Today In Wrestling History 7/19: Vince McMahon Trial Continues, 1993 Match Of The Year, & More

* WWE has more Summer traditions than just SummerSlam. One lesser-known one was the annual "tent rour" that took them to small, semi-outdoor shows in New England. 23 years ago in 1992, they did a triple shot where they got the entire tent tour done in one day. Presumably, this was because the next two days featured TV tapings elsewhere in New England. Since everyone was in town for TV, including at least one wrestler who wasn't working house shows, the fans got three distinct shows from separate crews that day.

The Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, Massachusetts drew a sold out crowd of 2,800 for a show headlined by Money Inc. vs. The Natural Disasters and Ric Flair vs. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. The show also included The Samoans (The Headshrinkers, who had not debuted on TV yet) defeating the Bushwhackers and Latin Fury (Konnan) defeating Pete Doherty in what was likely a giant style clash. Konnan was still working full time in Mexico and only going to the WWF for TV tapings, but clearly he was being used because he was already in town. The idea was to build him into the WWF's Latino star with an elaborate robot costume for his entrance over ring gear that was eventually used by Paul Diamond as Max Moon (Konnan was never Max Moon on TV. It was always Diamond).

In Bangor, Maine at the Civic Auditorium, the show was headlined by The Ultimate Warrior vs. Papa Shango and The Undertaker vs. The Berzerker. In Warwick, Rhode Island at the Musical Theatre, Randy Savage defeated Shawn Michaels to retain the WWF Championship in the main event in what was likely an excellent match, as they had a few strong efforts in Europe around that time. The card also included Kamala vs. Jim Brunzell, who was still working some shows as a preliminary wrestler and came out to the Young Stallions old "Crank It Up" entrance music. In what was likely a good opener, The Genius defeated local wrestler Bob Bradley.

* 22 years ago in 1993, the WWF taped two weeks of Monday Night Raw at the Manhattan Center's Grand Ballroom in New York, New York. The live show was highlighted by Marty Jannetty getting a shot at Shawn Michaels to try to regain the Intercontinental Championship, which they had traded in May and June. The match went 23 minutes and was one of the best in the early history of Raw, winning Match of the Year in Pro Wrestling Illustrated for 1993. They went to a commercial with a tease that Jannetty won the title after about five minutes, but during the break, Diesel and Bobby Heenan showed the referee that the replay revealed Michaels' foot on the bottom rope. They had a lengthy match after the restart with Michaels retaining after Jannetty missed a cross body block.

The show also featured one of the more oddly memorable celebrity angles in Raw history, when Tiny Tim appeared on Jerry Lawler's King's Court segment. Tiny Tim was, for those too young to know who he was, a ukulele-playing novelty musician who was famous enough to have gotten married on Johnny Carson's version of The Tonight Show in front of 40 million viewers. Here, Lawler freaked out when Tim called him "Dairy Queen" and broke his ukulele, which they claimed was the original he'd had for decades.

The second show was highlighted by a 17 minute Bret Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow match. They had been having great matches around the horn and this was no exception. Hart's parents, Stu and Helen, were watching in the balcony, and with Bret in the middle of his feud with Jerry Lawler, Lawler went into the crowd to interview/insult them, Lawler insulting Stu and Helen did, of course, become a key element of his character for the next two years. Bret lost by count out when he abandoned the match to beat the hell out of Lawler.

* 21 years ago in 1994, the two sides in Vince McMahon's steroid distribution trial went over jury instructions in a federal courtroom in Uniondale, New York. The judge shot down the prosecution's request to tell the jury that one may be guilty of conspiracy even if he or she didn't know everything about it, saying that "A person may know a criminal without being a criminal." The judge told the defense that the phrase "prove beyond a reasonable doubt" would be used as much as possible. The defense asked for a change of some kind in the wording, but the judge said "That would be at best irrelevant, at worst misleading."

Defense attorney Jerry McDevitt then argued that a doctor like George Zahorian (McMahon's unindicted co-conspirator who had been convicted of distribution three years earlier) could prescribe drugs to patients however he or she wanted. The judge then asked McDevitt that if h were at a baseball game with a friend who happened to be a doctor, and the doctor offered drugs for money without inquiring about his health, would that be a legitimate doctor/patient relationship? McDevitt said it was, and the judge did not agree, to say the least.

Tomorrow: Closing arguments.

* 11 years ago in 2004, the Pride Fighting Championships held Pride Bushido 4 at Rainbow Hall in Nagoya, Japan. The card included a battle of name pro wrestlers, as Takashi Sugiura of Pro Wrestling Noah defeated former WWF, CMLL, and NJPW star Giant Silva. Silva, while much bigger and not a bad athlete for an older athlete his size, was no match for Sugiura, who was an excellent amateur wrestler that patterned himself after Kurt Angle as a pro. You can guess who the fight went from there.