This Day in History: John Cena Debuts on Smackdown, JBL Wins WWE Title, Hideo Itami vs Seth Rollins, Carmella & More

WWE posted a tweet this afternoon celebrating the 16th anniversary of John Cena’s in-ring debut. The future 16-time world champion answered an open challenge from the Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle, ushering in what would later be known as the “Ruthless Aggression Era”. You can actually check out the full debut in the video above.

The @WWEUniverse met a Superstar full of RUTHLESS AGGRESSION 16 years ago today, and his name is @JohnCena! pic.twitter.com/1LVNbPOyaT

— WWE (@WWE) June 27, 2018

– Today is the 28th birthday of independent women’s wrestler Kimber Lee, who competed in WWE NXT and the Mae Young Classic as Abbey Laith.

– On this day in 1977… Billy Graham defended the WWWF Championship against Bruno Sammartino at Madison Square Garden. The show was headlined by Professor Toru Tanaka and Mr. Fuji wrestling Dominic DeNucci and Haystack Calhoun in a two-out-of-three falls match that went to a curfew draw.

– On this day in 1995… A very young Jeff Hardy wrestled Hakushi at a WWF Superstars of Wrestling television taping. The show was headlined by The Smoking Guns vs. Men on a Mission.

– On this day in 1998… Rob Van Dam and Sabu defeated Chris Candido and Lance Storm to become the new ECW Tag Team Champions in Philadelphia, PA.

– On this day in 1999… WWE King of the Ring aired from the Greensboro Coliseum. Billy Gunn won the King of the Ring tournament by last defeating X-Pac in the finals, on a show headlined by The Undertaker defending the WWF Championship against The Rock, and both Vince and Shane McMahon facing Steve Austin in a handicap match.

– On the same day in 1999… Michiyoshi Ohara and Tatsutoshi Goto defeated Kensuke Sasaki and Shiro Koshinaka to become the new IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Koji Kanemoto also successfully defended the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title against Minoru Tanaka.

– On this day in 2004… John Bradshaw Layfield defeated Eddie Guerrero in a Texas Bullrope match at The Great American Bash to become the new WWE Champion. The Undertaker also defeated the Dudley Boyz in a Concrete Crypt match, where the Deadman then murdered his own manager Paul Bearer by literally burying him in cement.

– On this day in 2009… KENTA (aka Hideo Itami) defeated Tyler Black (aka Seth Rollins) at ROH End of an Age in Chicago, IL to retain the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship. Austin Aries also defeated Nigel McGuinness to retain the ROH World title.

– On this day in 2014… Samoa Joe defeated Low Ki and Sanada to become the X-Division Champion at an Impact Wrestling television taping at the Manhattan Center in New York. The Dudley Boyz also defeated The Hardyz in a tag team TLC match.

– On this day in 2017… Carmella won the second ever Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match on Smackdown Live, after James Ellsworth