Today In Wrestling History 7/27: Low-Ki Becomes First ROH Champion, Gordon Solie Passes Away, & More
* 18 years ago in 1997, UFC 14: Showdown was held at the Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama, a legendary pro wrestling venue. The main event featured a landmark moment in MMA history with a sometimes pro wrestler, as Maurice Smith defeated Mark Coleman by unanimous decision to win the UFC Heavyweight Title.
A legendary kickboxer, Smith had been a pro wrestler on and off in Japan for years in shoot-style promotions like the UWF. He went on to pseudo-MMA style fights in Pancrase when that promotion up before going onto early, limited rules MMA with a shocking title win in the Extreme Fighting Championship over heavyweight Brazillian jiu jitsu expert Marcus "Conan" Silveira. EFC went out of business, so the Coleman fight was an unofficial unification match.
Strikers had done badly in MMA up to that point, especially against great wrestlers. Smith, however, was much more talented and intelligent than most strikers in the UFC so far. H formed "The Alliance" with Frank Shamrock and pro wrestler turned fighter Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, where they absorbed each other's knowledge in other disciplines. With his newfound defense on the ground, Smith wore out Coleman on the ground, picked him apart standing when he was too tired to hit takedowns, and that got him the title.
* 15 years ago in 2000, "The Dean of Wrestling Announcers,' Gordon Solie, passed away due to complications from throat cancer. Long considered the greatest wrestling announcer of all time, the consensus has started to shift over the years, thanks in part to both Jim Ross's ascendance to the voice of the WWF during its hottest period and the Memphis wrestling that Lance Russell called becoming destigmatized. Still, he was an excellent announcer for a long time, and is likely seen as less than he should be because his most visible run was late in his life.
His peak was in the '70s as the voice of both Championship Wrestling from Florida and Georgia Championship Wrestling. The former also aired in some scattered markets outside of the state, most notably New York, while the latter was available to anyone in the United States with cable TV starting in 1076. He had a very dry style where he got over how all of the holds worked and where they applied pressure, but he was also excellent at getting over angles and playing the Howard Cosell to Dusty Rhodes' Muhammad Ali.
He started to get worse in the early '80s, more prone to cliches and forgetting names. He still had his moments, though, as when WCW brought him back to TBS in 1989, he did an incredible job as Jim Ross's partner for the Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk "I quit" match at Clash of the Champions IX. He stuck around until 1995, when he left WCW largely because he was frustrated that they inducted John Studd into their hall of fame after his doctor went on ABC and said his steroid use contributed to his death from Hodgkin's Lymphoma. In late 1999, Solie was set to call the infamous Heroes of Wrestling pay-per-view, but bowed out after the cancer diagnosis.
* 13 years ago in 2002, Ring of Honor promoted their sixth card, "Crowning a Champion," at the Murphy Rec Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show was built around, well, crowning the first ROH Champion. On the previous show, Road to the Title, they they held the first two rounds of a tournament where each each bracket winner (where they had to win two matches in one night) went to the finals at Crowning a Champion, which was a 60 minute four-way iron man match.
The finalists in the match were Low-Ki, Christopher Daniels, Spanky (Brian Kendrick), and British indie standout "Anarchist" Doug Williams. Instead of just scoring the match with the usual one fall = one point system, a wrestler would get two points for winning a fall but could also lose a point if he lost a fall. Daniels pinned Low-Ki, Low-Ki submitted Spanky, and then Low-Ki also submitted Doug Williams, giving him the win and the title. The booking also made Daniel look strong because he was the first wrestler to pin Low-Ki in ROH while also being the only wrestler in the match not to drop a fall.
After the match, Low-Ki, who had dropped at least several pounds of water weight going 60 in a non-air conditioned rec center, did a backstage promo where he dedicated the win to Russ Haas. Haas (and his brother Charlie) had come up with Low-Ki through the northeast indies before going to WWE developmental, where Russ died of a congenital heart defect.
Low-Ki had been positioned as the clear top star in ROH going into the show so it was natural that he won the title. He didn't hold it long, though, and ROH took the title in a different direction by having him drop it to Xavier in September. Xavier was very much a clear heel, and while a super talented performer, the ROH fans back then were fickle and really into the idea that he wasn't good enough for ROH, much less being their champion. In the end, that just played into him being heel champion, and he was honestly more effective than Low-Ki would have been until Samoa Joe destroyed him to start his famous long title reign.