MARCH 31
1991
Irwin R. Schyster made his debut in a vignette on WWF Wrestling Challenge, where he made it clear that deductions for charitable donations were not allowed because people only donate to charity out of greed anyway. This gimmick was created for Vince McMahon’s amusement, having just come off of an audit from the Internal Revenue Service. Meanwhile, Bobby Heenan courted Andre the Giant in an attempt to manage him, and Andre responded by standing on Heenan’s hand.
1992
All Japan continued its Championship Carnival with a card in Toyama, where Toshiaki Kawada faced Akira Taue in a ***3/4 match.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W6AU7Fz538
1996
AJW held its annual Wrestling Queendom card in Yokohama. In the main event, Manami Toyota defended the WWWA Title against Kyoko Inoue in a *** match.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7heii19bViQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivlPbJUT4rk
All Japan continued its Championship Carnival with a card in Nagoya that had a pair of **** matches. Toshiaki Kawada faced Akira Taue in a 30-minute draw while Mitsuharu Misawa defeated Kenta Kobashi.
The WWF aired Wrestlemania XII live on pay-per-view from Anaheim, CA, in front of 15,855 fans. The Ultimate Warrior returned to the company in a brief match against Hunter Hearst Helmsley, who Warrior insisted on squashing. Helmsley did not complain about the nature of the match, which earned him favor with WWF management. Also on the show, Goldust and Roddy Piper faced off in a Hollywood Backlot Brawl that was shot like a movie and took place outside before spilling back to the ring. The match even included an OJ Simpson spoof where Piper was chasing Goldust on the open highway in a white Bronco. In the main event, Bret Hart defended the WWF World Title against Shawn Michaels in a polarizing 60-minute Iron Man match. There were no falls throughout the match, and fans were unfortunately filing out during Shawn’s celebration, where he won the WWF World Title for the first time. Bret Hart took several months off after this match to ponder his future in wrestling. The show did a disappointing 300,000 buys, and you can watch it on the WWE Network.
In The “To Watch” Queue:
Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs Rusher Kimura & Isamu Teranishi (AJPW 03/31/90)
