Slammiversary 2007

Slammiversary 2007 was the third Slammiversary PPV in TNA’s five year history so was tagged ‘Slammiversary V’ (V meaning five), with the tag line ‘Massacre in Music City’ The show took place on June 17, at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The PPV card was a lot more stacked than previous Slammiversary PPVs with a scheduled ten matches rather than the usual seven or eight.

Slammiversary 2007 was the match that was to decide the ‘first’ TNA World Heavyweight Champion. Up until only a few weeks before, TNA was in a contract with the NWA and therefore had the NWA World Heavyweight Title and the NWA Tag Team Titles under their control, but after then champion Christian Cage refused to wrestle in the NWA territories, the NWA ended their partnership with TNA and therefore stripped both Christian Cage and the Team 3D (NWA Tag Team Champions) of their respective belts.

On the same day, TNA were holding their annual Sacrifice PPV and both titles were scheduled to be defended. During Christian Cage’s entrance he was announced as the ‘World Heavyweight Champion’ making no mention to any organisation, the match was a 3-way dance between Cage, Kurt Angle and Sting. Angle was victorious. The following Impact taping, Angle was announced as the ‘TNA World Heavyweight Champion’. TNA commentator Mike Tenay announced when Angle made his way to the ring that Management Director Jim Cornette, TNA’s on-screen authority figure at the time, “made the decision that due to TNA’s growing worldwide exposure, the company needed to have its own TNA title belts”; there–by not acknowledging the NWA ending their agreement with TNA. Cornette later stripped Angle of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship due to a controversial finish to the match at Sacrifice, making the King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary for the vacant TNA Heavyweight Championship.

Slammiversary started with a Tag team match, Rhino and Senshi (with Hector Guerrero) vs The Latin American Xchange (Homicide and Hernandez) (with Konnan), with Rhino getting the victory for his team.

Next up was a great X Division Title match, Chris Sabin (c) vs Jay Lethal. After a solid match showing just how good the X Division guys are, it was Jay Lethal who won the title.

Next was a tag team match, Frank Wycheck (NFL Star) and Jerry Lynn (with Kyle Vanden Bosch) vs James Storm and Ron Killings (with Jackie Moore). This match came about because of an altercation between Wycheck and James Storm. Wycheck, with the help of Jeff Jarrett, delivered a guitar shot to James Storm after the “Tennessee Cowboy” spat beer in the former Tennessee Titan’s face. TNA Wrestling would then announce that Wycheck had agreed to a match with James Storm. The match was later changed to a tag match. It was Wycheck that would get the victory on Storm using Lynn’s finisher.

Following this, ring legend Bob Backlund defeated Alex Shelley in less than four minutes. As you can imagine, this was a fairly one sided match.

Next up, The Voodoo Kin Mafia (B.G. James and Kip James) took on Basham and Damaja (with Christy Hemme). The Voodoo Kin Mafia (or VKM, a play on Vince McMahon’s initials) got the win.

Then it was former Team Canada members against each other when Eric Young took on Robert Roode (with Ms Brooks). After a one sided match in Roode’s favour, it was Young that got an upset victory, pinning the future TNA World Champion.

Next up was the TNA Tag Team Titles match: Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) (C) vs Rick Steiner and Road Warrior Animal. Team 3D were out to prove that they were the greatest tag team in wrestling history and who better to beat than two halves of maybe two of the best teams ever: Rick Steiner of The Steiner Brothers and Animal of The Road Warriors and Legion of Doom (LOD). Team 3D didn’t disappoint, getting the win over the tag team dream team.

Next Sting defeated Christopher Daniels and the match before the main event was a No DQ match, Abyss vs Tomko. Abyss got a hard fought victory against Tomko.

Finally we come to the main event of the evening: a King of the Mountain match for the vacant TNA World Heavyweight Championship, involving Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christian Cage and Chris Harris.

Prior to the main event, Jeff Jarrett (TNA founder) held a shoot interview where he discussed the recent death of his wife Jill, who died on May 23, 2007 of breast cancer. Jarrett discussed how she influenced the company during the “early days” and followed it up by saying he doesn’t know when or where he’ll wrestle again. Jarrett then concluded by thanking the fans for their support on his and his wife’s behalf. The fans responded by chanting Jill’s name as well as “Thank you Jeff”. Regardless of your thoughts of TNA as a promotion or Jeff Jarrett as a man, it’s hard not to feel for him after watching the following video. You can watch it on YouTube by clicking this link.

Below is the full King of the Mountain match from Slammiversary 2007.

With the TNA World Heavyweight Championship being vacant, it was a match to decide who would be the first ever ‘TNA Champion’. I think with that knowledge, it was obvious to me that the only two stars TNA would have as their ‘first ever champion’ would be Kurt Angle or AJ Styles. Angle is still, in my opinion the greatest acquisition TNA have ever made, and that includes Hulk Hogan. AJ is the face of the company. He’s TNA’s blue chipper, so it was obvious the belt was going on one of them.

I really liked this match, everyone involved deserved to be there. I particularly liked the huge dive AJ takes off the penalty box through the table. As I said, I think the ending of the match with Angle winning the title was a little obvious, but the journey getting there was pretty good.

Hope you enjoyed reading and watching leave me a comment tell me your thoughts and check back tomorrow for more Slammiversary history.