Today In Pro Wrestling History: April 30th

It’s almost like April knows who’s writing these articles. We end the month with a fair amount of Japanese historic moments, but fear not, there are things for WWE fans and Lucha fans. Let’s see if this final day of April gets six stars in the Tokyo Dome!

• NJPW Explosion Tour: Top of Super Juniors Finals: Jushin Thunder Liger vs El Samurai (1992)

We get the crowning achievement in the early years of Liger. This tournament became the Best of the Super Juniors two years after this, so the tournament outcome is very relevant. This was Liger’s first BOSJ tournament win and considered a crown jewel because of how well he carried El Samurai to an amazing match. Samurai wasn’t bad, but Liger helped him elevate, therefore, elevating the entire Division and the prestige of the tournament. Nearly every wrestling knows Liger, and this is one of the early harbingers to him becoming the gold standard for Junior/Cruiser-weight wrestling for the next 30 years.

• AAA Triplemania I (1993)

Not only is it historic because it’s the first one, but this was the type of card you look at and understand the significance from looking at the players. Rey Misterio Jr and La Parka were on the undercard, Jake “the Snake” Roberts made his AAA debut, Konnan lost a controversial double retirement match because of interference and the biggest match was the Lucha de Apuestas match. Perro Aguayo and Mascara Ano 2000 has a fantastic emotional brawl that lead to Aguayo winning and unmasking a long time rival. It also can’t be ignored, that apparently the event was in such demand that they had to turn people away at the door and set up screens in the parking lot for people to watch from outside. Hard to argue the historical aspect.

• WWF Backlash (2000)

Another Backlash and another big deal. We get The Rock correcting the screw job from Mania 16 where he beat Triple H for the WWF Championship. Stone Cold returned to clear out the Corporate Heels and the undercard saw a great match between Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. So it finally paid off an angle to the fans liking after getting stretched past Mania, a big return and some generally good wrestling. Memorable, I think this applies.

• WWE Payback: Raw Women’s Title: Bayley (c) vs Alexa Bliss (2017)

No matter how some people may feel about the match quality or the event in general, we aim for history here. With Alexa Bliss’ victory over Bayley, she became the first woman to hold both Raw and SmackDown titles. Remember, this is a list of history, and being the first to accomplish something is a pretty easy slam dunk.

• AJPW Broadcast: All Japan Pro Wrestling’s Desire To Deliver To The World (2020)

This was one of the very first events during the onset of the pandemic. All Japan started doing things that AEW, NJPW, NOAH and WWE eventually copied, with having wrestlers and crew participate as the crowd when they weren’t in the matches. We saw the debut of Enfantes Terribles, including their leader and former Ace of Wrestle-1, Shotaro Ashino. AJPW did a good job at pushing newer talent, while keeping the veterans relevant to help elevate the roster and keep some interest in a time when everyone had to rely on streaming. Should also be noted that this was one of the last shows to featured Jun Akiyama before he moved to DDT.

• Pro Wrestling NOAH Majestic (2022)

The first event with the Majestic name, but that’s not the history here. This signified the turn in pandemic and the wrestling landscape. International talent like Rene Dupree and El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr returned, since the 20th anniversary was cancelled due to the pandemic, this served as a poignant moment in Ryogoku Sumo Hall. Capped off with the main event for the vacant GHC Heavyweight title, Go Shiozaki defeated Kaito Kiyomiya for his record 5th reign. After finally shedding the “Fallen Ace” moniker with his previous reign that last over 400 days and was fantastic pandemic action, he finally got to enjoy sitting alone at the top.

This has been an interesting month. First half felt like it had a solid bit of WrestleMania moments, then we deep dove into Japan for some late days, Backlash turned out to be a major player, and we had appearances from Mexico, classic Joshi and some birthdays to round out the days. Should be interesting to see May brings the same kind of mixed bag, or if it’s a unique monster.

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!