This Day in Wrestling History (January 25)

37 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 (won by the Dallas Cowboys for anyone wondering), thus the reason for the name. About 12,000 fans were in attendance. In the show's main event, WWF Champion Superstar Billy Graham and NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race fought to a one-hour draw in a best of three falls title unification match with each man winning one fall in the match. Gorilla Monsoon and Don Curtis were alternating special referees for the bout.

20 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 (w/ Jimmy Hart) defeated Kevin Sullivan & The Butcher.

18 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 the nWo-exclusive PPV was rebranded the next year as a WCW/nWo event. As this was an nWo PPV, no member of the WCW roster got their theme music played, and nWo referee Nick Patrick officiated all the matches on the show.

• 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.

16 years ago today on RAW is WAR from Phoenix, Arizona, Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett defeated Ken Shamrock and The Big Bossman to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.

Sid Vicious vs. Kevin Nash & Harris Bros-WCW Title by Stinger1981

15 years ago today at a Thunder taping in Las Vegas, Nevada, Kevin Nash as WCW commissioner strips Sid Vicious of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship he'd won just one night earlier and awards it to himself...only to lose the title back to Sid Vicious when Sid wins a triple threat "caged heat" match by submission also involving Ron Harris.

11 years ago today, WWE presented Royal Rumble 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. 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. The rule remained in effect until 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 longetivity 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.

6 years ago today, Mickey Rourke in an interview promoting his movie The Wrestler, 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". Critical backlash was massive, and the angle was almost immediately scrapped. Rourke would appear at the event, albeit in a reduced role.

6 years ago today, WWE presented Royal Rumble 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.