Csonka’s Top 6 Slammiversary Main Events

– Welcome back to column time with Larry. Today’s column is all about Slammiversary. TNA is celebrating their latest anniversary, are doing it under a new name and are even absorbing Global Force Wrestling under the leadership of The Anthem Owl and one of the smartest workers in all of wrestling, Jeff Jarrett. A man who not only got himself back into a position of power but finally made use of what ever it was he had left of Global Force Wrestling. I think that everyone knows the story, the bottom line is that one of Impact’s big PPVs of the year is about to take place so today I will count down my Top 6 Slammiversary Main Events, focusing on the very best of the big show. I hope that you enjoy, and feel free to share your thoughts and or list. It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful of other’s opinions and don’t be a dick.”

6. Slammiversary 2008 – King of the Mountain Match: Champion Samoa Joe vs. Booker T vs. Christian Cage vs. Rhino vs. Robert Roode [***¾]: The stuff before the match was great as they showed a brief video for each man, showing how they got into the match and then each guy got a bit of promo time. Very much like Lockdown that year, they made the world title match the focus of the show by doing this, and that is a good thing. All five guys worked hard in the match and they had a good layout I thought. The crowd was dead though, which did them no favors and caused some struggles. They did a good job of teasing everyone becoming eligible, minus Joe, and that the curse of the King of the Mountain Match could get him as well. Cage really stood out, taking on the daredevil role for the match with some fun bumps. Overall I thought it was a fun match, but a notch below other KOTM matches that I have enjoyed more. They had the time though and that is a good thing, as I was afraid they might be too rushed and not get the nearly 20-minutes that they got. The end was a bit off putting, as Nash basically screws Booker and Joe gets the win, in anti-climatic fashion. I also felt that this made Joe look a bit weak, especially after his promo, but he was also the first champion to leave the KOTM match with the title. This is pretty much every thing you come to expect from the KOTM match. Even though there weren’t some of the usual suspects in there for the so called big spots, Cage fit the bill and really did every thing he could to make for some fun, and possibly memorable spots. I wasn’t sure how good the match would be but I will admit I was pleasantly surprised as they laid every thing out rather well, minus the finish, which again, came off a bit anti-climatic.

5. Slammiversary 2014 – Steel Cage Match: Champion Eric Young vs. Austin Aries vs. Lashley [***¾]: Due to the way that TNA was taping TV and the fact that MVP was injured prior to this PPV, I felt that the company did a good job of saving the main event. The guys involved worked really hard and while it started a bit rough, they locked it in and provided a very good main event match. They delivered some great spots and near falls, and again considering the whole situation, it worked out well for them. Also, I am happy to say there were no shenanigans in a cage match, which is always appreciated. Young wasn’t the perfect guy as champion for TNA, but he worked really hard, much of his run featured some really good matches with clean finishes, which I greatly appreciated because it came at a time when TNA needed it. It’s amazing what you can do when you place three capable performers in a match, give them the direction and opt to not kill it with overbooking. Young played the role of fighting champion very well, Aries was having great matches during this time, and this was also the time that Lashley started to hit an awesome groove as a performer.

4. Slammiversary 2007 – King of the Mountain Match: AJ Styles vs. Chris Harris vs. Christian Cage vs. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe [****]: Jarrett’s wife had passed away before this match, and due to that, pulled himself from the show. That allowed for Chris Harris to be the fifth man in the match. Harris was the one from AMW that everyone thought would be the star, and they teased a push with him prior, but never delivered. Many thought this would be his time, as with wrestling a lot of the time, they will pull a title change when something like this happens at the last minutes (hell it’s how Rhyno won the NWA title with the company). This was for the vacant title. Shit was on right away as they all started brawling and the crowd loved it. Cage and AJ worked together, which would be a running theme in this match. TNA booked the beginning very smartly as Harris got the first pin of the match, capitalizing on his momentum. So he was the first man eligible and AJ was sent to the penalty box. We had another great 4-minutes or so of action, and as Harris was climbing the ladder, he ate an Angle slam from up there and was then pinned by Angle, who could now hang the title. And then, DRAMA ensued. Angle and Joe were brawling, and there was…A REF BUMP~! Joe then locked in the clutch on Angle, and he phantom tapped. But with no ref, there was no official tap. The last 9-minutes were just as hectic as the beginning, with big ladder spots and AJ Styles dying as Joe tossed him off the cage through the announce table. Chris Harris then dove off of the cage with a lariat on Cage and the crowd was rocking. The end saw Cage and Angle brawling on the ladder; Chris Harris went up top and speared Cage. As Cage flew off the ladder, Angle snagged the belt and hung it for the win. Now, people were complaining that Angle won the title; but Joe’s booking has been poor for months and it would have been a cold win (it should have come before anyway). Angle won, but Joe made him tap. The ref never saw it, thus Angle never went to the box and Joe was never properly made eligible, leaving plenty of room to build from there. It’s a great “what if” scenario here, what if they had pulled the trigger on Harris? What would have happened? Would he have thrived or crashed and burned? I think that with the level of crowd support he had, he could have been at the very least a good transitional champion. This was another well laid out and performed match, about on the level of the 2005 match, which I really love.

