1977 in professional wrestling

1977 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.

List of notable promotions

Only one promotion held notable shows in 1977.

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

Calendar of notable shows

Date	Promotion(s)	Event	Location	Main Event
April 27	EMLL	21. Aniversario de Arena México	Mexico City, Mexico	Alfonso Dantés defeated Chavo Guerrero (c) in a singles match for the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship [1]
May 11	NJPW	World League	Tokyo, Japan	Seiji Sakaguchi defeated The Masked Superstar
September 23	EMLL	EMLL 44th Anniversary Show (1)	Mexico City, Mexico	Fishman defeated Sangre Chicana in a Lucha de Apuesta mask vs. mask vs. mask match; also in the match: El Cobarde [2]
September 30		EMLL 44th Anniversary Show (2)		Fishman defeated El Cobarde in a Lucha de Apuesta mask vs. mask match [3]
December 9		Juicio Final		El Faraón and Ringo Mendoza defeated Joe Palardy and Perro Aguayo in a Lucha de Apuestas , hair Vs. hair match [4]
(c) – denotes defending champion(s)

Notable events

• April 30 – At the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. Superstar Billy Graham used both feet on the ropes to pin Bruno Sammartino to become the World Wide Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion.
• September 27 – Mr. Fuji and Professor Tanaka defeated Tony Garea and Larry Zbyszko to win the vacant World Wide Wrestling Federation Tag Team Champions in an elimination tournament.

Accomplishments and tournaments

AJW

Accomplishment	Winner	Date won	Notes
Rookie of the Year Decision Tournament	Yukie Urushibara (Lucy Kayama)
World League	Yumi Ikeshita

Awards and honors

1977 PWI Wrestler of the Year, Dusty Rhodes

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

Main article: List of Pro Wrestling Illustrated awards

Category	Winner
PWI Wrestler of the Year	Dusty Rhodes
PWI Tag Team of the Year	Gene and Ole Anderson
PWI Match of the Year	Bruno Sammartino vs. Superstar Billy Graham
PWI Most Popular Wrestler of the Year	André the Giant
PWI Most Hated Wrestler of the Year	Ken Patera
PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year	Bob Backlund
PWI Rookie of the Year	Ricky Steamboat
PWI Manager of the Year	The Grand Wizard
PWI Announcer of the Year	Gordon Solie

Championship changes

EMLL

NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship
incoming champion – Alfonso Dantés [5]
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
February 11	Chavo Guerrero	WWA show	[1]
March 13	Roddy Piper	WWA show	[1]
March 15	Chavo Guerrero	WWA show	[1]
April 21	Alfonso Dantés	EMLL show	[1]

NWA World Middleweight Championship
Incoming champion – El Faraón
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
March 11	Perro Aguayo	EMLL show
July 3	Ringo Mendoza	EMLL show
October 12	Joe Plardy	EMLL show
November 25	El Faraon	EMLL show

NWA World Welterweight Championship

Incoming champion – Mano Negra

No title changes

Mexican National Heavyweight Championship
Incoming champion – El Halcon
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
March 13	Gran Markus	EMLL show
June 24	El Halcon	EMLL show
December 18	Raul Mata	EMLL show

Mexican National Middleweight Championship
Incoming champion – Ringo Mendoza
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
February 28	Perro Aguayo	EMLL show
March 11	Vacant	EMLL show
April 14	José Luis Mendieta	EMLL show
November 19	Sangre Chicana	EMLL show

Mexican National Lightweight Championship
Incoming champion – Flama Azul [6]
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
April 10	Americo Rocca	EMLL show	[6]
July 1	Flama Azul	EMLL show
September 21	Mario Valenzuela	EMLL show

Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship

Incoming champion – Dr. Wagner

No title changes

Mexican National Welterweight Championship
Incoming champion – Blue Demon
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
February 27	Fishman	EMLL show
September 26	Kung Fu	EMLL show

Mexican National Women's Championship

Incoming champion – Uncertain

No title changes

NWA

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship
Incoming champion – Terry Funk
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
February 6	Harley Race	House show

