• On This Day In Pro Wrestling History (July 16, 1994) – Heatwave 1994
On this day in Pro Wrestling history on July 16, 1994, ECW hosted “Heatwave 1994: The Battle for The Future” in the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The debut edition and first ever annual Extreme Championship Wrestling Heatwave event saw 2 main events including a Heavyweight Title defense and a Barbed Wire Tag Team match.
Shane Douglas had to defend his ECW Heavyweight Championship (not yet considered a “World Title”!) against #1 contender “The Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal, Death–Defying Maniac” Sabu, while Old School NWA Legends & former NWA World Heavyeight Champions Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. wrestled Public Enemy in a brutal Barbed Wire match.
Here are the complete results from that night:
Axl Rotten & Ian Rotten def. Hack Meyers & Rockin’ Rebel
ECW Television Championship
Mikey Whipwreck def. Chad Austin via DQ
Tommy Dreamer def. Stevie Richards
Mr. Hughes def. Tommy Dreamer
Sabu & Tazmaniac def. The Pitbulls
Dueling canes match
The Sandman def. Tommy Cairo
ECW Heavyweight Championship
Shane Douglas def. Sabu via Countout
Barbed Wire match
Public Enemy def. Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk
• Former WWF Tag Team Champion Passes Away
Old School WWF/NWA/AWA Legend “Mr. Saito” Masa Saito (Real name: Saito Masanori) passed away 2 days ago on July 14th 2018 at the age of 76 due to complications of Parkinson’s disease.
Saito won the World Wrestling Federation Tag Team titles on 2 occasions with his Tag Partner, the late great Mr. Fuji.
He had successful runs in a lot of different promotions over the years, but his biggest claim to fame is probably the infamous McDonalds incident, where he and Ken Patera got arrested in 1984.
As a former 2 time World Tag Team Champion, one would assume that WWE would pay some sort of tribute (at least a graphic?) for him, but knowing the new modern day PG era WWE and how they treat their legends & veterans, that most likely ain’t gonna happen.
REST IN PEACE MR. SAITO!
