1996 in professional wrestling

1996 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.

List of notable promotions
These promotions held notable events in 1996.

Mass Transit Incident
The "Mass Transit incident" was an infamous event in professional wrestling that occurred at an Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) house show on November 23, 1996 at the Wonderland Ballroom in Revere, Massachusetts in the United States. It involved Eric Kulas (1979 – May 12, 2002), an aspiring professional wrestler using the ring name "Mass Transit", being bladed too deeply by New Jack of The Gangstas during a tag-team match. Two of Kulas' arteries were severed; he bled profusely and passed out, and needed to be escorted out of the arena with medical attention. Further controversy arose when it came to light that Kulas had lied to ECW owner and booker Paul Heyman about his age and professional wrestling training. The incident led to a future ECW pay-per-view being cancelled (until Heyman negotiated otherwise), a lawsuit from Kulas' family, and went down as one of the most notorious moments of lore in professional wrestling history.

IWRG created
On January 1 – Mexican promoter Adolfo Moreno created the International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG) which held its debut show on this date in Arena Naucalpan.

Formation of the nWo
In the main event of World Championship Wrestling (WCW)'s Bash at the Beach pay-per-view on July 7, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash (both of whom had recently defected to WCW from the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and been presented on-screen as "outsiders") indicated that they would enlist a mystery partner against the team of Randy Savage, Sting, and Lex Luger.

Their partner ended up being Hulk Hogan, who surprisingly attacked long-time Mega Powers partner Savage to conclude the match, thus turning heel for the first time in nearly two decades. In his post-match promo, Hogan indicated his decision to lead the villainous stable which he christened as the New World Order (nWo).

The nWo would be the main focus of WCW programming for the better part of the next three years and led to WCW Monday Nitro defeating WWF Monday Night Raw in the Monday Night War ratings battle for eighty-three consecutive weeks. These developments in WCW are often credited with ultimately pushing the WWF toward producing the "edgier" content which would become the hallmark of the Attitude Era.

Debuts

 * Uncertain debut date
 * Mari Apache
 * Miyuki Okada (SPWF)
 * Rumi Sekiguchi (All Japan Women's)
 * Yoshikazu Taru
 * January 4 - Sayuri Okino (LLPW)
 * March 10 – The Rock
 * March 20 - Masakazu Fukuda
 * April 14 - Aya Koyama (Jd' Star)
 * April 23 - K-Ness
 * April 29 - Rina Ishii (GAEA)
 * May 2 – Sachie Abe
 * May 16 - Adam Pearce
 * July 14 - Momoe Nakanishi and Nanae Takahashi
 * July 28 – Miho Wakizawa and Yachiyo Kawamoto (All Japan Women's)
 * July 30 - Yuko Kosugi (Jd' Star)
 * August 8 - H. C. Loc
 * August 12 – Sakura Hirota
 * September 15 - Fugofugo Yumeji
 * September 16 - Miyuki Fujii (All Japan Women's)
 * October 5 - Nobuyuki Kurashima
 * October 17 - MIKAMI
 * October 20 - Keiichi Kawano
 * November 2 - Tomohiro Ishii
 * November 24 - Miyuki Sogabe (Jd' Star)
 * September 15 – Takashi Sasaki
 * December 28 - Sari Osumi (JWP)

Births

 * February 22 – Rabbit Miu
 * March 15 – Maxwell Jacob Friedman
 * March 20 – Blair Davenport
 * May 11 – Laurance Roman
 * June 2 – Jacy Jayne
 * June 20 – Rhio
 * July 30 – Marko Stunt
 * August 17 – Indi Hartwell
 * October 11 – Rhea Ripley

Retirements

 * Akio Sato (1970–1996)
 * Billy Jack Haynes (1982–1996)
 * Damian Kane (1980–1996)
 * Tom Zenk (1986–October 1996)
 * Tyler Mane (1986–1996)
 * Dick Slater (1972–October 1996)
 * Dynamite Kid (December 24, 1975 – October 10, 1996)
 * Espanto Jr. (1971–January 1996)
 * Jerry Stubbs (1970–1996, return to wrestle for a match in 2019)
 * Mr. Fuji (1965–1996)
 * Steve Regal (1977–1996)
 * Wahoo McDaniel (1961–July 1996)
 * Rocky Iaukea (1981–1996)
 * Tom Lister, Jr. (1989–March 1996)
 * Tiger Conway Jr. (1971–1996)

Deaths

 * January 23 - Art White, 80
 * May 3 – Ray Stevens, 60
 * June 15 – Dick Murdoch, 49
 * June 26 - Octavio Gaona, 94
 * July 20 - The Missouri Mauler, 65
 * July 23 – Herb Abrams, 41
 * August 23 - Neil Superior, 33
 * September 11 – Sapphire, 61