Bryan Staebell
Slammiversary Recap
TNA’s eleventh anniversary PPV is in the books. The show had its up and downs but was an overall solid offering. New champions were crowned and Sting lost the ability to ever challenge for the TNA title again…but it was the Last Knockout Standing match between Gail Kim and Taryn Terrell that had everyone talking.
The show opened with Chris Sabin winning the X division title in an Ultimate X against Kenny King and Suicide (TJ Perkins). They had a good opener and everyone was given a chance to shine. Perkins plays Suicide differently than Kaz and Daniels did. Instead of the “he’ll take any risk” character, Perkins does a lot of finding athletic ways to avoid contact. It’s a nice change of pace. The title belt hit Sabin in the head as he was coming down and busted him open pretty good. The guy can’t catch a break.
After the match Hulk Hogan came out to put Sabin over as a great champion and the future of the company. Sabin actually used “The Future” as his nickname a decade ago in TNA…so that was actually kind of sad. The deal here is that they’ll be doing a Destination X themed show on TV at some point this summer (likely on Impact since I haven’t seen anything about a special) and Sabin has the option of cashing in his X title for a shot at the TNA title. Last year Hogan endorsed Austin Aries and he went on to win the title…so they’re going to try to push it hard that Sabin can actually win. For what it’s worth I think Sabin and Bully Ray are going to have a hell of a TV main event. That said, despite the great babyface story of Sabin coming back from 2 years of rehab to get his first TNA title match, I don’t see Sabin having much of a chance.
Hogan then went to the ring to cut a very odd profanity laced promo against Aces and 8’s. I couldn’t tell you if the promo was any good or not…but it was certainly different. It was all done to set up the second match of the night, Magnus, Samoa Joe and the returning Jeff Hardy beating Mr. Anderson, Wes Brisco and Garrett Bischoff. Fun match. Mostly just the good guys running wild while the crowd went nuts. At one point Joe put the boots to Anderson in the corner for so long that the crowd lost it’s shit with glee. Anderson has actually started to grow into his new role to become more than “oh yeah…Mr. Anderson works here”.
Next Sam Shaw and Jay Bradley were thrown to the wolves in front of a crowd that didn’t (nor should they have) know who they were. The winner gets to be the Gut Check representative in this years’ Bound For Glory series. Shaw had his first bad outing in his limited appearances…but he did finally find ring gear that wasn’t completely awful. Bradley is definitely the more polished of the two so his winning is probably for the best. My concern is that, if you are going to have an underdog in the series…it should really be a babyface and Bradley is clearly a heel. I feel like instead of using the opportunity to have the underdog show improvement against top guys in the summer long series (which would be a good story) they’ll just use Bradley as a fall guy maybe getting a few cheap wins when the points demand it.
Devon retained the TV title against Joseph Park via count out, and then lost the title to Abyss. The deal here was Devon took out Park before the match and then called out Abyss. For some reason this then became a TV title match that Abyss won. He didn’t look good. Bad match. Crowd didn’t care much about him either…and they were hot most of the night.
Dixie Carter came out to announce Kurt Angle as the second TNA Hall of Fame inductee. Angle cried. They put together a fine video package for him and he thanked the Carters and Jeff Jarrett. He also said there were more deserving TNA originals than him, noting Styles, Joe, Storm and Roode. Well…he’s right about Styles. As far as the choice goes…Angle is a fine pick. Realistically a TNA Hall of Fame really starts with Jeff Jarrett…but they are in the cold cycle of the hot/cold relationship there. Bob Carter is on the shortlist too…since his money is the #1 reason the company made it out of month 2…let alone year 11. You can’t exactly build a Hall of Fame dinner around Bob Carter though. Then you get to AJ Styles but they don’t want you to think of him as being as old as he is and storylines dictate waiting on him. After those 3, none of which seemed viable this year…you probably get to Angle. The case can be made for and against Hulk Hogan. On the plus side he’s the biggest name in the history of the business and he works for you…so you might as well use him. On the negative side, taken as a Hall to honor the people who have meant the most to TNA…he’s offered nothing. Other people who at least deserve consideration would be the recently retired Jerry Lynn, James Storm (he and AJ are the only 2 wrestlers who have been on the roster every day since day 1), Gail Kim (they built the Knockouts division because of her…and I think she may still be their biggest ratings draw ever) and then you get to guys like Hardy and Joe. Anyway…Angle was a fine pick.
