Wrestling History

January 3rd – On This Day In Wrestling History

January 3rd - On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1956 – In Florence, Alabama, Butch Boyette, Karl Kowalski and Red Roberts defeated the team of Don Fields, Jack Laskin and Lee Fields in a 35 minute ‘Best 2 out of 3 Falls’ match.

2000 – WWF Raw was held at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. Triple H challenged the Big Show for the WWF Championship. Following a distraction on the outside, Triple H hit the Big Show with a low blow then followed it with a Pedigree to become a three-time World Champion.

In the main event The Rock took on Billy Gunn, X-Pac and the Road Dogg in a no disqualification handicap match, with the added stipulation that if The Rock lost he would be fired. Luckily, Mick Foley interfered on the Rock’s behalf helping him win the match by pinfall. Also on the show Stephanie McMahon announced both Chris Jericho and Chyna as co-Intercontinental Champions with the ruling being that only one could defend at a time and if that person lost the title, they’d both lose the belt.

2000 – WCW Monday Nitro comes from Greenville, South Carolina. In the finals of the night’s Lethal Lottery tag team tournament David Flair and Crowbar took on the team of Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner for the vacant tag team belts. With the referee distracted, Crowbar hit Nash with a crowbar and Flair covered him for the pin, gaining the win and the tag team championship belts for himself and Crowbar.

2011 – WWE Raw was held in Phoenix, Arizona. The Miz successfully defended the WWE Championship against John Morrison in a No Disqualification Falls Count Anywhere match, and then in the main event Randy Orton defeated Sheamus and Wade Barrett in a triple-threat cage match which made Orton the new number one contender to face The Miz at the Royal Rumble.

2013 – TNA Impact! was held in Orlando, Florida. Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe taok on two of the members of the Aces and Eights faction, one being Devon and the other being masked so their identity was unknown. After Angle got the pinfall following the Angle Slam the rest of Aces and Eights swarmed the ring attacking Angle and Joe. Sting made the save with his baseball bat and Angle unmasked his opponent who was revealed to be the former Mike Knox (now called Knux).

2017 – In the main event of WWE SmackDown in Jacksonville, Florida, Dean Ambrose defeats The Miz to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

2019 – An interesting night at the DDT ‘New Year Special 2020! All Seats 2000 Yen Show’ in Tokyo, Japan. Going into the Gauntlet Battle Royal match the Champion is… a cake. The cake had won the title backstage. (This isn’t a wrestler called ‘Cake’, it’s an actual cake called Omochi.)

Unfortunately Omochi is the first eliminated and the winner at the end is Saki Akai who becomes the new DDT Iron Man Heavy Metalweight Champion. Elsewhere on the card there’s a triple threat ‘No Passcode Scramble Bunkhouse Take Account Over Deathmatch’ where each wrestlers phones are unlocked in the ring and whoever gets hold of them can Tweet whatever they like. Whilst also wrestling.

2020 – It was a night of returns on WWE SmackDown. Firstly, Sheamus attacked Shorty G after he had successfully defeated Dash Wilder. Then during the main event of the show, The Fiend returned to attack his Royal Rumble opponent Daniel Bryan, and The Usos also made an impact.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays: