Today In Pro Wrestling History: April 6th

After a little bit of digging, there’s a few promotions on the list today that are making their debut! Let’s see what I dug up:

• AJPW Champion Carnival: Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (1995)

While this match gets overlooked following their heralded match the previous year, this still had a big story. Kawada lost the belt to Stan Hansen a month prior, so this Carnival was him trying to get it back. Misawa however is often Kawada’s kryptonite and it continues here. While the match itself ends in a Draw, Kawada broke Misawa’s orbital bone during the match and Misawa still stuck it out, won the 1995 Carnival and eventually took out Stan Hansen.

• WCW Spring Stampede: NoDQ Match: Diamond Dallas Page vs Randy Savage (1997)

This is the match that DDP has cited as the match that made him. Savage ASKED to take the Diamond Cutter. Without Savage doing the job and putting over Page, we would’ve lost out on arguably the best and most organically grown babyface in WCW history. Which also added a player to the Monday Night War and someone else to position well against the NWO. Even if he was a little crazy, Macho Man had a solid sense for what was best for business.

• WrestleMania XXX (2014)

Now I know some may wonder why I just have the event down. And its simple, BOTH, Brock Lesnar breaking the Streak and Daniel Bryan’s Yes-leMania moment are equally historic. No one expected the Streak to be broken and even though the fans wanted Daniel Bryan to go over, the storyline even turned into the Authority keeping him down. Lesnar’s win shocked the audience into disbelief, where Bryan’s win sent people home happy. It’s a nice combination of moments, and both will be on the wrestling highlight reels for decades to come.

• Impact Wrestling vs Lucha Underground (2018)

Ahh the era of Twitch Wrestling events. From WrestleCircus to weekly iMPACT! episodes, I miss this era. This event however was fairly pivotal, it was promotion for Lucha Underground Season 4 and also a nice bit of spotlight for Impact/TNA, which had been riding the Broken Hardyz until they left and then started treading water again. It should also be noted that thanks to this, some of the Lucha Underground performers that could get out of their contracts, came to a slightly familiar new home. Brian Cage, Penta, Fenix, Taya and Willie Mack, off the top of my head.

• G1 Supercard (2019)

The fact the event happened was historic enough with WWE trying to block it, but since it happened, the co-branded ROH/NJPW show became the first wrestling show not run by the McMahons since 1960. This was not without its controversy (looking at you Enzo and Cass), but the event was great. Muta showed up in the Battle Royal along with Jushin Thunder Liger, Matt Taven beat Jay Lethal and Marty Scurll for the ROH title and Okada defeated Jay White to grab the IWGP Heavyweight Championship back. A solid night of action, even Stardom had a dark match on the card involving Hana Kimura.

• NXT Stand & Deliver: NXT North American Championship: Oba Femi (c) vs Dijak vs Josh Briggs (2024)

Given his blockbuster angle with Brock Lesnar, the fact that this is the match that really started to solidify Oba Femi as the “Ruler”, feels pretty important. It was the NXT Match of the Year, we got amazing athletic big man spots and just a showcase of Oba’s raw power when he Double Chokeslammed both opponents and even hit an Avalanche Spicolli Driver with the big guys stacked on his shoulders. This was a big moment for Oba, and we see where the two years of brutal dominance has landed him now.

• WrestleMania XL: Roman Reigns & The Rock vs Seth Rollin & Cody Rhodes (2024)

The last hurdle in finishing the story. Everything was working against Cody getting his fair title shot, even the fact that he and Seth lost this match, so it made Day Two’s Championship match, Bloodline Rules. While the bigger moment will be covered tomorrow, the entire lead up for WrestleMania was just finding new ways to try and screw Cody. The fans were behind him, even wrestlers who didn’t like him, supported his position. While Cody getting his moment would’ve been big regardless, this added to the spectacle, it added to the energy and definitely made Rock’s spot tomorrow a bigger POP moment for the crowd.

We have another easy transition for tomorrow thanks to Cody’s story and WrestleMania being two nights anymore. I feel like I dug a decent bit, not sure if I want to go all the way back to the black and white TV era…but we’ll see. Gotta keep the moments interesting!

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!