Today In Pro Wrestling History: April 16

Well slap me in the mouth and call me Gary Coleman. Gonna start alienating people if we don’t get to some days with more Western appeal. Time to make chicken salad out of…just read.

• AJPW Budokan Hall Show: Toshiaki Kawada vs Steve Williams (1994)

This was the Champion Carnival final bout. Kawada finally had his crowning moment. His first big singles tournament win, he broke Steve Williams undefeated singles streak in Japan and this was the Carnival that set up the classic match up between Kawada and Misawa. Kawada’s break out year definitely gets started here and counts as history, if you ask me.

• AJPW Budokan Hall Show: Vader vs Kenta Kobashi (1999)

While not as big of a moment as Kawada’s from the previous entry, this was important for Big Van Vader. Off the heels of his terrible WWF run, Vader was damaged goods. This victory helped to reinvigorate him and his career, as well as, leading towards his solid run in the early days of Pro Wrestling NOAH. A clash of titans, Kobashi absorbed a ton of punishment, but Vader eventually succeeded and started to rebuild what the WWF run ruined.

• WCW Spring Stampede (2000)

Bittersweet history time here! This was the last Spring Stampede, and oddly also the last major wrestling PPV held at the United Center in Chicago until Forbidden Door 2022. An entire show of new champions after the Bischoff and Russo reboot button was hit. Scott Steiner beat Sting for the US title, Jeff Jarrett beat DDP for the World and I’m fairly sure Hulk Hogan got arrested. This show was a mess, but so was WCW at the time. It’s definitely memorable, for most of the wrong reasons.

• WWF Monday Night Raw: Intercontinental Championship: Jeff Hardy (c) vs Triple H (2001)

Two-Man Power Trip was in full force at this point. Trips regained the Intercontinental title after the tron showed Stone Cold laying out Matt Hardy and threatening to do the same to Lita. Trips won thanks to the distraction, Vince and Linda were in their divorce angle, and this was just prime soap opera. While most fans don’t remember this version of Austin positively…they do remember. So that makes my point on why its here.

• AAA Triplemania XXXI Monterrey: AAA Mega Championship: El Hijo del Vikingo (c) vs Rich Swann vs Swerve Strickland vs Kommander (2023)

Honestly, sometimes I forget Triplemania has some really good matches to its name. While the Twitch streaming era and early covid had some meme worthy moments, mostly with Vampiro, this was a showcase match. The golden boy of AAA, Swerve (AEW), Rich (TNA) and Kommander (the fall guy). It was a great match, highlighting the strengths of Lucha, letting everyone get some shine and cementing Vikingo as the new face of AAA. After the match Konnan presented Vikingo with a new version of the Mega Championship, but this really solidified Vikingo as the next big thing from Mexico in the middle of his over 2 year reign (only cut short because of injury in 2024).

Sooner or later we will return to the land of WrestleManias and more “widely known” names, but I do get some twisted joy in finding goodies from the larger pro wrestling scope that fit the History bill.

Which significant events did I miss? Which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments. And if you don’t do anything else today, remember, Always Use Your Head!