This Day in Wrestling History (Dec. 10): ARMAGEDDON! In A Cell

44 years ago today in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, Ric Flair makes his professional wrestling debut with a 10-minute time limit draw against George Gadaski.

43 years ago today in New York City, Bruno Sammartino defeated Stan Stasiak to win the WWWF Championship. The win made Sammartino the first man to win the WWWF title more than once.

41 years ago today in Miami, Florida, Terry Funk defeated Jack Brisco to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

The win made the brothers Funk (along with Dory) the first-and to this day, only-brothers to hold the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

17 years ago today in Osaka, Japan, Genichiro Tenryu defeated Keiji Mutoh to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

16 years ago today, WWF presented Armageddon from the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center in Birmingham, Alabama. 14,920 were in attendance, with 465,000 homes watching on PPV. That's up from 371,000 for the 1999 edition.

Of note, to this day, Armageddon 2000 remains the only WWE PPV event held in Alabama.

• In a preshow Sunday Night Heat match, Scotty 2 Hotty defeated D'Lo Brown.
• The Radicalz (Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, and Eddie Guerrero) defeated The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff) and Lita 3-2 in a six-person intergender elimination match.
• William Regal defeated Hardcore Holly to retain the WWF European Championship.
• Val Venis defeated Chyna.
• Chris Jericho defeated Kane in a Last Man Standing match.
• Edge and Christian defeated The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von), Right to Censor (Bull Buchanan and The Goodfather), and Road Dogg and K-Kwik in a Fatal Four-Way match to win WWF Tag Team Championship.
• Chris Benoit defeated Billy Gunn to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
• Ivory defeated Trish Stratus and Molly Holly in a triple threat match to retain the WWF Womens Championship.
• Kurt Angle defeated Stone Cold teve Austin, Triple H, The Undertaker, Rikishi, and The Rock in a six-man Hell in a Cell to retain the WWF Championship.

10 years ago today, TNA presented Turning Point from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando.

• In a preshow match, Lance Hoyt and Ron Killings defeated Serotonin (Martyr, Kazarian and Havok).
• Senshi defeated Alex Shelley, Sonjay Dutt, Austin Starr, and Jay Lethal in a five-man elimination Paparazzi Championship Series match.
• Eric Young defeated Ms. Brooks in a bikini contest.
• Christopher Daniels (c) defeated Chris Sabin to retain the TNA X Division Championship. Jerry Lynn was the special referee.
• AJ Styles defeated Rhino.
• Latin American Exchange (Hernandez & Homicide) defeated America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) in a tag team flag match.
• Abyss defeated Christian Cage and Sting in a three-way match to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
• Samoa Joe defeated Kurt Angle.

9 years ago today WWE presented the RAW 15^th Anniversary special (WWE Network link) from the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The show was filled with cameos: Big Dick Johnson, Howard Finkel, Bastion Booger, Pat Patterson, Gerald Brisco, Stephanie McMahon, Sunny, Eric Bischoff, Lita, Trish Stratus, and Stone Cold Steve Austin all made appearances on the show.

• In a dark match, DH Smith defeated Steve Corino.
• Jeff Hardy defeated Carlito in a ladder match to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
• Rob Van Dam defeated Santino Marella in just 44 seconds. This was Van Dam's first match since leaving the company the previous year to tend to his wife who had cancer at the time.
• Evolution (Batista, Triple H, and Ric Flair) defeated Rated RKO (Randy Orton & Edge) and Umaga by disqualification.
• Hornswoggle versus The Great Khali ended in a no contest.
• "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase defeated Al Snow, Bart Gunn, Bob Backlund, Doink, Flash Funk, Gangrel, Gillberg, Irwin R. Schyster, Jim Neidhart, Pete Gas, Repo Man, Scotty 2 Hotty, Sgt Slaughter, Skinner, Steve Blackman and The Goon in a RAW 15th Anniversary 15-Man Battle Royal.
• Cody Rhodes & Hardcore Holly defeated Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch to win the World Tag Team Championship.
• Mr. Kennedy defeated Marty Jannetty.

6 years ago today at an ROH on HDNET taping in Louisville, Kentucky, Christopher Daniels defeated Eddie Edwards to win the ROH World Television Championship.

