Wrestling History

January 9th – On This Day In Wrestling History

January 9th - On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1959 – In St. Louis, Missouri, Pat O’Connor became the NWA World Heavyweight Champion for the first time after beating Dick Hutton.

1962 – In Minneapolis, Minnesota, AWA United States Champion Mr. M beat AWA World Heavyweight Champion Verne Gagne to take hold of both belts and as a result the AWA retired the United States belt.

1993 – At a WWF Live event in Boston, Massachusetts, Bret Hart took on Ric Flair in the WWF’s first ever Iron Man match. The match lasted one full hour and was won 3 falls to 2 by Hart after he reversed Flair’s Figure-Four Leglock into a pin with 18 seconds left on the clock.

2000 – ECW presented Guilty As Charged from Birmingham, Alabama. In the first of three matches where titles were defended, Rob Van Dam defeated Sabu to retain the ECW World Television Championship. Following this, Lance Storm and Justin Credible defeated Tommy Dreamer and Raven to win the ECW World Tag Team belts, and the main event saw Mike Awesome retain the ECW World Heavyweight Championship against Spike Dudley.

2005 – WWE New Year’s Revolution was held in San Jose, Puerto Rico. On the show:

  • Eugene and William Regal defeated Tomko and Christian to retain the World Tag Team belts.
  • Trish Stratus beat Lita in just under four minutes to win the WWE Women’s Championship and would hold the belt for the next 448 days.
  • Shelton Benjamin defeated Maven to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
  • Straight after, Shelton Benjamin defeated Maven again to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship, in just five seconds.
  • Muhammad Hassan defeated Jerry Lawler.
  • Kane defeated Gene Snitsky.
  • With Shawn Michaels acting as the Special Guest Referee, Triple H defeated Edge, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Batista, and Randy Orton in an Elimination Chamber match to win the vacant World Heavyweight Championship.

2006 – To celebrate winning the WWE Championship the previous night at New Year’s Revolution from John Cena, Edge and his girlfriend Lita infamously put on a ‘live sex show’ on Monday Night Raw with a bed set up inside the ring. The episode went on to be one of the most watched episodes of the year.

2011 – TNA Genesis was held in the Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida. Multiple titles changed hands on the show including Kazarian defeating Jay Lethal to win the TNA X Division Championship, Beer Money (James Storm and Robert Roode) defeated Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) to win the TNA World Tag Team belts, Abyss defeatingd Douglas Williams to win the TNA Television Championship and the main event saw Mr. Anderson take the TNA World Heavyweight belt from Jeff Hardy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvSFZ65DUwI

2017 – On an episode of Raw at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, Roman Reigns lost the WWE United States title in a handicap match against Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens. As per the rules of the match, Jericho was declared champion as he was the one who pinned Reigns.

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