Brock Lesnar Retires from UFC

Alistair Overeem KOs Brock Lesnar in UFC 141 - SI.com - Mixed Martial Arts

Today in Wrestling History December 30th

December 30th 1992 Big Van Vader defeats WCW World Champion Ron Simmons for his second reign as World Champion.

Match of the Day

From August 1985, the AWA World Tag Team Champions take on the #1 contenders, The Irwin Brothers (Bill and Scott Irwin).
The Irwin Brothers were in my opinion one of the best teams to hit the AWA in many years after the Road Warriors but they just became fodder for the Warriors.  Having them beat the Warriors and trade the belts would have made for a possibly legendary feud but sadly Verne wanted to keep the Warriors happy and didnt let the Long Riders get another shot at the belts.


Sadly Scott "Hogg" Irwin died from a brain tumor in September of 1987.

Your Match of the Night - Black and White Edition

From June 1952, this match between World Champion Lou Thesz and former NWA World Champion "Wild Bill" Longson. The older man in the white longsleeve shirt is also a former World Champion Ed "Strangler" Lewis and was also one of the best "shoot" wrestlers of the early 20th century.

Friday Night SmackDown - Friday Night SmackDown

The Valiant Brothers

Here is a non title tag team matchup between the then WWF tag team champions, Handsome Jimmy and Luscious Johnny Valiant, The Valiant Brothers facing off against Dean Ho and Tony Garea.  Garea was a friend of Vince Sr and Jr and was a loyal employee for years including 2 decades after he retired and served as talent relations and assistant to Gorilla Monsoon.

The Valiants are introduced as being from Chicago Illinois but during their long run in Indianapolis they were from New York City, which made them evil just being from there.  I guess being from Chicago made them hated on the east coast.

Your Match of the Night

From December 1983


AWA Heavyweight Title

Nick Bockwinkel (c)  vs  Mad Dog Vachon

Your Match of the Night

From the first AWA Superclash, held at Comiskey Park on September 28th 1985


The AWA World Tag Team Champions, The Road Warriors face The Fabulous Freebirds


ENJOY!

Armageddon 2002

Today in 2002 the WWE held its Armageddon PPV from Ft Lauderdale Florida.

The main event was Shawn Michaels defending the World Heavyweight Title against HHH in a 2 out of 3 falls match.
Subtitled "3 Stages of Hell" this one started off fall one as a "Street Fight", fall #2 "Steel Cage" and fall #3 was a ladder match.
Because these are as close as brothers, Michaels and HHH wanted to blow the roof off and make each other look great and so they turned in one of the best matches of the decade.

due to the WWE blocking all videos of the finish of this match, this was all I could find and I apologize for that.

TLC 2009

The first WWE TLC (Tables, Ladders and Chairs) PPV was held December 13th 2009 in San Antonio Texas.


The main event was a TLC match for the World Tag Team Titles with DX (Shawn Michaels and HHH) taking on the Champions, Jerishow (Chris Jericho and The Big Show).

Happy Birthday Kurt Angle

Today, December 9th, is the 43rd birthday of Olympic Gold Medlist and former WWE and TNA Heavyweight champion Kurt Angle.

Normally I try to find a great match for the birthday boy or girl but in this case how about the match that Kurt won his Olympic gold medal.  From the 1996 Summer Olympic games in Atlanta Georgia, USA.


Kurt Angle vs Abbas Jadidi of Iran

Match of the Day

Today's match is from Starrcade 85 (The Gathering) and one of the biggest matches of that year and any other year was the culmination of the fued between Magnum TA and Tully Blanchard.   The "I Quit" match in a cage became legendary for its violence and controversial finish.

This is what wrestling today is missing, a long, great feud that has a great payoff finish at the biggest PPV of the year.

Upcoming WWE Pay Per View Event

The next WWE Pay Per View will be TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2011.

So far the only announced match is for the World Heavyweight Title as Champion Mark Henry will defend against The Big Show.

This year it will be December 18th at the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.

Royal Rumble 2011

Here is the poster for the upcoming Royal Rumble.  The 2012 Royal Rumble will be on January 29th 2012.

Today in Wrestling History December 4th

1969 - Dory Funk Jr. defended his NWA World Heavyweight Title in a 60 minute draw against Antonio Inoki.
This was the first title defense by a World Champion in Japan since 1957.





1974 - Giant Baba wins his first NWA World Heavyweight Title by defeating then champion Jack Brisco in Kagoshima, Japan. Baba would lose the title back to Brisco a week later.