4 years ago today, Kenta Kobashi announced he was set to retire next year.

The stunning announcement is the second concerning the three-time All Japan Pro Wrestling Triple Crown Champion and Pro Wrestling NOAH GHC Heavyweight Champion in less than a week.

Six days earlier, the promotion issued a press release saying that Kobashi has been released from his contract. This came two months after Kobashi resigned from his post as executive vice-president. In response to Kobashi being let go, Atsushi Aoki, Go Shiozaki, Jun Akiyama, Kotaro Suzuki, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru all announced their intentions to become free agents when their contracts expired in January out of loyalty to Kobashi.

It turned out the in-ring announcement made on December 9 was done as a way to let Kobashi leave gracefully; however, the PR move came too late to save the five soon-to-be free agents from leaving the company.

Kobashi’s retirement show, Final Burning in Budokan took place on May 11, 2013. Over 17,000 people were attendance at the show; among them, former colleagues Akira Taue, Hiroshi Hase, Masahiro Chono, and Stan Hansen, as well as former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and NTV announcers Akira Fukuzawa and Kazuo Tokumitsu. In his final match, Kobashi, Jun Akiyama, Keiji Mutoh, and Kensuke Sasaki defeated Go Shiozaki, Kenta, Maybach Taniguchi, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Kobashi scored the winning fall for his team.

3 years ago today, WWE announces that Wrestlemania 31 would take place at the new Levi's Stadium. Some WWE superstars were on hand for the announcement as well as 49ers tight end Vernon Davis.

It's a happy 32nd birthday for Jayson Anthony Paul, best known to wrestling fans as JTG.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Paul began his career as The Neighborhoodie in 2006. Teaming with Shad Gaspard, the duo was known as the Gang-Stars. The two would win the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship twice.

The same year, the two were promoted to the WWE's main roster as Cryme Tyme, with The Neighborhoodie renamed to JTG. Just a year after their vignettes debut on RAW, they were released, but would return the night after Wrestlemania XXIV. That summer, they briefly formed an alliance with John Cena, calling themselves Cryme Tyme Cenation, or CTC.

The duo would split in April 2010 following a loss to John Morrison & R-Truth when Shad assaulted JTG. Despite being together for three and a half years, the team would never win the WWE tag titles together. The two had a strap match later that month at Extreme Rules, with JTG winning. Shad would win the rematch on Superstars a few days later in what turned out to be his final main roster match.

JTG largely floated in obscurity over the next four years, appearing mainly on NXT Redemption and Superstars. His final match came in a Superstars loss to Santino Marella in September 2013. On June 12, 2014, JTG was released.

Following his release, he reunited with longtime partner Shad Gaspard to reform Crime Time and have appeared on the independent circuit for events in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Paul has also written a book about his time in WWE released in May 2015, entitled Damn! Why Did I Write This Book? He wrote a sequel released earlier this year, DAMN! Why Did I Write This Book Too? How to Play The Game. Jayson has a daughter, Madison, and currently resides in Los Angeles.

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The best of cSs on this day:

2015: Jake Roberts apparently wants to have sex with Bray Wyatt (In a since-deleted video, Jake Roberts... says… things. Yeah.)

2014: Triple H explains why NXT champion Charlotte lost to Natalya in main roster debut on Raw and The backstage story on Charlotte losing to Natalya in her debut on Raw (Two different spins, one from Triple H, one from Dave Meltzer, on why Charlotte lost in her first main roster TV appearance in three minutes to Natayla—basically, it’s probably Vince McMahon’s fault)

2013: The Rock says...Thanks for the Slammys - WWE's quest for mainstream acceptance (WWE tries to have their cake and eat it too in awarding Slammys to mainstream stars The Rock and the Bella Twins)

2012: Kenta Kobashi announces retirement - the symbolic end of Pro Wrestling NOAH? (Kenta Kobashi’s firing/retirement announcement leaves the struggling Japanese promotion’s future in doubt)

2011: Cageside Fave Five: Wrestling entrance theme songs (Cagesiders give their favorite wrestling entrance themes)

2010: Schultz' Murderer Dies In Prison (Foxcatcher founder John du Pont , the man convicted of killing Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz in January 1996, found dead in his cell at age 72—cause of death was determined to be COPD and emphysema)