Today In Wrestling History 7/18: Ric Flair Wins 10th World Title, Lance Takes WCW By Storm, & More

* 22 years ago in 1993, WCW held the second annual (and final) Beach Blast pay-per-view event live from the Gulf Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi, a regular stop for Mid-South Wrestling in its heydey. The show was an underwhelming one, and really, it's best known for the big "mini movie" hype video shot for it.

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First of all, the production values were almost distractingly good. Harley Race and Col. Robert Parker hold an odd-looking press conference to announce that Big Van Vader and Sid Vicious will now be a tag team named The Masters of the Powerbomb. So then we cut to "somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico," where Sting and Davey Boy Smith were playing volleyball with children. Parker, Race, and their charges offered them tickets to "the retirement haven of your choice" if they retire on the spot, or else face the consequences at Beach Blast.

So Cheatum, a dwarf with an eyepatch who the heels had hired, wore a fake shark fin as camouflage while he planted a time bomb on the babyfaces' boat. Sting almost got blown up by Davey saved him when a little girl told him about the shenanigans. Hooray! See you at Beach Blast!

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The match was unremarkable except for Vader's first-ever moonsault.

With Vader not defending his title, Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham for Windham's NWA World Heavyweight Title was the biggest singles match on the show. The build-up was good, with ahot angle or two and references to their history together. They had amazing matches in the past and Windham had been really good as champion so expectations were high...but Windham blew his knee out. The match wasn't much at all, falling very flat, including an abrupt finish.

Windham was never the same again, as he lost a lot of the athleticism and physicality that made him one of the best in-ring performers of his generation. Flair won what was referred to as his tenth world title, which was a combination of his seven "canonical" NWA Title reigns from 1981 to 1991, his two WWF Title reigns from 1992, and the new reign started here.

The big surprise of the night saw The Hollywood Blonds (Brian Pillman and Steve Austin) defeating Arn Anderson and Paul Roma of the Four Horsemen to retain the WCW/NWA Unified World Tag Team Titles. From July 7th to July 10th, WCW held their first-ever TV tapings at Disney/MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida, where they shot about three months of TV to start airing in late August. It included Roma and Anderson as champions, so fans who knew about the tapings expected a switch here. Instead, it was set for the next Clash of the Champions...where Lord Steven Regal had to sub for Pillman when he injured his ankle at a TV taping.

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* 21 years ago in 1994, the action in Vince McMahon's steroid distribution trial took place entirely without the jury present. The judge dropped the second and third counts for lack of jurisdiction, something that the defense had argued for a few days earlier. Based on the timeline of steroid deliveries relative to when the WWF had shows in the Eastern District of New York, there was no clear tie to McMahon distributing steroids to Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) in the jurisdiction. The prosecution had argued that precedent stated that the unindicted co-conspirator, Dr. George Zahorian (who was convicted of distribution in 1991) ordering the drugs from a pharmacy in the Eastern District was enough, but the judge didn't buy it.

This just left the conspiracy count for the jury to deliberate on, though the judge could rule on the defense's motion to dismiss it the next day (it was denied). The alleged conspiracy was, essentially, that McMahon allowed Zahorian to distribute steroids in his locker rooms because bigger, more muscular wrestlers would lead to more revenue.

Tomorrow: Arguing over jury instructions.
In two days: Closing arguments.

* 15 years ago in 2000, WCW had a special live Tuesday Nitro show at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Scott Steiner had been stripped of the United States Championship (which WWE recognizes the lineage of for the current WWE U.S. Title) for using the Steiner Recliner after it had been banned, so this Nitro was built around a tournament for the vacant title. Lance Storm defeated Buff Bagwell, Shane Douglas, and Mike Awesome to win the title.

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Storm had just debuted in WCW a month earlier on June 19th, but he was getting a big push from the start, Six days after the U.S. Title win, he defeated Big Vito to win the WCW Harcore Title on Monday Nitro, and seven days after that, he defeated Lieutenant Loco (Chavo Guerrero Jr.) to win the WCW Cruiserweight title. Holding three titles simultaneously was a big deal, even in the Vince Russo era, and it made him look like a star immediately.

That got diminished when he added funny names for each title: The U.S. Title became the Canadian Title, the Hardcore Title became the Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title (think about it), and the Cruiserweight Title became the 100 Kilograms and Under Title. Regardless, it was still a great start for Storm.

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