These Dates In Wrestling History: December 3 & December 4

A Two-fer Tuesday (or Wednesday?) brings us some early December highlights including, a one shot PPV from the WWF, the last of a series from CHIKARA, the firing of Paul Heyman and the death of Umaga.

See what happened on these two historic days!

Born On These Dates

December 3rd

• 1963 – Steve Simpson
• 1973 –  Francisco Pantoja Islas (Super Crazy)
• 1982 – Donald Jacob Hager (Jack Swagger)
• 1986 – Barry Young (Wolfgang)
• 1993 – Alex Coughlin

December 4th

• 1970 – Sylvester Terkay
• 1980 – Eric Thompson (Viktor)
• 1984 – Brooke Adams (Bess Tessmacher)
• 1989 – Hiromu Takahashi

On These Dates In Wrestling History

December 3rd

1991 – WWF presented This Tuesday in Texas  from the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas. About 8,000 were in attendance with just 140,000 homes watching on PPV, though some estimates have it as high as 198,000 buys. Though the show was half the price of a typical PPV at the time, just half the number of homes bought the show. The mid-week PPV experiment was immediately abandoned, though WWE would try it again with Taboo Tuesday in 2004.

2000 – ECW presented Massacre on 34^th Street from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. About 2,600 were in attendance, with a staggering (though disputed) 390,000 homes watching on PPV, which was four times the buyrate of a typical ECW PPV. The rumors of the show being the last PPV for ECW drove the buyrate up, though the rumors may have been premature. ECW’s final PPV came a month later with Guilty as Charged.

2005 – Joey Ryan defeated Kevin Steen to win the Pro Wresting Guerrilla Heavyweight Championship.

2010 – WWE presented December to Dismember  from the James Brown Arena in Augusta, Georgia. About 4,800 were in attendance with just 90,000 homes watching on PPV.  This show is widely considered one of the worst PPV’s in wrestling history.  It was the last event for The Big Show (at that time), whose contract was set to expire. Also, Paul Heyman was fired after a series of backstage clashes with Vince McMahon in the days preceding the show. Heyman, would of course, return to the company in 2012.

2013 – TNA taped a special episode of Impact with Final Resolution from the Impact Zone at Universal Orlando. The show aired on December 19.

• Bobby Roode defeated Kurt Angle 2-1 in a best of three falls match.
• Madison Rayne & ODB defeat Gail Kim & Lei’D Tapa.
• Magnus defeats Jeff Hardy in a “Dixieland Match” to win the vacated TNA World Heavyweight Championship.

December 4th

1973 – Mariko Akagi & Peggy Kuroda defeat Sarah Lee & Sylvia Hackney for the WWWA World Tag Team Title in Osaka, Japan to start their second reign as champions.

1976 – Hercules Ayala & Victor Jovica defeat Higo Hamaguchi & Gordon Nelson in Caguas, Puerto Rico for the WWC North American Tag Team Title.

1978 – Jerry Lawler defeats Don Fargo in Memphis, Tennessee to win the AWA Southern Heavyweight Title, ending Fargo’s second reign. For Lawler, this would be the fourth of an eventual thirty-three AWA Southern Heavyweight Title wins.

1979 – Bill Watts defeats Mike George in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to win the Mid-South North American Heavyweight Title. Before you groan over a promoter giving himself the top title in his own territory, realize that Watts would lose it back to George two days later, and never held the title again.

1993 – Kevin Sullivan & Tazmaniac defeat Tommy Dreamer & Shane Douglas (subbing for Johnny Gunn) to win the ECW Tag Team Title in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when Douglas turned on Dreamer. This would be the first ECW championship held by the Tazmaniac (later Taz, now Tazz in WWE). Ironically, Tazz would lose his last ECW title (the ECW World Heavyweight Title) to Tommy Dreamer in 2000.

1997 – Cash Flo defeats Rollin’ Hard for the IWA-Mid South Television Title in Lexington, Kentucky.

1998 – Ian Rotten defeats Corporal Robinson in Salem, Indiana to become a four-time IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion. Within the first few minutes of the match, Ian hit Robinson in the head with a window pane that had florescent light tubes attached to it. It cut an artery above Robinson’s temple, and blood was literally spurting out of his head. Ian quickly pinned Robinson with a double arm DDT, winning the title, and ending the match in less than four minutes. Robinson was taken to a hospital, and suffered a brain aneurysm due to a blood clot. He eventually returned to wrestling.

1999 – Ryuji Yamakawa defeats Shadow WX in Yokohama, Japan for the Big Japan Pro Wrestling Death Match Title. This match ended Shadow WX’s third reign, and started the second reign for Yamakawa.

1999 – Rico Constantino defeats Steve Bradley for the Memphis Power Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title in Memphis, Tennessee, ending Bradley’s second reign with the title.

2001 – During a taping of Smackdown at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois,  Vince McMahon was given a Stinkface by Rikishi, putting an end (at least for a while) to the Vince McMahon “Kiss My Ass” club.  The Rock had the honors of having Vince kiss his rear end (the result of a prematch stipulation on Raw), but instead teased that Vince would have to kiss Jim Ross’ or Trish Stratus’ rear (Vince actually like the idea of kissing Trish’s) before bringing out Rikishi.  Vince refused to kiss Rikishi’s rear, so Rock gave him a Rock Bottom, then rammed Vince’s face into Rikishi’s posterior. An earlier plan by Vince to have Kurt Angle come out and save him was stopped when Steve Austin beat up Angle backstage.

2003 – WWE runs in Seoul, South Korea with World Champion Brock Lesnar defeating Chris Benoit.

2011 – Eddie Edwards, El Generico and ROH Tag Team champions Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin defeated Jay & Mark Briscoe, Roderick Strong and Michael Elgin in an 80 minute Elimination match for ROH. The order of elimination was Benjamin, one Briscoe, Haas, the other Briscoe, Generico, Elgin, and Strong.

2011 – CHIKARA held their third and final Joshimania event in New York City.

Died On These Dates

December 3rd

• 2010 – Galton “Skip” Young (Sweet Brown Sugar)

December 4th

• 2008 – Steven Richard Bisson (Steve Bradley)
• 2009 – Edward Smith Fatu (Umaga)