This Day in Wrestling History (Dec. 14): Jeff Hardy Wins The WWE Championship

43 years ago today in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Verne Gagne defeated The Crusher to win the AWA World Heavyweight Championship for the sixth time.

30 years ago today, WWF tapes the ninth edition of Saturday Night's Main Event (WWE Network link) from the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut. The show aired on January 3, 1987.

• Hulk Hogan defeated Paul Orndorff in a steel cage match to retain the WWF Championship. The match was restarted when both men hit the floor at the same time when they escaped the cage.
• Macho Man Randy Savage defeated George “The Animal” Steele to retain the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
• The Junkyard Dog defeated King Harley Race by disqualification.
• Adrian Adonis defeated Roddy Piper by countout.
• Blackjack Mulligan defeated Jimmy Jack Funk.

24 years ago today in Tokyo, Japan, The Hellraisers (Road Warrior Hawk and Power Warrior Kensuke Sasaki) defeated Scott Norton and Tony Halme (who would go on to a small degree of fame in the WWF as Ludvig Borga) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.

18 years ago today on RAW is WAR from Tacoma, Washington (WWE Network link), The Big Bossman and Ken Shamrock defeat The New Age Outlaws to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.

13 years ago today, WWE presented Armageddon (WWE Network link) from the TD Waterhouse Center in Orlando, Florida. About 9,000 were in attendance, with 200,000 homes watching on PPV.

• In a Sunday Night Heat preshow match, Rico defeated Heidenreich in just 88 seconds.
• Booker T defeated Mark Henry.
• Randy Orton defeated Rob Van Dam to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Mick Foley was the special referee.
• Chris Jericho and Christian defeated Trish Stratus and Lita in an intergender tag team match.
• Shawn Michaels defeated Batista.
• Evolution (Ric Flair and Batista) last defeated The Dudley Boyz in a Tag Team Turmoil match to win the World Tag Team Championship. Other participants in order of elimination were La Resistance (Rene Dupree and Robert Conway), The Hurricane and Rosey, Val Venis & Lance Storm, Mark Jindrak & Garrison Cade, and Test & Scott Steiner.
• Molly Holly defeated Ivory to retain the WWE Women's Championship.
• Triple H defeated Goldberg and Kane in a triple threat match to win the World Heavyweight Championship.

8 years ago today, WWE presented Armageddon (WWE Network link) from the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York. About 12,500 were in attendance, with 193,000 homes watching on PPV.

• In a dark match, John Morrison and The Miz defeated Jesse and Festus.
• Vladimir Kozlov defeated Matt Hardy.
• CM Punk defeated Rey Mysterio to become the #1 contender for the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
• Finlay defeated Mark Henry in a Belfast Brawl.
• Batista defeated Randy Orton.
• Michelle McCool, Mickie James, Kelly Kelly and Maria defeated Maryse, Jillian, Victoria and Natalya in an Diva Santa's Little Helper tag team match.
• John Cena defeated Chris Jericho to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
• Jeff Hardy defeated Edge and Triple H in a triple threat match to win the WWE Championship.

7 years ago today, WWE presented the 2009 Slammy Awards on a special edition of RAW from Corpus Christi, Texas (WWE Network link).

• Superstar of the Year: John Cena
• Breakout Star of the Year: Sheamus
• Match of the Year: Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 25
• RAW Guest Host of the Year: Bob Barker
• OMG Moment of the Year: Michael Cole vomits on Chris Jericho at Decade of Smackdown
• Extreme Moment of the Year: Jeff Hardy jumps from tall ladder onto CM Punk at Summerslam
• Tag Team of the Year: Jerishow
• Shocker of the Year: CM Punk retires Jeff Hardy
• Diva of the Year: Maria

3 years ago today, Ring of Honor presented Final Battle from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.

• In a dark match, Brutal Burgers (Bob Evans & Cheeseburger) defeated Team Benchmark (Bill Daly & Will Ferrara).
• Matt Hardy defeated Adam Page.
• Silas Young defeated Mark Briscoe in a strap match.
• The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) defeated Adrenaline RUSH (ACH & Tadarius Thomas).
• Kevin Steen defeated Michael Bennett in a stretcher match.
• reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) defeated Outlaw Inc. (Eddie Kingston & Homicide) to retain the ROH World Tag Team Championship.
• Tommaso Ciampa defeated Matt Taven to win the ROH World Television Championship.
• BJ Whitmer & Eddie Edwards defeated Jay Lethal & Roderick Strong. This was Edwards' final match with Ring of Honor. Post-match, Whitmer turned on Edwards and along with Strong and Jimmy Jacobs, they formed the heel stable known as The Decade.
• Adam Cole defeated Jay Briscoe and Michael Elgin in a three-way match to retain the ROH World Championship. Post-match, Chris Hero returned to Ring of Honor after a stint in NXT. In a neat side nugget, Hero was challenging for the CZW World Championship in Philadelphia a few hours earlier.

2 years ago today, WWE presented TLCS: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs...and Stairs (WWE Network link) from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.

• In a preshow match, The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Big E) defeated Goldust & Stardust.
• Dolph Ziggler defeated Luke Harper in a ladder match to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
• The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) defeated The Miz & Damien Mizdow by disqualification in a WWE Tag Team Championship match.
• Big Show defeated Erick Rowan in a stairs match.
• John Cena defeated Seth Rollins in a tables match. Had Cena lost, he would have lost his #1 contendership for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
• Nikki Bella defeated AJ Lee to retain the WWE Divas Championship.
• Ryback defeated Kane in a chairs match.
• Rusev defeated Jack Swagger to retain the WWE United States Championship.
• Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match.

1 year ago today on RAW from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (WWE Network link), Roman Reigns defeated Sheamus in a career versus title match to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Had Roman lost, he would have been fired.

It is the third time in as many years the WWE’s top prize has changed hands on RAW; however, it’s actually the first time someone won the title in a match on RAW since July 25, 2011 when John Cena defeated Rey Mysterio for the title (the last two title changes on RAW—September 16, 2013 due to a controversial call and June 9, 2014 due to injury, both by Daniel Bryan—were title vacancies).

The best of cSs on this day:

2015: Roman Reigns wins WWE title on Raw (Roman Reigns wins the WWE Championship for the second time in as many nights)

2014: Roman Reigns returns at WWE TLC 2014, officially enters next year's Royal Rumble (Roman Reigns returns and in a “legendary” promo, he enters the 2015 Royal Rumble match)

2013: WWE Top 10 Video: Greatest Unification Matches (Just a day before the WWE unification title match at TLC, WWE releases a top ten video of best unification bouts in company history)

2012: Crazy Thought of the Day: Undertaker picks Daniel Bryan for WrestleMania 29 opponent (Boss Geno makes a case for an Undertaker-Daniel Bryan match at Wrestlemania XXIX)

2011: Mark Henry the invincible monster is no more (Mark Henry’s Hall of Pain run might be over after taking the pin—just his second in six months—in a six-man tag at Tribute to the Troops)