This Day In Wrestling History – November 29th

Happy birthday, JBL!

Happy birthday, Mean Gene!

1998 – Two-time tag team champion in Stampede Wrestling, Giant Haystacks, passes away at the age of 51, after battling lymphoma.

1999 – In the Monday Night Wars, WWF Raw Is War (6.5 TV rating) earns more than double the rating for WCW Monday Nitro (3.1 rating).  On Nitro, Scott Hall abandons the WCW World Television Championship by throwing the title into a trash can.  Hall had won the title at the Mayhem pay-per-view eight days earlier.  On the same show, Juventud Guerrera defeats Jushin Thunder Liger, to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Over on RAW, the wedding for Stephanie McMahon and Test gets underway, only to be interrupted by Triple H.  Hunter shows a video on the TitanTron, showing he and a drugged Stephanie had gotten married, in a drive-thru ceremony in Las Vegas.

2002 – Former independent wrestler Jeff Peterson passes away after battling Leukemia.  He was only 21 years old.

2003 – Larry Booker, known as “Spot” in The Moondogs, passes away at the age of 51;  Booker had suffered a heart attack while attending a birthday party for Jerry Lawler.  As a member of The Moondogs, Booker was a 13-time Tag Team Champion in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA).

2007 – Booker T wins his debut match on this evening’s TNA Impact!, defeating Robert Roode.

2010 – Sheamus defeats John Morrison to win the one-night King of the Ring Tournament, on this evening’s WWE RAW.

2011 – On a special Tuesday episode of WWE SmackDown, Mark Henry defeats Daniel Bryan, in a Steel Cage Match, to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.

2012 – On this evening’s TNA Impact!, a match for the TNA X Division Championship between Rob Van Dam (titleholder) and challenger Austin Aries ends in a disqualification, after interference from Bully Ray.

First off, happy belated birthday to these who had birthdays yesterday, November 28:  WWE RAW performer Dana Brooke (28 years old);  3-time World Tag Team Champion in WWE Rob Conway (42 years old);  and 2-time OVW Heavyweight Champion Brent Albright (38 years old).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY (TODAY) TO: Indy wrestler in Japan Ryuichi Kawakami (28 years old);  Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF) performer Chris Bryant (29 years old);  former WWE Champion, 17-time WWF Hardcore Champion, & current SmackDown Live commentator John “Bradshaw” Layfield, (50 years old);  long-time WCW / WWF /WWE interviewer & announcer “Mean” Gene Okerlund (74 years old);  4-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Minoru Tanaka (44 years old);  52-time Memphis Wrestling Southern Heavyweight Champion & 2007 WWE Hall of Fame Inductee Jerry “The King” Lawler (67 years old); Former WWE manager (as Zeb Colter) & 12-time NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Champion Dutch Mantel (67 years old);  and current TNA Knockout & former SHIMMER Tag Team Champion Rosemary (33 years 0ld).

Today would’ve been the 48th birthday for former AJPW All Asia Tag Team Champion Hayabusa, who passed away earlier this year.

SOURCES: http://www.gerweck.net, http://www.cagematch.net, The Internet Wrestling Database