39 years ago today, Championship Wrestling from Florida presented Super Bowl of Wrestling from the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. The show took place a week after Super Bowl XII, thus the reason for the name. About 12,000 fans were in attendance.
Rocky Johnson defeated Killer Karl Kox via disqualification.
Ivan Putski defeated Ox Baker.
Joyce Grable won an eight woman battle royal. Other participants were Suzette Ferriera, Leilani Kai, Pepper LaBianca, Winona Littleheart, Tandy Rich, Terry Shane, and Vicki Williams.
Chavo Guerrero defeated Tank Patton.
Bobby Duncum defeated Don Serrano.
Keith Franks defeated John Ruffin.
Mike Graham and Steve Keirn defeated The Valiant Brothers (Jimmy & Johnny) to win the NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship.
Pedro Morales defeated Lars Anderson.
Jack & Jerry Brisco defeated Ivan Koloff & Mr. Saito.
Dusty Rhodes defeated Ken Patera.
Superstar Billy Graham and Harley Race went to a one-hour time limit 1-1 draw in a best of three falls match to unify the WWWF and NWA World Heavyweight Championships. Gorilla Monsoon and Don Curtis were special referees. Race had Graham in a sleeper hold, but as Graham tried to free himself, his shoulders were down. Curtis began counting the fall as time expired.
22 years ago today, WCW presented Clash of the Champions XXX (WWE Network link) from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In a dark match, Brad Armstrong & Scott Armstrong defeated Bunkhouse Buck & Dick Slater.
Arn Anderson defeated Johnny B. Badd to retain the WCW World Television Championship.
Alex Wright defeated Bobby Eaton.
Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) defeated Stars And Stripes (Marcus Alexander Bagwell & The Patriot) to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
Sting defeated Avalanche. The Guardian Angel was the special referee.
Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage defeated Kevin Sullivan & The Butcher.
20 years ago today, WCW presented Souled Out (WWE Network link) from the Five Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 5,120 were in attendance, with 170,000 homes watching on PPV. That's a little less than half the number of homes for Starrcade the previous month.
The buyrate for the show was seen as disappointing and perhaps the first sign that the nWo cannot sustain itself as its own brand (Eric Bischoff had plans to run two monthly PPVs, one for WCW and one for the nWo; the low buyrate for the show ended any chance of that happening). Perhaps not helping matters: the PPV took place the day before Super Bowl XXXI.
As this was an nWo PPV, no member of the WCW roster got their theme music played; in fact, they were openly mocked throughout the show (most infamously, Eddie Guerrero was called a “Mexican jumping bean”) and nWo referee Nick Patrick officiated all the matches on the show.
As for the event itself, Souled Out was Wrestling Observer Newsletter's readers’ choice for Worst Major Show of 1997, and is often cited as among the worst major shows in wrestling history.
Masahiro Chono defeated Chris Jericho.
Big Bubba Rogers defeated Hugh Morrus in a Mexican deathmatch.
Jeff Jarrett defeated Mr. Wallstreet.
Buff Bagwell defeated Scotty Riggs.
Scott Norton defeated Diamond Dallas Page by countout.
The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) defeated The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship. The decision was overturned two nights later on Nitro after Eric Bischoff ruled referee Randy Anderson was not authorized to officiate the match.
Eddie Guerrero defeated Syxx in a ladder match to retain the WCW United States Championship.
Hollywood Hogan and The Giant fought to a no contest for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
18 years ago today on RAW is WAR from Phoenix, Arizona (WWE Network link), Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett defeated Ken Shamrock and The Big Bossman to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.
The show opened with Vince McMahon, winner of the 1999 Royal Rumble match, announcing he would waive his right to challenge for the WWF Championship at Wrestlemania (seeing the title was held by fellow member of the Corporation, The Rock.
