Today In Pro Wrestling History: April 24th

Now this day is not my fault. I scoured and did so many mental gymnastics you could call me Simone Biles, but nothing of real historical note happened in the last 20 years. So this is gonna skew a bit older than previous days, but hey, I work with what I’m given.

• Lou Thesz Birthday (1916)

See this birthday flows really well with the fact that I highlighted his match with Danny Hodge a few days ago. Most of us are aware that Thesz was regarded as the “God of Wrestling”, and had a very illustrious career during the early days of pro wrestling as we know it. Gene Lebell and Masahiro Chono are two of his more famous students, and we all have to understand foundation guys. If wrestling didn’t gain some momentum in the past, it wouldn’t still be here for us to enjoy.

• AWA Super Sunday: NWA Heavyweight Championship: Nick Bockwinkel (c) vs Hulk Hogan (1983)

Regardless of how you feel about Hulk Hogan personally, he was the reason for the boom from the 80s through the 90s. This match, proved exactly how petty and stupid Gagne was. Hogan was stripped because he “used a weapon”, but the politics have always basically just said Verne didn’t like him. So AWA shoots themselves in the foot, fumbles the chance to really compete and set WWF will what they needed to dominate for most of the last 40 years.

• NJPW Super Powers Clash: IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Shinya Hashimoto vs Big Van Vader (1989)

Amusingly, Lou Thesz was the special guest referee for this match. The Heavyweight title was vacated at this time, Hashimoto was a rising star and one of the original “Three Musketeers” of NJPW. Vader ultimately won the match, which was historic because he was the first foreign born wrestler to officially win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This event also was Jushin Thunder Liger’s debut.

• WCW Nitro: World Heavyweight Championship: Jeff Jarrett (c) vs Diamond Dallas Page (2000)

We’re still in that New Blood reboot era of WCW. Since Jarrett only won the title because of Kimberly turning on Dallas, this was the rematch in a Steel Cage. While the finish here was smart…we’ve got about two days before everyone wants to play in traffic with WCW decisions. But hey, Dallas got his third and final World title reign due to this match. So that counts for something.

• TNA Lockdown (2005)

The very first all steel cage professional wrestling event…EVER. Which of course also means it was the first ever Lockdown, and we’re getting it back! Aside from the excitement and fun of the event and the first ever history, it is marred in some dark history as well. Since this PPV marked Chris Candido’s final wrestling match. He sustained an injury in the opening match of the show, got surgery for it, and passed away due to complications from the surgery a few days later. So historic for a mixed bag of reasons.

As I’ve said a few times, don’t blame me for light days, creative accounting or dates before someone of you were born. I don’t make the schedules. But there was some fun overlap with Lou Thesz’ birthday and the NJPW match. Those little threads are always kinda neat.

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!