1975 in professional wrestling

1975 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.

List of notable promotions

These promotions held notable shows in 1975.

Promotion Name	Abbreviation
All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling	AJW
Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre	EMLL
Universal Wrestling Association	UWA

Calendar of notable shows

Date	Promotion(s)	Event	Location	Main Event
January 26	UWA	UWA Debut Show	Mexico City, Mexico	Aníbal (c) defeated René Guajardo in a singles match for the NWA World Middleweight Championship [1]
May 16	NJPW	World League	Tokyo, Japan	Antonio Inoki defeated Killer Karl Krupp
May 24	EMLL	19. Aniversario de Arena México	Mexico City, Mexico	Perro Aguayo defeated Ray Mendoza in a best two-out-of-three falls Lucha de Apuestas hair vs. hair match [2]
September 19		EMLL 42nd Anniversary Show (1)		Los Gemelo Diablos (I and II) defeated Coloso Colosetti and Rubi Rubalcava in a best two out-of-three-falls Lucha de Apuesta hair vs. hair match [3]
September 26		EMLL 42nd Anniversary Show (2)		Perro Aguayo (c) defeated El Santo in a best two-out-of-three falls match for the NWA World Middleweight Championship [4]
October 3		EMLL 42nd Anniversary Show (3)		El Santo defeated Perro Aguayo in a best two-out-of-three falls Lucha de Apuesta Mask vs. Hair match [5]
December 5		Juicio Final		Enrique Vera defeated Alfonso Dantés in a Lucha de Apuestas , hair Vs. mask Vs. hair match; also in the match: El Halcón [6]
December 11	AJPW / IWE / JWA	Rikidozan Memorial Show	Tokyo	Giant Baba & The Destroyer defeated Dory Funk, Jr. & Jumbo Tsuruta
(c) – denotes defending champion(s)

Notable events

• promoter Francisco Flores and wrestler Ray Mendoza break away from Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre and, along with investor Benjamin Mora Jr., create the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA).
• October 8 - WCW Worldwide premiered on television.
• November 18 - Louis Cerdan and Tony Parisi defeat The Blackjacks to become the new WWWF Tag Team Champions.

Accomplishments and tournaments

AJW

Accomplishment	Winner	Date won	Notes
Rookie of the Year Decision Tournament	Yukari Wrench
World League	Jumbo Miyamoto

JCP

Accomplishment	Winner	Date won	Notes
NWA United States Championship Tournament	Terry Funk	November 9

Awards and honors

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

Main article: List of Pro Wrestling Illustrated awards

Category	Winner
PWI Wrestler of the Year	Mr. Wrestling II
PWI Tag Team of the Year	Gene and Ole Anderson
PWI Match of the Year	Bruno Sammartino vs. Spiros Arion
PWI Most Popular Wrestler of the Year	Mil Máscaras
PWI Most Hated Wrestler of the Year	Greg Valentine
PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year	Mike McCord
PWI Rookie of the Year	Ric Flair
PWI Woman of the Year	Ann Casey
PWI Midget Wrestler of the Year	Sky Low Low
PWI Manager of the Year	George Cannon

Championship changes

EMLL

NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship
incoming champion – Dr. Wagner [7]
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
No title change [7]

NWA World Middleweight Championship
Incoming champion – Aníbal
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
May	Vacant	EMLL show
July 4	Perro Aguayo	EMLL show

NWA World Welterweight Championship
Incoming champion – Mano Negra
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
June 29	Blue Demon	EMLL show

Mexican National Heavyweight Championship
Incoming champion - Enrique Vera
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
March 12	Raul Reyes	EMLL show
September 27	El Halcon	EMLL show

Mexican National Middleweight Championship

Incoming champion - Ringo Mendoza

No title changes

Mexican National Lightweight Championship
Incoming champion – Tauro [8]
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
January 18	Dardo Aguilar	EMLL show	[8]
June 1	Tauro	EMLL show	[8]

Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship

Incoming champion – Alfonso Dantes

No title changes

Mexican National Welterweight Championship
Incoming champion – Fishman
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
May 3	Vacant	EMLL show
October 12	Fishman	EMLL show

