This Day in Wrestling History (Jan. 15): Rumble Big John Rumble

27 years ago today, WWE presented the Royal Rumble (WWE Network link) from The Summit in Houston, Texas. About 19,000 were in attendance, with 165,000 homes watching on PPV. This was the PPV debut of the event, as the previous one was broadcast as a television special on the USA Network. The show also featured a "posedown" between The Ultimate Warrior and Ravishing Rick Rude. (Star ratings are from Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Dave Meltzer. Ratings are out of a possible five.)

• In a dark match, Jim Powers defeated Barry Horowitz.
• In a dark match, Sam Houston defeated Steve Lombardi.
• Jim Duggan & The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) defeated Dino Bravo & The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques & Raymond Rougeau) 2-1 in a best of three falls match. Jacques Rougeau defeated Bret Hart to win the first fall. Duggan pinned Jacque to tie up the match, and Duggan nailed Bravo with his 2x4 board, leading Bret to pin Bravo to win the match. (2.25/5)
• Rockin' Robin defeated Judy Martin to retain the WWF Womens Championship. (1.25)
• Haku defeated Harley Race. (0)
• Big John Studd wins the Royal Rumble match, last eliminating "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. A side nugget: at just under 65 minutes, it's at the time the longest completed match in WWF history. Two matches had gone longer, but both had to end due to curfew regulations (ironically, both involved Bruno Sammartino). The record has since been broken, most recently by the 2011 Royal Rumble match that went just under 70 minutes. (2.5)

Of note:

• Hulk Hogan eliminated ten wrestlers, a record that would stand until Kane eliminated 11 in 2001.
• One of the ten eliminated was The Warlord, who lasted just two seconds. That record stood until Santino Marella lasted 1.9 seconds in 2009.
• This was the first Royal Rumble to feature 30 entrances.

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

• In a preshow match, Team Canada (Petey Williams, Eric Young, and A-1) defeated Lance Hoyt, Jay Lethal, and Kenny King.
• In a preshow match, The Latin American Exchange (Homicide and Konnan) defeated The Naturals (Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens).
• Alex Shelley, Austin Aries & Roderick Strong defeated Chris Sabin, Matt Bentley & Sonjay Dutt. (3/5)
• The James Gang (BG James & Kip James) defeated David Young & Elix Skipper. (1)
• AJ Styles defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi. (3)
• Sean Waltman defeated Raven in a "Raven's Rules" match. Larry Zbyszko was the special referee. (2)
• Bobby Roode defeated Ron Killings. (2)
• Abyss defeated Rhino. (1.75)
• America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) defeated Team 3D (Brother Devon & Brother Ray) to retain the NWA World Tag Team Championship. (3.25)
• Samoa Joe defeated Christopher Daniels to retain the TNA X-Division Championship. (4.25)
• Christian Cage & Sting defeated Jeff Jarrett & Monty Brown. (2.75)

4 years ago today in Oakland, California, Primo & Epico defeated Air Boom (Evan Bourne & Kofi Kingston) to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. It is the last time a WWE championship changed hands at a non-televised event.

3 years ago today, TNA voluntarily dropped their lawsuit against WWE over office staff member Brian Wittenstein obtained confidential documents relating to TNA, including talent contracts. This came around the time Ric Flair asked for his release from TNA, though Flair was released prior to the lawsuit being filed. Contrary to popular rumor, WWE was allowed to hire or negotiate with ex-TNA talent and TNA talents whose contracts were expiring. As part of the settlement, both sides agreed to agree to pay for their own legal costs. The lawsuit settlement did open the door for Flair to return to WWE.

1 year ago today, WWE Immortals is released for Android and iOS devices. The game developed by NetherRealm Studios (the people behind the most recent Mortal Kombat games), incorporates elements from the Injustice: Gods Among Us mobile game and WWE Brawl, a cancelled fighting game developed by THQ.

1 year ago today, WWE announces that a Tough Enough reboot is in the works and has been picked up by the USA Network. From WWE.com:

"I am pleased to announce that USA is bringing back 'Tough Enough,' the action-packed competition reality show from the ratings juggernaut, WWE," McCumber said in a speech today during the Television Critics Association winter press tour. "The show will have a completely new format, with live elements that will truly make this event television."

McCumber continued, "After signing another multi-year deal for Raw and SmackDown, this is the perfect time to bring back the series and capitalize on the enormous audience appeal of sports-entertainment."

The Tough Enough reboot was largely a disappointment, as the premiere was watched by just 1.2 million viewers, and the show bottoming out at a little over 900,000 viewers near the end, small potatoes compared to the two million per episode for the 2011 edition.

It's a happy 29^th birthday to twice Shimmer tag team champion and Shimmer champion Nicole Matthews.

