1976 in professional wrestling explained

1976 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.

List of notable promotions

These promotions held notable shows in 1976.

Promotion Name	Abbreviation
	AJW
	EMLL
World Wide Wrestling Federation	WWWF

Calendar of notable shows

Date	Promotion(s)	Event	Location	Main Event
Notes
April 23	EMLL	20. Aniversario de Arena México	Mexico City, Mexico	Fishman defeated El Faraón in a best two-out-of-three falls Lucha de Apuestas mask vs. mask match^[1] ^[2]
May 11	NJPW	World League	Tokyo, Japan	Seiji Sakaguchi defeated Pedro Morales
June 5	BTW	Superbowl of Wrestling	Irving, Texas	Terry Funk (c) wrestled Fritz Von Erich to a double count-out in a singles match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
June 25/26	WWWF	Showdown at Shea	Queens, New York	Bruno Sammartino (c) defeated Stan Hansen by countout in a singles match for the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship^[3]
	NJPW / various	The War of the Worlds	Tokyo, Japan	Muhammad Ali fought Antonio Inoki to a draw in a "Wrestler vs Boxer" Match for the Real World Martial Arts Championship (match broadcast via CCTV to other locations)
			Atlanta, Georgia	Jack Brisco fought Dory Funk Jr. to a draw
			Chicago, Illinois	Nick Bockwinkel (c) fought Verne Gagne to a draw for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship
			Detroit, Michigan	The Sheik fought Pampero Firpo to a no contest
			Houston, Texas	Terry Funk (c) defeated Rocky Johnson to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
			Los Angeles, California
			San Francisco, California	Pat Patterson defeated Mr. Fuji in a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match
September 24	EMLL	EMLL 43rd Anniversary Show	Mexico City, Mexico	El Faraón defeated Perro Aguayo in a best two-out-of-three falls match Lucha de Apuesta mask vs. hair match^[4]
December 19		Juicio Final		Mano Negra defeated Demonio Blanco in a best two-out-of-three falls Lucha de Apuestas, mask Vs. mask match^[5]
(c) – denotes defending champion(s)

Awards and honors

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

See main article: List of Pro Wrestling Illustrated awards.

Category	Winner
PWI Wrestler of the Year	Terry Funk
PWI Tag Team of the Year	The Executioners ( 1 and 2 )
PWI Match of the Year	Bruno Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen
PWI Most Popular Wrestler of the Year	Wahoo McDaniel
PWI Most Hated Wrestler of the Year	Stan Hansen
PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year	Bruno Sammartino
PWI Rookie of the Year	Bob Backlund
PWI Woman of the Year	Sue Green
PWI Midget Wrestler of the Year	Lord Littlebrook
PWI Manager of the Year	Bobby Heenan

Notable Events & incidents

• May 11- The Executioners bested Louis Cerdan and Tony Parisi to become the new WWWF Tag Team Champions.
• Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki
• October 26 - The Executioners were stripped of their WWWF Tag Team Championship when a third executioner was used in their title defense. That third executioner turns out to be Nikolai Volkoff.
• December 7 - Billy White Foot and Chief Jay Strongbow defeated The Executioners and Nikolai Volkoff and Tor Kamata in a three-team tournament to become the new WWWF Tag Team Champions.

Accomplishments and tournaments

AJW

Accomplishment	Winner	Date won	Notes
Rookie of the Year Decision Tournament	Victoria Fujimi
World League	Jackie Sato

Championship changes

EMLL

width=14%	Date	width=26%	Winner	width=14%	Event/Show	width=40%	Note(s)
February 27	Adorable Rubí	EMLL show
July 16	Carlos Plata	EMLL show
October 24	Alfonso Dantés	EMLL show

Incoming champion – Perro Aguayo
width=14%	Date	width=26%	Winner	width=14%	Event/Show	width=40%	Note(s)
October 22	El Faraon	EMLL show

Incoming champion – Blue Demon
width=14%	Date	width=26%	Winner	width=14%	Event/Show	width=40%	Note(s)
January 19	Mano Negra	EMLL show
April 9	Fishman	EMLL show

Incoming champion – El Halcon
No title changes

Incoming champion – Ringo Mendoza
No title changes

Incoming champion – Tauro^[6]
width=14%	Date	width=26%	Winner	width=14%	Event/Show	width=40%	Note(s)
October 30	Flama Azul	EMLL show

Incoming champion – Alfonso Dantes
width=14%	Date	width=26%	Winner	width=14%	Event/Show	width=40%	Note(s)
April 11	Dr. Wagner	EMLL show

