This Day in Wrestling History (May 4): The Last WWF Show Ever

32 years ago today, it was made public that Andre the Giant had suffered a broken ankle at the hands of Killer Khan. Upon Andre's recovery, he and Khan would have a series of grudge matches. WWE has held on to the cast used to set the ankle and is on display annually at Wrestlemania AXXESS.

22 years ago today, New Japan Pro Wrestling presented Wrestling Dontaku from the Fukuoka Dome in Fukuoka, Japan.

• Satoshi Kojima defeated Yuji Nagata.
• Tokimitsu Ishizawa & El Samurai defeated Shinjiro Ohtani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa.
• Akira Nogami, Takayuki Iizuka, and Osamu Kido defeated Akitoshi Saito, Michiyoshi Ohara, and Tatsutoshi Goto by submission.
• Kuniaki Kobayashi, The Great Kabuki, and Kengo Kimura defeated Norio Honaga, Hiro Saito, andShinichi Nakano.
• El Gigante defeated Tadao Yasuda.
• Jushin Liger vs. Satoru Sayama (the original Tiger Mask) fought to a ten-minute time limit draw.
• Shiro Koshinaka defeated Yoshiaki Yatsu.
• The Hellraisers (Road Warrior Hawk & Power Warrior Kensuke Sasaki) defeated Rick & Scott Steiner to retain the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
• Rick Rude defeated Sting to win the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. It would turn out to be Rude's final match, as he severely injured his neck during the bout. Rude eventually would be stripped of the championship on a technicality. Rude would remain out of the wrestling business until his ECW debut in 1997.
• Masahiro Chono defeated Yoshiaki Fujiwara.
• Riki Choshu defeated Hiroshi Hase.
• Shinya Hashimoto defeated Tatsumi Fujinami to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
• Antonio Inoki defeated The Great Muta.

14 years ago today, WWF presented Insurrextion (WWE Network link) from Wembley Arena in London, England. 9,308 were in attendance for the first RAW exclusive PPV (predating the concept by just over a full year).

In an important side note, this was the last ever event promoted under the WWF name; a few days later, a British court ruled in favor of the World Wildlife Fund in reference to who owned the rights to the initials.

• In a preshow dark match, Mr. Perfect defeated Goldust.
• Rob Van Dam defeated Eddie Guerrero by disqualification in a WWF Intercontinental Championship match.
• Trish Stratus and Jacqueline defeated Molly Holly and Jazz.
• X-Pac defeated Bradshaw.
• Booker T defeated Steven Richards to win the WWF Hardcore Championship, only to lose it to Crash Holly, who loses it to Booker T, who loses it to again to Steven Richards.
• The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff) defeated Brock Lesnar and Shawn Stasiak.
• Spike Dudley defeated William Regal to retain the WWF European Championship.
• Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated The Big Show. Ric Flair was the special enforcer.
• Triple H defeated The Undertaker.

12 years ago today at a Smackdown taping in Tuscon, Arizona, Jacqueline defeated Chavo Guerrero to win the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. She became the first, and ultimately, only woman to win the championship in WWE. Two other women, Madusa and Daffney, held the same championship when it was in WCW.

10 years ago today, WWE publicly confirms for the first time that they were resurrecting ECW as a full-time entity, beginning with next month's One Night Stand PPV.

6 years ago today, Spike TV announces via press release that TNA Impact was going back to Thursday night, bowing out of their attempt to resurrect the Monday Night Wars after just two months. The press release in part from senior vice-president of sports and specials for Spike, Brian Diamond:

"The fans have spoken and with their input we have determined the best timeslot to maximize the TNA audience is on Thursday nights where we are confident it will be among the most-watched shows with young men..."

Also announced in the press release: Spike picked up Reaction, a post-show documentary style program advancing storylines following Impact. The series debut would be pushed twice before finally debuting in August. It would be cancelled after just 23 episodes.

6 years ago today, The Band (Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Eric Young) defeat Matt Morgan in a handicap match to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship. All three members of The Band were recognized tag team champions under the Freebird rule.

5 years ago today, Syfy announces Adam "Edge" Copeland would join the series Haven as a guest star.  His character, Dwight Hendrickson, has since become a recurring character on the series.

2 years ago today, WWE presented Extreme Rules (WWE Network link) from the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. 15,907 were in attendance, with 107,000 homes watching on PPV. That's down from 245,000 homes for the 2013 edition. The cause for the sharp decline is twofold: the advent of the WWE Network (it rolled out a little over two months prior), and DirecTV and Dish Network's decision to discontinue carrying WWE PPVs.

• In a kickoff show match, El Torito defeated Hornswoggle in a WeeLC match.
• Cesaro defeated Jack Swagger and Rob Van Dam in a three-way dance.
  • Rob Van Dam eliminated Jack Swagger.
  • Cesaro defeated Rob Van Dam.
• Alexander Rusev defeated R-Truth & Xavier Woods in a 2-on-1 handicap match.
• Bad News Barrett defeated Big E to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
• The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns) defeated Evolution (Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista).
• Bray Wyatt defeated John Cena in a steel cage match.
• Paige defeated Tamina Snuka to retain the WWE Divas Championship.
• Daniel Bryan defeated Kane in an Extreme Rules Match to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.