Trivia
1987 – At a WWF taping in Tampa, Florida 3 editions of Piper’s Pit were taped. In the 1st, Andre The Giant turned heel, revealing Bobby Heenan to be his new manager, & challenged Hulk Hogan to a title match, tearing off Hogan’s shirt & crucifix. In the 2nd edition, Hogan accepted Andre’s challenge, setting up the main event to Wrestlemania III. In the 3rd edition, Roddy Piper revealed that he would retire following his match with Adrian Adonis at Wrestlemania III
2004 – During an edition of Raw from Hershey, Pennsylvania, Chris Benoit switched brands from Smackdown, using the fact that he won the Royal Rumble, & had earned a Wrestlemania main event title bout to challenge for the World Title on the Raw brand events
2011 – Bruce Hart’s autobiography “Straight from the Hart” was released
2014 – Mae Young was inducted in the GERWECK.NET Hall of Fame with 94% of the vote
2015 – WWE announced that actor/politician Arnold Schwarzenegger would be inducted into the 2015 class of the WWE Hall of Fame
2015 – Due to a major winter storm bearing down on the New England region, WWE announced the cancellation of tonight’s live Monday Night Raw, & tomorrow’s Thursday Night Smackdown taping in Boston, MA. They announced Raw would be held live on Thursday January 29th, 2015
Events
In 1996, WWF ran at Madison Square Garden with the following results:
– Tatanka & Isaac Yankem defeated Bob Holly & Fatu
– Duke Drose defeated 1-2-3 Kid
– Owen Hart defeated Hakushi
– Ahmed Johnson defeated Jeff Jarrett
– Steve Austin, in his Madison Square Garden debut, defeated Henry Godwinn
– The Undertaker defeated Yokozuna
– WWF World Tag Team Champions The Smoking Gunns defeated The Bodydonnas
– Savio Vega defeated Intercontinental Champion Goldust via countout when Goldust walked out
– Shawn Michaels defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley
– WWF World Champion Bret Hart defeated Diesel in a steel cage match after the Undertaker interfered, costing Diesel the match as revenge on Diesel costing Undertaker his Royal Rumble match with Hart
In 2014, The WWE the 2014 Royal Rumble was held at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
Kickoff Match:
– The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg & Billy Gunn) defeated WWE World Tag Team Champions Goldust & Cody Rhodes to win the titles
PPV:
– Bray Wyatt (with Luke Harper & Erick Rowan) defeated Daniel Bryan
– Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) defeated The Big Show
– WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton defeated John Cena to retain the title
– Batista won the 2014 Royal Rumble match last eliminating Roman Reigns. Reigns broke Kane’s record for most eliminations in 1 Rumble match of 11 by eliminating 12. (Kevin Nash was the only surprise entrant of the night, entering at #14)
Title Changes
1970 – Wahoo McDaniel defeated Johnny Valentine to win the Texas Heavyweight Title
1980 – Mr. Fuji defeated Invader I to win the WWC North American Heavyweight Title in Bayamon, Puerto Rico 1981 – Jerry Stubbs defeated Les Thornton to win the NWA Junior Heavyweight Title
1987 – The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) defeated The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid) to win the WWF Tag Team Titles in Tampa, Florida
1988 – Mike Rotunda defeated Nikita Koloff to win the NWA Television Title
1996 – Konnan defeated Pierroth Jr. to become the 1st International Wrestling All Stars World Heavyweight Champion in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico. He would also be the last champion, as the title was later abandoned
1999 – on Halftime Heat (airing during halftime of Super Bowl XXXIII) Mankind defeated The Rock to win the WWF Title 2003 – Jushin Liger & Koji Kanemoto defeated Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles
2008 – No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero) defeated The Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black) to win the ROH Tag Team Titles
Birthdays
Happy birthday to WWE Hall of Famer Road Warrior Animal (55), former WCW wrestler Robert ‘The Maestro’ Kellum (42), one-time TNA Knockouts Champion Taylor Wilde (29), one-time AJPW All Asia Tag Team Champion Brother YASSHI (33) & former TNA World X Cup winner Volador Jr. (34)
Also, today would have been the birthday of WWE and WCW Hall of Famer Gordon Solie (85)