The title shot gifted to the first runner-up, Stone Cold Steve Austin, by then-commissioner Shawn Michaels. Austin himself gave up that right in exchange for one match with Vince McMahon—on the condition that it took place in a steel cage. McMahon agreed, and the two met at St. Valentine’s Day Massacre three weeks later. For the record, Austin won and kept his title shot.
In the show's main event, The Rock defeated Triple H in an I Quit match to retain the WWF Championship. It took a little trickery for The Rock to retain; The Corporation took Chyna hostage, with the group agreeing to let her go only if Triple H quit. And he did. But no good deed goes unpunished. Post-match, as Triple H was set to confront Kane, Chyna low blowed Triple H from behind, essentially severing her ties to D-Generation X and joining the Corporation.
17 years ago today at a Thunder taping in Las Vegas, Nevada, WCW Commissioner Kevin Nash strips Sid Vicious of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and awards it to himself.
No, seriously. Nash’s excuse: Sid pinned the wrong Harris brother during a qualifying match for the world title shot the prior night.
In the show’s main event, Sid Vicious defeated Nash and Ron Harris in a three-way Caged Heat match (similar to WWE’s Hell in a Cell match) to regain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
Of note, including vacations, this is the seventh WCW world title change in nine days, dating back to Souled Out.
13 years ago today, WWE presented Royal Rumble (WWE Network link) from the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 17,289 were in attendance, with 500,000 homes watching on PPV. That's down from 585,000 from 2003's edition.
In a Sunday Night Heat preshow match, Victoria defeated Molly Holly.
Batista & Ric Flair defeated The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley) in a tables match to retain the World Tag Team Championship.
Rey Mysterio defeated Jamie Noble to retain WWE Cruiserweight Championship.
Eddie Guerrero defeated Chavo Guerrero.
Brock Lesnar defeated Hardcore Holly to retain the WWE Championship.
Triple H and Shawn Michaels fought to a draw in a last man standing match for the World Heavyweight Championship. Neither man were able to answer the referee's ten count after Shawn Michaels could not reach his feet after he hit Sweet Chin Music on Triple H.
Chris Benoit last eliminated Big Show to win the Royal Rumble match and a world title match at Wrestlemania XX. The next night, Benoit left Smackdown for RAW and challenged the World Heavyweight Champion at Wrestlemania XX. The defection led to a rule change that going forward the Rumble winner can challenge any world champion he chooses. This rule remained in effect until the championships were in December 2013.
Notes:
Benoit became the first man to win from #1 since Shawn Michaels in 1995. To date, he's the last winner from #1.
Benoit's 61 minute, 30 second run would be the Rumble record for longevity for just two years; Rey Mysterio would break it in 2006.
Big Show became the first man to finish second in two Royal Rumble matches.
8 years ago today, Mickey Rourke appeared on Larry King Live to promote The Wrestler. The movie stars Rourke as Randy “The Ram” Robinson, an aging wrestler trying to recapture his glory days while finding romance and reconnecting with his estranged daughter.
In the interview, he said the wrestling industry had been very supportive of the movie and that he was coming for Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania, saying "It looks like I'm going to Houston for Wrestlemania. Y2J better look out, I'm going to kick his a-s-s".
Considering Rourke had just been nominated for an Academy Award for best actor, critical backlash to the interview was both massive and immediate, and the angle was almost immediately scrapped. Rourke would appear at Wrestlemania 25, albeit in a reduced role.
8 years ago today, WWE presented Royal Rumble (WWE Network link) from the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. 16,685 were in attendance, with 450,000 homes watching on PPV. That's down from 533,000 homes for the 2008 event.
In a dark match, Jimmy Wang Yang defeated Paul Burchill.
Jack Swagger defeated Matt Hardy to retain the ECW Championship.
Melina defeated Beth Phoenix to win the WWE Women's Championship.
John Cena defeated John Bradshaw Layfield to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
Edge defeated Jeff Hardy in a no disqualification to win the WWE Championship.
Randy Orton last eliminated Triple H to win the Royal Rumble match and a world championship match of his choosing at Wrestlemania.
