TNA Slammiversary VI

TNA Slammiversary VI

Southhaven, MS - June 2008

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, the TNA World Champion was Samoa Joe, the X-Division Champion was Petey Williams, the LAX were the TNA World Tag Team Champions, and the Knockouts Champion was Awesome Kong.

After a video hyping tonight's show filled with Elvis references, we get our X-Division Championship match as our opener - Petey Williams defending against Kaz. Kaz was in the midst of a very strong push, though the crowd wasn't particularly rabid for him (at least not in Memphis). Petey had transformed his character into a Scott Steiner "Mini-Me," which gave him a character and a fresh new look, but I've always had a distaste for these sorts of gimmicks regardless of which company is doing it. With Kaz and Williams, you know you're going to get a good mix of high-flying, technical wrestling, and plenty of whirlwind slams and drivers. The crowd was much more into this than I was watching it years later, but everything was executed well and I liked the twists-and-turns during the finishing stretch. Once Williams couldn't put it away with the steel pipe, I thought for sure Kaz was going to get the feel-good victory, but it didn't turn out that way. I don't think that was the right booking decision. Having Kaz win multiple "number one contender"-type matches only to lose in the actual title fights is not how you build your next star babyface. A good match and maybe watching it in context would've endeared it more to me. (3/5)

Gail Kim, Roxxi, and ODB took on The Beautiful People (Angelina Love and Velvet Sky) and Mickie "Moose" Knuckles in the next bout. They got plenty of time and they didn't rush things, allowing the heels to build heat by targeting Gail Kim's knee after some wild brawling to start things out. Roxxi was really over with this crowd and showed great fire in her spotlight moments. The heels weren't as impressive, but they too got good responses from their crowd for their work. Not a bad match at all, but not very good or super interesting either. (2.5/5)

The TNA Tag Team Champions, The LAX (Homicide and Hernandez) defended against Team 3D in the next match. The crowd wants tables from within the first two minutes, which is not a great sign of engagement in this rivalry. These teams had faced each other numerous times over the previous 18 months - according to Cagematch, it was EIGHT times - but I can't recall being blown away by any of their matches. They have chemistry, but there's no creativity or variation to these matches, especially without the benefit of a stipulation. Hector Guerrero, Salina, and Johnny Divine all get involved because of course they do. The last few minutes were the best minutes of the match because they played off of the way LAX won the titles and I'm not sure I've ever seen a team defeat Team 3D by having someone roll up Bubba as he's prepping for the Dudley Death Drop. Forgettable match, not necessarily in a bad way, but this left no impression. (2/5)

Awesome Kong had a gimmick going where she would offer $25,000 to anyone who could defeat her. Jeremy Borash pulls two "randoms" from the crowd - Josie Robinson and Serena Deeb. Deeb would end up in the WWE and is now part of AEW. Josie Robinson would re-appear in TNA under the ring name "Sojourner Bolt." Anyway, this is just a pair of squash matches culminating in Eric Young bringing out an Elvis impersonator who also gets hit with an Awesome Bomb. More of an entertainment angle than two distinct matches. Inoffensive. I'm not going to "rate" this because, even combined, we're talking about under 5 minutes of action. 

I'm not sure whose decision it was to then proceed with the Jay Lethal/So Cal Val wedding as the next segment, but it was a bad one. This crowd had certainly not been "burned out" by the action in the six-woman tag or the Tag Team Titles match, so why would you book 30+ minutes of nonsense back-to-back? Jay Lethal's groomsmen are some dude from American Idol (who gets booed), Kamala, Jake Roberts, George "The Animal" Steele, and Koko B.Ware. His best man is Sonjay Dutt, who stops the wedding to declare his love for So Cal Val and then attack Lethal. This causes the legends to come in and beat up on Dutt. Really bad stuff all around. Predictable, unfunny, and uncreative, plus we just saw two  squash matches and an Elvis impersonator in the last segment. I don't often give negative points in these reviews, but I feel I have to here because booking this stretch of the show really took away any potential enjoyment there might've been in either segment. (-1)

AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle is next. These two had had one previous match (according to Cagematch), but this was their first major match against eachother in a 1-on-1 context and it did not disappoint. AJ Styles was an established main event-caliber performer in TNA before this match, but watching it now, it really seems like this was a major "step up" match for him as he was finally given the full spotlight and didn't have to share it with Tomko or Joe or anyone else that was embroiled in a feud with Angle going into their multi-man matches. The match gets great once the aforementioned Tomko is banished from ringside and AJ hits a somersault dive onto the floor that looks, for lack of better terms, impactful. For going 20+ minutes, this one moves so beautifully and never feels rushed. There is a bit of the go-go-go style that Angle has been criticized for over the years, but AJ is good enough to not only keep up but give things that need room to breathe the right amount of time. I've read reviews that criticize this match for feeling disjointed from the storyline, but that's one benefit of not watching the weekly TV or being super familiar with the stories coming into these events - I can judge the action mostly on what is presented and not what should be presented. Angle and Styles having an "underdog vs. champion"/"future vs. past" type match is certainly not what the story called for, but I didn't mind a bit watching in a vacuum. I liked AJ Styles getting his nose busted up as it made the match feel that much more physical and violence. Karen Angle's involvement in the finish wasn't very good; I'm not sure why, aside from Kurt (or Jarrett?) pushing for it, Karen was given such a prominent role on TV when she was not a good actress or a good manager or had good timing or anything. Not the best match these two ever had or had against each other, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this quite a bit. (3.5/5)

Main event time - Samoa Joe defending his TNA World Championship in a 5-Man King of the Mountain match against Christian, Booker T, Rhyno, and Bobby Roode with Kevin Nash as the special enforcer on the outside of the ring. The pre-match video packages and entrances are looooong and I'm not sure why. The King of the Mountain match stipulations are fairly complex - it starts with all 5 men in the ring, there's a penalty box, and you have to earn the right to hang the World Championship (in a reversal of the typical ladder match stipulation of having to retrieve the belt) by pinning or submitting one of your opponents. It's a gimmick match with too many gimmicks and there's little to no strategy that anyone seems to be employing, aside from Christian and Rhyno, who do some double-team work on Roode at the start of the match. To be honest, I'm not even sure what would be the best strategy in this match aside from trying to get a fast pin and then preventing others from doing the same. These matches tend to play out with everyone involved eventually becoming eligible when the match might make more sense if it really did come down to people teaming up to prevent others from becoming eligible. Anyway...this match has good action and I love the energy that Samoa Joe brings from beginning to end. Christian took the brunt of the punishment. Nobody else really stands out too much, though, that's not a bad thing. Just not a very memorable match. (3/5)

With a surprisingly solid 2.6-out-of-5 rating despite featuring a huge lull in the middle of the show as the content dipped into a predictable series of squashes and then some bad comedy in the wedding angle and the appearance of an Elvis impersonator, Slammiversary VI has just enough good wrestling to make it a decent watch. If you ignore that the Styles/Angle storyline probably should've led to a more violent, more personal match and just enjoy what these two can do in the ring against each other, it is a very good outing. The main event is fine for what it is - an overcrowded match with a silly, overly complicated gimmick - but Joe and Christian are terrific in it. The opener and the women's 6-man are at least average and may even slightly above, with neither overstaying their welcome. If you're into TNA from this era, there are better shows to check out, though.

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver