This Day in Wrestling History (Dec. 28): Sting Beats Hollywood Hogan... Sort Of

24 years ago today, WCW presented Starrcade '92: Battlebowl (WWE Network link) from The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. About 8,000 were in attendance, with 95,000 homes watching on PPV. That's down from 155,000 for 1991's event, and down from 165,000 for Halloween Havoc just two months earlier.

The show's hook, just like the 1991 edition, was the Lethal Lottery leading to the Battlebowl. Names were drawn at random to form tag teams, and the winning teams advanced to the Battlebowl battle royal at the end of the show.

• In a preshow dark match, Brad Armstrong defeated Shanghai Pierce.
• Van Hammer and Danny Spivey defeated Johnny B. Badd and Cactus Jack.
• Big Van Vader and Dustin Rhodes defeated Kensuke Sasaki and The Barbarian.
• The Great Muta and Barry Windham defeated Brian Pillman and 2 Cold Scorpio.
• Steve Williams and Sting defeated Jushin Liger and Erik Watts.
• Shane Douglas and Ricky Steamboat defeated Barry Windham and Brian Pillman to retain the NWA and WCW World Tag Team Championships.
• Sting defeated Big Van Vader to win the King of Cable tournament.
• Ron Simmons defeated Steve Williams by disqualification to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
• Masahiro Chono defeated The Great Muta to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
• The Great Muta last eliminated Barry Windham to win the BattleBowl battle royal.

19 years ago today, WCW presented Starrcade (WWE Network link) from the MCI Center in Washington, DC. 17,500 were in attendance, with a record 700,000 homes watching on PPV, though some estimates only have it at around 625,000 to 650,000 homes.

It's the most bought event in WCW history, and is double (or almost double depening on what estimate you believe) what the 1996 event got in home buys (345,000). The show's hook: the long-awaited Hollywood Hogan-Sting match, which would be Sting's first in-ring action in about 15 months.

• Eddie Guerrero defeated Dean Malenko to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship.
• The nWo (Randy Savage, Scott Norton & Vincent) defeated Ray Traylor & The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner).
• Goldberg defeated Steve McMichael.
• Saturn defeated Chris Benoit in a no disqualification match.
• Buff Bagwell defeated Lex Luger.
• Diamond Dallas Page defeated Curt Hennig to win the WCW United States Championship.
• Larry Zbyszko defeated Eric Bischoff by disqualification to retain Monday Nitro for WCW. Bret Hart was the special referee.
• Sting defeated Hollywood Hogan by submission to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Hogan had originally won the title with a "fast count" (which wasn't that fast at all-not even a little bit), but Bret Hart, who was acting as a referee, restarted the match. Sting would hook on the Scorpion Deathlock, and Hogan submitted.

18 years ago today on Nitro from Baltimore, Maryland (WWE Network link), Ric Flair defeated Eric Bischoff in a return match from the previous night's Starrcade to become WCW President for 90 days. Had Flair lost, he would have been forced to retire.

On the same show, Scott Steiner defeated Konnan to win the WCW World Television Championship.

17 years ago today at a Smackdown taping in Richmond, Virginia (WWE Network link), Chris Jericho and Chyna went to a double pinfall for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Two referees counted their shoulders down for the three count.

The following Monday, Stephanie McMahon ruled that both Chris Jericho and Chyna were co-Intercontinental champions. They remained that way until the Royal Rumble when Jericho became undisputed Intercontinental champion when he defeated Chyna and Hardcore Holly in a triple threat match.

Today, the co-Intercontinental title reign of Chyna and Jericho is not recognized by WWE; it is considered vacant.

14 years ago, Ring of Honor presented Final Battle from the Murphy Recreational Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

• CM Punk defeated Colt Cabana.
• Simply Luscious defeated Alexis Laree in just 41 seconds.
• Special K (Deranged & Angel Dust) defeated The Backseat Boyz (Trent Acid & Johnny Kashmere) and Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack) in a Tag Team Scramble match.
• The Prophecy (Christopher Daniels & Donovan Morgan) defeated The SAT (Jose & Joel Maximo) 2-1 in a best of three falls match to retain the ROH Tag Team Championship
• The New Christopher Street Connection (Mace & Japanese Pool Boy) defeated the Carnage Crew (HC Loc & Tony DeVito) by disqualification.
• Jody Fleisch defeated Amazing Red.
• Xavier defeated Paul London to retain the ROH Championship.
• Bryan Danielson, Low Ki, Samoa Joe, and Steve Corino fought to a 45-minute draw to determine the #1 contender for the ROH Championship.

7 years ago today on RAW from Hartford, Connecticut (WWE Network link), Vince McMahon officially announces Bret Hart would guest host the January 4, 2010 RAW.

Save for a pre-taped cameo in 2007, it would mark Bret Hart's first appearance on RAW since 1997, and Bret's first live WWE appearance in any capacity since being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006.

