This Day in Wrestling History (Nov. 30): Happy Birthday Christian!

37 years ago today in Tokushima, Japan, Antonio Inoki defeated Bob Backlund to win the WWF Championship. He would vacate the championship a week later in Tokyo following a rematch that went to a no contest due to interference by Tiger Jeet Singh.

Backlund would regain the title in mid-December by defeating Bobby Duncam in a Texas deathmatch. Backlund is recognized officially as having one uninterrupted championship run from 1978 to 1983, meaning in official WWE canon, Antonio Inoki never won the company's top prize.

19 years ago today, ECW presented November to Remember (WWE Network link) from the Golden Dome in Monaca, Pennsylvania. A then-record 4,694 fans were in attendance, with 80,000 homes watching on PPV.

• In a dark match, Chris Chetti & Spike Dudley defeat Erin O'Grady & Paul Diamond.
• Chris Candido & Lance Storm defeated Jerry Lynn & Tommy Rogers.
• Mikey Whipwreck defeated Justin Credible.
• Taz defeated Pitbull #2 in just 89 seconds to retain the ECW World Television Championship .
• The FBI (Little Guido & Tracy Smothers) defeat The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley), Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney, and The Gangstanators (John Kronus & New Jack) in a four-team elimination match to retain the ECW World Tag Team Championship.
• Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer went to a no contest in an ECW vs. WWF flag match.
• Sabu defeated The Sandman in a tables & ladders match.
• Shane Douglas defeated Bam Bam Bigelow to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Douglas would hold the championship for a company-record 405 days before being defeated by Taz in January 1999. He also has the second longest world title reign in ECW history, a 385-day run spanning most of 1994 and part of 1995.

18 years ago today on RAW is WAR from Baltimore, Maryland (WWE Network link), Big Boss Man defeated Mankind in a ladder match to win the WWF Hardcore Championship.

18 years ago today on Nitro from Chattanooga, Tennessee (WWE Network link), Bret Hart defeated Diamond Dallas Page by KO to win the WCW United States Championship.

On the undercard, Konnan defeated Chris Jericho to win the WCW World Television Championship.

6 years ago today, Celeste Bonin, aka Kaitlyn, wins NXT Season 3.

The rookie for Vickie Guerrero was an eleventh-hour replacement for Isis the Amazon when it was discovered by WWE that she did some risqué photo shoots. Bonin would win the WWE Divas Championship in June 2013 and would leave the WWE in 2014 to focus on her clothing line.

It’s a happy 43^rd birthday to William Jason Reso, best known to wrestling fans as Christian.

Reso is best known for his time on the Canadian independent circuit and WWE with his longtime best friend and storyline brother Adam Copeland, aka Edge. Reso signed with the WWF in 1998 after won his first title in his in-ring television debut, the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship. His most successful period came with his friend/brother Edge, winning the WWF Tag Team Championship seven times from 1999 to 2001 (three of the seven title wins came in Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches).

Much of his singles success came after the team split up late in 2001. Christian would win the Intercontinental and European championships and contend for the WWE Championship before leaving for TNA in 2005. As Christian Cage (a name he used while on the independent circuit), he would win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship twice in his three years with TNA. Reso returned to WWE as part of the ECW brand in late 2008. He would win that brand’s championship in April 2009 and again in July (his second reign, lasting 205 days, is the longest in ECW’s reboot, spanning 2006 to 2010).

Shortly after Edge’s retirement in 2011, Christian would win the World Heavyweight Championship twice, making him the only man to win the NWA, ECW, and WWE’s version of the World Heavyweight Championship. His last championship win in 2012 when he won the Intercontinental Championship from Cody Rhodes at Over the Limit in May.

Nagging injuries and concussions ended Christian’s wrestling career in March 2014, though it wasn’t formally acknowledged until October 2015 when his profile on WWE.com was quietly moved to the alumni section. In a March 2016 interview on Talk is Jericho, Reso mentioned that while there have been no formal discussions regarding his retirement, he is unlikely to wrestle again. In May, Reso was released from his talent contract.

Despite his wrestling career being over, Reso continues to appear on WWE programming, most recently appearing with Copeland on the WWE Network series The Edge and Christian Show That Totally Reeks of Awesomeness. He also had a recurring role as McHugh on the fifth season of the supernatural series Haven.

The best of cSs on this day:

2015: WWE champ Sheamus reveals his new stable, The League of Nations (Sheamus gets himself a new, anti-American stable in the wake of becoming WWE Champion)

2014: WWE might reveal the identity of the Anonymous Raw General Manager on Monday, even though they totally already did that in 2012 (Cyber Monday RAW to be hosted by the “anonymous RAW general manager”; you know, Hornswoggle)

2013: Match Times: WWE Survivor Series 2013 Edition (Cain A. Knight braves one of the worst shows in recent WWE history and times everything for you; Total Divas vs. True Divas got 22 seconds more than the WWE title match)

2012: Jim Cornette "on sabbatical" from Ring of Honor (ROH) after temper tantrum (A few weeks after losing head booking duties, Cornette probably gone from ROH after threatening violence on its management and not paying for Steve Corino’s emergency care)

2011: WWE buries John Morrison one final time on his way out of the company (John Laurinaitis twists the knife just a little further in a WWE.com interview after RAW wishing the former Intercontinental champion the best in his future endeavors)

2010: Should Jon Fitch be sacrificed for the good of UFC's entertainment business? (Jon Fitch has to come up big against BJ Penn at UFC 127 or he would likely be let go, says Watch Kalib Run’s S.C. Michaelson)