26 years ago today in Yokohama, Japan, Big Van Vader defeated Tatsumi Fujinami to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
23 years ago today in New York City, Rick Steiner and Ludvig Borga fought to a double countout. Borga, rumored to be in line for a WWF Championship push, injured his ankle in the match and would ultimately never wrestle for the company again.
Later during the event, The Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre) defeated the 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Jannetty to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.
In the show's main event, Owen Hart won a 30-man Royal Rumble match, last eliminating Fatu.
18 years ago today, WCW presented Souled Out (WWE Network link) from the Charleston Civic Center in Charleston, West Virginia. 10,833 were in attendance, with 330,000 homes watching on PPV. That's down from 380,000 homes for the 1998 event.
Match ratings are from Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter as recorded in the Internet Wrestling Database. Ratings are out of five stars.
- Chris Benoit defeated Mike Enos. (3/5)
- Norman Smiley defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr. (1.5)
- Fit Finlay defeated Van Hammer. (0)
- Bam Bam Bigelow defeated Wrath. (0.75)
- Lex Luger defeated Konnan. (0.75)
- Chris Jericho defeated Saturn. With the loss, Saturn was forced to wear a dress for 30 days. (0.75)
- Kidman defeated Juventud Guerrera, Psychosis, and Rey Mysterio Jr. in a Four Corners match to retain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. (4)
- David & Ric Flair defeated Barry Windham & Curt Hennig. (2.25)
- Bill Goldberg defeated Scott Hall in a ladder and taser match. (3.5)
17 years ago today on Nitro from Columbus, Ohio (WWE Network link), Jeff Jarrett was awarded by new Commissioner Kevin Nash the WCW United States Championship. Nash won the job from Terry Funk at the previous night’s Souled Out.
Jarrett would hold the title until a company-wide storyline reboot would strip everyone of their champions in April.
The big story was that Chris Benoit was stripped of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship just one day after he had won it. While the company line states that one of Sid’s feet was under the ropes on the winning submission (which it was), in reality, Benoit’s dispute with management had reached a breaking point.
Over the weekend, Benoit was among seven men who made a surprise visit to Bill Busch’s office demanding that Kevin Sullivan be relieved of their duties as head booker or be given their outright release. Busch stuck with Sullivan; however, to appease them, it was decided that Benoit would win the WCW world title at Souled Out.
Upon arriving at Nitro in Columbus, Busch gathered Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko and informed them that they were being sent home (the other three men involved in the meeting, Konnan, Billy Kidman, and Shane Douglas, backed off their threats—Konnan and Douglas probably because their past issues with the WWF would prevent them from going there after their release). Benoit found out about the meeting and decided that if they were leaving, so was he. Busch tried to convince Benoit to stay, saying he would remain WCW World Heavyweight Champion, but the damage was done. Chris offered to drop the title at that night’s Nitro, but was told by Busch to leave it with referee Nick Patrick on the way out.
17 years ago today on RAW is WAR from New Haven, Connecticut (WWE Network link), Test defeated The Big Bossman to win the WWF Hardcore Championship.
17 years ago today in San Antonio, Texas, Steve Austin undergoes neck surgery to remove a bone spur that was affecting his spinal cord.
The surgery was performed by Dr. Lloyd Youngblood, who did surgery on several other WWE superstars. Austin would eventually make a full recovery and return to the ring full time later in the year.
7 years ago today, TNA presented Genesis from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando.
This event was noted for being the first under the Hogan-Bischoff regime and, much to the chagrin of many TNA fans, the first time TNA used a traditional four-sided ring since the company began taping their shows in Orlando in 2004. In June 2014, TNA returned to the six-sided ring after fans overwhemingly voted in favor of the hexagonal ring.
- Amazing Red defeated Brian Kendrick to retain the TNA X-Division Championship. (2.5/5)
- Sean Morley defeated Daniels. (1.5)
- Tara defeated ODB 2-0 in a best of three falls match to win the TNA Knockouts Championship. (1)
- Matt Morgan and Hernandez defeated The British Invasion (Brutus Magnus and Doug Williams) to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship. (2)
- Desmond Wolfe defeated D'Angelo Dinero. (3)
- Beer Money, Inc. (Robert Roode and James Storm) defeated Kevin Nash and Syxx-Pac (subbing for Scott Hall, who was out with an injury). (1.75)
- Ken Anderson (subbing for Bobby Lashley) defeated Abyss. (1.25)
- AJ Styles defeated Kurt Angle to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. (4)
4 years ago today, Matt Korklan, recently returning from a suspension for violating the WWE's Wellness Policy, is suspended for a second time for violating the WWE's Wellness Policy.