Tournaments

IWE

Accomplishment	Winner	Date won	Notes
IWA World Series	Rusher Kimura	March 26

Births

John Cena

• January 7 - Dustin Diamond (died in 2021)
• January 16 – Máscara Año 2000 Jr.
• January 17 – Kevin Fertig
• February 15 - Gran Naniwa (died in 2010)
• February 20 – Gail Kim
• February 24 - Floyd Mayweather Jr.
• February 28 - Lance Archer
• February 28 - Aaron Aguilera
• March 8 - Michael Tarver
• March 20:
  • Caprice Coleman
  • Homicide
• March 24 – Inquisidor
• March 26 – Sylvain Grenier
• March 31 - Allison Danger
• April 4 - Stephan Bonnar (died in 2022)
• April 13 – Christian York
• April 19 - Jonny Storm
• April 20 - Jon Hugger
• April 23 – John Cena
• April 29 – Titus O'Neil
• May 9 – Averno
• May 11 – Bobby Roode ^{[7] [8]}
• May 21 - Micah Taylor (died in 2024)
• May 23 – Alan Stone
• May 25 – Alberto Del Rio
• June 1 - James Storm
• June 2 – A.J. Styles
• June 25 – Layla El
• June 26 – Mark Jindrak
• July 1 – Jocephus (died in 2021)
• July 5:
  • Kei Sato
  • Shu Sato
• July 12 – Brock Lesnar ^[9]
• July 19 - Tony Mamaluke
• August 1:
  • Yoshi Tatsu
  • Prince Nana
• August 4 – Frankie Kazarian
• August 31 – Jeff Hardy ^[10]
• September 4 – Awesome Kong
• September 5:
  • Sin Cara ^[11]
  • Minoru Fujita
• September 7 – Molly Holly
• September 8 - X-Fly
• September 10 - Mike DiBiase (born 1977)
• September 11 - Josette Bynum
• September 25 - Atsushi Aoki (died in 2019)
• October 3 - Danny Basham
• October 20 - Steve Anthony
• November 15 -Cima
• November 20 – Dan Engler
• December 10 - Essa Rios
• December 12 - The Butcher
• December 14 - Brain Damage (died in 2012)
• December 18 - The Messiah
• December 28 - Xavier (died in 2020)

Debuts

• Uncertain debut date

• Michael Hayes
• Moondog Spot
• One Man Gang
• Nightmare Danny Davis
• Joe Malenko
• Brutus Beefcake
• B. Brian Blair
• The Grappler
• Tito Santana
• Gary Young
• Mami Kumano (All Japan Women)
• Lucy Kayama (All Japan Women)

• February 10 - George Takano
• June 11 - David Von Erich
• August 10 - Hulk Hogan
• September 5 - Tomi Aoyama (All Japan Women)
• October 23 - Bad News Brown
• November 8 - Takashi Ishikawa

Retirements

• Penny Banner (1954–1977)
• Octavio Gaona (1934–1977)

Deaths

• January 28 - George Bollas, 53
• March 15 - Antonino Rocca, ^[12] 55
• July 1 - Karl Davis (wrestler), 69
• July 28 - Bull Ortega, 55
• August 27 - Billy Riley, 81
• September 27 - Roy Welch, 75
• October 8 - Joe Greenstein, 84

References

1. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Light Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 389. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4.
2. "44th Anniversary Show #1". Pro Wrestling History. September 29, 1977. Retrieved September 23, 2012.
3. "44th Anniversary Show #2". Pro Wrestling History. September 30, 1977. Retrieved September 23, 2012.
4. Centinela, Teddy (December 2, 2015). "En un día como hoy... 1977: El Faraón destrona a Joe Polardi — Halcón Ortiz rapa a Herodes". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). Retrieved October 30, 2019.
5. 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.
6. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Lightweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Pennsylvania: Archeus Communications. p. 393. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4.
7. "Bobby Roode (@RealBobbyRoode)". Twitter . Retrieved January 1, 2015.
8. "Bobby Roode (@RealBobbyRoode)". Twitter . Retrieved January 1, 2016.
9. "Biography for Brock Lesnar". IMDB.com. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
10. "Online World of Wrestling: Jeff Hardy". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved October 8, 2007.
11. "Hunico". Online World of Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2011-11-07. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
12. "Antonino Rocca Dies At 56". Classic Wrestling Articles. Classic Wrestling Articles. Retrieved 8 August 2015.