WELCOME: Back in August of 2015, I reviewed every G1 Climax Final match. It was a project I had wanted to do and was able to do so thanks to New Japan World. And as I completed this quest of mine, I took it a step further and then did a big eight part Mania Main Events countdown, which I felt was well received. So today we’re going to dig into some TNA and look at the 11 Slammiversary main events (2005-2015). We’re going with Slammiversary when it started as a stand alone PPV until last year’s event. Have fun, and as always, share your thoughts…

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. Leading into the match, Jarrett was desperate to reclaim his title while Raven was out to fulfill his destiny which TNA missed the boat on when he was red hot in 2003. 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 MITB.

Slammiversary 2006 – King of the Mountain Match: Champion Christian Cage vs. Abyss vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Ron Killings vs. Sting [***] : The 2006 version of the KOTM match was good overall, but couldn’t capture the magic of the previous year. Abyss was back as the strong base and guy that will do anything and ladder match veteran Christian was added to the mix, but it jus did not click like the previous year’s effort. It wasn’t that the work was bad; it was the fact that the booking of the match felt counter productive, working against the guys instead of helping them to succeed. Larry Zybysko was involved way too much, and this one had a lot of chaotic interference; you can do that in this match and get away with it, but it also gets to a point that it is just too much, and that is what happened here. Also, they made this way too much about the post match as Earl Hebner got involved, toppling a ladder near the end, and then after the win Jim Cornette stole the title from Jarrett. It took the attention away from the match in the worst way possible. This was also a perfect example of the trap TNA fell into, where they would shoot a big angle at the PPV to try and pay it off on TV, instead of building to the resolution at the PPV. With a few changes, the match would have been much better.

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 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. This was another well laid out and performed match, on the level of 2005.

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. 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 may 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 came off a bit anti-climatic.

Slammiversary 2009 – King of the Mountain Match: Champion Mick Foley vs. AJ Styles vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe [***] : This was one of those matches that many would label “Classic TNA’ in terms of it offering a nonsensical angle and turn that really made no sense. As he angle goes, ninjas kidnap Samoa Joe; he then returns with a new haircut and a penis painted on his face. He feuds with the Main Event Mafia for nearly SIX MONTHS leading into this match. The end of the match features Joe and Angle climbing the ladder at the same time, you think we’re getting the revival of the epic feud, and Joe hands the belt to Angle, he hangs it and becomes champion and Joe joins the Main Event Mafia. The worst part was that the crowd was SO into Joe here, and wanted him to win the title and get back on top, and then they collectively took a shit on the match. They took one of their legitimate top faces at the time, and threw it away for the nonsensical heel turn. The match itself is odd, with points where it feels as if nothing was happening, and then action picked up well and it became very enjoyable and felt as if it had the potential to really go somewhere. And then it would lose the flow, or start to not make sense. This was easily my least favorite KOTM match that was held at Slammiversary.

Slammiversary 2010 – Champion RVD vs. Sting [**¼] : This was a big main event from the Hogan Bischoff regime, where they decided that none of the “younger TNA” wrestlers were the guy, so after a lot of forcing, they got their way and we ended up with Sting vs. Rob Van Dam. Sting had done a lot for TNA, as far as helping them get international TV deals, but as a main event singles performer he was past his expiration date unless he was in there with a great worker or someone younger that could bump around and sell like a maniac for him. Unfortunately we got Rob Van Dam. At the time, RVD was 39, which is not old but he has been working the same matches for TNA that he worked in WWE, which were the same matches he worked in ECW. Now just because they were older doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have a good match. But they just didn’t. They were bland, predictable and they were slower than they used to be; this match never felt like it had any real energy or as if they worked with any sense of purpose. This was a barely average TV match mascara ding as a PPV main event, and was a failure due to that. If you’re going to use older wrestlers and legends, you have to be careful with the pairing; Sting needed someone to move around him quickly and then sell huge for the comeback and RVD was not that guy in any way. RVD needed to stop working the same match he always did, and he didn’t. Slow, tedious and dull are the best words to describe this match.

Slammiversary 2011 – Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett [****] : From 2006 on, Angle and Jarrett had interaction 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 thankfully placed this in the main event.

Slammiversary 2012 – Champion Bobby Roode vs. Sting [**] : This main event came off flat and like a run of the mill TV match. I am still not sure if Sting was injured here or just worn down; they did a lot of stalling, some brawling and kept it short, so he may have been. In many ways, and this is something I have talked about for ages, it was the same TNA main event finish we always see. Short cuts, the “controversial ending” and fans feeling unsatisfied. They had Sting “get his heat back” after the loss by beating Roode up, and then taking him at the ramp and giving him the death drop off of the stage, through the very obvious crash pad. I am not complaining about the crash pad, but you have to shoot that better, protect the shot while you protect the wrestlers. The positive here is that the crowd was into it, and that Roode continued his run as champion, which I enjoyed. Unfortunately, this was not the best way to end the show, and signaled another lackluster Sting main event. Sting did a lot of the company, something I have written about several times over the years, but they started to rely on him way too much, and he was becoming a liability in the ring.