Korklan, who wrestled for WWE as Evan Bourne, was in a car accident that shattered his foot almost beyond repair while serving his suspension. He would make a full recovery and return a year later, but would be released in June 2013. After some time on the independent circuit, he returned to Ring of Honor in 2015 as Matt Sydal.
Korklan made news last September when he was arrested at Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan for smuggling liquid marijuana in an electronic cigarette. Sydal pled guilty to the charge in December and was sentenced to three years probation. The arrest and conviction essentially led to Sydal being fired from New Japan Pro Wrestling.
2 years ago today, Jose Alberto Rodriguez, best known to American audiences as Alberto Del Rio and Dos Caras, Jr. internationally, signs with Lucha Underground.
Rodriguez, billed as Alberto El Patron, was the reigning AAA Mega Champion. Rodriguez was controversially fired from WWE in August 2014 following an altercation with a staffer after he allegedly made a racist remark.
Rodriguez, who would debut at the tapings the same day, surprised the wrestling world again in October 2015 when he returned to WWE. He didn’t last long; in August 2016, he was suspended for thirty days for violating the WWE’s Wellness Policy. He only served 21 of the 30 days; Rodriguez exercised an out clause in his contract and was released on September 9.
1 year ago today at a Lucha Underground taping in Los Angeles, California, Jack Evans, Johnny Mundo, and PJ Black defeated Dragon Azteca Jr., Prince Puma, and Rey Mysterio to win the Lucha Underground Trios Championship.
1 year ago today, Michael Sharpe, best known to wrestling fans as Iron Mike Sharpe, died in his apartment in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was 64.
Born October 28, 1951, Sharpe was a second-generation wrestler (his father and uncle were both wrestlers, and were actually tag team champions together). He grew up in California, but eventually moved back to Canada to live with his mother. He tried boxing and weightlifting before eventually deciding to give wrestling a try.
Trained by Dewey Robinson, Sharpe would become successful on the tag team circuit, winning the NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship twice for Gene Kinski's NWA All-Star Wrestling. After moving to Louisiana, Sharpe won the Mid-South Wrestling Louisiana Championship twice and the Mississippi Championship once.
Sharpe is best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation. Joining the company as “Canada's Greatest Athlete” in January 1983, Sharpe got a sizable push thanks to a gimmicked forearm and having Captain Lou Albano as his manager. He would challenge Bob Backlund for the WWF Championship in April 1983, but would not win it. It turned out to be Sharpe's lone notable main event with the company.
Over the next decade, he would serve as a jobber to rising WWF stars at television tapings. Though he was primarily a heel, he did get to team with Hulk Hogan during a tour of Japan in early 1984. Hogan was a heel over there due to him being a foreigner.
After Sharpe retired in 1995, he opened his own wrestling school in Brick, New Jersey (he would move it to Asbury Park; the school is no longer in operation). Sharpe was believed to have had obsessive-compulsive disorder; at least three wrestling personalities have corroborated this in their autobiographies, and this was mentioned on WWF programming (one story goes that Sharpe was in the opening contest of a match at the Boston Garden, and he was still in the shower when they locked the building, forcing to spend the night in the arena).
Hamilton returned to Hamilton in 2007. That summer while on a landscaping job, he suffered a cut that would get infected. The cut confined him to a wheelchair and would live in a basement apartment, where he became a recluse for the remainder of his life. He allowed himself to be filmed only once in his final years, in 2015 as part of a tribute to Angelo Mosca, Sr.
On January 17, 2016, Sharpe died in his apartment of an undisclosed illness in Hamilton. He was 64.
The best of cSs on this day:
2016: WWE Royal Rumble 2016 match card, rumors (Projecting the Royal Rumble card with one week to go)
2015: Daniel Bryan confirms Sheamus was his original opponent for WrestleMania 30 (Daniel Bryan in an interview with Newsday reveals that a Wrestlemania XXVIII rematch was in the works until fans forced the WWE’s hand)
2014: 10 greatest crowd chants in WWE history (WWE.com lists their top ten crowd chants ever; “WOOO!” is #1)
2013: Report: WWE offers Brock Lesnar another big contract (Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Dave Meltzer reports WWE is looking to re-up Brock Lesnar before Wrestlemania 29)
2012: WWE: Rest in peace United States championship (Geno shoots on Zack Ryder losing the US title in a squash to Jack Swagger, who loses later in the show to John Cena in a squash)
2011: WWE Royal Rumble match to see major change this year (The Royal Rumble match will feature 40 entrants)