This Day In Wrestling History – December 31st
Happy birthday to former WWE NXT contestant Jamie Keyes!
Happy New Year’s Eve, all!! Party hard, but party smart!!
1975 – Bruiser Brody defeats Rocky Johnson, to win the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship.
1978 – Roddy Piper and Killer Brooks defeat Dutch Savage and Jonathan Boyd, to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship.
1984 – The Von Erichs (Kevin, Kerry, and Mike) win the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (Texas Version), defeating the team of Gino Hernandez, Chris Adams, and Jake Roberts.
1994 – Brian Christopher defeats Tommy Rich, to win the USWA Heavyweight Championship for the 16th time (not to be confused with the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship; Christopher’s title was the former AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship).
1994 – On this evening’s SMW TV, Buddy Landel defeats Brian Lee, to win the Smoky Mountain Wrestling “Beat the Champ” Television Championship.
1999 – Mike Awesome defeats Masato Tanaka, to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship (aired on this evening’s ECW on TNN). Tanaka had beat Awesome for the title just one week earlier.
2011 – After losing via 1st round TKO, at UFC 141 to Alistair Overeem one night earlier, Brock Lesnar announces his retirement from UFC.
2012 – On a Champions Choice episode of WWE Monday Night RAW, Wade Barrett becomes the new Intercontinental Champion after defeating Kofi Kingston.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: English indy wrestler Maverick (35 years old); indy wrestler, formerly in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) Dino Carter (31 years old); former ring announcer & contestant for the WWE: NXT TV Series Brittany Breede aka Jamie Keyes (32 years old); former NXT & TNA wrestler Martin Stone aka Danny Burch (35 years old); current Lucha Underground performer Matt Cross aka Son of Havoc (36 years old); Canadian indy wrestling star Vance Nevada (41 years old); 3-time World League Wrestling (WLW) Ladies Champion Amy Hennig (35 years old); and former WWE SmackDown wrestler Keiji Sakoda (42 years old)
Today would’ve been the 60th birthday for 2-time NWA World Light Heavyweight Champion & 2-time CMLL World Trios Champion MS-1.
SOURCES: Pro Wrestling Wiki, wrestlingdata.com, The Internet Wrestling Database, ESPN, Gerweck.net Archives
