April 28th – On This Day In Wrestling History
Our full On This Day In Wrestling History section can be found here.
1986 – The Road Warriors Animal & Hawk defeated Ivan & Nikita Koloff in the main event 2 on 2 Steel Cage match at AWA Rage In A Cage from the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
1987 – At the WWF Saturday Night Main Event taping in South Bend, Indiana The British Bulldogs picked up a disqualification win in the final fall of a 2 Out of 3 Falls match for the WWF Tag Team Titles against The Hart Foundation. As a result, the titles did not change hands.
1995 – WCW and NJPW presented the first day of the infamous ‘Collison in Korea’ event in May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea. The Koreans claimed 150,000 fans were in attendance for night one, making it comfortably the biggest attendance in wrestling history to that point. The record (Again, according to North Korean authorities) was broken 24 hours later with 190,000 fans supposedly attending night two. The main event of night one saw Shinya Hashimoto and Scott Norton battle to a 20-minute time limit draw for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
1996 – Scott Hall and Kevin Nash made their final WWF TV appearances for six years during the WWF In Your House ‘Good Friends Better Enemies‘ pay-per-view in Omaha, Nebraska. In the main event Shawn Michaels successfully retained the WWF Championship against Diesel in a No-Holds Barred Match. Also Razor Ramon lost to Vader and The Bodydonnas retained the WWF Tag Team Titles against The Godwinns. Owen Hart & The British Bulldog were victorious over Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts & Ahmed Johnson, and The Ultimate Warrior & Goldust Intercontinental Title match ended in a no-contest. On the Free-For-All Marc Mero picked up a disqualification win over the 1-2-3 Kid Sean Waltman due to a run-in from Hunter Hearst Helmsley.
1997 – Owen Hart defeated Rocky Maiva for the Intercontinental Title on an episode of WWF Raw from Omaha, Nebraska.
1998 – In the main event of the WWF Raw taping from Richmond, Virginia Mick Foley defeated Terry Funk in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Foley was rewarded with another shot at the WWF Championship at the upcoming Over The Edge pay-per-view against Stone Cold Steve Austin.
2002 – Wrestling legend Lou Thesz passes away at the age of 86 following complications from triple heart bypass surgery.
2005 – Chris Candido passed away aged 33 in New Jersey from pneumonia due to complications from an injury picked up during a Steel Cage match two days earlier at TNA’s Lockdown event. Candido was highly regarded as one of the hardest workers in the business working for various promotions throughout his career such as the WWF, WCW, ECW, TNA, NJPW, and Smoky Mountain Wrestling. He won several titles including the NWA World Heavyweight, NWA Midwest Heavyweight, WCW Cruiserweight and both the WWF and ECW’s versions of the World Tag Team Titles. Candido is most notably known for his time in the WWF under his heel fitness fanatic gimmick of Skip of The Bodydonnas alongside his real-life girlfriend Tammy Lynn Sytch, who played Candido’s valet Sunny. In late 2005 TNA held the Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament in his honour, and in 2009 Candido was inducted into the Hardcore Hall of Fame.
2008 – The episode of Raw from East Rutherford, New Jersey had a unique ending. During the main event between Triple H and Randy Orton, newly named General Manager William Regal entered the production truck and instructed the show to be brought to a premature close.
2009 – Buddy Rose passed away from natural causes aged 56 in Vancouver, Washington. He competed in the AWA, NWA WCW Pacific Northwest Wrestling, and in the WWF on a number of occasions throughout the 80s and early 90s. Rose unsuccessfully challenged Bob Backland for the WWF World Title, and found the same fate when attempting to wrestle away the Intercontinental Title from Pedro Morales.
2015 – In Moline, Illinois, during a special event taped for the WWE Network, Bad News Barrett defeated Neville to win the first King Of The Ring tournament to be held in five years.
2019 – Impact Wrestling’s Rebellion 2019 took place at the Rebel Entertainment Complex in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The main event saw the Impact Wrestling tag team titles change hands when LAX (Santana and Ortiz) defeated Pentagon Jr. and Ray Fenix in a Full Metal Mayhem match. The Impact World Championship also changed hands when Brian Cage beat Johnny Impact in a match with Lance Storm as the special guest referee.
2020 – Impact Wrestling’s Rebellion 2020 PPV took place from the Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. The event was held without fans and was Impact’s first major event held under restrictions in place due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The main event saw Moose defeat Hernandez and Michael Elgin in a three-way match.
Notable Wrestling Birthdays:
- Drew Gulak (1987)
- Titus O’Neil (1979)