April 27th – On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1957 – The first known women’s tag team match took place in St. Louis, Missouri as June Byers and China Mira were victorious over Bonnie Watson and Penny Banner.

1981 – Tommy Rich won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in Augusta, Georgia with a win over Harley Race.

1987 – One of the most famous matches in Memphis wrestling history went down when Austin Idol defeated Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler to win the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship in a hair vs. hair steel cage match that saw Lawler lose his title and his hair.

1992 – At a WCW Worldwide TV taping in Atlanta, Georgia, Barry Windham beat ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin to win the WCW World Television Championship in a 2 out of 3 falls match.

1999 – WWE taped the pilot episode of SmackDown! in New Haven, Connecticut. The pilot was a one off to air on UPN to test the viability of the show on network television. When aired, it became the first WWE show on network television in the USA since Saturday Night’s Main Event in November 1992. The show was headlined by a blockbuster tag-team match as ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and The Rock defeated The Undertaker and Triple H. The other noteworthy angle on the show saw Shane McMahon and The Undertaker merge their Corporation and Ministry Of Darkness factions to form The Corporate Ministry.

2003 – WWE’s Backlash PPV was held in Worcester Centrum in Worcester, Massachusetts. In the main event, Goldberg made his WWE PPV debut with a win over The Rock.

2008 – WWE Backlash took place at the First Mariner Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. In the main event, Triple H defeated Randy Orton, John Cena and JBL to retain the WWE Championship. Also on the card, Matt Hardy defeated Montel Vontavious Porter to win the United States Championship and The Undertaker beat Edge to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.

2008 – The IWGP Heavyweight Championship changed hands in Osaka, Japan when Keiji Mutoh defeated Shinsuke Nakamura.

2014 – TNA Wrestling’s Sacrifice PPV took place at The Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida. In the main event, Eric Young retained the TNA Heavyweight Championship against Magnus. The night’s opening match saw The Wolves (Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards) defeat Bro-Mans (Robbie E & Jessie Godderz along with DJ Z in a handicap, no disqualification match to win the TNA Tag Team Championship.

2015 – Verne Gagne passed away aged 89. His death was thought to be as a result of Alzheimer’s disease and he passed in his home in Bloomington, Minnesota.

2018 – WWE held ‘The Greatest Royal Rumble event’ at the King Abdullah International Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This was the first event to be held under a multi-year deal between WWE and The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia designed to shine a positive international PR spotlight on the country. The main event of the show was a 50-man version of a Royal Rumble match that was won by Braun Strowman. The match itself had a number of curious entries including various NXT brand wrestlers that appeared without any apparent logic (Including Tucker Knight), development names yet to even appear on NXT TV (Babatunde, Dan Matha), a sumo wrestler who had never been involved in professional wrestling, and hasn’t since (Hiroki Sumi), several names from WWE’s past (The Great Khali, Hornswoggle) and even Chris Jericho mere days before he was due to wrestle for NJPW. The rest of the card in full:

• John Cena defeated Triple H
• Cedric Alexander defeated Kalisto to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship
• Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy defeated The Bar (Sheamus & Cesaro) to win the Raw Tag Team Championship
• Jeff Hardy defeated Jinder Mahal to retain the United States Championship
• The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper & Rowan) defeated Jimmy and Jey Uso to retain the SmackDown Tag Team Championship
• Seth Rollins retained the Intercontinental Championship in a four way ladder match over Samoa Joe, Finn Balor and The Miz.
• AJ Styles retained the WWE Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura
• The Undertaker defeated Rusev in a Casket Match
• Brock Lesnar defeated Roman Reigns in a Cage Match to retain the WWE Universal Championship
• Braun Strowman won the 50-man Greatest Royal Rumble match, last eliminating Big Cass.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays:

• Johnny Devine (1974)
• Violent J (1972)