It's a happy 31st birthday for Taryn Nicole Terrell.

The New-Orleans born Terrell was among the final eight of the 2007 WWE Diva Search, but finished fourth. Despite that, she was picked up by WWE in February 2008. She made her debut four months later as Tiffany, the on-screen assistant general manager under Theodore Long for the rebooted ECW, then eventually became the brand's general manager when Long moved back to Smackdown following Wrestlemania 25. When ECW was dissolved in 2010, Tiffany would be moved to Smackdown. She and Kelly Kelly, the Blondtourage, feuded with Laycool until a domestic incident with her then-husband Drew McIntyre got her suspended from the company that summer; Terrell would be released in November without ever returning to television.

After more than two years largely away from the ring, but wrestling occasionally on the independent circuit, she debuted for TNA as the vice-president of the Knockouts division under Brooke Hogan; she also served as the division's referee. After briefly appearing for TNA developmental outfit Ohio Valley Wrestling, she feuded with Gail Kim. The feud served as transition for Terrell becoming a TNA Knockout. She feuded with Kim until her pregnancy forced her away from the ring in August 2013.

She returned over a year later fighting alongside Kim. That November, she defeated Kim and Jessica Havok to win the TNA Knockouts Championship; she would go on to hold it for 279 days, longer than anyone in company history. During that time, she became a villainess, aligning herself with the Dollhouse.

Terrell, who once dated actor Alfonso Ribero, has one daughter, one-year old Emerson. Recently, Terrell said that her wrestling career led to a life of sin, and she's begun her journey to become a born-again Christian. That decision led her to retire from wrestling in January 2016. She returned to the promotion in October for one night only as part of Gail Kim’s induction into the TNA Hall of Fame.

Terrell is married to professional motorcyclist and stuntman Joseph Dryden. The couple have one girl, 22-month old Emerson, and a second on the way.

It's a happy 63rd birthday for puroresu legend Tatsumi Fujinami.

Wrestling since the age of 17, Fujinami's wrestled around the world, including for Mexico's Universal Wrestling Association, Jim Crockett Promotions and the WWWF in the States (where he won their junior heavyweight championship in 1978), and most famously for New Japan Pro Wrestling from its founding in 1972 to 2006. In 1981, he transitioned to the heavyweight division, and he would be even more successful.

In 1988, Fujinami would win the first of what would be a then record six IWGP Heavyweight Championships (the record was matched by Hiroshi Tanahashi in 2012, then broken in October 2014). Two years later, just three months after returning from a severe back injury, he would win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for a second time, as well as the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, becoming the first man to hold both those championships at the same time. It is during this reign he had his most remembered match; a champion versus champion bout with WCW World Champion Ric Flair at the first SuperBrawl in 1991.

From 1999 to 2004, Fujinami served as the President of New Japan Pro Wrestling. He remained with the company until his controversial ousting in 2006. Later, he would form his own company with disciple Osamu Nishimura, Muga Pro World, renamed Dradition when Nishimura left.

Fujinami continues to win championships even in his advanced years, winning the KO-D (King of DDT) tag team titles in 2012 with MIKAMI. Earlier this year, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Ric Flair. Last year, Fujinami signed a legends contract with WWE; the contract did not restrict his Japanese bookings.

The innovator of the dragon sleeper and the dragon suplex (he is nicknamed "The Dragon") is well decorated. Including his six IWGP Heavyweight titles, he is a 5-time IWGP tag team champion (four of them with Kengo Kimura), an NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Champion, an WWF International Heavyweight and Tag Team Champion, a four-time Tokyo Sports Magazine Outstanding Performance winner, the magazine's 1985 MVP, a three-time Best Technical Wrestler award winner from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and a member of the inaugural class of the publication's Hall of Fame in 1996.

Tatsumi is married with one son, Leona, who wrestles for his father's Dradition promotion.

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The best of cSs on this day:

2015: Rusev calls out Dolph Ziggler and Dana Brooke, who respond perfectly (Rusev goes after Dolph Ziggler and Dana Brooke about putting their personal business out on Twitter; Ziggler and Brooke respond)

2014: Cageside Seats Year-End Awards: Feud of the Year (VOTE) (Cagesiders pick the best feud of 2014)

2013: Jim Cornette on The Steve Austin Show: The most successful pro wrestling company in the world is the UFC (The longtime manager says on The Steve Austin Show says UFC using pro wrestling’s promotional tactics have made them the most successful promotion in wrestling, even though they’re not wrestling)

2012: Cageside Seats Year-End Awards: 'Segment of the Year' (Cagesiders pick their favorite segment of 2012)

2011: WWE: Will the mystery return man on Jan. 2, 2012, interrupt the CM Punk vs Dolph Ziggler match on Raw? (Figure Four Weekly details possible plans for the 1/2/12 mystery man)