January 27th – On This Day In Wrestling History
Our full On This Day In Wrestling History section can be found here.
1904 – Frank Gotch beat Tom Jenkins for the American Heavyweight Championship in Bellingham, Washington.
1981 – ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper beat Ric Flair to win the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship in Raleigh, North Carolina.
1990 – In an instalment of Saturday Night’s Main Event taped on January 3rd, Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior defeated Mr. Perfect and The Genius.
1992 – WWE taped the 30th edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event in Lubbock, Texas. The show aired on February 8th and was most notable for two prominent character turns. In a tag team match against The Undertaker and Ric Flair, Sid Justice walked out on his partner Hulk Hogan to turn heel and set up the main event of WrestleMania VIII. Later in the show, after a match between ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage and Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, The Undertaker stopped his former ally Roberts from attacking Savage’s wife Miss Elizabeth. With that action, The Undertaker turned babyface for the first time in his WWE career and set up a match with Roberts at WrestleMania.
1993 – One of the biggest wrestling legends of all time, in every sense, Andre The Giant passed away as a result of heart failure in Paris aged 46. He was soon named as the first ever inductee into the WWE Hall Of Fame.
1994 – WCW Clash Of The Champions XXVI took place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In the main event, Ric Flair and Sting defeated Rick Rude and Big Van Vader in a tag team elimination match.
1996 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Raven and beat The Sandman for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
2008 – WWE Royal Rumble emanated from Madison Square Garden in New York City. In the Rumble match, John Cena entered at number 30 in a huge surprise after being thought to be out for several months with an injury. He eliminated HHH for the win. Edge defeated Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton defeated Jeff Hardy to retain the World Heavyweight Championship and WWE Championship respectively.
2013 – The first EVER Hooked On Wrestling viewing party took place at Belushis in Shepherds Bush, London, UK. The birth date of everyone’s favourite wrestling fan organisation in the UK.
2013 – WWE Royal Rumble took place on PPV from the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The main event saw The Rock win the WWE Championship for the first time since 2002. The win ended CM Punk’s title reign which was the longest run since Hulk Hogan’s 1984-1988 run. In the rumble match, John Cena eliminated Ryback for the win.
2014 – CM Punk walked out on WWE before a taping of Raw in Cleveland, Ohio.
2018 – NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia took place at the Wells Fargo Centre. Although no titles changed hands, the main event saw Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas defeat Johnny Gargano to defend his NXT Championship in one of the greatest matches in the history of NXT.
2019 – The WWE Royal Rumble PPV took place at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins won the women’s and men’s Royal Rumble matches respectively. Shane McMahon and The Miz defeated The Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro) to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.
2019 – On the pre-show before the Royal Rumble, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Rusev to win back the WWE United States Championship.
2021 – Ryan Nemeth, brother of Dolph Ziggler, made his AEW debut on Dynamite in a losing effort against Adam Page.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays:
- Red Bastien (1931)