This Day In Wrestling History – December 29th
WCW Starrcade: BattleBowl – The Lethal Lottery was held on this date in 1991.
Greetings, loyal readers. My apologies for no content the past three days. I came down with the stomach flu the day after Christmas. It appears I’m okay now…..okay enough to provide you with This Day In Wrestling History. I don’t have all my strength back so I’m not doing much physically. And I’m still going slow on returning normal eating habits.
While my time on social media was limited as well, I did notice, via my Twitter and Instagram accounts, that I missed a few significant birthdays: Goldberg hit the big 5-0. Chyna and “The Wall” (later known as “Malice”) would’ve had birthdays on Tuesday. RAW Tag Team Champion Cesaro celebrated a birthday, as did Mideon and Bart Gunn.
And now, we return you to your regularly scheduled This Day In Wrestling History.
1990 – On this evening’s episode of World Championship Wrestling, Tom Zenk (aka The Z-Man) defeats Arn Anderson, to win the NWA World Television Championship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsEwWvh2ZdU
1991 – Sting wins the Battlebowl Battle Royal, at WCW Starrcade ’91: Battlebowl – The Lethal Lottery. Of note, this was the first Starrcade without Ric Flair, who had left for the WWF. Flair had participated in the first eight Starrcade events from 1983-1990.
1995 – At ECW Holiday Hell 1995, Mikey Whipwreck defeats 2 Cold Scorpio in a singles match, to win Scorpio’s ECW World Television Championship AND Scorpio & The Sandman’s ECW World Tag Team Championship. After the match, Cactus Jack comes out to declare himself to be Whipwreck’s new tag team partner.
1996 – WCW Starrcade ’96 is held in Nashville in front of 9,030 fans. In a Title-vs-Title Match, Ultimo Dragon (J-Crown) defeats Dean Malenko (Cruiserweight), to win Malenko’s Cruiserweight Championship and unify both titles. Akira Hokuto defeats Madusa, to become the inaugural WCW Women’s Champion. Eddie Guerrero defeats Diamond Dallas Page, to win the vacant United States Championship. The main event saw Roddy Piper, in his first match in WCW after leaving the WWF in the summer of ’96, defeat WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan.
1997 – In the Monday Night Wars, WCW Monday Nitro (4.6 TV rating) beats WWF Raw Is War (3.6 rating). There were two title changes on Nitro: Ultimo Dragon defeats Eddie Guerrero, to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. Booker T wins the WCW World Television Championship for the first time, defeating Disco Inferno. Booker ended up a 6-time WCW Television Champion, between December 29, 1997 and his 6th and final reign ending May 9, 1999.
2008 – On this evening’s WWE RAW, John “Bradshaw” Layfield wins a Fatal 4-Way Elimination Match, to become #1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship. JBL defeats Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, and Randy Orton.
2011 – This evening’s TNA Impact Wrestling includes the semifinals of the Wild Card Tag Team Tournament; AJ Styles and Kazarian defeat Abyss and Scott Steiner, and the team of Magnus and Samoa Joe defeat the team of ODB and Eric Young.
2014 – On Monday Night RAW from Washington, D.C., The Usos defeat Damien Mizdow and The Miz, to become the new WWE Tag Team Champions.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts (37 years old); former GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion El Desperado (33 years old); 3-time Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Tag Team Champion B-Boy (38 years old); European indy wrestler Chris Curtis (46 years old); and former WCW commentator & current sports talker on Pittsburgh’s 105.9 The X Mark Madden (55 years old).
