Wrestling History

April 1st – On This Day In Wrestling History

April 1st - On This Day In Wrestling History

Our full On This Day In Wrestling History section can be found here.

1973 – Jim Crockett Snr. passed away aged 63. He was a wrestling promoter, and also a multi-sport franchise owner with a number of different ice hockey, and baseball teams. When Crockett Snr. passed away his son Jim Crockett Jnr. took control of many of the wrestling territory responsibilities which was renamed Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. He was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2015.

1990 – Wrestlemania VI was held at the Toronto Skydome in front of 67,678 fans which included a future Rated R superstar in the crowd. This was the first WrestleMania to be held outside of the United States, and to feature a face versus face main event where both of the promotion’s premier championships were on the line.

On the card:

  • Rick ‘The Model’ Martel pinned Koko B. Ware
  • Demolition defeated The Colossal Connection (Haku and Andre The Giant) for the WWF Tag Team titles. This match would be Andre’s final WrestleMania match.
  • Earthquake defeated Hercules.
  • Mr Perfect lost to Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake.
  • Rowdy Roddy Piper and Bad News Brown fought to a no-contest.
  • The Hart Foundation defeated The Bolsheviks in 19 seconds.
  • The Barbarian pinned Tito Santana.
  • Dusty Rhodes and his valet Sapphire with Miss Elizabeth in their corner defeated the “Macho King” Randy Savage and Sensational “Queen” Sherri in the first ever intergender tag team match on pay-per-view.
  • The Orient Express defeated The Rockers by countout.
  • ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan pinned Dino Bravo.
  • ‘The Million Dollar Man’ Ted DiBiase defeated Jake “The” Snake Roberts by countout in a Million Dollar Championship match.
  • Big Boss Man defeated Akeem.
  • ‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude defeated ‘Superfly’ Jimmy Snuka.
  • Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Title in the main event. The Intercontinental Title was vacated by the Warrior, as it deemed in storyline at the time that both singles titles could not be held by the same person simultaneously.

1996 – The post WrestleMania XII live and taped editions of WWF Raw came from San Bernardino in California. “Wildman” Marc Mero made his WWF TV debut with a victory over Issac Yankem DDS, and after the match rescued Sable (his real-life wife Rena) from a berating by Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Also, Mankind defeated Bob “Sparkplug” Holly in his WWF TV debut, and at the end of the live edition attacked The Undertaker in his main event match against Justin “Hawk” Bradshaw. On the taped editions, Goldust’s Intercontinental Title was held up after a controversial ending to a title match against Savio Vega. However, Goldust defeated Vega in a rematch at the same tapings to officially claim back the championship.

2001 – WrestleMania XVII was held in the Reliant Astrodome in Houston, Texas in front of 67,925 fans which was the second largest WrestleMania crowd at the time. This was the first ‘Mania to be held in a stadium sized venue since the 1992 edition. Many long-term fans and critics regard this edition of ‘Mania as the greatest of all-time based on the combination of gimmick matches, nostalgia, and a strong and poignant main event with two of sports entertainment’s highly loved and respected performers.

On the card:

  • Chris Jericho retained the Intercontinental Championship against WWF Commissioner William Regal.
  • Tazz and The APA (Bradshaw and Farooq) accompanied by Jacqueline defeated the Right To Censor (Bull Buchanan, The Goodfather, and Val Venis) in a six-man tag team match.
  • Kane defeated Raven and The Big Show for the WWF Hardcore Championship.
  • Eddie Guerrero, accompanied by Perry Saturn, defeated Test for the WWF European Championship.
  • Kurt Angle pinned Chris Benoit.
  • Ivory from Right To Censor lost the WWF Women’s Championship to Chyna. This would be Chyna’s final WrestleMania match.
  • Shane McMahon defeated Vince McMahon in a Street Fight. One of the biggest pops of the night from the live crowd was when Linda McMahon became kayfabe un-sedated, and attacked Vince to enable Shane to set up his RVD-influenced coast-to-coast finisher on Vince for the win. Mick Foley was the special guest referee.
  • Edge and Christian won the WWF Tag Team Championships in a spectacular Tables Ladder & Chairs match against The Dudley Boyz & The Hardy Boyz.
  • The Iron Sheik won the Gimmick Battle Royal by eliminating Hillbilly Jim. Other competitors included Brother Love, Tugboat, Earthquake, The Bushwackers, The Gobbeldy Gooker, The Goon, Sgt. Slaughter and Jim Cornette.
  • The Undertaker defeated Triple H in a grudge match to extend his WrestleMania win streak to 9-0.
  • ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin defeated The Rock for the WWF Championship in a no disqualification match. Austin would turn heel towards the end of the match with assistance from Vince McMahon.

