This Day in Wrestling History (January 22): Who Won This Thing, McMahon?

21 years and a day ago today, WWF presented Royal Rumble (WWE Network link) from the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island. About 14,500 were in attendance, with 200,000 homes watching on PPV. That's down a third from the 1993 edition (300,000 homes). Of note, this is the last Royal Rumble event to happen on a Saturday night.

Match ratings are from Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Dave Meltzer as recorded in the Internet Wrestling Database. Ratings are out of a possible five stars.

• In a preshow dark match, The Brooklyn Brawler defeated Jim Powers.
• Tatanka defeated Bam Bam Bigelow. Ludvig Borga was the original opponent for Tatanka, but he suffered an ankle injury a few days before the Rumble event. (1.75/5)
• The Quebecers (Jacques & Pierre) defeated Bret Hart & Owen Hart to retain the WWF Tag Team Championship. Post-match, Owen kicked an injured Bret after he berated him for not getting a tag. (3.25)
• Razor Ramon defeated Irwin R. Schyster to retain the WWF Intercontinental Championship. (1.5)
• Yokozuna defeated The Undertaker in a Casket match to retain the WWF Championship. The match was essentially a write-off for The Undertaker, as he would not wrestle again until Summerslam. (1)
• Bret Hart and Lex Luger co-won the Royal Rumble match, last eliminating each other. (2.5)

1994 Royal Rumble Results

Notes:

• The seven consecutive eliminations for Diesel remains the record for a single Royal Rumble match.
• As a result of there being two Royal Rumble winners, both Lex Luger and Bret Hart would receive championship matches at Wrestlemania. As three-way matches didn't exist in 1994, a coin toss determined who would get their championship match first. On the January 31 RAW, Lex won the toss and the right to face Yokozuna, with the winner to face Bret Hart in the main event. To ensure fairness, Hart would also have a second match on the show, against Owen Hart. Had Bret won the toss, Lex Luger would have faced Crush early in the show, then the Hart-Yokozuna winner in the main event.

20 years ago today, WWF presented Royal Rumble (WWE Network link) from the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida. About 10,000 were in attendance, with 225,000 homes watching on PPV. That's up slightly from 200,000 homes the previous year. Of note, for the first and only time in Royal Rumble history, new entrants came in at one-minute intervals.

• In a preshow match, Buck Quartermaine defeated The Brooklyn Brawler.
• Jeff Jarrett defeated Razor Ramon to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. (3.25/5)
• The Undertaker defeated Irwin R. Schyster. (1.25)
• Diesel and Bret Hart went to a draw for the WWF Championship. (4.25)
• Bob Holly and The 1-2-3 Kid defeated Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow in a tournament final to win the vacant WWF Tag Team Championship. (3.75)
• Shawn Michaels last eliminated British Bulldog to win the Royal Rumble and a WWF Championship match at Wrestlemania XI. (3.5)

1995 Royal Rumble Results

Notes:

• At 38 minutes, 41 seconds, this is (unsurprisingly) the shortest 30-man Royal Rumble in WWE history. By comparison, there have been 31 instances where a competitor went longer than the length of the 1995 Royal Rumble, most recently, Bray Wyatt at 46 minutes, 58 seconds last year.
• This was the first Royal Rumble match to have the first two entrants finish 1-2 in the match. It's only happened once since: Steve Austin and Vince McMahon in 1999.

20 years ago today on RAW from Stockton, California (WWE Network link), Bret Hart defeated Goldust by submission. It is the first televised loss for Goldust since debuting the previous spring.

On the same show, Vader (making his RAW debut) attacked WWF President Gorilla Monsoon after defeating Savio Vega. It is the first time on WWF programming that an on-screen authority figure was assaulted during a WWF broadcast.

Nitro '96 - Harlem Heat vs. Sting & Lex Luger by WCWRULES4LYF

20 years ago today on Nitro (WWE Network link) from Las Vegas, Nevada, Lex Luger and Sting defeated Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship. In the show's opening match, Randy Savage defeated Ric Flair to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

15 years ago today on RAW is WAR from Lafayette, Louisiana (WWE Network link), Test defeated William Regal to win the WWF European Championship. On the same show, Al Snow defeated Raven to win the WWF Hardcore Championship, only to lose it moments later back to Raven. In a bit of trivia, this was the 400th episode of RAW.

13 years ago today at an NWA-TNA weekly PPV taping in Nashville, Tennessee, Triple X (Low Ki & Elix Skipper) defeated America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship.

Chavo Guerrero vs Cm punk(ECW championship match) by arash0007

8 years ago today at an ECW taping, Chavo Guerrero defeated CM Punk to win the ECW Championship.

6 years ago today, Melissa Anderson, best known as Cheerleader Melissa, but wrestled in TNA as Alissa Flash and Raisha Saeed, leaves the company after failing to come to terms on a new contract. Last month, Anderson made her Lucha Underground debut as the masked Mariposa.