Fifteen men remained in the Royal Rumble when the #30 entrant came in, a Rumble record.
Also a record: eight men lasted over 30 minutes in the Royal Rumble, with a ninth missing by just a second.
And speaking of a second, a second and nine-tenths is how long Santino Marella lasted in the Rumble, a record low.
Until the 2016 Rumble, 2009 was the last time a babyface entered in the #1 slot.
2 years ago today, WWE presented Royal Rumble (WWE Network link) from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 17,164 were in attendance, with 145,000 homes buying the event via traditional PPV. The drop from 467,000 the previous year is excusable; the event was broadcast via WWE Network for the first time.
The event is noted for its very strange dichotomy: the WWE Championship triple threat match would be one of its most praised bouts of the year (the bout would finish fifth in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards for Match of the Year), while the rest of the card, especially the Royal Rumble match, brought the show down so hard, it's now cited as among the worst wrestling events in history (or at the very least, recent memory), a fact confirmed by Wrestling Observer Newsletter readers: it was voted the second worst major wrestling show of 2015.
Adding to the schaudenfreude of the evening, #CancelWWENetwork was the top trending topic worldwide on Twitter (and was the case well into Monday), with so many subscribers cancelling the service, some reported the cancellation page crashed the servers. WWE in response announced that the streaming service surpassed the 1 million subscriber mark two days after the Royal Rumble event, an announcement some found suspicious.
Even Mother Nature reacted negatively to the result of the Royal Rumble; RAW the next night was cancelled due to inclement weather for the first time in the show's history. Smackdown, scheduled to tape Tuesday, was moved to a live taping that Thursday; more on this during the week.
In a preshow match, the Brass Ring Club (Tyson Kidd and Cesaro) defeated The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston).
The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor) defeated The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn & Road Dogg).
The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) defeated The Miz and Damien Mizdow to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship.
The Bella Twins (Brie & Nikki) defeated Natalya & Paige.
Brock Lesnar defeated John Cena and Seth Rollins in a triple threat match to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The match was voted the fifth best worked match of 2015 by Wrestling Observer Newsletter readers.
Roman Reigns last eliminated Rusev to win the Royal Rumble match and a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestlemania 31. The match was voted the second worst match of 2015 by Wrestling Observer Newsletter readers.
2 year ago today at PROGRESS Chapter 17: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger in London, England, The Faceless (#1 and #2) defeated FSU (Mark Andrews and Eddie Dennis) to win the PROGRESS Tag Team Championship.
1 year ago today at a Lucha Underground taping in Los Angeles, California, Fenix defeated Mil Muertes in a Grave Consequences match. The bout, airing March 18, was rated 4.5 stars by Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The best of cSs on this day:
2016: Brock Lesnar, Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns Triple Threat to main event WWE Fastlane (Triple threat match set for Fastlane to determine Triple H’s challenger for the WWE World Championship at Wrestlemania 32)
2015: Roman Reigns wins the Royal Rumble, is loudly booed for not being Daniel Bryan (Roman Reigns wins his first Royal Rumble match to a sea of boos from the Philadelphia crowd)
2014: Cageside Seats Pro Wrestling Tournament: Greatest Belt Nomination Thread (Cagesiders pick the greatest wrestling belts of all time)
2013: Video: WWE counts down the top 10 feats of strength (New WWE.com countdown features ten strong dudes lifting things up and putting them down)
2012: Chael Sonnen explains why he wanted to walk out with CM Punk at UFC on Fox 2, talks crossover appeal of MMA and pro wrestling (Chael Sonnen talks UFC on Fox 2 and the crossover appeal of pro wrestling and MMA)
2011: Ric Flair pulled from TNA's European tour (The former WCW and WWF champion pulled from TNA’s European tour after dispute with company management; Flair would return the next day)
2010: Panic Grips the iMPACT! Zone (Diehard TNA fan gives his opinion on the state of TNA; Mike Garza takes him down Fire Joe Morgan-style)