Wrestling History

October 4th – On This Day In Wrestling History

October 4th - On This Day In Wrestling History

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

1975 – Ric Flair was among passengers involved in a plane crash on approach to Wilmington Airport in North Carolina. The plane contained Ric Flair, David Crockett, Bob Bruggers, Tim ‘Mr Wrestling’ Woods, and Johnny Valentine. Although none of the wrestlers passed away, the pilot (Joseph Michael Farkus) slipped into a coma and died two months after the incident.

Valentine suffered injuries that confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life and Flair famously suffered from a broken back. Multiple doctors implored him to retire from the ring. Instead, he returned to action eight months later.

1993 – Marcus Alexander Bagwell and 2 Cold Scorpio defeated The Nasty Boys for the WCW World Tag Team Championships at a WCW Saturday Night taping.

1999 – On an episode of Nitro from the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri, Disco Inferno defeated Psicosis to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. In the main event of the same episode, Bret Hart and Chris Benoit wrestled a tribute match to Hart’s younger brother Owen who had died in a tragic accident in the same arena in May of the same year.

2009 – The first ever Hell In A Cell took place at the Prudential Arena in Newark, New Jersey. WWE booked three Hell In A Cell matches on the PPV. In the first, The Undertaker defeated CM Punk to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Randy Orton defeated John Cena for the WWE Championship in the second bout in the demonic structure. The main event saw the final cell match in which Triple H and Shawn Michaels defeated Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr.

2015 – TNA Bound For Glory took place at the Cabarrus Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. The night’s main event was a triple-threat match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Matt Hardy was victorious against Drew Galloway and Ethan Carter III. Jeff Hardy was the special referee for the bout.

2019 – WWE SmackDown aired on Fox for the first time. This marked the starting point of the most lucrative television contract in WWE’s history. The main event of the show saw Brock Lesnar defeat Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship. It was Lesnar’s first bout on broadcast television since 2004. The Rock and heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury also appeared on the show.

2019 – NXT UK held a round of TV tapings in Brentwood, Essex. The most notable happening on the show saw Wolfgang and Mark Coffey defeat Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews to win the NXT UK Tag Team Championships.

2020 – WWE Presented NXT Takeover 31 from the Capitol Wrestling Center within their Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. The main event of the night saw Finn Balor retain the NXT Championship against Undisputed Era member Kyle O’Reilly.

Notable Wrestling Birthdays: