Body Slam Brigade # 63 – Remember When

By Ryan Joy
Updated: July 17, 2021
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Body Slam Brigade # 63 – Remember When

July 16, 2021

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Things are busy in the world of wrestling!

But as always, here are 5 things I’m thinking about as pertains to pro wrestling this week. I’m combining each of the five things with a historical perspective on the subject. . . hence the subject line “Remember When.”

Hope you enjoy!

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1. A New FTW Champion!
Ricky Starks became just the fourth man to hold the FTW Championship (on a broadcasted television show) when he defeated Brian Cage at AEW’s Fyter Fest Night 1.

Taz introduced the FTW Championship back in 1998, and I recorded the brief history of the championship in this twitter thread.

Non recognized titles definitely have their place. As a kid, I loved it whenever someone forced Ted DiBiase into defending his Million Dollar Championship – and I love what WWE is doing with that title on NXT today.

John D’Aconti and I discussed the FTW Championship on episode 128 of the Daily Wrestling News Show if you want to hear more about it.

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2. The Texas Death Match
The Texas Death Match has been around for A LONG TIME, and we’re going to see another one next week when Lance Archer challenges Jon Moxley for the IWGP United States Championship.

The Texas Death Match is traditionally similar to a last man standing match, and if you would like to see Dory Funk Jr. explain the rules check out this clip from 1981.

Moxley defeated Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match in Tokyo on January 4, 2020 to win the IWGP United States Championship. This time, the match will actually occur in Texas (Lance Archer’s home state).

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3. Slammiversary
This weekend marks the 19th anniversary of Impact Wrestling as they hold one of their signature events: Slammiversary.

The company has gone through numerous ownership and name changes in the last two decades, but they’ve always been a creative alternative to WWE.

Due to the event taking place about 90 days after WWE’s post-Wrestlemania staffing purge, Slammiversary has also become known for it’s surprises.

Eric Young, The Good Brothers, and Heath Slater (who had all just been released by WWE) made surprise appearances on the show last year. Young even competed for the Impact World Championship that night.

Impact’s current cross over with AEW has Kenny Omega defending the Impact World Championship against Sami Callihan in this year’s main event.

Impact made their first anniversary show (not yet called Slammiversary) available via their You Tube channel last month. Chris Sabin is the only wrestler who competed on that first anniversary show that will also be competing at this year’s Slammiversary. You can watch that first anniversary show here.

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4. NWA Returns to St. Louis at the Chase Hotel
The modern NWA under Billy Corgan will run a series of events next month from the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis. They kick things off with an all women’s PPV called Empowerrr on 8/28 followed by NWA 73 on 8/29, and Powerrr tapings on 8/30 and 8/31.

St. Louis has always been a great wrestling town. The Chase Hotel was the home of St. Louis wrestling from 1959 through 1983. Toward the end of that 1983 run, Bruiser Brody and Ric Flair drew a huge crowd.

In February of 1983, 16,675 people packed the Checker Dome (8 minutes away from the Chase) in St. Louis to watch King Kong Brody (Bruiser Brody) challenge Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in a 2 out of 3 falls match.

Here’s a link to watch that match on You Tube.

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5. Money in the Bank
It feels like WWE has been stalling storylines and holding back key superstar returns for a moment when everything can happen in front of a live audience.

That day is upon us, and WWE appears to be well positioned to deliver.

Money in the Bank is a perfect event to give someone a monster push (Big E, Liv Morgan, Zelina Vega, Ricochet, Riddle, etc.) and the proximity to SummerSlam makes it the right time for key returns (John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Becky Lynch).

It’s time for a major shift and a new chapter in WWE’s history. I’ll be watching Smackdown and Money in the Bank very closely.

In the meantime, WWE actually has quite a few Money in the Bank Ladder matches available for free on You Tube. Here’s a link to a bunch of them.

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Finally, I was saddened to hear of the passing of WWE Hall of Famer Paul Orndorff.

Mr. Wonderful (as he was known) managed to draw 65,000 people to a house show in Toronto in 1986 where he challenged Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship.

It’s an incredible achievement when you consider that this was only a house show. The match wasn’t even advertised outside the local market.

WWE paid tribute to Orndorff with this video.

Have A Great Weekend!

Ryan

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