April 25th – On This Day In Wrestling History
Our full On This Day In Wrestling History section can be found here.
1989 – At the WWF Saturday Night Main Event taping in Des Moines, Iowa Hulk Hogan retained the WWF Championship against the Big Boss Man in a Steel Cage match. Hogan was attacked by his No Holds Barred nemesis Zeus at the start of the match who was blocking Hogan’s entrance into the cage.
1994 – The Headshrinkers defeated The Quebecers for the WWF Tag Team Titles on a live edition of WWF Monday Night Raw in Burlington, Vermont.
1995 – At the WWF Superstars tapings in Des Moines, Iowa WWF Champion Diesel pinned Henry O’ Godwinn. Owen Hart & Yokozuna retain the WWF Tag Team Titles against The New Headshrinkers Fatu & Sionne (Rikishi & The Barbarian). Also Bret Hart defeated one half of the Heavenly Bodies, Jimmy Del Ray and Psycho Sid defeated a young Justin Credible under his Aldo Montoya gimmick.
1999 – At the very first WWF Backlash pay-per-view from Providence, Rhode Island ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin retained the WWF Championship against The Rock in an explosive WrestleMania XV rematch. At the conclusion of the match Austin was reunited with his coveted Smoking Skull belt by Vince McMahon. Also, Mankind defeated The Big Show in a Boiler Room Brawl, The Undertaker pinned Ken Shamrock, Triple H defeated X-Pac, and The New Age Outlaws were victorious over Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart to become the number contenders for WWF Tag Team titles. This was the last PPV to carry the ‘In Your House’ sub-title.
2000 – One of the most infamous title changes in WCW history took place when actor David Arquette became WCW Champion at a Thunder taping in Syracuse, New York. The change came during a tag team match when Arquette teamed with WCW Champion Diamond Dallas Page against Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff. The rules of the match stipulated that whoever scored the pinfall became the champion. With the Scream star pinning Bischoff, he secured the Big Gold Belt to the horror of wrestling fans across the globe.
2000 – At the WWF SmackDown tapings in Charlotte, North Carolina Dean Malenko pinned Scotty 2 Hotty for the WWF Light Heavyweight Title and Crash Holly pinned Matt Hardy for the WWF Hardcore Title.
2009 – Jerry Lynn retained the ROH World Heavyweight Title against Colt Cabana in the main event of ROH The Homecoming II in Chicago.
2010 – John Cena retained the WWE Championship against Batista in a Last Man Standing match in the main event of WWE Extreme Rules from Baltimore, Maryland. Also Jack Swagger retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Randy Orton in an Extremes Rules match. Michelle McCool lost the WWE Women’s Championship to Beth Phoenix in an Extreme Makeover match.
2014 – Connor Michaelk who was a huge Daniel Bryan and WWE fan sadly passed away after a long battle with cancer aged 8. Connor was in attendance at Wrestlemania XXX in New Orleans to witness Bryan win the WWE World Heavyweight Title in the main event. Stephanie McMahon and Paul Levesque Triple H founded Connor’s Cure a non-profit charitable organisation for pediatric cancer search. Connor became the first recipient to received the Warrior Award at the 2015 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays:
- The Amazing Red (1982)
- Jerry Blackwell (1949)
- Mr. Hito (1942)