This Day in Pro Wrestling History (June 21)

Happy summer if you're in the Northern Hemisphere (or if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, happy winter... yes, that means the World Cup is taking place in the winter. Probably no chance for snow though. After all, they've introduced "cooling breaks" for this World Cup). We have a debut, an anniversary, and a reboot on this edition of This Day in Wrestling History.

(Photo via WWE.com)

17 years ago today, Mideon was inexplicably awarded the WWF European Championship. How so? Two months earlier on an episode of Sunday Night Heat, Shane McMahon retired the European title after defeating X-Pac at Wrestlemania XV. Fast forward a couple of months, and Mideon, as a part of the Corporate Ministry, needed a belt to hold up his pants. Shane, being the good sport he was, said he could borrow one from his bag. A half hour later, Mideon emerges with a belt around his pants: the European title belt. And that's how the belt was reactivated. True story. Side nugget: Mideon would lose the title five weeks later to D-Lo Brown at Fully Loaded (WWE Network link).

13 years ago today was the first episode of WWF reality series Tough Enough. Thirteen men and women were selected from over 4,000 videos (including videos submitted by current ring announcer Justin Roberts and TNA Knockout ODB) and competed in the series broadcast on MTV for two WWF contracts, one for the men and one for the women. Maven Huffman and Nidia Guenard won the competition and contracts, but Chris Nowitski and Josh Lomberger (aka Josh Matthews) were also signed. Check out this Reddit post for a listing of every Tough Enough contestant and what they've done since, including the reboot cast from 2011.

5 years ago today was TNA Slammiversary 2009 (pay link) from the Palace at Auburn Hills in suburban Detroit, Michigan. The event featured two King of the Mountain matches, the only time there were multiple King of the Mountain matches on the show, and was the last Slammiversary to feature the King of the Mountain match.

• Suicide defeats Jay Lethal, Consequences Creed, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley in a King of the Mountain Match to retain the TNA X-Division Championship.
• Daniels defeats Shane Douglas to retain his place in TNA. Had Daniels lost, Douglas would have taken his spot in the company
• Angelina Love defeats Tara to retain the TNA Knockouts Championship.
• Abyss & Taylor Wilde defeat Raven & Daffney in a Monsters Ball match.
• Beer Money Inc (James Storm & Robert Roode) defeat Team 3D (Brother Ray & Brother Devon) to win the TNA Tag Team Championship.
• Kurt Angle defeats Mick Foley, Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe in a King of the Mountain Match to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.

2 years ago today was the reboot of WWE NXT, with the show moving to Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. It was actually the beginning of a complete rehaul of WWE's developmental system, as by the end of the summer, Florida Championship Wrestling would be absorbed into NXT.

• Bo Dallas defeated Rick Victor.
• The Ascension (Kenneth Cameron and Conor O' Brian) defeated Mike Dalton and CJ Parker.
• Michael McGillicutty defeated Tyson Kidd.