Wrestling History

December 10th – On This Day In Wrestling History

December 10th - On This Day In Wrestling History

Our full On This Day In Wrestling History section can be found here.

1972 – Ric Flair makes his professional wrestling debut in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. Flair wrestles George Gadaski to a time-limit draw.

1973 – Bruno Sammartino beat Stan Stasiak at Madison Square Garden, New York City to win his second WWWF Championship. He became the first man to win the belt on more than one occasion.

1975 – Terry Funk beat Jack Brisco in Miami, Florida to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. With the win, the Funk brothers (Terry and his brother Dory) became the first, and to date only, pair of brothers to both hold this championship.

1999 – Genichiro Tenryu snared the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a match with Keiji Mutoh in Osaka, Japan.

2000 – WWE held their Armageddon PPV at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center in Birmingham, Alabama. The main event was the first, and only, six-man Hell In A Cell Match with the WWF Championship on the line. Kurt Angle successfully defended the title against ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, Rikishi, The Rock, The Undertaker and Triple H. The match was perhaps most famous for Undertaker chokeslamming Rikishi from the top of the cell onto a (Heavily padded) flatbed truck. Elsewhere on the card, Edge and Christian won the WWF Tag Team Championship in a Fatal Four-Way tag team match against The Dudley Boyz, Road Dogg & K-Kwik and Right To Censor (Bull Buchanan and The Godfather).

2006 – TNA ‘Turning Point’ took place at the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida. No titles changed hands on the night. Abyss retained the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a triple-threat match against Sting and Christian Cage. The main event saw Samoa Joe defeat Kurt Angle by submission.

2007 – WWE presented a special 15th Anniversary edition of Raw in Bridgeport, Connecticut. A number of famous names such as Steve Austin and Eric Bischoff made cameos. The only title change on the night saw Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly defeat Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. In other notable matches, Evolution (Triple H, Batista and Ric Flair) reformed to face Edge, Randy Orton and Umaga. Evolution won by disqualification. A gimmick battle royal was also held and won by Ted DiBiase. Other participants included Doink The Clown, The Goon, Skinner, Pete Gas, Gillberg, Flash Funk and Steve Blackman.

2010 – At a taping of ‘ROH on HDNet’, Christopher Daniels won the ROH Television Championship against Eddie Edwards.

2012 – Japanese wrestling icon Kenta Kobashi announced he would retire in 2013.

2015 – NXT held their first-ever event outside the USA with the first night of their UK tour taking place at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, England. Finn Balor defended the NXT Championship in the main event against Sami Zayn.

2018 – On Monday Night Raw, Chad Gable and Bobby Roode won the Raw Tag Team Championships with a handicap match win over The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar) as well as their manager, Drake Maverick.

2020 – Tiny ‘Zeus’ Lister was found dead at his Marina Del Ray, California home at the age of 62. Lister starred opposite Hulk Hogan as the villain Zeus in the movie ‘No Holds Barred’. He then reprised the character to main event several PPVs in 1989 in tag team matches opposite Hogan.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays:

Notable Wrestling Deaths: