This Day In Wrestling History- December 17th

Firstly I’d like to wish all of my fellow Jewish readers a very happy 1st night of Hanukah. May you all have a very nice, safe, & blessed night!

Trivia:

1979– Hulk Hogan made his Madison Square Garden debut

Events

1994 – ECW held their “Holiday Hell” show at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here are the results:

– Stevie Richards defeated JT Smith
– Dean Malenko defeated Ray Odyssey
– Chris Benoit defeated Hack Myers
– 911 defeated The Pitbulls in a Handicap match
– Mikey Whipwreck defeated Don E. Allen
– Tommy Dreamer & Cactus Jack defeated Tommy Cairo & The Sandman
– ECW World Champion Shane Douglas defeated Ron Simmons
– ECW World Tag Team Champions The Public Enemy defeated Sabu & Taz

In 1995, WWF In Your House 5: Seasons Beatings was held in Hershey, Pennsylvania:

Dark Match:
– Savio Vega defeated Bob Backlund
PPV:
– Razor Ramon & Marty Jannetty defeated The 1-2-3 Kid & Sycho Sid
– Ahmed Johnson defeated Buddy Landel (subbing for Dean Douglas) after the Pearl River Plunge. Prior to the match, Jerry Lawler presented Jeff Jarrett with a gold record for his country album, “Ain’t I Great?”. Jarrett was guest commentator for the match. After the match, Jarrett attacked Johnson with the gold record
– Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Henry Godwinn in an Arkansas Hog Pen Match with Hillbilly Jim as special guest referee
– Owen Hart defeated Diesel via DQ
– The Undertaker defeated King Mabel in a Casket Match
– Bret Hart defeated The British Bulldog to retain the WWF Title

In dark matches after the broadcast:
– Goldust defeated Duke Droese
– WWF Tag Team Champions The Smokin’ Gunns (Billy and Bart), Hakushi, & Barry Horowitz defeated The Bodydonnas (Skip & Zip), Yokozuna, & Isaac Yankem DDS

In 2000, the final WCW Starrcade was held in Washington DC:

– Terry Funk defeated Crowbar to win the WCW Hardcore Title
– General Rection defeated Shane Douglas via DQ to retain the WCW United States Title
– The Insiders (Kevin Nash & Diamond Dallas Page) defeated The Perfect Event (Chuck Palumbo & Shawn Stasiak) to win the WCW Tag Team Titles
– Goldberg defeated Lex Luger in a No Holds Barred Match
– Scott Steiner defeated Sid Vicious to retain the WCW World Title

In 2006, WWE Armageddon  was held in Richmond, Virginia. The event was billed as Smackdown-exclusive, though some Raw superstars did appear:

– Paul London & Brian Kendrick defeated William Regal & Dave Taylor, MNM (Joey Mercury & Johnny Nitro) & The Hardys (Matt & Jeff) in a Ladder Match to retain the WWE Tag Team Titles
– Chris Benoit defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr. to retain the WWE United States Title
– Gregory Helms defeated Jimmy Wang Yang to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Title
– The Undertaker defeated Mr Kennedy in a Last Ride Match
– Batista & John Cena defeated Finlay & King Booker

Title Changes

1906 – Frank Gotch defeated Fred Beel in Kansas City, Missouri to win the American Heavyweight Title for the third time. Gotch would go on to defeat George Hackenschmidt 2 years later to unify the belt with the World Heavyweight Title

1968 – Fritz von Erich & Dan Miller defeated The Spoiler & Gary Hart to win the WCCW American Tag Team Titles

1970 – Kim III & Oak Song defeated Rufus R. Jones & Gorgeous George Jr to win the vacant Texas Tag Team Titles

1978 – Bull Ramos & Tiger Conway Jr. defeated Mark Lewin & Karl Krupp (subbing for The White Knight) to win the Texas Tag Team Titles

1977 – The Hollywood Blondes (Jack Evans & Larry Sharpe) defeated Carlos Colon & Victor Jovica for the WWC North American Tag Team Title in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the same event, Jose Rivera & Invader I defeated The Samoans (Afa & Sika) for the WWC World Tag Team Title, & Joe Novak defeated Hercules Ayala for the WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Title.

1979 – Bob Backlund defeated Bobby Duncum in a Texas Death Match to win the vacant WWF Title

1995 – Dr Wagner Jr defeated Atlantis to win the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Title

1999 – Masato Tanaka defeated Mike Awesome to win the ECW World Title

1999 – Team Extreme (Kit Carson & Khris Germany) defeated Murder Inc. (Kevin Northcutt & Jimmy James) to win the NWA Tag Team Titles

2005 – Austin Aries & Roderick Strong defeated Sal Rinauro & Tony Mamaluke to win the ROH Tag Team Titles

Birthdays

Happy birthday to one-time World Tag Team Champion Nick ‘Eugene’ Dinsmore (38), UK indy star Lionheart (31), & one-time AJPW All Asia Tag Team Champion NOSAWA (37)