This Day In Wrestling History – April 22nd
1964 – Dick the Bruiser defeats Fred Blassie, to win the WWA World Heavyweight Championship, in Los Angeles.
1968 – Johnny Rougeau defeats Ivan Koloff, to win the IWA International Heavyweight Championship, in Montreal.
1968 – The Spoilers (#1 & #2) defeat Fritz Von Erich & Billy Red Lyons, to win the NWA American Tag Team Championship.
1994 – Gran Markus, Jr., El Hijo del Gladiator, & Dr. Wagner Jr. defeat El Brazo, Brazo de Oro, & Brazo de Plata, to win the CMLL World Trios Championship.
1996 – In the Monday Night Wars, WWF Monday Night RAW (3.3 TV rating) beats WCW Monday Nitro (2.7 rating). On RAW (taped on April 1st), Goldust defeats Savio Vega, to win the vacant WWF Intercontinental Championship. After Nitro (airing live) went off the air, matches for the April 29th episode were taped. In one of those matches, The Giant defeats Ric Flair, to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
2000 – ECW CyberSlam is held at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, in front of 1,600 fans.
– Masato Tanaka defeats 2 Cold Scorpio.
– Lance Storm & Dawn Marie defeat Nova & Jazz in a Mixed Tag Team Match.
– Little Guido defeats Super Crazy and Kid Kash, in a Three-Way Dance.
– The New Dangerous Alliance (CW Anderson & Bill Wiles) defeat Danny Doring & Roadkill.
– Balls Mahoney & New Jack defeat Da Baldies (DeVito & Angel).
– Steve Corino defeats Dusty Rhodes.
– Rhino defeats Yoshihiro Tajiri, to win the ECW World Television Championship.
– Tommy Dreamer (with Francine) defeats Taz, to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
– Justin Credible defeats Tommy Dreamer to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. After Dreamer had celebrated his win over Taz, Justin Credible entered the ring and threw his World Tag Team Championship down to the ground, and challenged Dreamer to an impromptu World Championship match. Credible would win the title, aided by Francine turning on Dreamer. In winning the World Title, Credible relinquished his half of the ECW World Tag Team Championship; his partner Lance Storm would soon leave for WCW, thus making the titles vacant for the next four months.
2002 – On this evening’s SmackDown, Charlie Haas & Rico defeat Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty, to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.
2008 – World Wrestling Entertainment suspends creative team member Michael Hayes, for 60 days, due to an incident that took place in Florida during the course of WrestleMania week. Hayes allegedly made an explicitly insulting comment towards SmackDown star Mark Henry, using a racially explicit word.
2010 – The following stars were released by WWE, all on the same day: Shelton Benjamin, Mickie James, Funaki, Jimmy Wang Yang, Slam Master J (Ray Gordy aka Jesse of Jesse & Festus), Katie Lea Burchill, and Mike Knox.
2011 – On this evening’s SmackDown, Big Show & Kane defeat The Corre (Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel), to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.
2017 – At EVOLVE 82, Catch Point (Chris Dickinson & Jaka) defeat the other tag team named Catch Point (Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi), to win the EVOLVE Tag Team Championship.
2018 – Impact Wrestling’s Redemption PPV is held at the Impact Zone in Orlando. The card also featured talent from AAA and Lucha Underground.
– Aero Star defeats Drago.
– Eli Drake & Scott Steiner defeat The Latin American XChange (Santana & Ortiz), to win the Impact World Tag Team Championship.
– In a Six-Way match, Brian Cage defeats Dezmond Xavier, DJZ, Trevor Lee, El Hijo del Fantasma, and Taiji Ishimori.
– Taya Valkyrie defeats Kiera Hogan.
– Matt Sydal defeats Petey Williams, to retain the Impact X Division Championship.
– In a House of Hardcore Match, Ohio Vs Everything (Dave Crist, Jake Crist, & Sami Callihan) defeat Eddie Edwards, Tommy Dreamer, & Moose.
– Allie defeats Su Yung (with Braxton Sutter), to retain the Impact Knockouts Championship.
– In a Three-Way match, Pentagon Jr. defeats Austin Aries and Fenix, to win the Impact World Championship.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: The final ECW Champion (in WWE) Ezekiel Jackson (41 years old); former All Japan Women’s Champion Kyoko Inoue (50 years old); former AAA Mega Champion Electroshock (49 years old); 4-time WWC World Tag Team Champion Miguel Perez, Jr. (53 years old); and AEW’s Chuck Taylor (33 years old).
