Ted DiBiase's last title win wouldn't come with the WWF, but with All Japan Pro Wrestling 24 years ago today. (photo via wwe.com)
1984: World Class Championship Wrestling presented Labor Day Star Wars from the Tarrant County Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
In the featured bout, the Von Erichs (Kerry and Kevin) defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Terry Gordy, Michael Hayes, and Buddy Roberts) in a Loser Leaves Town handicap match to win the WCCW Six-Man Tag Team Championship.
Mike Von Erich had to sit out the match due to being injured during his bout against Gino Hernandez earlier in the show. Kerry was eliminated first, then Kevin reeled off three eliminations in a row (Hayes, Roberts, and Gordy in that order) to win the match and the titles.
In reality, it was a write-off for the Freebirds; they were heading for the WWF (where they didn't last too long).
1989: In Atlanta, Georgia, The Great Muta defeated Sting in a no disqualification match to win the NWA World Television Championship.
1993: In Tokyo, Japan, Ted DiBiase and Stan Hansen defeated the Holy Demon Army (Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue) to win the All Japan Pro Wrestling Unified World Tag Team Championship.
It would be DiBiase’s last title as an active wrestler. Two months later, DiBiase and Hansen were stripped of the titles so they could be contested in All Japan’s annual World Strongest Tag Determination League. In their opening match against Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger, DiBiase suffered what would be a career-ending neck and back injury. He quietly retired soon after and returned to the United States, where he would turn up as a commentator for the 1994 Royal Rumble.
2006: In Sapporo, Japan, Minoru Suzuki defeated Taiyo Kea to win the All Japan Pro Wrestling Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship.
It’s a happy 30th birthday for Laura Dennis, best known to wrestling fans as Cherry Bomb, though GFW fans may know her by another name: Allie.
Beginning her path to the wrestling business on her 18th birthday, she was given her ring name by her first trainer Rob Etcheverria. She worked for a few Canadian independents, most notably Montreal-based NCW Femme Fatales and Great Canadian Wrestling before regularly competition in the States.
In the States, she's one half of the tag team champions currently for both Shimmer Women Athletes and Shine Wrestling, both with Kimber Lee, known collectively as the Kimber Bombs. Laura also appeared for Combat Zone Wrestling, Ring of Honor, WWE, and TNA. On May 9, 2015, Cherry Bomb ended LuFisto's year-long reign as Women Superstars Uncensored champion.
In March 2016, after a couple of one-off appearances for the promotion, Dennis signed a full-time contract with TNA. In August 2016, she won the TNA Knockouts Championship when she won a five-way match for the title at Impact Wrestling: Turning Point. Her reign was short-lived; she lost the title to Maria Kanellis during the next day’s taping.
Dennis is married to fellow professional wrestler Jesse Guilmette, better known as Pepper Parks. He also competes in GFW as Braxton Sutter. The couple will celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary later this month.
Today would have been the 48th birthday of Marianna Komlos.
Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Komlos began taking up bodybuilding after weighing close to 200 pounds. In 1993, she got into the competitive bodybuilding circuit, eventually winning the British Columbia Championships as a middleweight in 1997. Komlos would appear on the cover of many fitness magazines, including in a span of four months in 1997 Muscle & Fitness, Flex, and Women's Physique World.
In 1999, she entered the WWF as Mrs. Cleveage, the storyline incestuous mother of Beaver Cleavage in one of wrestling's most infamous angles. Following the abrupt killing of that angle, Marianna was portrayed as an abused girlfriend of the former Beaver Cleavage, Chaz Warrington. After it was revealed she was faking the abuse, Komlos was written off and subsequently released. She was diagnosed with breast cancer soon after.
Less than a week after marrying mixed martial artist and stuntman Paul Lazenby, Komlos died of breast cancer on September 26, 2004. She was just 35.