This Day In Wrestling History – November 30th
Happy birthday, Naomi!
1976 – Rufus R. Jones defeats Greg Valentine, to win the NWA Mid-Atlantic Television Championship.
1979 – Antonio Inoki defeats Bob Backlund, to win the WWF Heavyweight Championship. Title lineage indicates that this reign is not recognized by WWE.
1997 – ECW November to Remember is held in Monaca, Pennsylvania in front of 4,634 fans. While this is the fifth November to Remember event, it is the first to be on pay-per-view. In the main event, Shane Douglas defeats Bam Bam Bigelow, in a Ladder Match, to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Full results can be found here.
1998 – In the Monday Night Wars, WWF Raw Is War (5.0 TV rating) beats WCW Monday Nitro (4.2 rating). On Nitro, Bret Hart becomes the new United States Champion, defeating Diamond Dallas Page in a No Disqualification Match. And Konnan defeats Chris Jericho, to win the WCW World Television Championship.
Over on RAW, The Big Boss Man defeats Mankind, in a Ladder Match, to become the new WWF Hardcore Champion.
2006 – On this evening’s TNA Impact!, Chris Sabin defeats Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal, to become #1 contender for the TNA X Division Championship.
2007 – On WWE Friday Night SmackDown, a match for the World Heavyweight Championship between Edge and Batista (champion), ends in a no-contest, after interference by The Undertaker.
2009 – Verne Troyer, who played “Mini Me” in the three Austin Powers films, is the guest star on this evening’s WWE RAW from Baltimore.
2010 – Kaitlyn is the winner of WWE NXT Season 3. Kaitlyn would win the WWE Divas Championship once in her four years with the company.
2015 – On this evening’s RAW, Roman Reigns is given a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match against Sheamus; in order to win the title Reigns must defeat Sheamus in five minutes & 15 seconds or less. The 5:15 stipulation was added because that was how long Reigns was champion at Survivor Series, before Sheamus cashed in his Money In The Bank. Due to a disqualification, Reigns is unable to reclaim the title on RAW, due to interference from Rusev, King Barret, and Alberto Del Rio. Those three, along with Sheamus, would team up to become the League of Nations.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Former indy wrestler Tara Charisma (32 years old); former NWA Television Champion Tom Zenk (59 years old); 3-time USWA Tag Team Champion Bart Sawyer (51 years old); former Dragon Gate “Open the Brave Gate” Champion Flamita (22 years old); WWE “Grand Slam” Champion Christian (43 years old); 11-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Jushin Thunder Liger (52 years old); and current SmackDown Live star Naomi (29 years old).
Today would’ve been the 54th birthday for former USWA & SMW Tag Team Champion Jimmy Del Ray.
SOURCES: WrestleView, List of WWE World Champions, Gerweck, The Internet Wrestling Database
