April 30th – On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1977 – In Baltimore, Maryland, ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham defeated Bruno Sammartino to win the WWWF Championship and end Sammartino’s second and final reign.

1996 – The Bodydonnas Skip & Zip retained the WWF Tag Team Titles against The New Rockers Marty Jannetty & Leif Cassidy (Al Snow) at the WWF Superstars of Wrestling tapings in Des Moines, Iowa. Also at the tapings ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin defeated a young up-and-coming enhancement at the time named Matt Hardy. Who knows what happened to him?

1998 – At a house show in Augusta, Georgia, Chris Benoit defeated Booker T for the WCW World Television Championship. This would be the first of five consecutive days in which the title changed hands.

2000 – The Rock defeated Triple H to win his fourth WWF World Title in the main event of WWF Backlash in Washington DC, with assistance from ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. Also on the card Edge & Christian retained the WWF Tag Team titles against D-Generation X members Road Dogg & X-Pac in the opening match, Chris Jericho picked up a disqualification win over Chris Benoit in an Intercontinental Title match, The Big Show defeated Kurt Angle for his first pinfall loss on WWF TV and Eddie Guerrero retained the WWF European Title against Essa Rios.

2002 – Hulk Hogan retained the WWF Undisputed Title against Chris Jericho in the main event of the WWF Smackdown TV taping from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

2003 – At an NWA-TNA TV taping in Nashville, Tennessee, Amazing Red defeated Kid Kash to win the X-Division Championship.

2006 – At WWE Backlash in Lexington, Kentucky Vince and Shane McMahon defeated Shawn Michaels and his alloted tag team partner – God! The match was fought under No Holds Barred rules and obviously, was a defacto handicap match. Also, John Cena retained the WWE Title against Edge & Triple H in a Triple Threat match main event. Rob Van Dam defeated Shelton Benjamin for the Intercontinental Championship where both the Money In The Bank contract & Intercontinental Titles were on the line.

2012 – Primo and Epico defeated Kofi Kingston & R-Truth for the WWE Tag Team Titles on WWE Raw from Dayton, Ohio.

2017 – At WWE Payback in San Diego, Chris Jericho regained the United States Championship back from Kevin Owens. As a result of winning the US Title, Jericho was moved to SmackDown. Also, Alexa Bliss defeated Bayley in her hometown for the Raw Women’s Championship and Bray Wyatt defeated Randy Orton in a “House of Horrors” match. Seth Rollins gained some form of revenge for his pre-WrestleMania injury by beating Samoa Joe. Braun Strowman defeated Roman Reigns in the main event.

2018 – Seth Rollin retained the WWE Intercontinental Title against Finn Balor in the main event of WWE Raw from Montreal.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays:

• Trey Miguel (1994)
• Shawn Daivari (1984)
• Dave Taylor (1957)