Today In Pro Wrestling History: April 8th

Well now, April 8th is a fairly light day for Mania events. There was some real digging going on here. In typical fashion, this isn’t everything, just things I found and thought were notable history:

• AJPW Champion Carnival Day 1: Abdullah the Butcher vs Giant Baba (1977)

Some may be confused how a first day tournament match matters, so let me get to it. This is a rematch of the 1976 Finals, one where Abdullah won because the referee disqualified Baba because the match got too intense and Baba wouldn’t relent on Stomps and strikes. That was the first time, since the Carnival started in 1973, that Baba did not win. So this was a continuation of the blood feud. This was a fantastic catalyst match because it ended in a Double Countout, which feeds towards their rematch in the Semi-Finals. Blood, solid brawling, and classic 70s violence kept the fires burning while both men were still legit forces in wrestling.

• AWA SuperClash IV: World Heavyweight Championship: Mr. Saito (c) vs Larry Zbyszko (1990)

One of the last fleeting moments of a WWF rival. This was the final major event of AWA, and it was a rematch after Zbyszko lost to Saito in Japan. In an attempt to tie significance back to their glory days, Nick Bockwinkel was brought in as Special Guest Referee. While Zbyszko goes over, and the match itself was solid work…it was more an indication of the last few dying gasps of a company that was wrung dry of talent and creative. Bittersweet history.

• ECW Three Way Dance: Television Championship: 2 Cold Scorpio (c) vs Eddy Guerrero(1995)

Honestly, the only match worth watching and the history comes from the fact it was Eddy’s debut match in ECW. So while he and Scorpio traded victories after this, he came out of the box hot. A really good match, Eddy winning the Television title and dedicating the win to Art Barr aka Love Machine, his former tag team partner who passed away in 1994. This is just another feather in the cap of Eddy being one of the best to ever do it.

• WWE Raw: Dolph Ziggler Cashes In (2013)

While not on a major event, everyone has seen the clips or watched this live. Dolph coming out after Del Rio manages to overcome Jack Swagger & Zeb Colter. Del Rio getting hope spots with a kick out, timely dodge, Gamengiri and Cross Armbreaker, all played well into the story of Dolph coming up short. But when he didn’t fail, hits the Zig Zag and has a successful cash in, its a huge pop and towards the top of most people’s All Time Cash Ins.

• WrestleMania 34: Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey vs Stephanie McMahon & Triple H (2018)

As has become something I’ve said a few times, we have to look at the match in a vacuum of the moment and not if the moment sustained the hype. The Authority trying to dictate things to Ronda while embarrassing Kurt was the perfect maelstrom of disrespect, legit players and fan momentum. Ronda was still beloved at this point as well as Kurt. So even if Kurt lost a step or two, the match was paced and built well, everyone played their part well and Ronda tapping out Steph might have been her biggest babyface moment ever. This was fun, and with all the players, how could it not be considered historic?

• GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 6: Josh Barnett vs Jon Moxley (2021)

The match we had to wait two years for because Mox got a staph infection. This was everything we expect from Bloodsport, violence, blood, legit looking strikes and the show that really blurs lines. Barnett won this one and that makes sense. Mox may be a brawler but Josh is a legit MMA fighter. Moxley did get the win back in 2024, so you’d have to anticipate a rubber match at some point. But Bloodsports are such a great concept and usually good for a couple memorable moments. Can’t wait for more of these to align with article dates.

• NJPW Sakura Genesis: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs SANADA (2023)

This is historic because SANADA finally won the damn belt! Granted, it was 5 years too late. The match was still very good, but not as good as many of their previous encounters. SANADA started off with a few solid defenses, his match with Hiromu Takahashi being especially fun, but the reign was marred in the fact that NJPW’s roster was stripped of many real challengers and House of Torture existing in the main event picture is always a negative. So most people were happy that SANADA finally overcame Okada and got the IWGP Championship, and that’s the main celebration of this event. But one can’t overlook the way NJPW stagnated once it became the AEW farm system. More bittersweet history.

I think this was the most diverse article yet with the oldest addition being the 1977 Champion Carnival moment. Hopefully we can get more days with less bittersweet moments and more spectacular fun. But to find out, you’ll have to keep following along.

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!