This Day In History - December 28th
December 28th
On this day in history in ....
1963 - Bob Orton (grandfather of Randy Orton) defeats Eddie Graham in Jacksonville, Florida for the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title, ending Graham's fourth, and final, reign. This was the first of three runs with the belt for Orton.
1980 - Angelo Mosca defeats Hussein Arab (The Iron Sheik) in Toronto, Ontario to win the NWA Canadian Heavyweight Title, ending Arab's second reign and beginning his own second run with the belt.
1984 - Ron Garvin defeats Bob Roop in Saginaw, Michigan to become a three-time NWA Television Champion.
1992 - WCW held Starrcade '92 in Atlanta, Georgia at the Omni, using the "BattleBowl/Lethal Lottery" concept again of having "random" tag team matches with the winners moving on to a battle royal. The show also featured several non-Lethal Lottery matches. Here are the results:
- In a dark match, Brad Armstrong defeated Shanghai Pierce.
- In a Lethal Lottery tag team match, Van Hammer & Danny Spivey defeated Johnny B. Badd & Cactus Jack when Hammer rolled up Jack for the pin after Badd hit Cactus while they were arguing.
- In a Lethal Lottery tag team match, Big Van Vader & Dustin Rhodes defeated Kensuke Sasaki & The Barbarian when Rhodes pinned Barbarian after he collided with Sasaki. After the match, Vader attacked Rhodes.
- In a Lethal Lottery tag team match, The Great Muta & Barry Windham defeated Brian Pillman & 2 Cold Scorpio when Muta pinned Scorpio with a moonsault.
- In a Lethal Lottery tag team match, Steve Williams & Sting defeated Jushin Liger & Erik Watts when Williams pinned Watts with a Hot Shot.
- NWA & WCW World Tag Team Champions Shane Douglas & Ricky Steamboat defeated Barry Windham & Brian Pillman when Douglas pinned Windham with a belly-to-belly suplex.
- Sting defeated Big Van Vader to win the King of Cable tournament by powerslamming Vader as he jumped off the top rope.
- WCW World Champion Ron Simmons defeated Steve Williams via DQ. The match ended in a double countout, but the referee disqualified Williams after the bout for continuing to attack Simmons.
- NWA World Champion Masahiro Chono defeated The Great Muta via submission with an STF.
- The Great Muta won the Battlebowl battle royal by eliminating Barry Windham with a dropkick. The match also included Steve Williams, Sting, Big Van Vader, Dustin Rhodes, Van Hammer and Danny Spivey.
1997 - WCW held Starrcade '97 at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., featuring the long awaited showdown between Sting and Hollywood Hulk Hogan after over a year of building to it. Here are the results:
- WCW Cruiserweight Champion Eddie Guerrero defeated Dean Malenko with a frog splash to Malenko's injured knee.
- Scott Hall was having an in-ring interview, with the Giant attacking him. The Giant was supposed to wrestle Kevin Nash on the show, but Nash wasn't there (which was never quite explained).
- Randy Savage (who was subbing for Konnan), Scott Norton & Vincent defeated Ray Traylor and Rick & Scott Steiner when Savage pinned Scott with a top rope elbow.
- Bill Goldberg defeated Steve McMichael with a jackhammer.
- Perry Saturn (subbing for Raven, who came out and said he didn't feel like wrestling) defeated Chris Benoit in a No DQ match after Raven DDT'd Benoit.
- Buff Bagwell defeated Lex Luger after Scott Norton knocked out Luger.
- Diamond Dallas Page defeated Curt Hennig with a Diamond Cutter to win the WCW United States Title.
- Larry Zbyszko defeated Eric Bischoff via DQ to take control of Monday Nitro. Bret Hart was the guest referee.
- Sting defeated Hulk Hogan via submission to win the WCW World Heavyweight Title. Hogan actually won the match via a fast count from referee Nick Patrick after a legdrop (although it didn't look fast at all, it was sold as being fast, which came across very poorly). Bret Hart came out to restart the match as referee, saying he wasn't going to let anyone get screwed, and Sting won via submission with the Scorpion Deathlock. The match, the pinnacle of the NWO vs. WCW feud, was considered a disappointment, with the screwy ending annoying many fans who had been waiting over a year for Sting to score a clean win over Hogan in his return to action.
2002 - Ring Of Honor held their "Final Battle" event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, headlined by a 45-minute draw between Low Ki, Steve Corino, Samoa Joe and American Dragon in a four-way match.
PWInsider.com
