This Day in Wrestling History (January 16)

23 years ago today in Jacksonville, Florida, Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton defeated Ricky Steamboat & Dustin Rhodes to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship.

15 years ago today, WCW presented Souled Out (WWE Network link) from the Firstar Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. 14,132 were in attendance, with 115,000 homes watching on PPV. That's just 1/3 of the number of buys from the 1999 edition, which had 330,000 buys. It also continues the downward trend of WCW buyrates that began at Mayhem back in November. The trend would continue until Uncensored, which had just 60,000 PPV buys.

The original card for the event was heavily changed due in part to the concussions suffered at the hands of Jeff Jarrett and Bret Hart (his concussion would ultimately force him away from the ring). Both men forced to vacate their championships (Hart's WCW world title and Jarrett's United States title).

Also of note, this would be the final event for Chris Benoit, who along with Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, and Eddie Guerrero (who did not wrestle on the show),were all granted their releases following the show.

• Billy Kidman defeated Dean Malenko in a "Dungeon Rules" match. Malenko went out to the floor just two and a half minutes into the match, which under the rules of the bout, immediately ended the bout.
• Vampiro defeated Crowbar and David Flair in a triple threat match.
• The Mamalukes (Big Vito & Johnny The Bull) defeated The Harris Boys (Big Ron & Heavy D).
• Oklahoma defeated Madusa to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship.
• Brian Knobbs defeated Fit Finlay, Meng, and Norman Smiley in a four-way match to retain the WCW Hardcore Championship.
• Billy Kidman defeated Saturn in a Bunkhouse Brawl (essentially, a hardcore match).
• Booker T defeated Stevie Ray.
• Tank Abbott defeated Jerry Flynn.
• Buff Bagwell defeated Diamond Dallas Page in a last man standing match.
• The Wall defeated Billy Kidman in a steel cage match.
• Kevin Nash defeated Terry Funk in a hardcore match to become the new WCW Commissioner.
• Chris Benoit defeated Sid Vicious by submission to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Arn Anderson was the special referee. Replay the next night showed Sid had one of his legs under the bottom rope, meaning the submission should not have counted. It was a way to vacate the title when Benoit left the company.

10 years ago today in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, La Resistance (Rob Conway and Sylvan Grenier) defeated William Regan and Jonathan Coachman (substituting for Eugene who was out with a dislocated left patella) to win the World Tag Team Championship.

10 years ago today, TNA presented Final Resolution from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando.

• 3 Live Kru (BG James, Konnan, and Ron Killings) defeated Christopher Daniels, Kazarian, and Michael Shane.
• Elix Skipper defeated Sonjay Dutt.
• Dustin Rhodes defeated Kid Kash.
• Erik Watts defeated Raven.
• Jeff Hardy defeated Scott Hall. Rowdy Roddy Piper was the special referee.
• Monty Brown defeated Diamond Dallas Page and Kevin Nash in an elimination match to become #1 contender for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
  • Diamond Dallas Page eliminated Kevin Nash.
  • Monty Brown eliminated Diamond Dallas Page.
• America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) defeated Team Canada (Bobby Roode & Eric Young) to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship.
• AJ Styles defeated Chris Sabin and Petey Williams in an Ultimate X match to win the TNA X Division Championship.
• Jeff Jarrett defeated Monty Brown to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

6 years ago today, WWE released Robert Howard, best known to wrestling fans as Bob "Hardcore" Holly. During his 15-year WWE run, he was a six-time Hardcore champion, three-time world tag team champion with three different partners, and an NWA World Tag Team champion.

5 years ago today, TNA announced that those coming to their next tapings to bring a donation for victims of the Haiti earthquake. The money would be donated to the central Florida headquarters of the American Red Cross. Radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge wrote on his Twitter account (and these are his words, not mine) "I say fuck hati. Why do we have to take care of everybody our country is in shambles. Bubba".  The comments led to a physical confrontation between he and TNA Knockout Awesome Kong. It's widely speculated the confrontation led to his release from the company.

3 years ago today on RAW from Anaheim, California, Jack Swagger defeated Zack Ryder to win the WWE United States Championship.

1 year ago today, TNA presented Genesis from the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The event, though it was taped in one night, was presented over two episodes of Impact. The event would be the last for Sting in TNA, who had been with the company since 2003. His contract expired a month later and was not renewed.

Matches airing live:

• Samoa Joe, James Storm, Gunner, Eric Young, Joseph Park and ODB defeated The BroMans (Jessie Godderz, Robbie E and Zema Ion), Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Kazarian) and Lei'D Tapa in an intergender tag team match.
• Bully Ray defeated Mr. Anderson in a no disqualification match.
• Madison Rayne defeated Gail Kim to win the TNA Knockouts Championship.
• Ethan Carter III defeated Sting. Rockstar Spud was the special referee. With the loss, Sting was fired from TNA.

Matches airing January 23:

• Gunner defeated James Storm in a ladder match for Gunner's World Title Feast or Fired briefcase.
• Austin Aries defeated Chris Sabin to win the TNA X Division Championship. To prevent interference, Velvet Sky was in a cage at ringside.
• Kurt Angle defeated Bobby Roode in a steel cage match to keep his TNA Hall of Fame induction.
• Samoa Joe defeated Rockstar Spud.
• Magnus defeated Sting to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. As a result of the loss, Sting was fired.