3. Slammiversary 2005 – King of the Mountain Match: Champion AJ Styles vs. Abyss vs. Monty Brown vs. Raven vs. Sean Waltman [****]: This was the first Slammiversary and the non-weekly PPV debut of the loved/hated King of the Mountain gimmick; Raven was out to fulfill his destiny, which TNA missed the boat on when he was red hot in 2003 because they couldn’t get their shit together on contract terms. Meanwhile, Monty Brown wanted the respect of being a world champion, Sean Waltman was your wildcard going in and Abyss was a monster out to take out Styles, the champion. Slammiversary 2005 is a very good show as a whole, with a great and eventful main event. While the KOTM stipulation can feel convoluted and far from smooth in its execution, this was a great example of how to pull it off. The flow was good, the action peaked at the right time and you had five distinctly different wrestlers working together to deliver a great match and main event. It was an effort like this why people started to like the gimmick. It was certainly wacky, but it could also deliver on par with and better that many of WWE’s MITB matches.

2. Slammiversary 2011 – Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett [****]: From 2006 on, Angle and Jarrett had several interactions in TNA; first with Angle as an enforcer for Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett at Bound for Glory 2006, through regular feuds and then the Jarrett departure from TNA. Depending on who you believe, Angle didn’t want to be around Jarrett, who had married his ex-wife, and Dixie Carter sent Jeff Jarrett home. Hell they even had a feud where Jarrett said he would adopt Angle’s kids. The feud seemed to always be there in some way or form, but the thing was that these two guys always seemed to work well together, despite their personal issues outside the ring. Unfortunately by the time they got to the 2011 Slammiversary match, no one really cared about the feud, which is unfortunate because they had a great match. It was a match that was a struggle early to get the crowd into, and it was one of those matches that you had the feeling was about to be a failure. But they kept working; they kept increasing the intensity and kept working so hard that they almost willed the crowd to care. They did a great job of not only working together in a big time main event, but they also had great callbacks to their previous matches. The previous year was a colossal failure in terms of delivering a quality main event; thankfully they downgraded the Sting vs. Mr. Anderson title match (which was ASS) and placed this in the main event.

1. Slammiversary 2016 – Drew Galloway vs. Lashley [****¼]: This has been one of the better feuds TNA had done in a while leading into the PPV, both guys had been on and I was excited for the match. The bell rang and Galloway hit the claymore right away. Great sell by Lashley there. They then battled to the floor for a short period, and then back in where Lashley took control. Lashley tried the torture rack, but Galloway escaped into the iron maiden but Lashley countered into some ground and pound. Lashley went for a spear, but posted himself and Galloway again locked in the iron maiden. Simple and smart work from both so far. Lashley fought back and hit the spear, and the ref counted on Galloway as Lashley looked ready to pounce again. Lashley then started to slowly work over Galloway, hitting an overhead belly to belly and allowing the ref to count again. Lashley then worked for an arm bar, Galloway rolled and kicked Lashley in the face to escape. Ashley’s eye is busted open a little here as Galloway connected with a series of boots. Lashley cut him off with the spinebuster and then a delayed suplex. Lashley would counter a superplex, and then hit a clothesline off the ropes. Galloway hit the claymore, but Lashley rolled to the corner and was still on his feet. Galloway argued with the ref, and Lashley connected with a desperation spear and both men were down. Lashley went for a standing choke, Galloway escaped and booted Lashley to the floor. Galloway followed but Lashley press slammed him to the apron. They brawled to the steps, where Galloway hit the air raid crash. The ref counted, but Galloway then locked in the sharp shooter on the steps. The ref made him break it, so Galloway hit another claymore on Lashley. Galloway then got desperate and set up a table, laid Lashley on it and then headed to the ring. Galloway then went for an over the top dive, and ate table as Lashley moved! HE DEAD. Lashley broke the count and beat down Galloway with ground and pound. Galloway survived the count, was busted open, and was pissed off. He head butted Lashley and then jumped into the ring, but Lashley caught him in a cross face! Galloway powered up, and turned it into a TOMBSTONE! Lashley managed to counter the claymore, hit a big right and locked in a head and arm choke. Lashley pulled back as Galloway struggled, and passed out! NEW CHAMPION! Like the other matches that excelled on this same show, they played to the stipulation/style well and accentuated the strengths. Both guys came off very well here, Galloway lost nothing in loss as he overcame and fired up, finally falling to the MMA star. They did a good job of avoiding the constant count teases; they did some, but not the constant tease “until 9 bullshit” that often slows these matches to a crawl. This was an excellent main event, pretty much what I hoped for when they built to the match and was my TNA match of the year on 2016.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”