Remember how, in yesterday’s edition of “This Day in Wrestling History” we mentioned Diamond Dallas Page winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from Jeff Jarrett? Well, on this day in 2000, at a taping for WCW Thunder, the moment ranked as the “biggest reason for the collapse of WCW” happened. That’s right, the notorious WCW World Title reign of David Arquette began. The match was a tag contest, pitting Arquette and then-champion DDP against Eric Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett, with the first man to secure a pinfall taking home the title. The Hollywood producer pinned rival Eric Bischoff, and the rest – meaning WCW – was history…
On the upside, today is also the anniversary of the very first NWA-ECW World Championship match. Before ECW was known as the “brand of extreme,” it was a division of the National Wrestling Alliance. After winning a battle royale that included a true ECW original – the Sandman – WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka defeated Salvatore Bellomo to become the inaugural champion.
WWE’s first ever Backlash pay-per-view also occurred on April 25th, in 1999. While only the Hardcore Championship traded hands that night, the event was well known for the epic No Holds Barred match for the WWE Championship between “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and The Rock. Shane McMahon would serve as the special guest referee.
Happy birthday to The Amazing Red, who is 31-years-old.