Slammiversary 2013 – No Holds Barred Match: Champion Bully Ray vs. Sting [**½] : This match had points where I really enjoyed it. They played to the stipulation well, Sting seemed motivated and this was when Bully was really clicking in TNA. Despite the fact that Sting was being overly relied on, was getting out of shape and was having such bad knee and back issues that the scorpion deathlock looked like complete shit, Sting once again was in the main event of the show. But again, at the very least this should have been GOOD. Bully was in his groove in the character and Sting, with the right guy, could do some good things. But between the fact that they never fully got on the same page, the gimmick and the overbooking, it just never fully succeeded. The gimmick was not only no holds barred, but was also if Sting lost he couldn’t wrestle for the TNA Title again. So either Sting would overcome and win, or he was going to get fucked. He got fucked by the complete overbooking of the match as such luminaries as Brisco, Bischoff, Doc and Knox got involved. I really hate the complete overbooking of matches, but to a degree it saved it from being one of the worst Sting main events. It simply became too much, and predictable in the wrong way. There were so many other directions they could have considered, but the complete over reliance on Sting hurt the company once again

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, but 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 these days. Young wasn’t the perfect guy as champion for TNA, but the good news is that much of his run featured some 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, and this was during the time that Lashley hit an awesome groove as a performer.

Slammiversary 2015 – King of the mountain Match: Jeff Jarrett vs. Eric Young vs. Matt Hardy vs. Bobby Roode vs. Drew Galloway [***] : That match itself is what it is; it’s a weird version of a ladder match, but his wasn’t bad. I liked the booking of keeping Jarrett frozen out early, at least they tried to play up the fact that he hadn’t been wrestling and that he was an outsider. It wasn’t a great main event by any means, but they worked hard, there were come good spots and the booking was overall solid. In many ways, this match is what TNA has been to me for the past 18-months or so. It’s solid and generally easy to watch; there is rarely anything outright horrible on the shows and when it’s over you don’t feel bad about watching the show/match, but you’ll quickly forget about it. TNA went to their past on two fronts, one with Jarrett and one with the stipulation, but for whatever reason couldn’t recapture any of the magic. The match was good, there were nice booking points and nice spots, but at no moment did it feel great or like you HAD to be seeing it. It was cool to bring the match back and the Jarrett win as a nice throwback, but it lacked overall as one of their signature PPV main events.

Some Notes on The List

– The King of the Mountain Match headlined Slammiversary six times.

– At Slammiversary 2008, Samoa Joe became the only champion to enter the match with the title and leave champion.

– Jeff Jarrett and Sting have worked the most Slammiversary main events, with four main events each. Sting’s main event matches rated an average of 2.44 stars, while Jarrett’s matches rated an average of 3.25 stars.

– Bobby Roode, AJ Styles, Christian Cage, Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe all appeared in three Slammiversary main events. Their average star ratings were: Bobby Roode (2.92), AJ Styles (3.67), Christian Cage (3.59), Kurt Angle (3.67) and Samoa Joe (3.58).

– The Slammiversary main events (through 11 main events) averaged a 3.18 star rating. For a comparison, since I did similar projects, the average star rating for the NJPW G1 Climax Finals tournament (1991-2015) was 3.54; the average star rating for the WrestleMania main events (through 31 events) is 3.25.

The Final Rankings

* Slammiversary 2012 – Champion Bobby Roode vs. Sting [**]

* Slammiversary 2010 – Champion RVD vs. Sting [**¼]

* Slammiversary 2013 – No Holds Barred Match: Champion Bully Ray vs. Sting [**½]

* Slammiversary 2009 – King of the Mountain Match: Champion Mick Foley vs. AJ Styles vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe [**¾]

* Slammiversary 2015 – King of the Mountain Match: Jeff Jarrett vs. Eric Young vs. Matt Hardy vs. Bobby Roode vs. Drew Galloway [***]

* Slammiversary 2006 – King of the Mountain Match: Champion Christian Cage vs. Abyss vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Ron Killings vs. Sting [***]

* Slammiversary 2008 – King of the Mountain Match: Champion Samoa Joe vs. Booker T vs. Christian Cage vs. Rhino vs. Robert Roode [***¾]

* Slammiversary 2014 – Steel Cage Match: Champion Eric Young vs. Austin Aries vs. Lashley [***¾]

* Slammiversary 2007 – King of the Mountain Match: AJ Styles vs. Chris Harris vs. Christian Cage vs. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe [****]

* Slammiversary 2005 – King of the Mountain Match: Champion AJ Styles vs. Abyss vs. Monty Brown vs. Raven vs. Sean Waltman [****]

* Slammiversary 2011 – Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett [****]