The WWE shows around Christmas time tend to have an overload of the ‘Happy holidays’ feeling with Santa being a prominent part of many of the shows. Whether it was Austin stunning Santa during the Attitude era days or Alberto Del Rio running Santa over in a car, WWE makes sure they incorporate the Holidays into appropriate storylines.
This list, though, steers clear of all the holiday shenanigans and focuses only on actual wrestling events – What a downer, eh?
Did you know that WCW actually produced its premier PPV on the night after Christmas? Also, check out the amazing roster that put on an ROH show in 2004 on 26th December!
#1 That ROH card! – 26th December 2004
One of the coolest things in show business is to look at celebrities’ “before they were famous” appearances and attempt to suppress a guffaw. Have you seen Channing Tatum as a supporting act in ‘Coach Carter’ or Ryan Gosling’s blink-and-miss appearance in ‘Remember the Titans’?
The wrestling equivalent of that would be looking at a Ring of Honor show of the past decade. Many of the current generation of WWE stalwarts laced up their boots in an ROH ring during their formative years and put on stellar matches there.
An example would be ROH’s Final Battle 2004 which was presented on 26th December 2004 from Pennsylvania. The card had so many talented performers that it is difficult to count. Let’s just say that CM Punk and Daniel Bryan were on the card and weren’t even in the main event.
The show also featured Jay Lethal, Alex Shelley, Roderick Strong and Steve Corino and was headlined by an ROH Championship match between the champion Samoa Joe and Austin Aries. Aries would win the match, ending Joe’s (still-standing) record 645-day title reign.
#2 WCW presents Starrcade ‘88 – 26th December 1988
Ah, Christmas in 1988 – Things were very different then.
The Monday Night Wars hadn’t started yet and Jim Crockett Promotions had just become WCW under new owner Ted Turner. Cable providers still called the shots, NWA was still relevant and WWE and NWA were not allowed to put on competing PPVs in the same time slot.
Under this backdrop, WCW would air its premier PPV Starrcade in 1988 right in the middle of the holiday season.
Rick Steiner would win the NWA TV title, Kevin Sullivan and Steve Williams would win the NWA United States Tag team titles, but the main event would see Ric Flair successfully defend his NWA World Heavyweight title against Lex Luger.
#3 Elimination Chamber Beat the Clock Challenge – 26th December 2005
The Boxing Day episode of Raw in 2005 hyped the Elimination Chamber WWE Championship match scheduled for the New Year’s Revolution PPV. All six participants in the match would compete in a Beat the Clock challenge, with the man to set the fastest time entering the chamber last.
Shawn Michaels would compete first and set a time of 5:56 which would remain unbroken over the next three matches featuring Chris Masters, Kurt Angle and the WWE Champion John Cena.
But Carlito would face Victoria in an intergender match and the Puerto Rican Superstar would beat the Diva in just 2:36 to set the new benchmark. Unfortunately for Carlito, the final Superstar would turn out be Kane who would dispense both members of the Heart Throbs in 28 seconds to win the Challenge.
At the PPV though, Cena would retain his title only to lose to Edge minutes later following the first ever cash-in of the Money in the Bank briefcase.
Send us news tips at [email protected]