Next up we had the 4 team elimination match for the TNA tag titles. Gunner and one legged James Storm won the belts. Storm should absolutely not be working right now…but he went out and did a lot. Really a showcase for Gunner who made Aries quit to his torture rack for the finish. Gunner…I don’t know. There’s nothing wrong with him…but there’s nothing special about him either. Tagging with Storm is a good spot for him. The match was good. The best bit was Bobby Roode being a great heel. He told Daniels he would distract the ref while he hit Chavo with a tag belt…and instead spun the ref to see him do it for the DQ. Then they pinned Chavo and eliminated them too. Brilliant.
We then had the most shocking overreach of match quality that I can remember. Taryn Terrell beat Gail Kim in a Last Knockout Standing match. These two just flat out went for it. At one point Gail did a charge into the corner into a chair she had earlier set up…she did it so perfectly that the crowd, who started out caring as much as anyone does about a Knockouts match in 2013, flipped into overdrive for the rest of the match. Funny story…John Cena did the same spot the next night on Raw…not nearly half as good. After dueling figure four’s around the ringpost, a top rope splash chair sandwich, a very inventive through the ropes faceplant dive onto the ramp and an RKO from the ramp to the floor (with just the little pad with not much give) Taryn beat the ten count as the crowd chanted “Holy Shit”. TNA crowds have chanted “Holy Shit” a lot in their 11 years…and yet this is the first match I can ever remember actually ending while they were doing it. That means Gail and Taryn understand peaking a match better than literally everyone else. Match ruled and made Terrell a total star.
Kurt Angle beat AJ Styles in what was technically a really good match…but the crowd, as all crowds, didn’t know what to do with Styles. They may have a problem there. He works a slightly more methodical pace, targets body parts with more viciousness, and shows no emotion. That’s all fine…but no one knows if they’re supposed to cheer him or boo him or what to think of him. They even changed his theme song after all of these years to a slow, depressing song. It probably doesn’t help that he lost clean here either…but honestly Sting lost last year when he was announced for the Hall of Fame so I’m kind of glad Angle pulled it out. They have some real work to do with AJ.
The main event saw Bully Ray beat Sting when all of Aces and 8’s interfered and he hit Sting in the head with his hammer while Sting was doing a top rope dive. Match was all shortcuts but Bully Ray is good at shortcuts. The best bit was, after Sting kicked out of a Bully Ray piledriver, Bully Ray taking a knife and cutting away the ring apron to give him another one on the exposed wood. Crowd was into it. The loss means that Sting can’t compete for the TNA title ever again. No one came out to help Sting which was an annoyance to everyone who watched it…but it appears they are actually going somewhere with that.
Impact 6/6 Recap
Good show this week. Real hot crowd in Atlanta.
It’s Bound For Glory series season once again so TV will become a lot more focused on the results of wrestling matches for the summer. This is probably the best time of year in TNA. This week’s Impact featured 2 matches where the winner was guaranteed a spot in this years’ series. Samoa Joe squashed Robbie E for one spot. Hernandez defeated his partner Chavo Guerrero for the other. Chavo teased a heel turn. That’s not a bad idea since babyface Chavo is pretty awful.
The new champions crowned Sunday: Gunner, James Storm and Chris Sabin defeated Bobby Roode, Austin Aries and Kenny King in a 6 man tag. Good match. It was refreshing to see new champions get put over right away. Sabin pinned King clean. As mentioned earlier Sabin is in for a big push leading up to Destination X…so this was a nice start.
