Wrestling History

March 25th – On This Day In Wrestling History

March 25th - On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1980 – The first ever singles match between the WWWF and AWA World Champions took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as Nick Bockwinkel took on Bob Backlund. The match finished in a double countout.

1996 – Ric Flair and The Giant fought to a no-contest in the main event on WCW Monday Nitro from Huntsville, Alabama.

1997 – At the WWF Raw is War taping in Peoria, Illnois Owen Hart and The British Bulldog’s European Title match resulted in a no-contest as the recently turned heel Bret Hart interrupted to reconcile with his brother and brother-in-law to reform The Hart Foundation. Bret Hart faced Rocky Maivia in the main event for the Intercontinental Championship which resulted in a disqualification loss for Hart. ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin made his first appearance on WWF TV since his submission match with Bret Hart at Wrestlemania XIII.

2002 – The first ever WWF draft took place on Monday Night Raw as the roster was split in two between Ric Flair controlling Raw and Vince McMahon with SmackDown after the kayfabe split between the two ‘business partners’. The first pick in the draft saw The Rock picked for SmackDown before The Undertaker was selected for Raw with the second pick. The first 20 picks were selected live on TV with the remainder of the draft taking place online. On the same night, Undisputed WWF Champion Triple H defeated Chris Jericho & Stephanie McMahon in a handicap match. This loss resulted in Stephanie being banished from WWF television.

2006 – Kenta & Naomichi Marufuji defeated Bryan Danielson & Samoa Joe in the main event of ROH ‘Best In The World’ in New York City.

2008 – At the ECW taping in Fayetteville, North Carolina a huge 24-man tag team took place involving the likes of Mark Henry, Matt Striker, Snitsky, The Great Khali, The Miz, Cody Rhodes, Jamie Noble, Jim Duggan, Kane, Kofu Kingston, and Tommy Dreamer.

2012 – In the main event of Progress Chapter One: In the Beginning at The Garage in London, Nathan Cruz won the Progress Title in a Four-Way Elimination match against El Ligero, Marty Scrull and Mike Mason.

2020 – Kenny Omega retained the AAA Mega Championship over Sammy Guevara in the main event of AEW Dynamite from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. Also Cody Rhodes defeated Jimmy Havoc in the opening match, and Brodie Lee defeated Q.T. Marshall in a singles match.

2020 – The ‘cinematic’ Boneyard Match between The Undertaker and AJ Styles to be broadcast as the main event of WrestleMania 36 night one was taped on location in Florida. The ‘match’ was the last in the legendary career of The Undertaker before he announced his retirement later in the year.

2020 – The first day of tapings for WrestleMania XXXVI took place at their Performance Centre in Orlando behind closed doors for the very first time. The event was scheduled to take place in front of a live crowd at the Raymond James Stadium Stadium in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, and was withdrawn from the venue due to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The card underwent a number of changes included limiting the number of multi-person matches on the card such as the Andre The Giant Memorial & Women’s Battle Royals.

On the card:

  • Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross defeated The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.
  • Elias defeated King Corbin.
  • Becky Lynch retained the Raw Women’s Championship against Shayna Baszler. Lynch became at the time the longest reigning Women’s Champion on Raw until she forfeited the title six weeks later due to pregnancy.
  • Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn retained his title against Daniel Bryan.
  • John Morrison retained the Smackdown Tag Team Championship in a Triple-Threat Ladder Match against Jimmy Uso and Kofi Kingston. The originally booked match was for The Miz & Morrison to defend the titles against The Usos and The New Day in a triple-threat tag-team match, however The Miz was unable to compete due to illness, hence the creative change to have a representative from each team compete in the match.
  • Kevin Owens defeated Seth Rollins first by disqualification, and then in a unscheduled No Disqualification match.
  • Mojo Rawley won the 24/7 Title from R-Truth.
  • Braun Strowman defeated Goldberg for the Universal Championship. The match was originally booked for Goldberg to defend the title against Reigns, however due to previous legitimate health issues, and an increase risk of contracting COVID-19 Reigns requested to be removed from the match.

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