Born in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, she was convinced to try professional wrestling by her friend and fellow wrestler Sid Sylum. She made her professional debut in February 2006; a month later she debuted for Supergirls Wrestling, a subsidiary of NWA Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling. In October 2006, she would win the championship in a three-way match involving Nattie Neidhart and Veronika Vice. She would hold the championship until the following April when Vice defeated her. Nicole would regain the title in March 2008 from Penni Lane and would hold it for nearly a year before losing it—again—to Vice.

Her most famous work came with Shimmer Women Athletes. After being initially rejected by the promotion in 2006 after she sent a demo tape, she joined the company in October 2007 when Portia Perez needed a tag team partner. The duo would form the Canadian NINJAs (or the Canadian National International Nation of Jalapeno Awesomeness—this is a real name). In May 2009, the NINJAS defeated Ashley Lane and Neveah to win the Shimmer Tag Team Championship. They would hold the championship for nearly 700 days, not losing them until March 2011 when they were defeated by Hiroyo Matsumoto and Misaki Ohata. During that long title reign, the duo also took part in the lone season of Wrestlicious as the Naughty Girls, Hope and Faith (Hope was Nicole, while Portia was Faith).

Matthews would win the Supergirls Championship for a third time in October 2010, holding it for nearly a year before being defeated by KC Spinelli.

The NINJAs would win the titles a second time at an NCW Femme Fatales event in July 2012 just one night after being defeated by Courtney Rush and Sara Del Rey for the titles in a four-team elimination match. The NINJAs held the championships until the following April when they were defeated by Kellie Skater and Tomoka Nakagawa, the Global Green Gangsters.

On October 18, 2014, Nicole Matthews, with the help of a fireball to Madison Eagles' face, won a fatal-four way elimination match to become the new Shimmer Champion. Nicole would hold the title for nearly a year before losing it last October in a no-disqualification match to Eagles.

Matthews, a two-time ECCW Champion, is a former swimmer and lifeguard and is an Aquatic Program Supervisor. She's also studying kinesiology part-time at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. She ranked sixteenth in the 2015 PWI Female 50, their annual list of the world's best female wrestlers.

It's a happy 29^th birthday too for Barbara Jean Blank. Known these days as Barbie Blank, she's best remembered as WWE diva Kelly Kelly.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, the longtime wrestling fan was a gymnast in her younger days before an injury forced her to leave the sport. She took up cheerleading and broadcast journalism, hoping to become a news anchor.

While working as a bikini model for Hawaiian Tropic and Venus Swimwear, Barbie was scouted by WWE official John Laurinaitis. Despite having no formal wrestling training, Blank at just 19 was offered a WWE contract in May 2006. In her early days on the main roster, she travelled to Ohio Valley Wrestling's home base in Louisville between shows and worked as a ring announcer, referee, and wrestler.

Blank debuted for the rebooted ECW as Kelly Kelly (originally it was to be just one Kelly, but WWE Chairman Vince McMahon made it two Kellys. Umm... thanks Vince?) Kelly Kelly was an exhibitionist, performing stripteases for the crowd. This was something that riled up her on-screen boyfriend Mike Knox, who would interrupt her routine. Eventually Kelly's Expose became Extreme Expose, which included fellow swimsuit model Brooke Adams and Diva Search winner Layla El. The trio performed regular dance segments for ECW's shows.

After the group split up in late 2007, Kelly began taking on a more active in-ring role, moving to RAW in July 2008. She occasionally challenged for the WWE Divas Championship, but would never win it. She moved to Smackdown in early 2010 and chased LayCool's WWE Women's Championship, but would never win it.

A little over a year later, Kelly returned to RAW, and on June 20, won a fan vote to challenge for Brie Bella's Divas Championship. And Kelly would win. She held the title for just over three months before losing it to Beth Phoenix at Hell in a Cell. The same year, Kelly appeared on The Price is Right with the Bella Twins, and was listed among Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 (#82). She would make the list again the next year at #38.

However, her feud with Phoenix would continue until Wrestlemania XXVIII, where Kelly and Extra correspondent Maria Menunous defeated Phoenix and Eve Torres in a tag match. Kelly would take a leave of absence in the summer, returning in August with a win over Eve. It would turn out to be her last television match; Blank was released from her contract in late September. Blank revealed the reason for her absence in a December 2012 interview, citing a neck injury and plans to resume her modeling career. Save for an appearance for North East Wrestling in late 2012, Blank's largely been away from the wrestling business.

Barbie was in a relationship with Andrew Martin (best known as Test) for two and a half years, which ended just before Martin's death in 2009. In August 2014, she got engaged to former ice hockey player Sheldon Souray. Blank these days is a part of the E! reality series WAGS, which follows the lives of the wives and girlfriends of athletes.

Happy 46^th birthday to former WWE executive vice-president of global media and hardcore and European champion Shane McMahon. After leaving WWE in 2010, he became the CEO of China Broadband, Inc. (known today as YOU on Demand). He stepped down after three years, but remains there as principal executive officer and Chairman of the Board.