Friday, June 17, 2016

Professional Wrestling Review: TNA Slammiversary 2016



Slammiversary opened with some highlights leading up to the event and it kind of felt like an opening for Impact.    We started with a fourway match for the X Division Title, which had current champion Trevor Lee seemingly working with Andrew Everett (HurriHelms was in a Teddy Long type suit), DJ Z and Eddie Edwards.   Where is Tigre Uno?   Josh Mathews said that TNA is the only place to see action like the X Division and I'm pretty sure that isn't true, what with the Cruiserweight Classic coming up in WWE and the Super Juniors tournament in New Japan.   They really need to stop branding it as "only us" and think of it more as "We've been doing it longer" or something to that effect.    Eddie Edwards won this match and it was the right way to go with Davey Richards injured.   A singles push for Double E could be what TNA needs right about now.

In a backstage interview, EC3 says that Mike Bennett claims to be God and if he thinks he's God then he's about to meet his Devil.  It was actually a really good promo by EC3 and they just don't make them like that anymore.   Man, if EC3 was only in NXT a year ago...

The second match of the night saw The Two French Dudes defeat Grado & Shera.   I don't care what they're calling Marcus Louis and Sylvester Lafort, I'll never see them more as less than jobbers.   I do believe Josh Mathews said at one point that the duo has won numerous titles as a tag team before coming to TNA but I'm not going to look up proof of that.   I also must state this- to TNA and the professional wrestling community as a whole: TNA actually opened this PPV tonight with a moment of silence for the attack in Orlando.   This was a classy move by TNA.    Then, Al Snow gets on the mic during the second match and says that like his hero Donald Trump he plans to make wrestling great again.   Considering what Donald Trump tweeted after the Orlando attacks perhaps Al Snow should not have dropped his name on this PPV.   It just seemed so poorly timed like, "We care!... Just kidding".    And I don't even care enough to go into it about how the putting over of La Resistance 5.0 is at the expense of two other newer TNA talents who have yet to really get any significant wins here.

Remember when Maria came to TNA and Gail Kim wouldn't leave her alone?  I mean, this feud has been dragging on for far too long.   At Knockouts Knockdown 2016 they seemed to end their feud, but TNA figured on no one watching that (or maybe some officials in TNA didn't even watch it) and so the feud continued and was to end in a match tonight, which I was not looking forward to at all.    Only now, Maria says she broke her hand or something and so she cannot compete.   Billy Corgan comes out and says Maria's injury is legit but there will be a match tonight.   It will be Jade defending the KO Title against Gail Kim and Sienna.   This was a decent enough match and I like all three of these women involved but it just feels like Gail Kim needs to move onto something else because she's involved in far too many matches in TNA.   It's like, if something is mentioned about the Knockouts you have to expect ol' Gail Kim to show up.   Sienna won this match when Marti Belle came out to seemingly help Jade by hitting Sienna with a weapon but instead Marti Belle hit Jade.   I'm not really a fan of Jade losing the title right now, but if it is to set up a feud with Marti Belle, I mean, they could have done so with the title staying on Jade, but this will likely be a better feud than the predictable Sienna vs. Gail Kim for the title we can "look forward to" seeing.

Apparently one of the things I missed last week on Impact was the in ring debut of Pepper Parks, who is now going by Braxton Sutter.    I'm not sure how to remember the "Sutter" part of it, but I remember his first name is "Braxton" by thinking of Toni Braxton.   James Storm had a backstage segment with him and then they had a match as well, which James Storm won.   Storm had this promo about how he was in TNA since day one and had been part of every Slammiversary, which was kind of nice considering it seemed like he'd rather be in NXT with his friends.    Also, for everyone who has ever complained about WWE changing a wrestler's name I present to you Braxton Sutter.    Why couldn't he have remained Pepper Parks?   More importantly, if he had to have a new name why is this the best that they could come up with?

Eli Drake successfully defended the King of the Mountain Championship against Bram.   This was a match featuring a title which no one takes seriously featuring two wrestlers no one really cares about.   This could have been a dark match for all I care as neither man really impressed me in this match.    The sad thing is that the tag team match earlier on the show made me so upset while this match here is just... no reaction.   Next!

I got into this thing during my NXT Take Over: The End review which was about too many wrestlers kicking out of finishing moves.   I remember playing a WWE video game and you had to have a certain amount of damage done to your opponent before you could even attempt your finisher.    This thought comes back during the EC3-Mike Bennett match, as it took *three* One-Percenters for EC3 to win.   If it takes three of your finishing moves to put away your opponent, perhaps you need a new finishing move?   I don't know.   But I can kind of begin to see now how EC3 can play the (sort of) heel in EVOLVE and yet still be a face in TNA, as it is TNA he is fighting for in EVOLVE (same with Drew Galloway) so it no longer feels quite as confusing.    Still, this puts EC3 and Bennett at 1-1 so can we expect a rubber match between these two?   I actually wouldn't mind it as they seem to work well together, but EC3 needs to also get back into the title picture.   Imagine EC3 bringing the TNA Title to EVOLVE...

Jeff Hardy defeated Matt Hardy in Full Metal Mayhem and, well, Jeff also sort of defeated Matt last time they had a match so does this mean this feud is just going to continue with Matt coming back more and more broken each time?  I hope not.   This match can best be summed up by my wife, who came home during it.   After the match we went into the tag team titles match and my wife said "Is this the main event?", to which I replied that there was still one more match after it which would be Drew Galloway vs. Lashley for the TNA Title.  She said, "Oh, I just thought Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy would have been the main event".    Didn't we all.   Didn't. We. All.

Speaking of the tag team titles match, The Decay retained the titles and that is a good thing because as much as I love The Decay (and they are really one of the best parts about TNA right now), I really don't want to see BroMans as tag team champions or really at all ever again.

In the main event, Lashley defeated Drew Galloway to become the TNA Champion when Galloway literally passed out.   I like the finish if only because it gives these two the chance to continue their feud because Drew Galloway's body quit but Galloway himself never quit.   Considering the quality level of this show, this was only a fitting main event.   That is to say that based upon the matches which came before it, yes, this was an excellent main event because it blew all of them away.   But if this was on a show like EVOLVE it would maybe be third or fourth best match of the night and it's just a shame that TNA finally has an actual PPV and they don't bring their A Game.    I would have expected more from TNA, but sadly at this point in time I really don't expect much of anything from this company.   I think part of the reason why TNA continues to exist is because WWE doesn't see them as being a threat and rightfully so because it's not about the talent or money (even though it kind of is) but rather the booking.    This felt like an extra long edition of Impact- one of their live specials perhaps- and that's not right.    That's not right at all.   Still, this might not be the worst PPV of 2016.   Sorry, ROH.

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