July 4th has always been an important date in pro wrestling and its fans.
These are just a few things that made history in Pro Wrestling on July 4th. The WarGames match was a gimmick match used originally in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and later held annually in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), usually at their Fall Brawl pay-per-view event in September. The match usually involved two teams of four wrestlers locked inside a steel cage that encompassed two rings. The first War Games match took place on July 4, 1987, when the Road Warriors (Road Warrior Hawk and Road Warrior Animal), Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, and Paul Ellering defeated The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, Tully Blanchard, and James J. Dillon) at 22:10 when the Road Warriors forced Dillon to submit after a Doomsday Device where he landed awkwardly on his right arm.
In mid-1993, after Hulk Hogan’s departure from the company, Luger was transformed from a heel to a “mega-face” with the nicknames “Made in the USA” and “The All-American”. On July 4, he took part in a memorable event where he arrived (by a red helicopter) on the deck of the USS Intrepid and body slammed the near 600 pound WWF Champion Yokozuna after a number of other athletes, both inside the WWF and out, attempted and failed. Following this he began the “Lex Express” tour, traveling the country in a Red, White, and Blue painted bus to greet fans and to “campaign” for a shot at the WWF Title, thus beginning a feud with the champion Yokozuna. Luger got his shot at SummerSlam 1993.
On the July 4, 2002 edition of SmackDown!, Hulk Hogan teamed with Edge to defeat Billy and Chuck and capture the WWE World Tag Team Championship for the first time. They celebrated by waving the American flag as the overjoyed audience sang along to Hogan’s theme song “Real American. The Great American Bash ppv always had a july 4th theme to it also.
July 4th and pro wrestling has always gone together great and they have had been some awesome shows and ppv’s on the 4th of July.
Happy 4th of July to all our fans in the United States.
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