Wrestling History

January 8th – On This Day In Wrestling History

January 8th - On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1966 – Mr. Wrestling pinned Mad Dog Vachon to win the AWA World Heavyweight Championship but as Mr. Wrestling had his feet on the ropes, the decision would be overturned the next week.

1990 – At the USWA Memphis Show in Tennessee, Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler defeated King Cobra to win the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Title.

1995 – Arn Anderson defeated Johnny B. Badd to win the WCW Television Championship on a live edition of WCW Main Event in Atlanta, Georgia.

1998 – WCW Thunder debuted on TBS. Because of two previous controversial matches between Sting and Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Sting appeared on the show and vacated the WCW Championship. Elsewhere on the show, Juventud Guerrera defeated Ultimo Dragon to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship and in the main event Diamond Dallas Page defeated Kevin Nash by disqualification to retain the WCW United States Championship.

2001 – WWF Monday Night RAW is in San Jose, California. In a six-man tag team match lasting less than four minutes, Chris Jericho and The Hardy Boys (Matt and Jeff) defeated Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn after Jericho pinned Benoit with a backslide. In the main event Kurt Angle defended the WWF Championship against ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin but the match was declared a No Contest due to Triple H taking out the referee. After the match and getting a MASSIVE pop from the crowd, Austin and HHH went at it, with Triple H coming out on top and leaving Austin bloodied on the floor.

2005 – IWA-MS/NWA No Limits Muscatine Show was held in Iowa. In the main event Jimmy Jacobs defeated Ryan Boz in a steel cage match to become the NWA Iowa Heavyweight Champion for the first time.

2006 – In Albany, New York, WWE held New Year’s Revolution. The main event saw John Cena retain the WWE Championship in an Elimination Chamber match against Kurt Angle, Chris Masters, Carlito, Shawn Michaels and Kane. History was made after the match as Vince McMahon announced Edge was cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and he beat Cena in less than two minutes to become the new WWE Champion. This was the first MITB cash in in WWE history.

2012 – TNA Genesis took place in Orlando, Florida. In the main event, Jeff Hardy retained the TNA Heavyweight Championship with a disqualification win over Bobby Roode.

2013 – At a SmackDown taping in Miami, Florida, Alberto Del Rio defeated The Big Show to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a Last Man Standing match.

2020 – AEW Dynamite was held in Southaven, Mississippi. On the show:

  • Adam Page and Kenny Omega defeated Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen.
  • Riho retained the AEW Women’s Championship against Kris Statlander.
  • Sammy Guevara pinned Christopher Daniels.
  • Brothers Cody and Dustin Rhodes defeated Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix.
  • In the main event Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus and Marko Stunt were victorious against the team of Chuck Taylor, Orange Cassidy and Trent.

2021 – In a bizarre turn of events on WWE SmackDown, Adam Pearce won a gauntlet match for the right to face Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble. This was after Paul Heyman pulled some strings to get Pearce entered in to the match, and Reigns attacked the Shinsuke Nakamura as the last survivor to get Pearce the win.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays: