Today In Pro Wrestling History: June 21st

Nothing super old on the list today! It’s always a little odd when there isn’t something from the 90s or earlier, but nothing really seemed all that historic…just some confusing events. But let’s get to what made the list!

• TNA Slammiversary: TNA World Championship King of the Mountain Match: Mick Foley (c) vs Jeff Jarrett vs Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle vs AJ Styles (2009)

Now this is definitely a moment that’s burned into people’s brains in a negative way. While the initial creation of the Main Event Mafia was a fun idea and well received in 2008. In 2009, the faction was under Sting’s leadership after Sacrifice, but this match basically ignored that. Main Event Mafia started to turn into a bootleg nWo with adding members and losing its identity. Matt Morgan wanted to join, and this match, saw Samoa Joe scaling the ladder at the same time as Kurt Angle…before handing him the title so Angle could win the World title. Sting was promptly beatdown and kicked from the group and Main Event Mafia didn’t last much longer after that. Wrestling needs to really understand no one likes factions who just add 47 people for no good reason.

• NJPW Dominion (2014)

This event has two pretty big moments and one fun moment. The fun one comes from the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag match where the Time Splitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) defeated The Young Bucks for the titles. First bigger moment was Kota Ibushi versus Ricochet for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. We got the first iteration of the Frakensteiner into landing on feet in this match. It’s not the iconic one with the camera angle showing Ibushi’s disbelief, but it’s clean and this whole match was a modern wrestling flippy boy love letter. Most notably though, this show solidified Bullet Club’s general dominance, going as far as to cement one of the biggest upsets at the time. Bad Luck Fale defeated Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Fale’s only singles title, and for it to come at the expense of a Musketeer…was a big deal.

• WWE NXT TV: NXT Tag Team Titles: Moustache Mountain (c) vs Undisputed Era (2018)

This was the nearly immediate rematch after Moustache Mountain shocked the Era. Aside from the match being a great match, yet again, there was an interesting wrinkle we haven’t seen very often at the time. Trent Seven was getting dismantled. O’Reilly and Strong destroyed his knee, and there was little Bate could do. The brief reprieve Seven got when he finally tagged out, went to hell when Seven was tagged back in and the shark circled. Bate, being the babyface, could only do so much. The pain on his face as Seven refused to give up, no matter the submission or the abuse he was taking. In a desperate moment to protect his mentor and tag partner, Bate grabbed the towel and threw it in the ring. Undisputed Era got their title back, Bate and Seven look like a classic babyface team, and this would also be a moment used as a linchpin in future storylines.

• WWE Monday Night Raw (2021)

The show was primarily Money in the Bank qualifiers and a rarely seen on television…Hell in a Cell match. Ricochet got a surprise upset over AJ Styles while Riddle and Drew McIntyre probably had the match of the night from a technical perspective. Drew lost his Hell in the Cell match against Lashley, and wouldn’t be granted anymore chances at the title as long as Lashley held it, but if he could win Money in the Bank, that supersedes the stipulation. Randy Orton walked out towards the end of the match to help give his tag partner Riddle the last burst of momentum that he needed to take out Drew and leave him trying to rebuild. The main event of Woods versus Lashley in the Cell was Lashley proving that New Day’s chiding was unfounded. They wanted to say he was losing his edge, so he made an example out of Woods. Do have to respect the White and Green ranger gear New Day came out in though, Millennial inner children everywhere popped for Power Rangers.

• CMLL Fantastica Mania Mexico (2024)

This show had a few fun moments that are both memorable and historic in a way. Stephanie Vaquer defended her NJPW Strong Women’s title against La Catalina, when Mercedes Mone comes out to make her CMLL debut and to pick a Forbidden Door fight with Stephanie. Given the 2026 relevance of all three of those names, it’s a pretty memorable moment. Then we get the main event, still in the throes of Misitico’s 20th Anniversary. He faced Hiromu Takahashi, the crowd and presentation made the moment feel huge and it was still a really solid back and forth bout that of course ended in Mistico’s victory. So anything that highlights the King of Silver and Gold, will be a heavily memorable moment to Lucha fans.

I would say this isn’t a bad article for more casual fans given the names that are being highlighted on the international shows. The month is starting to slow down a little. Let’s hope we don’t struggle too much towards the end!