Mexican National Women's Championship

Incoming champion – Uncertain

No title changes

NWA

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship
Incoming champion – Jack Brisco
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
December 10	Terry Funk	House show

Births

• Date of birth uncertain:
  • Damian Steele (died in 2009)
• January 1 - Kid Romeo
• January 23 - Tito Ortiz
• January 28 - Shark Boy
• January 30 – Dark Ozz
• February 8 – Shane Shamrock (d. 1998)
• February 18 - Charly Manson
• February 22 - Andy Anderson
• March 15 - Lobo
• March 17 – Test (d. 2009)
• April 12 – Cibernético
• April 14 – Lita
• April 15 - Paul E. Normous (d. 2009)
• April 25 - BLK Jeez
• May 6 - Germán Figueroa
• May 8 – Truth Martini
• May 12 - Ricky Ortiz
• May 15:
  • La Parkita (d. 2009)
  • Espectrito II (d. 2009)
• May 17 – Alex Wright
• May 22 – Traci Brooks
• June 2 – Chessman
• June 18 - Darren Wyse
• June 18 - Bam Neely
• July 3 - Johnny Swinger
• July 9 – Shelton Benjamin ^[9]
• July 15 – Cherry
• July 17 :
  • Daffney (died in 2021)
  • UltraMantis Black
  • Yuki Kondo
• July 23 – Drago
• July 24 – Torrie Wilson ^[10]
• July 25 – El Zorro
• August 2 - Blitzkrieg
• August 17 - Palmer Canon
• August 31 - Takahiro Suwa
• September 20 - Joel Gertner
• October 7 – Rhyno
• October 19 - Mrs. Yamaguchi-San
• November 17 – Ranjin Singh
• November 18 - Taiyo Kea
• December 9 - Juggernaut
• December 10 :
  • Steve Bradley (died in 2008)
  • Tomohiro Ishii
• December 17 – Nick Dinsmore
• December 18 – Trish Stratus
• December 31 - Vance Nevada

Debuts

• Uncertain debut date

• Leilani Kai
• Debbie Combs
• Rick McGraw
• Hillbilly Jim
• Yumi Ikeshita (All Japan Women's)

• January 15 - Américo Rocca and Kazuharu Sonoda
• March 19 - Maki Ueda (All Japan Women's)
• April 27 - Jackie Sato
• May 2 - Hubert Gallant
• May 13 - Jake Roberts
• July 17 - Lola Gonzales
• November 11 - Rayo de Jalisco Jr.
• December 24 - Dynamite Kid

Retirements

• Argentina Apollo (1960 – 1975)
• Harold Sakata (1949 – 1975)

Deaths

• January 5 - Ray Morgan (announcer), 60
• February 20 – Bobby Shane, 29
• May 13 - John Bilbo (wrestler), 69
• May 28 - Ezzard Charles, 53
• July 7 - Henri Deglane, 73
• August 19 - Jim Londos, 81
• October 17 - Ron Dupree (wrestler), 40

References

1. "UWA Debut Show". ProWrestlingHistory. January 29, 1975. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
2. L.L. Staff (2008). "Lucha Libre: Conoce la historia de las leyendas de cuadrilátero". Perro Aguayo (1946) (in Spanish). Mexico. p. 44. Grandes Figuras de la Lucha Libre.
3. "42nd Anniversary Show #1". Pro Wrestling History. September 19, 1975. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
4. "42nd Anniversary Show #2". Pro Wrestling History. September 26, 1975. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
5. "42nd Anniversary Show #3". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
6. "EMLL Super Viernes". Wrestling Data. December 5, 1975. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
7. Duncan, Royal; Will, Gary (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Light Heavyweight Title [Lutteroth]". Wrestling title histories: professional wrestling champions around the world from the 19th century to the present (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 389. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4.
8. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Lightweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Pennsylvania: Archeus Communications. p. 393. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4.
9. "OWoW Profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
10. "Model of the Week: Torrie Wilson". askmen.com. Archived from the original on 2008-10-07. Retrieved 2007-11-07.