Today In Pro Wrestling History: April 17th

Now I feel like I had to borrow Triple H’s shovel and a backhoe just to dig out what was worthy of making it onto this list. Calling the day pretty light, is an understatement. Let’s see what I dredged out of the waters!

• Roddy Piper Birthday (1954)

This shouldn’t need a lot of explanation. He was the villain the 80s and early WrestleMania needed. From the classic Piper’s Pit, interactions on Prime Time Wrestling (the Christmas promo comes to mind). His matches, his manic nature, he could easily be the heel or babyface when it was needed, while his bravado was larger than life, his execution was relatable. In an era of steroids, super heroes and larger than life gimmicks…him just being a crazy guy had a great charm and was easy to sink your teeth into. Piper will never be replicated and is often imitated, but you know, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

• WCW Spring Stampede: World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair (c) vs Ricky Steamboat (1994)

The very first Spring Stampede, a match to harken back to the classic 1989 matches and Flair owning his more well known gimmick. The PPV is generally lauded since there’s a lot of good action, but when it comes down to historic, Steamboat and Flair are synonymous with wrestling history. This match ended effectively in a no contest after both men were counted down simultaneously, so Nick Bockwinkel declared the title vacant and a rematch to happened a few weeks later, which exhibited Flair leaning more into the “Dirtiest Player in the Game” moniker than relying on his technical prowess.

• ECW Buffalo Show: Tag Team Championships: Rob Van Dam (c) vs D-Von Dudley (1999)

We’ve seen matches like this from time to time where it’s a singles match for the tag titles. This one I chose because it happened during RVD’s 700 day TV title reign. So D-Von getting the win here was big because it made the Dudleyz the most decorated team in ECW, ended RVD & Sabu’s reign, as well as being a rare loss for RVD at the time. Sabu’s absence is still mired in a little unknown be it injuries or a suspension (pro que no los dos). But history that overlaps with RVD’s ECW legacy and the Dudleyz, it’s hard to ignore this event.

• WWE SmackDown Taping: World Tag Team Championship: LonDrick (c) vs Deuce ‘n Domino (2007)

This one is on here because it’s Deuce ‘n Domino’s first and only WWE tag title reign. This also subsequently ended LonDrick’s 331 day title reign, which was the longest in the history of this title at the time (this is the unified ECW/WCW tag title, not the WWE historical one with Demolition). While the match wasn’t anything to write home about, being a first and only title reign while dethroning the longest reigning champions feels historic to me.

• TNA Unbreakable: Inaugural International Championship: AJ Francis vs Steve Maclin vs Eric Young (2025)

This is probably me trying to manifest some positive vibes for YET ANOTHER, TNA mid card title. Mid card titles have had short lives and die pretty easy in this company (Legends, TV, King of the Mountain, Grand Championship, Digital Media and now this). The match was decent and thus far TNA has done a decent job at making the International Championship look like something worthy to chase aside from X Division and World. I’m choosing to live in the delusional land where this sticks and we all look back more positively at the origin of this little title with the baby blue strap.

Creative accounting continues! Yes, I admitted to some of these being stretches, and I even had a couple others I was trying to do mental gymnastics for, but ultimately decided against. Let’s hope I’m right about the International Championship though. Anyone from the future, leave a comment!

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!