Today In Pro Wrestling History: April 26th

The irony of today, is if you base things off of current 2026 ownership, this entire article is WWE umbrella history, and none of it is WrestleMania. We know the deal by now, so it’s time to see what the timeline has provided for today!

• WWWF MSG Show: WWWF World Heavyweight Title: Bruno Sammartino (c) vs Stan Hansen (1976)

This is historic because this is the match that gave Stan Hansen the mystique of breaking Bruno’s neck with the Western Lariat. While the match ended in Hansen winning via referee stoppage, the real reason Bruno had his neck broken was because Hansen slipped on a Slam and turned it into an inadvertent Piledriver. But since pro wrestling is a carny business, this set up Hansen nicely as the dangerous gaijin terror during his peak in Japan.

• AAA TripleMania II-A: Lucha de Apuestas Hair vs Hair 2 out 3 Falls: Heavy Metal vs Jerry Estrada (1994)

A match that is historic, spicy and marred in controversy. The story goes that Heavy Metal was supposed to win initially, but the night before he pissed off Antonio Pena, so Pena changed the finish. On the third fall, Jerry won by DQ. The crowd hated it, Heavy Metal openly sobbed in the ring for the referee to overturn the decision. Pena came out and had a change of heart about Heavy Metal, ordered an unprecedented “4th fall” in which Heavy won that fall. However, with all the drama Jerry got up after only part of his hair was shaved and refused the rest because he felt betrayed. Pena suspended both wrestlers after the drama, but who doesn’t love a match filled with more tea than Pure Leaf?

• WWF Unforgiven (1998)

With this event, the history comes from the stipulations…both good and bad. This was the very first Inferno Match, in which Undertaker defeated Kane. We also got the very first Evening Gown match, see this one was the bad of the good and bad. Inferno Match is at least cool if not just dangerous and infeasible. Evening Gown is a product of the time…and hopefully a bygone relic of better thinking.

• WWE Backlash (2009)

We get a smattering of cool memories here. This was Ricky Steamboat’s singles return to the ring against Chris Jericho, Jericho won, but Steamboat proved to a new generation how good he still was. This show also had the Hardys “I Quit” match where Jeff tied Matt to the table. Randy Orton won the WWE Championship in a 6 man match and Edge beat John Cena in a “Last Man Standing” match after Big Show Chokeslammed Cena through a Spotlight.

• WWE Extreme Rules (2015)

There’s only really two things of note here. First one being, this is the show right after Rollins “heist”, so Orton came in with an edge, but with the RKO being banned and being in a Steel Cage, it was anyone’s game. Rollins really was solidifying his “opportunistic weasel” persona here after using the banned RKO to take Randy out long enough for him to exit the cage and retain. The real reason this is on here, is this was the New Day’s first Tag Team titles reign as the trio we know and love. Beating Cesaro and Tyson Kidd, we entered into the era of the Power of Positivity.

Always neat for me to get reminded or initially learn where gimmicks come from or when a beloved performer won a first of something. But see, anyone who may have been complaining about heavy days with doses of Japan…here you go, this article has your name written all over it.

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!