Mickie James has finally turned heel (after it was teased WAY back before Velvet left the company for a while) and it’s glorious. She’s playing a really snarky but cowardly character who smiles and acts all good…but is constantly cutting you down if you read between the lines. She’s doing it so well the crowds haven’t even caught on yet. This week she apologized to Velvet for not helping her last week when Gail Kim tried to put her in the figure four around the ringpost. Velvet then said she was ready for her title rematch but Mickie ducked her, saying she was going to defend against someone that Velvet ignore while she was champion. That turned out to be Gut Check winner Taelor Hendrix. The crowd still didn’t understand that she was being a cowardly heel. Mickie won by feigning injury and cheapshoting Hendrix.
In the main event Bully Ray faced Jeff Hardy in a ladder match. The point of the match was to get the hammer hung above and use it on your opponent. Good match with a real hot crowd. In the end Bully got the hammer but Hardy hit him with a twist of fate. When Hardy got the hammer…Bully just ran away. That was the finish. I approved since neither guy needs to be losing the match (Bully as champion and Hardy just returning) and running away got over everything it needed to. When he got to the back Hulk Hogan stalked him with a hammer of his own but Brooke stopped him from laying Bully out. I really don’t think Brooke is going heel here. I think she’ll end up going back to Bully but playing it as a scorned woman making the mistake of trusting the guy who hurt her. That’s a better character really.
Perhaps the biggest segment on the show was the TNA debut of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. The crowd saw him as a star and sold Kurt Angle coming out to confront him as a big time deal. Angle told him that if he was looking to beat the best…he was looking at the best. They teased that one day the two would have that match and the segment worked because Angle is the most credible person they have. With training for MMA and learning to wrestle who knows how long until we see Rampage ready or available to do anything…but TNA has the match right. If they gave it the serious build they gave Angle and Joe before their Lockdown match in 2008…an Angle/Rampage showdown would probably outdraw everything else they’ve done. That doesn’t say much.
Impact Preview 6/13
The show has already been taped so this is a non spoiler look at what’s going on.
There are more BFG series qualifiers:
Crimson vs. Joseph Park
Bad Influence vs. James Storm and Gunner (both member of winning team get in)
Kenny King vs. Magnus vs. Matt Morgan vs. Rob Terry (only the winner gets in)
Austin Aries vs. Eric Young
And Aces and 8’s battle royal to determine which member gets a spot in the series
AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle
It appears that by virtue of winning the last 2 series Jeff Hardy and Bobby Roode are already qualified. Jay Bradley qualified by winning the Gut Check tournament. Samoa Joe and Hernandez qualified this week.
Also Sting will address losing at Slammiversary and reveal his career plans going forward. There is also what reads like a really good Mickie James/Velvet Sky segment as well as Hulk Hogan announcing that the BFG series will officially kick off on Open Fight Night June 20th from Peoria, IL.
Random Nonsense
Bound For Glory will take place on October 20 in San Diego, CA. They’ve never run there before so they are rolling the dice on a good crowd instead of bringing it somewhere that they already know will be hot like Chicago or Phoenix.
TNA released a bunch of people. Todd Keneley is gone from the broadcast booth, Doug Williams is gone as the trainer in OVW and Alex Silva appears to be gone as well. It’s worth noting that they never wanted Silva in the first place…but Ric Flair legit changed his mind during his Gut Check segment and let him in.
The list of upcoming TV/PPV tapings is as follows:
6/20- Peoria, IL (the live 6/20 show and the taped 6/27 show)
6/29- Las Vegas, NV (taped to avoid July 4th, the 7/4 show and the 7/11 show)
7/18- Louisville, KY (the live 7/18 show and the taped 7/25 show)
8/1- Wichita Falls, TX (the live 8/1 show and the taped 8/8 show)
8/15- Norfolk, VA (the live 8/15 show and the taped 8/22 show)
8/29- Cleveland, OH (the live 8/29 show and the taped 9/5 show)
10/20- San Diego, CA – Bound For Glory
