Today In Wrestling History- April 25th

Trivia

1970 – WWWF World Champion Bruno Sammartino defeated Ivan Koloff in a Texas Death Match in Boston, Massachusetts

2000 – During an edition of Raw from Charlotte, North Carolina, Steve Austin used a crane to drop a steel beam on the DX Express tour bus, crushing the bus in the parking lot during the show

Events

In 1999, WWF Backlash: In Your House was held at the Providence Civic Center,  in Providence, Rhode Island. This would be the final PPV to carry the In Your House tagline. With an attendance of 10,939:

Sunday Night Heat:
Ministry of Darkness (The Acolytes (Bradshaw & Farooq), Mideon) defeated The Brood (Gangrel, Christian, & Edge)
Val Venis & Nicole Bass defeated D’Lo Brown & Ivory in a mixed tag team match
– Droz & Prince Albert defeated Too Much (Brian Christopher & Scott Taylor)
– Kane defeated The Big Bossman
– Viscera defeated Test
PPV:
Ministry of Darkness (The APA (Bradshaw & Farooq), & Mideon) defeated The Brood (Gangrel, Christian, & Edge) in a 6-man tag team match
– Al Snow (with Head) defeated  Hardcore Holly to win the WWF Hardcore Title
– The Godfather defeated Goldust (with The Blue Meanie) to retain the WWF Intercontinental Title
The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg & Billy Gunn) defeated Owen Hart & Jeff Jarrett (with Debra) to become the #1 contenders for the WWE Tag Team Titles
– Mankind defeated Paul Wight in a Boiler Room Brawl
Triple H (with Chyna) defeated X-Pac
The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) defeated Ken Shamrock
– Steve Austin defeated The Rock in a No Holds Barred Match with Shane McMahon as special guest referee to retain the WWF Title

In 2009, Ring of Honor “The Homecoming II” was held at the Frontier Fieldhouse, in Chicago, Illinois:

Dark Matches:
– Grizzly Redwood defeated Andy Ridge
– Eric Scott & Brandon Moreno defeated Ernie Osiris & Tony Kozina
– Bobby Dempsey defeated Steve Molinski
Show:
– Egotistico Fantastico defeated Rasche Brown
– Austin Aries & Rhett Titus defeated Alex Payne & Silas Young
– Jimmy Jacobs defeated Claudio Castagnoli, & Roderick Strong in a 3 way dance
– The Dark City Fight Club (Jon Davis & Kory Chavis) defeated The Phoenix Twins (Dash & Tweak Phoenix)
– Bryan Danielson defeated Jimmy Rave
– Tyler Black defeated Chris Hero
– The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) defeated Jay Briscoe & Kevin Steen in a Best 2 out of 3 Falls Match to retain the ROH Tag Team Titles
– Jerry Lynn defeated Colt Cabana to retain the ROH World Title

In 2010, WWE Extreme Rules was held at 1st Mariner Arena, in Baltimore, Maryland. With an attendance of 9,124:

Dark Match:
Kofi Kingston defeated Dolph Ziggler
PPV:

– The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd & David Hart Smith (with Natalya & Bret Hart) defeated ShoMiz (The Miz & Big Show), John Morrison & R-Truth, & The World’s Strongest Tag Team (Mark Henry & MVP) in a tag team gauntlet match to earn a future Unified Tag Team Title Match
– CM Punk (with Serena & Luke Gallows) defeated Rey Mysterio Jr. In a Hair Match. Had Punk lost, Mysterio would have to got to shave Punk’s head
– JTG defeated Shad Gaspard in a Strap Match
– Jack Swagger defeated Randy Orton in an Extreme Rules Match to retain the World Heavyweight Title
– Sheamus defeated Triple H in a Street Fight
– Beth Phoenix defeated Michelle McCool (with Vickie Guerrero & Layla) in an Extreme Makeover Match to win the WWE Women’s Title
– Edge defeated Chris Jericho in a Cage Match
– John Cena defeated Batista in a Last Man Standing Match to retain the WWE Title

In 2011, the WWE held is WWE Draft live on Monday Night Raw at the RBC Arena, in Raleigh, North Carolina. There was a supplemental draft held the next day on April 26th on WWE.com:

– John Cena was drafted to Smackdown
– Rey Mysterio Jr. was drafted to Raw
– Randy Orton was drafted to Smackdown
– Mark Henry was drafted to Smackdown
– Sin Cara was drafted to Smackdown
– Big Show was drafted to Raw
– Alberto Del Rio (along with Ricardo Rodriguez) was drafted to Raw
– John Cena was drafted back to Raw

 

 

Title Changes

1936 – Ali Baba defeated Dick Shikat to win the World Heavyweight Title

1971 – Dusty Rhodes defeated Sputnik Monroe to win the TSW Brass Knucks Title

1980 – Ken Patera defeated Kevin Von Erich to win the Missouri State Championship

1989 – Jerry Lawler defeated Master of Pain to win the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Title

1992 – Jimmy Snuka defeated Salvatore Bellomo in the final of a tournament to become the 1st NWA-ECW Champion

2000 – on Smackdown, Dean Malenko defeated Scotty 2 Hotty to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Title. Also, Crash Holly defeated Matt Hardy to win the WWF Hardcore Title

2000 – on Thunder, David Arquette & Diamond Dallas Page defeated Eric Bischoff & Jeff Jarrett (Arquette pins Bischoff to win the WCW World Title)

Birthdays

Happy birthday to current CZW Tag Team Champion Sabian (35), & former Zero-1 regular Ricky Landell (32)

Also, today would have been the birthday of Stampede Hall of Famer Mr. Hito (72)