This Day in Wrestling History (December 29)

29 years ago today, the NWA and AWA co-presented Star Wars from the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

• Ron Bass defeated JJ Dillon.
• Little Tokyo defeated Cowboy Lang to retain the NWA World Midgets Championship.
• Sherri Martel defeated Debbie Combs to retain the AWA World Womens Championship.
• Carlos Colon defeated Konga the Barbarian.
• Jake Roberts defeated Paul Ellering by disqualification.
• The Rock ‘n Roll Express (Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton) defeated The Long Riders (Bill & Scott Irwin) to retain the NWA World Tag Team Championship.
• Sgt. Slaughter defeated Chris Markoff and Boris Zhukov in a handicap match.
• Magnum TA defeated Tully Blanchard to retain the NWA United States Championship.
• Ric Flair defeated Dusty Rhodes by disqualification to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
• The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal) defeate Ivan Koloff and Krusher Khruschev.
• Stan Hansen defeated Rick Martel by submission to win the AWA World Heavyweight Championship.

23 years ago today, WCW presented Starrcade Battlebowl '91: The Lethal Lottery (WWE Network link) from the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia. About 9,000 were in attendance, with 155,000 homes watching on PPV. That's down slightly from 165,000 for Starrcade 1990. The show's hook was the Lethal Lottery, where 40 wrestlers would be drawn at random to form teams of two for tag team bouts, with the winners advancing to the Battlebowl dual-ring battle royal main event.

• Marcus Bagwell and Jimmy Garvin defeated Michael Hayes and Tracy Smothers.
• Steve Austin and Rick Rude defeated Van Hammer and Big Josh.
• Dustin Rhodes and Richard Morton defeated Larry Zbyszko and El Gigante.
• Bill Kazmaier and Jushin Liger defeated Diamond Dallas Page and Mike Graham.
• Lex Luger and Arn Anderson defeated Terrance Taylor and The Z-Man.
• Ricky Steamboat and Todd Champion defeated Cactus Jack and Buddy Lee Parker.
• Sting and Abdullah the Butcher defeated Brian Pillman and Bobby Eaton.
• Big Van Vader and Mr. Hughes defeated Rick Steiner and The Nightstalker.
• Scott Steiner and Firebreaker Chip defeated Arachnaman and Johnny B. Badd.
• Ron Simmons and Thomas Rich defeated Steve Armstrong and PN News.
• Sting won the Battlebowl battle royal, last eliminating Lex Luger.

19 years ago, ECW presented its annual holiday show, Holiday Hell, from the Lost Battalion Hall in Queens, New York. It was the first ECW show ever to emanate from the New York City area. The show was the final major appearance (save for a couple of one-off appearances in 1999) for The Public Enemy, who would leave for WCW a couple weeks later.

• Taz defeats Koji Nakagawa.
• JT Smith defeated Hack Myers.
• Mikey Whipwreck defeated Too Cold Scorpio to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship & ECW World Television Championship. Following the bout, Whipwreck chose Cactus Jack as his tag team partner.
• The Eliminators (John Kronus & Perry Saturn) defeated The Pitbulls (Pitbull 1 & Pitbull 2).
• Tommy Dreamer defeated The Blue Meanie in just 12 seconds.
• Tommy Dreamer defeated Stevie Richards in just 12 seconds.
• Raven defeated Tommy Dreamer to earn an ECW World Heavyweight Championship later in the show.
• Bruiser Mastino defeated El Puerto Ricano.
• Buh Buh Ray Dudley defeated The Blue Meanie in just 70 seconds.
• The Sandman defeated Raven to retain the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
• The Gangstas (Mustafa & New Jack) defeated The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge & Rocco Rock).
• Sabu defeated Cactus Jack.

18 years ago today, WCW presented Starrcade (WWE Network link) from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. 9,030 were in attendance, with 345,000 homes watching on PPV.

• The Ultimate Dragon defeated Dean Malenko to unify the WCW Cruiserweight and J-Crown Championships.
• Akira Hokuto defeated Madusa to win the WCW Womens Championship. She would be the only woman to hold the title, as Akira returned to Japan the next year following The Great American Bash where she defeated Madusa again.
• Jushin Liger defeated Rey Mysterio, Jr.
• Jeff Jarrett defeated Chris Benoit in a no disqualification match.
• The Outsiders (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash) defeated The Faces of Fear (Meng and The Barbarian) to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
• Eddie Guerrero defeated Diamond Dallas Page to win the vacant WCW United States Heavyweight Championship.
• Lex Luger defeated The Giant.
• Roddy Piper defeated Hollywood Hogan via TKO. This was Hogan's first clean loss since being defeated for the WWF Championship by Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VI.

17 years ago today on Nitro from Baltimore, Maryland, Ultimo Dragon defeated Eddie Guerrero to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. On the same show, Booker T defeated Disco Inferno to win the WCW World Television Championship.

16 years ago today at a RAW is WAR taping from Worcester, Massachusetts, Mankind defeated The Rock to win the WWF Championship. The match would prove to be a turning point in the Monday Night Wars. The match (and show) didn't air until nearly a week later. On Eric Bischoff's word, Tony Schiavone infamously gave away the result more than a half hour before the match aired. As many as 600,000 people changed the channel to watch the title change, enough to swing the ratings in favor of RAW.

5 years ago today, Tommy Dreamer, the last connection to the original ECW, lost his final bout in the company to Zack Ryder. Dreamer would indeed be released by WWE the following Monday and has spent most of his time in TNA since, save for a one-off appearance for WWE in 2012. He also has been running his own promotion, House of Hardcore, since 2012.

2 years ago today at a RAW taping in Washington, DC, Wade Barrett defeated Kofi Kingston to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.