Today In Wrestling History 8/18: Daniel Bryan Wins WWE Championship, DX Forges Their Alliance, More

* 18 years ago at the Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the WWF ran a somewhat famous live Raw is War show. It was all about the main event, where reluctant partners The Undertaker and Mankind defeated Shawn Michaels and Hunter Hearst Helmsley by disqualification. In the process, Michaels and Triple H solidified their alliance as almost DX. It built to Michaels brutalizing Undertaker with chair shots to the heads, including Undertaker bleeding for the first time. When Undertaker would try to sit up, Michaels would hit him again. It was shocking to see The Undertaker in that shape, and it went a long way in heating up his feud with Michaels. In the end, he finally sat up like a zombie and the heels ran away.

* 17 year old in 1998, independent wrestler Brian "Shane Shamrock" Howser, 23, died in Glen Burnie, Maryland. He was shot fatally by police after a domestic dispute. Police arrived at the home he shared with his girlfriend, Laura Lynn Hamlett, and their 1 year old son after receiving a 911 call from the residence. They immediately heard Hamlett screaming for help, and entered to find the house "ransacked," with Howser backing Hamlett (holding their son) against the dining room wall while in a chair and refusing to move. When the officers told him they were going to handcuff him, he ran to the kitchen, returned with a knife, and was shot after brandishing it " "in a threatening manner" according to police.

The reaction to his death was strange, as Howser was quickly lionized even though nobody was accusing the officer of shooting him without justification. Five days later, the Maryland Championship Wrestling Light Heavyweight Championship was retired with the idea that Shane Shamrock was the lifetime champion, as he had just become the first person to hold the title. The following July, MCW held the first annual Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup, a tradition that continues to this day and was even taken over by ROH for a year when MCW was closed.

Today, it's almost as if nobody remembers how h died, he's just treated as another dead wrestler who must be memorialized for a dead wrestler. It's tragic regardless, and he was in the right age group that he could have suddenly developed some kind of mental illness. Absent more information, though, to fans who remembers the circumstances of his death, it's the most oddly bad taste annual event on the wrestling calendar.

* Two years ago in 2013, WWE had SummerSlam 2013 live on pay-per-view from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It stands as one of the greatest PPV shows in WWE history, if not the best, thanks to th strength of the top three matches.

First, you had Alberto Del Rio defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Christian. The challenger had earned the shot via a series of victories in non-title matches as well as defeating Randy Orton and Rob Van Dam in a triple threat match. On most WWE shows, this would be the best match, and it was one of Del Rio's best bouts in WWE. If you're a fan of Christian and the style of title match he worked as ECW Champion, this was like that, but pushed as more important. Christian was tremendous selling his arm throughout to set up the armbar finish, too.

Next up was the match billed as "The Beast vs. The Best," Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk in a no disqualification match. This was probably the last great match of Punk's career, and it also had th best storyline buildup of any Lesnar match since he returned in 2012. Punk returned from a post-WrestleMania layoff, told Paul Heyman that they were still friends but he didn't need him at ringside like Lesnar did, and found himself being turned on at Money in the Bank. The next night at Barclay's Center, Heyman cut a promo going off on Punk having no family (playing off it being well known by that point that Punk had estranged himself from his blood relatives), no wife (that would change), etc, just the fans, who passionately cheered him throughout. Lesnar came out, they had their first physical confrontation, and Lesnar was left standing.

It was a tremendous match with a simple story, which was Punk being too preoccupied with Heyman and going after him when he had chances to beat Lesnar. Those two facing off had been seen as an inevitability since Heyman started managing Punk a year earlier, so expectations were high, and they sure lived up to them. Until his 2015 WWE Championship defenses, it was pretty clear that this or the 2012 John Cena match were the best since Brock returned. There were a ton of cool touches, including a reenactment of the finish of the first Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre fight, with Punk as Hughes, countering a Kimura into an armbar. In the end, Punk got too overzealous with regards to Heyman and was F5ed on a chair, costing him the match.

Finally, there was John Cena's (Raw) WWE Championship defense against Daniel Bryan. The backstory here is pretty interesting. With Cena having won the title from The Rock at WrestleMania, the idea was to find ways to make it his most epic of his reigns as champion. One of those was having a classic match, and Daniel Bryan was picked as the guy who could have a legitimate classic with Cena. Bryan got big wins, defeating Randy Orton and being the key guy in The Shield's first loss as a trio. The match was supposed to happen at Money in the Bank, but was delayed until SummerSlam to capitalize on Mark Henry being on fire after his retirement fake out.

Then Cena injured his arm and would be missing time. Suddenly, Bryan was a lot more than a placeholder. He gave Cena his classic match, one that was very similar to his best matches as ROH Champion, especially the match with KENTA (Hideo Itami) at ROH's Manhattan Center debut in 2006. Cena was with him every step of the way working a "Bryan" match, and deserves a ton of credit for the performance he put on while hurt. It built and built until Bryan hit KENTA's Busaiku Knee Kick finisher...and got the pin. It probably had to do with not wanting Cena to submit, but they instantly got over a new finisher for Bryan.

Then special referee Triple H turned on Bryan and Randy Orton cashed in Money in the Bank to win the title. It was absolutely the right move business-wise, but it still felt like a gut punch, and not in the right way.