1977 in professional wrestling

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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

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

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

Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship
incoming champion – Alfonso Dantés^[5]
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]

Date	Winner	Event/Show
NWA World Middleweight Championship
Incoming champion – El Faraón
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

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

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

Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
Mexican National Lightweight Championship
Incoming champion – Flama Azul^[6]
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

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

Mexican National Women's Championship
Incoming champion – Uncertain
No title changes

NWA

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

Tournaments

IWE

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

Births

Date of birth uncertain:
- Prince Nana
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 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
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

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

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e 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.
^ "44th Anniversary Show #1". Pro Wrestling History. September 29, 1977. Retrieved September 23, 2012.
^ "44th Anniversary Show #2". Pro Wrestling History. September 30, 1977. Retrieved September 23, 2012.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ ^a ^b Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Lightweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Pennsylvania: Archeus Communications. p. 393. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
^ "Bobby Roode (@RealBobbyRoode)". Twitter. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
^ "Bobby Roode (@RealBobbyRoode)". Twitter. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
^ "Biography for Brock Lesnar". IMDB.com. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
^ "Online World of Wrestling: Jeff Hardy". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved October 8, 2007.
^ "Hunico". Online World of Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2011-11-07. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
^ "Antonino Rocca Dies At 56". Classic Wrestling Articles. Classic Wrestling Articles. Retrieved 8 August 2015.

[NWALHeavy-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.

[EMLL44-1-2] "44th Anniversary Show #1". Pro Wrestling History. September 29, 1977. Retrieved September 23, 2012.

[EMLL44-2-3] "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.

[NWALHeavy2-5] 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.

[MexLight-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.

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