Wrestling History

December 19th – On This Day In Wrestling History

December 19th - On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1977 – A WWWF Championship at Madison Square Garden ended with challenger Mil Mascaras defeating the defending champion, ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham via blood stoppage. WWWF rules at the time prevented the title from changing hands due to excessive blood loss, therefore Graham left ‘The Garden’ with his title reign intact.

1998 – Heated rivals Taz and Sabu clashed at an ECW show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for Taz’s officially unsanctioned FTW Championship. The match ended in odd fashion with Taz pulling Sabu on top of him for the cover, the win and the title. As it transpired, Taz wanted to send a notice that he no longer needed the belt as he was planning to go after Shane Douglas’ official ECW World Championship. He would beat Douglas for the title at ‘Guilty As Charged’ on January 10th 1999.

1999 – WCW Starrcade took place at the MCI Center in Washington, DC. The main event is most remembered as being the match that led to the end of Bret Hart’s career. The specific incident saw Goldberg land an errant kick to Hart’s head in their WCW Championship match that led to severe concussion issues, forcing The Hitman to retire. Hart won the match by disqualification.

Elsewhere on the card, Madusa became the first female WCW Cruiserweight Champion by defeating Evan Karagias. Chris Benoit also defeated Jeff Jarrett in a ladder match to win the United States Championship.

2000 – At a SmackDown taping in Charlotte, North Carolina, Edge & Christian won back the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Rock and The Undertaker that they had lost one night earlier on Monday Night Raw.

2009 – Ring Of Honor ‘Final Battle’ took place from the Manhattan Center in New York City. It was the first time the event was live-streamed on the internet. The main event saw a critically acclaimed 60-minute time limit draw in a match for the ROH World Championship that pitted champion Austin Aries against the future Seth Rollins, and Tyler Black.

Also on the card, The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson) defeated The American Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards) to win the ROH Tag Team Championship. Also of note, Kevin Steen turned on his longtime friend and partner El Generico to start a heated rivalry that would last for the rest of their time in ROH and into their stint in NXT and WWE, as Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn respectively.

2010 – WWE’s ‘TLC: Tables, Ladders And Chairs’ PPV emanated from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The main event saw John Cena defeat Wade Barrett in a chairs match to end the heated rivalry between Cena and The Nexus. Also, Edge won the World Heavyweight Championship in a four-way TLC match against Kane, Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio.

2012 – The long-term publisher of WWE’s video games, THQ filed for bankruptcy. Take Two would take over the WWE licence and release their first title, ‘WWE 2K13’ the following year.

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