This Day In Wrestling History – December 5th
1983 – Brian Adias defeats Super Destroyer, to win the WCCW Television Championship.
1984 – Brad Armstrong defeats Ernie Ladd, to win the Mid South Wrestling North American Heavyweight Championship.
1994 – In a Smoky Mountain Wrestling TV taping, Buddy Landel defeats Brian Lee, to win the SMW Beat the Champ Television Championship. This match would air on television December 31, 1994.
1997 – Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue win All Japan Pro Wrestling’s World’s Strongest Tag Team League for 1997; Kawada and Taue defeat Jun Akiyama and Mitsuharu Misawa in the finals.
1997 – The Can-Am Express (Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon) defeat The Full Blooded Italians (Little Guido and Tracy Smothers), to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship.
1998 – Stan Hansen and Vader win All Japan Pro Wrestling’s World’s Strongest Tag Team League for 1998; Hansen and Vader defeat Jun Akiyama and Kenta Kobashi in the finals.
2004 – TNA Wrestling’s inaugural Turning Point pay-per-view is held at the TNA Impact! Zone in front of 700 fans. In the final televised match of his career, Randy Savage goes out a winner; he teams with A.J. Styles and Jeff Hardy, in a Six-Man Tag Team Match, to defeat The Kings of Wrestling (Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall). Triple X (Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper) are forced to disband after losing a Six Sides of Steel Match to America’s Most Wanted (James Storm and Chris Harris). The NWA World Tag Team Championship changes hands; Team Canada (Bobby Roode and Eric Young) defeat 3Live Kru (B.G. James and Ron Killings), to become the new champions.
2005 – The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and Devon) win AJPW’s World’s Strongest Tag Team League for 2005; the Dudleyz defeat Akebono and Keiji Mutoh in the finals.
2005 – After failing on the job in his three-plus years at the helm, Eric Bischoff is fired as General Manager of WWE RAW, after a mock trial in front of Vince McMahon. The trial was for Bischoff’s history of failures and poor actions. At the end of the trial Vince dumps Bischoff into the back of a garbage truck and drives off. Full video below.
2009 – TNA announces it will air a special 3-hour episode of Impact! on January 4, 2010. The episode will feature the TNA debuts of Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, and the return of Jeff Hardy (who had left WWE in the summer of ’09).
2010 – TNA Final Resolution is held at the Impact! Zone in Orlando with 1,100 in attendance. Douglas Williams defeats A.J. Styles to become the new TNA Television Champion. In a No Disqualification Match, Jeff Hardy defeats Matt Morgan, to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship; Mr. Anderson served as special guest referee.
2010 – On Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Winter Navigation Tour, Kotaro Suzuki defeats Yoshinobu Kanemaru, to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. Kanemaru had held the title for 400 straight days.
2013 – A.J. Styles wrestles his final match for TNA, on a taping of Impact Wrestling to be aired in January 2014. Styles and TNA could not come to terms on a new contract; Styles’ becomes a free agent twelve days later. By the time his final TNA match airs on television, he had already began performing for New Japan Pro Wrestling.
2014 – At Shine 23, Brandi Wine and Malia Hosaka retain the SHINE Team Championship, defeating The Kimber Bombs (Kimber Lee and Cherry Bomb). In a match for the SHINE Championship, challenger Nevaeh defeats champion Mia Yim via disqualification; Yim retains the title.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: former NWA star Adrian Street (76 years old); former WWF & AJPW Tag Team Champion The Dynamite Kid (58 years old); and WWE Hall of Fame 2015 Inductee Larry Zbyszko (65 years old).
SOURCES: Wikipedia, Gerweck Archives, The Internet Wrestling Database, CageSide Seats