This Day In Wrestling History – April 24th

1967 – John & Chris Tolos defeat Don Leo Jonathan & Rocky Johnson, to win the NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship.

1983 – AWA Super Sunday is held in St. Paul, Minnesota in front of 20,000 fans.  The event featured Verne Gagne coming out of retirement at age 57, to compete in the main event.
– Buck Zumhofe defeats Steve Regal
– Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler defeats John Tolos
– Joyce Grable & Wendi Richter defeat Judy Martin & Velvet McIntyre, to retain the AWA Women’s Tag Team Championship.
– Wahoo McDaniel defeats Eddie Boulder (later known as Brutus Beefcake)
– In a Six-Man tag team match, Rick Martel, Greg Gagne, and Jim Brunzell defeat Jesse Ventura, Blackjack Lanza, and Ken Patera
– Nick Bockwinkel defeats Hulk Hogan via reverse decision disqualification, to retain the AWA World Heavyweight Championship.  Lord James Blears served as special guest referee.
– Verne Gagne & Mad Dog Vachon defeat Jerry Blackwell & Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissy.

1987 – Stan Hansen defeats Hiroshi Wajima, to win the vacant PWF World Heavyweight Championship.

1987 – Ken Patera competes in his first match since being released from prison for the infamous “McDonald’s incident.”  Patera defeats Hercules Hernandez via DQ, at a WWF TV taping in New Haven, CT.

1989 – Big Van Vader defeats Shinya Hashimoto, to win the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Lou Thesz served as special guest referee.

1991 – WWF’s UK Rampage is held in London in front of 14,300 fans.  It was only available for viewing in the United Kingdom, on Sky Movies Plus.
– Jim Neidhart defeats The Warlord.
– Greg Valentine defeats Haku
– Ted DiBiase (with Sherri Martel) defeats Kerry Von Erich via countout
– The Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty) (with Andre The Giant) defeat The Orient Express (Kato & Tanaka) (with Mr. Fuji).
– Jimmy Snuka defeats The Barbarian
– The British Bulldog defeats The Bezerker (with Mr. Fuji).
– Earthquake defeats Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts via disqualification.
– Hulk Hogan defeats Sgt. Slaughter (with General Adnan), to retain the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.

2000 – On WWF RAW, Matt Hardy defeats Crash Holly, to win the WWF Hardcore Championship.

2000 – In a Steel Cage Match on Monday Nitro, Diamond Dallas Page defeats Jeff Jarrett, to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

2001 – Steve Corino defeats Mike Rapada, to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

2001 – Johnny Valentine, who won titles in AJPW, WWWF, and various NWA promotions, passes away at 72.

2004 – The Second City Saints (CM Punk & Colt Cabana) defeat The Briscoe Brothers (Mark & Jay), to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

2005 – TNA Lockdown is held at the Impact Zone in Orlando, in front of 775 fans.  As with all Lockdown events of this time, all matches were held in a cage. This event saw Chris Candido suffer the injury that would indirectly lead to his death four days later.
Pre-Show:
– In a Three-Way Tag Team match, 3Live Kru (Ron Killings & Konnan) defeat Lex Lovett & David Young, and The Naturals (Andy Douglas & Chase Stevens).
PPV:
– Apollo & Sonny Siaki defeat Chris Candido & Lance Hoyt (this would be Candido’s last match ever).
– Dustin Rhodes defeats Bobby Roode (with A-1 & Coach D’Amore) in a Prince of Darkness match. It was best-of-three falls, with the third and final fall being contested under blindfold match rules
– In a Four-Man XScape Match, Shocker defeats Sonjay Dutt, Chris Sabin, and Michael Shane (with Trinity).
– In a Strap Match, America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) defeat Team Canada (Petey Williams & Eric Young) (with A-1), to retain the NWA World Tag Team Championship.
– Christopher Daniels defeats Elix Skipper, to retain the TNA X Division Championship.
– Team Nash (Sean Waltman, Diamond Dallas Page, & BG James) defeat Team Jarrett (Jeff Jarrett, The Outlaw, & Monty Brown) in a Lethal Lockdown Match
– AJ Styles defeats Abyss, to receive an NWA World Heavyweight Championship match, at the Hard Justice PPV.

2005 – Hiroshi Tanahashi defeats Manabu Nakanishi, to win the New Japan Cup.

2006 – WWE and Brock Lesnar settle a lawsuit, brought by Lesnar against the company.  Lesnar had signed a no-compete when he left in 2004 to pursue an NFL career and later went to New Japan and MMA, both of which were against the no-compete clause.  Terms of the lawsuit settlement were not made public, although it would open the doors for Lesnar to make his UFC debut and eventually, return to WWE in 2012.

2007 – At a house show in Paris, France, Mickie James defeats Melina and Victoria in a Triple Threat Match, to win the WWE Women’s Championship. James loses the title back to Melina in a singles match later in the night; Melina had been granted a rematch because Mickie had pinned Victoria (who wasn’t the champion) in the Triple Threat Match.

2008 – TNA Wrestling airs its 200th episode of Impact.

2011 – Jesus Luna Pozos, aka Charly Manson (Charly Malice in Lucha Libre USA) is arrested early in the morning in Zapotitla, Mexico after assaulting two police officers, as they were trying to arrest him for being drunk.  Manson and his friend Adrian Lopez Reyes, who is also a juvenile, were looking for Charly’s car and couldn’t find it.  So they found the officers to help them because they thought that they had been carjacked.  The cops wanted to bring them in for being drunk so a huge argument ensued. Another police officer showed up as backup, and in the excitement of the situation, he shot Reyes in the leg before an ambulance showed up to pick up Reyes and the officers. Charly and Reyes were both taken to jail, then Reyes was sent to a hospital while the officers were sent to another hospital with one of the officers suffering serious head injuries.

2016 – Daisuke Sekimoto defeats Zeus, to win the AJPW Champion Carnival.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: 2-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yuji Nagata (51 years old).

Today would’ve been the 103rd birthday for WWE Hall of Famer, Lou Thesz, and the 97th birthday for 3-time Mexican Welterweight Champion, Blue Demon.