2002 – Bubba Ray Dudley defeated Raven for the WWF Hardcore Title on WWF Monday Night Raw from Albany, New York.

2006 – At ROH ‘Better Than Our Best’ in Chicago, Bryan Danielson retained the ROH World Heavyweight Title against Lance Storm. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong retained the ROH World Tag Team Titles against Cima & Naruki Doi. Also on the card, Samoa Joe defeated A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels and Jimmy Yang in a four corners match, and Colt Cabana pinned Homicide in a “Fight Without Honor” match in the main event.

2007 – WrestleMania XXIII was held for the first time at Ford Field in Detroit in front of a record breaking 80,103 fans. This was the second ‘Mania to be held in the Detroit area, and the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin sung “America The Beautiful” at the start of the pay-per-view for the second time in 20 years. Ticket sales for the event grossed over $5 million, and an estimated $25 million was pumped into the local economy. Also, this was the company’s most bought pay-per-view at the time with 1.21 million purchases in the States.

On the card:

  • Carlito and Ric Flair defeated Chavo Guerrero and Gregory Helms in a tag-team lumberjack match before the pay-per-view.
  • Mr Kennedy won the Money In The Bank Ladder match defeating CM Punk, Edge, Finlay, Jeff Hardy, King Booker, Matt Hardy and Randy Orton.
  • The Great Khali defeated Kane.
  • Chris Benoit retained the United States Championship against MVP.
  • The Undertaker defeated Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship, and extended his Wrestlemania winning streak to 15-0.
  • The ECW Originals (Rob Van Dam, Sabu, The Sandman & Tommy Dreamer) defeated The New Breed (Eiljah Burke, Kevin Thorn, Marcus Cor Von & Matt Striker).
  • In the Hair vs Hair ‘Battle of The Billionaires’ match Donald Trump’s representative Bobby Lashley defeated Mr McMahon’s kayfabe henchman Umaga. The special guest match referee was ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.
  • Melina retained the WWE Women’s Championship in a Lumberjill match.
  • John Cena defeated Shawn Michaels in the main event to retain the WWE Championship.

2012 – WrestleMania XXVIII was held in the Sun Life Stadium in Miami in front of 78,363 fans. For the first time in history, a WrestleMania match was announced a year in advance which helped the event to achieve the highest grossing pay-per-view receipts in pro wrestling history at the time.

On the card:

  • On the pre-show, Primo & Epico retained the WWE Tag Team Championships in a triple-threat match against Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd, and The Usos.
  • The 2011 Royal Rumble winner Sheamus defeated Daniel Bryan in eighteen seconds to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
  • Kane defeated Randy Orton.
  • The Big Show defeated Cody Rhodes for the Intercontinental Championship.
  • The Undertaker extended his WrestleMania winning streak to 20-0 by defeating Triple H in a Hell In A Cell “End of an Era” match with Shawn Michaels as the Special Guest Referee.
  • Team Johnny (David Otunga, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry & The Miz) defeated Team Teddy (Booker T, Kofi Kingston, The Great Khali, R-Truth, Santino Marella & Zack Ryder) in a twelve-man tag team match to determine the General Manager role for both the Raw and SmackDown.
  • CM Punk defeated Chris Jericho by submission to retain the WWE Championship. The match stipulation was that if Punk been disqualified then he would lose the championship.
  • The Rock defeated John Cena in the main event billed “Once In A Lifetime” match.

2016 – Finn Balor retained the NXT Championship against Samoa Joe in the main event of NXT Takeover: Dallas. Also, Asuka defeated Bayley for the NXT Women’s Title, and American Alpha defeated The Revival for the NXT Tag Team Championships. This event is considered by many to be the greatest NXT TakeOver of all time and also included a match between Shinsuke Nakamura and Sami Zayn that simultaneously acted as Nakamura’s WWE debut and Zayn’s last match on the NXT brand.

2017 – Bobby Roode retained the NXT Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura in the main event of NXT Takeover: Orlando.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays: