Wrestling History

April 5th – On This Day In Wrestling History

April 5th - On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1982 – At the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee, comedian and actor Andy Kaufman took on Jerry Lawler. Kaufman won the match by disqualification after Lawler hit him with a Piledriver (an illegal move at that time). After the match Lawler hit another Piledriver and Kaufman requested to be taken out of the arena on a stretcher and put in an ambulance.

1992 – WWF WrestleMania VIII took place at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of 62,167 fans. On the PPV:

  • Shawn Michaels defeated Tito Santana.
  • The Undertaker defeated Jake Roberts. The end of the match came about after The Undertaker had got up from not one, but two DDTs from Roberts and then ‘Taker delivered a Tombstone Piledriver on Jake outside the ring, before getting him back in for the pin.
  • Bret Hart defeated Roddy Piper by pinfall to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
  • The Big Boss Man, Virgil, Sgt. Slaughter and Hacksaw Jim Duggan defeated The Nasty Boys (Jerry Sags and Brian Knobbs), Repo Man and The Mountie.
  • Randy Savage defeated Ric Flair with a roll-up pin to win the WWF Championship to a HUGE crowd ovation.
  • Tatanka defeated Rick Martel.
  • The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) defeated Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster) by count-out in a WWF Tag Team Championship match. DiBiase and I.R.S. bailed on the match meaning they lost the bout but retained the titles.
  • Owen Hart defeated Skinner in just 71 seconds.
  • Hulk Hogan defeated Sid Justice by disqualification when Harvey Wippleman interfered. The original plan was for Papa Shango to run in and cause the DQ but for whatever reason Shango missed his cue. This meant the end of the match had to be made up on the fly and Sid had to kick out of Hogan’s leg drop finisher (presumably this was when Shango should’ve interfered). The Ultimate Warrior made his WWF return after the match to save Hogan from a beatdown by Sid and Shango.

1996 – In Memphis, Tennessee, Jerry Lawler defeated Bill Dundee to win the vacant USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship for the 23rd time.

2002 – IWA-MS April Bloodshowers took place at the Knights Of Columbus Hall in Indianapolis, Indiana. In the main event of the show Mitch Page and Rollin’ Hard defeated Ian Rotten and Necro Butcher to win the IWA:MS Tag Team Titles.

2002 – NJPW held their Toukon Special Show at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Yuji Nagata beat Tadao Yasuda in the main event to become the IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

2009 – WWE WrestleMania XXV took place at the NRG Stadium (AKA Reliant Stadium) in, Houston, Texas, in front of 72,744 fans. On the PPV:

  • In a pre-show Lumberjack match, Carlito and Primo defeated John Morrison and The Miz to unify the WWE Tag Team and World Tag Team Championship titles.
  • CM Punk won the Money in the Bank Ladder match and with it a contract to have a title match against any champion he chose, within the next year. Also in the match were Kane, Mark Henry, MVP, Shelton Benjamin, Kofi Kingston, Christian, and Finlay.
  • Santina Marella (Santino in a dress) last eliminated Beth Phoenix and Melina to win the Miss WrestleMania 25 Diva Battle Royal.
  • In a three-on-one handicap elimination match, Chris Jericho defeated Ricky Steamboat (with the Walls of Jericho), “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (by pinfall) and lastly Jimmy Snuka (by pinfall after hitting him with the Codebreaker). After the match Jericho beat up Ric Flair who had been in the legends’ corner which brought in Mickey Rourke from the crowd. Jericho was then knocked down by a punch from Rourke.
  • Matt Hardy defeated Jeff Hardy in an Extreme Rules match after hitting Jeff with a Twist of Fate when he had a chair around his neck.
  • Rey Mysterio defeated John Bradshaw Layfield in just 21 seconds to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. After the match JBL announced that he was quitting wrestling.
  • The Undertaker defeated Shawn Michaels to go 17-0 at WrestleMania.
  • John Cena defeated Edge and The Big Show in a triple-threat match to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
  • Triple H defeated Randy Orton to retain the WWE Championship. There was also a stipulation that Triple H could’ve lost the title on a disqualification or count out.

2013 – ROH Supercard of Honor VII took place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. Jay Briscoe defeated Kevin Steen in the main event of the PPV to become the ROH World Heavyweight Champion.

2013 – At the Dragon Gate USA Open the Ultimate Gate PPV from Meadowlands Expo Centre in Secaucus, New Jersey, The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) defeated A.R. Fox and CIMA to win the Dragon Gate Open The United Gate Championships.

2013 – In the same arena as the previous entry EVOLVE #19: Title Tournament took place, and A.R. Fox got a belt to replace the one he lost earlier, as he defeated Sami Callihan for the EVOLVE Title.

2015 – Two titles changed hands at NJPW Invasion Attack held at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan. Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) defeated the Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles and then later in the show The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Michael Bennett) beat The Bullet Club (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) to become IWGP World Tag Team Champions.

2016 – NOAH Spring Navigation 2016 Vol. 2 – Day 1 took place at Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo, Japan. In the main event, Momo no Seishun Tag (Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada) defeated KenOhara (Hajime Ohara and Kenoh) to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles.

2017 – At The Crash – Crash Wrestling in Mexico, Keira won the Crash Femenil Title a six-way match which also featured Candy White, Lady Maravilla, Laurel Van Ness, Santana Garrett, and Sexy Dulce.

2018 – Matt Riddle won the EVOLVE Title at EVOLVE #102 in Kenner, Louisiana, after he defeated Zack Sabre Jr. by submission in the main event.

2018 – WildKat Sports Wildkat Wrestling at WrestleCon took place at the The Sugar Mill in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Wildkat Revolution Title changed hands when Jonny Flex beat Ken Dixon.

2019 – WWE NXT TakeOver: New York took place at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York. On the show WALTER defeated Pete Dunne by pinfall (ending Dunne’s title reign at 685 days). The main event was a two-out-of-three falls match featuring Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole for the vacant NXT Championship. Cole won the first fall after hitting the Last Shot and getting the pin. Gargano won the next fall when he made Cole submit to the Garga-No-Escape. The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong) interfered and attacked Gargano but it wasn’t enough to keep him down as he won the third and final fall with another Garga-No-Escape submission on Cole.

2019 – In the opening match of Black Label Pro Adventures In Wrestling from the White Eagle Hall in New Jersey, Kobe Durst defeated Ethan Page to win the BLP Heavyweight Title.

2019 – On the same day, Blackcraft No Apologies was also held at the White Eagle Hall in New Jersey. Duke Davis and Ganon Jones Jr. won a five-way tag match to win the Blackcraft Tag Team Titles and then later in the show Matthew Justice defeated Johnny Blackcraft to become the new Blackcraft Heavyweight Champion.

2019 – In the main event of SHIMMER Volume 113 from La Boom, New York, Samantha Heights defeated Dust to take the Heart Of SHIMMER Championship.

2019 – WWNLive Supershow – Mercury Rising also took place in La Boom, New York. In a champion vs. champion match, Tokyo Princess of Princess Champion Miyu Yamashita beat SHINE Title holder Allysin Kay to become a double champion.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays: