17/06/2012

Random Thoughts: Slammiversary X



A week ago TNA celebrated their 10th Anniversary in the wrestling business with the annual Slammiversary pay-per view, an event which announced the first inductee to the TNA Hall of Fame, saw a current WWE Champion make an appearance and the return of the Cowboy along with some solid wrestling matches.  

Hot Crowd

The show was held in Texas and was the biggest ever TNA event which gave the PPV a big time feel and unlike Lockdown the crowd were really hot for the product on offer. From Hulk Hogan's entrance to open the show to Sting's Scorpion Death Drop off the stage to close the show, the crowd were vocal, showing support to their favourite wrestlers and making this event worthy of the 10th Anniversary. 

The action on show also matched up with the scale of the event, in our preview blog we bemoaned the lack of build up to such an important event but that didn't seem to matter too much. The opening bout between Austin Aries and Samoa Joe was a very good, hard hitting match which saw Aries retain his X Division Championship, the title being added to the match in Hogan's opening promo, it was good seeing Joe back in singles competition, especially in such a good match where a rematch is more than likely, but it is now unclear whether the weight limit has been removed from the division or whether it's just a 'NO ABYSS ALLOWED' area. Speaking of Abyss he appeared during his "brothers" match with Bully Ray and provided a big assist to allow Joseph to gain the victory after he erm... hid under the ring for a while, maybe he should look under there for his brother as we are led to believe Abyss was living under there along with all the trash cans, ladders and tables. 

The main event was a typical TNA bag of tricks which ended with Roode smashing a beer bottle over Sting's head while the Brian Hebner was removing another bottle from the ring, besides the ending the match was entertaining but it's time for Roode to regain some credibility and pick up some wins as he did in last years Bound For Glory series as when he does eventually lose the title so far he hasn't won a lot of matches without assistance. 

Crimson - "Sorry About Your Damn Luck" 

Crimson's undefeated streak came crashing to an end after James Storm made his return answering the open challenge offered by the then 'undefeated one', it was great to see the cowboy back and equally to see Crimson's streak come to an end, but after going over a year without losing it felt a like it was thrown away without any build up, I don't know what Crimson will do now without the streak as it was his whole gimmick but hopefully we can all move on as we all know the only streaks worth anything in the industry recently were Goldberg and Samoa Joe.
Another in need of a new gimmick is Garett Bischoff who just isn't clicking with the fans even when pairing up with an surprisingly over Devon, especially if he continues to dance the way he did after his team picked up the victory over the Robbie's.
Hernandez bested Kid Kash in a random match that had no build up although it was a solid match that reminded the audience that both still existed, Tessmacher won the Knockouts championship ending Gail Kim's extended title reign although their match wasn't as good as their Sacrifice lock up whilst Mr Anderson defeated RVD and Jeff Hardy to gain a shot at the champ on Impact which is just another round of pass the number one contendership. 

Phenomenal Tag Teaming 

Vying with the X Division bout for match of the night was the battle for the Tag Team gold which isn't surprising as pointed out in our preview due to the wrestlers involved. The match crowned new champions with Angle making Kazarian tap out to the ankle lock, leading up to this the match mixed typical tag team action with action more likely to be seen in a four way including multiple different supplex's dished out by Angle, including a German on both Kaz and Daniels. 
It's a shame that the ex champions only held the belts for a month but hopefully this is the start of singles wrestlers pairing up ROH style and everybody having a partner to be able to go for singles and tag gold. 


Intercontinental 

Peeps in the house! Current WWE and former TNA star Christian Cage made an appearance to conclude the countdown of best moments in the company.  
Despite a rousing 'welcome back' and 'yes' chant this segment felt a little empty, with Christian given a few lines including a mention of the six sided ring and once the clip he presented had finished he was gone with only Taz mentioning that it was a surprise to see him despite everyone else knowing that he was going to be there. 
The video Christian announced as the number one moment was of Stings return to TNA in 2006 which ties into the moment earlier in the night when the same man was announced as the first inductee to the HOF. Sting going into the HOF is something of a given especially as he doesn't stand much chance of entering the WWE HOF unless they go on his WCW career. It's a nice reward for the Stinger who has resisted temptation of a big pay off to stick around with TNA to help build the company and it's also nice not to see Jeff Jarrett put himself as the first to enter. 

Slammiversary X was a good PPV which was TNA's second decent showing in a row after a strong Sacrifice event last month. There was plenty of talking points, a vocal crowd and two very strong matches, the only thing that caused a downer was the ending of the main event, but all signs point to TNA building on their past and moving the company forward setting their sights on the next big event - Bound For Glory. 

Writer: @Robbie_G_CH

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