised WWF debuts of two big names.

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First, Owen Hart, wrestling as the Blue Angel, defeated Barry Horowitz. With his Blue Blazer gear not ready yet, Hart wore the same gear he was using in Stampede Wrestling and NJPW, just with the addition of a mask that it looks like he got from a friend (other wrestlers in Stampede had used a similar design). With a great opponent in Horowitz (who's a tremendously underrated performer), he got over quickly doing all of the flashy high flying moves (including a moonsault press for the win) that got him attention as one of the most talked about wrestlers in the business. If you're used to '90s WWF Owen Hart or even Blue Blazer as a glorified job guy, check this out, or even better, his work in Stampede and NJPW.

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Curt Hennig, still weeks away from being Mr. Perfect, also made his first televised appearance since leaving the AWA, defeating Special Delivery Jones. He had come very close to signing about a year earlier, but ended up staying with the AWA and getting their world title. Staying with the AWA was not exactly the right business move for anyone with legitimate career prospects in 1988, though, and Verne Gagne clearly knew that, The AWA paid Hennig his guarantee during a period where they weren't running shows so he could work a full time program with Jerry Lawler in the Memphis territory after their title switch. Eventually, that wasn't enough.

* 23 years ago in 1992, NJPW ran the last show of the G1 Climax tournament/tour at Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo. In the finals, Masahiro Chono defeated "Ravishing" Rick Rude to win not just the trophy, but also the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, which had been vacated a year earlier when Ric Flair was fired. The whole thing was a bit confusing to American fans, as the WCW and NWA titles had never been acknowledged as separate in North America between the WCW title's creation in January 1991 and the announcement of this tournament. They were represented by the same physical belt until Flair took it with him because the NWA wouldn't refund his deposit. They got the belt back after taking legal action,

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The match itself was excellent, and the consensus pick for the best of Rude's career. In 1992, he was on an incredible run as WCW's top heel (Vader was WCW Champion, but Rude was the storyline focus), having great matches with Sting, Ricky Steamboat, and others, including bing a part of countless excellent Dangerous Alliance vs. WCW babyfaces tag team matches. As for Chono, this was a huge deal, as the NWA title still meant a ton in Japan and after the second tournament, he was still the only man to win the G1 Climax.The NWA title would primarily be defended in NJPW for the next several months, not moving to WCW until Feburary 1 993.

* Nine years ago in 2006, ROH ran a show titled Unified in Liverpool, England. The show was built around ROH World Heavyweight Champion "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson defeating ROH Pure Wrestling Champion Nigel McGuinness in a title unification match. The Pure title matches were built around special rules designed to encourage technical matches, and McGuinness had been the best champion to date, using it to facilitate a heel turn where he got heat with simple cheating. At the time, this match was considered one of the best in ROH history and was seen as a star-making performance by McGuinness. Nowadays, not so much.

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McGuinness had initially gotten over well doing British-style technical wrestling during a time where it had become the cool thing on the indie scene. Starting around this time, that started to change, with him embracing a harder hitting, more violent style. Here, there was a sequence where Danielson legitimately yanked him head-first into a ring post over and over until he bled hardway, and later, they did dueling unprotected headbutts running at each other. McGuinness did get a bigger push and eventually a run at ROH Champion, where he raised the bar in terms of risks that wrestlers took in the company.

McGuinness retired in 2011, and while he cites the direct catalyst as a Hepatitis B infection and the subsequent treatment, he's also admitted that he suffered enough long-term neurological damage that he can't remember most of his ROH run. Danielson, now Daniel Bryan in WWE, is out of action indefinitely with WWE doctors refusing to clear him to return from a concussion suffered a few months ago, which would have been, at a minimum, the eighth of his career. While the neurologist who worked the 2015 Super Bowl has cleared him to wrestle and he functions above aver neurologically for someone his age, WWE's doctors refuse to clear him.

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