Incoming champion – Fishman
width=14%	Date	width=26%	Winner	width=14%	Event/Show	width=40%	Note(s)
April 9	Vacant	EMLL show
July 30	Blue Demon	EMLL show

Incoming champion – Uncertain
No title changes

NWA

Incoming champion – Terry Funk
No title changes

Births

• January 9:
  • Pasión Kristal (d. 2021)
    • • Todd Grisham January 10 - Donovan Morgan January 23 – Nigel McGuinness
    • January 24 - Chikayo Nagashima January 25 - Gorgeous George January 28 - Emiko Kado (d. 1999)
    • February 2 - Dragon Kid February 15 - Yinling February 23 - Muhammad Yone
• February 24 – Monster Clown
• March 6 – Ken Anderson/Mr. Kennedy
• March 16 - Carlos Amano
  • March 18 - Mike Quackenbush March 21 - El Hijo de Cien Caras (d. 2010)
• March 23 - Tyson Tomko
  • • March 28 - Rory McAllister April 8 - Ryuji Ito April 16 – Phil Baroni
• May 9 - Shawn Osborne (died in 2011)
  • May 22 - Yumi Fukawa May 25 – Ricky Banderas
• June 11 - MsChif
  • June 11 - Sonoko Kato June 13 - Sicodelico Jr.
• June 30 - Gilbert Yvel
• July 16 – Bobby Lashley
  • • July 22 - Abdullah Kobayashi August 10 - Amish Roadkill August 15 - The Bruiser (died in 2020)
• September 10 – Matt Morgan
  • September 23 - Yoshinobu Kanemaru September 24:
  • Stephanie McMahon^[7]
    • • April Hunter September 25 - Dr. Heresy October 4 - Emi Sakura
• October 14 - G. Q. Money
  • October 18 - Maybach Taniguchi November 13 – Hiroshi Tanahashi
• November 17- Kikutaro
• November 21 - Cassidy O'Reilly
  • November 22 - Lash LeRoux November 23 – Kristina Laum
• November 25 – Adam Firestorm (d. 2009) http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/information/obituaries/
• November 26 – Maven
• December 17 - Nosawa Rongai
• December 23 – Jamie Noble
• December 27 - Tim Arson (d. 2015) http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/information/obituaries/

Debuts

• Uncertain debut date

• Bret Hart

• Kevin Von Erich

• Barry Orton

• Ricky Steamboat

• Ken Wayne

• Brett Sawyer
• March 5 - Mach Hayato (UWF)
• March 13 - Scott Irwin
• May - Bobby Eaton and Nancy Kumi (All Japan Women's)
• May 24 - Super Parka
• May 30 - Victoria Fujimi (All Japan Women's)
• November 13 - Genichiro Tenryu

Retirements

• Mitsu Arakawa (1953 – 1976)
• Bob Geigel (1950 – 1976)
• George Gordienko (1946 – 1976)
• Danny Hodge (1959-1976, wrestled one match in 1983)
• Stan Kowalski (1948 – 1976)
• Betty Niccoli (1963 – 1976)
• Antonino Rocca (1942 – 1976)
• Hans Schmidt (1949 – 1976)
• Kinji Shibuya (1952 – 1976)

Deaths

• April 21 - Sir Dudley Clements, 28
• May 20 - Bobby Pearce (rower), 70
• June 11 - Toots Mondt, 82
• July 27 - Sam Bass (wrestler), 41
• September 26 - Sheik Ali, 49
• November 10 - Al Haft, 89

Notes and References

1. News: Luchas 2000 . Fisman y sus Victimas . Publicaciones citem, S.A. de C.V. . . Especial 30 . 28–31. Spanish.
2. News: Enciclopedia de las Mascaras . El Faraón . . Tomo II . 23 . August 2007. Spanish.
3. Book: Cawthon, Graham. The History of Professional Wrestling: The Results WWF 1963–1989. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. 2013. 978-1-4928-2597-5. 191.
4. News: Luchas 2000. Perro Aguayo y sus Victimas. Publicaciones citem, S.A. de C.V.. Juárez, Mexico. Especial 30. 12–15. Spanish.
5. News: Enciclopedia de las Mascaras. Mano Negra. Mexico City, Mexico. Tomo III. 20. October 2007. Spanish.
6. Book: Royal Duncan and Gary Will. Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. Pennsylvania. Mexico: National Lightweight Title. 393. 2000. 0-9698161-5-4.
7. Web site: Stephanie McMahon Profile. May 1, 2008. Online World of Wrestling. July 30, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120730035237/http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/s/stephanie-mcmahon.html. dead.