April 15th – On This Day In Wrestling History
Our full On This Day In Wrestling History section can be found here.
1991 – WWE taped the 29th Saturday Night’s Main Event in Omaha, Nebraska. On the show, The Ultimate Warrior defeated Sgt. Slaughter by disqualification and Mr. Perfect won a 20-man battle royal.
1995 – ECW ‘Hostile City Showdown’ took place at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On the show, The Sandman defeated Shane Douglas to win the ECW Heavyweight Championship after Woman turned on the champion mid-match. Douglas would soon leave ECW to portray Dean Douglas in WWE. In the main event, two hardcore icons went to war as Cactus Jack defeated Terry Funk.
2001 – Mitsuhara Misawa became Pro Wrestling NOAH’s first GHC Heavyweight Champion with a win over Yoshihiro Takayama.
2007 – TNA Lockdown took place at the Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri. As was traditional with this PPV, every match took place inside a steel cage. The main event was a Lethal Lockdown match that saw Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Rhino and Samoa Joe) defeated Team Cage (Christian Cage, Tyson Tomko, AJ Styles, Abyss and Scott Steiner). Also on the show, Team 3D won the TNA World Tag Team Championships by defeating LAX in an electrified steel cage match.
2012 – TNA Lockdown took place at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. As per usual, all matches took place insider a steel cage. The main event saw Bobby Roode defeat his former Beer Money partner James Storm to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. In the annual Lethal Lockdown match, Team Garett Bischoff (Bischoff, AJ Styles, Mr. Anderson, Rob Van Dam and Austin Aries) defeated Team Eric Bischoff (Bischoff, Gunner, Bully Ray, Christopher Daniels and Kazarian). The loss meant Eric Bischoff was dismissed (Kayfabe) from TNA.
2013 – On an episode of Monday Night Raw taped in Greenville, South Carolina, Kofi Kingston defeated Antonio Cesaro for the WWE United States Championship.
2020 – As a result of grand scale format changes brought about by the COVID-19 global pandemic, WWE decided to make their male and female Money In The Bank matches cinematic style contests taped at Titan Towers (WWE HQ) in Stamford, Connecticut. Whilst the matches were taped largely separately, they were presented as one interlocked match. The two briefcases were suspended from rigging on the roof of the building and competitors had to work their way from the ground floor of the building to secure victory. The women’s contract was won by Asuka in a contest also including Dana Brooke, Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Carmella and Lacey Evans. Otis was victorious on the men’s side over Aleister Black, Daniel Bryan, King Corbin, Rey Mysterio and AJ Styles.
2020 – With Pete Dunne stuck in England due to COVID-19 flight restrictions, Matt Riddle teamed with the debuting Timothy Thatcher to successfully defend the NXT Tag Team Championship against Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish on the weekly NXT show.
2020 – On a day subsequently dubbed ‘Black Wednesday, WWE conduct their biggest mass release of talent in a decade. Names to be let go include Kurt Angle, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, EC3, Heath Slater and Rusev.
2021 – Exactly a year to the day after ‘Black Wednesday’, WWE hold another large scale talent release with names ‘Future Endevoured’ including Mickie James, Samoa Joe, Bo Dallas, Peyton Royce, Kalisto, Chelsea Green and Tucker.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays:
- Ryusuke Taguchi (1979)
- Austin Aries (1978)
- Mike Tenay (1954)