Slammiversary (2008)
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| Slammiversary (2008) | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Details | ||
| Promotion | Total Nonstop Action Wrestling | |
| Date | June 8, 2008[1] | |
| Venue | DeSoto Civic Center | |
| City | Southaven, Mississippi | |
| Pay-per-view chronology | ||
| Sacrifice 2008 | Slammiversary (2008) | Victory Road 2008 |
| Slammiversary chronology | ||
| Slammiversary 2007 | Slammiversary (2008) | TBD |
Slammiversary (2008) was the fourth annual Slammiversary professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It took place on June 8, 2008 from the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Mississippi. The official theme song for the event was "Release the Flood" by Dust for life.[2] The event featured two taglines: "Shake…Rattle…and Roll!" and "In a town where legends are made, one strives to reach immortality."
The main event was the King of the Mountain match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship between Samoa Joe, Christian Cage, Rhino, Robert Roode, and Booker T, which Joe won after he hung up the belt. The predominant match on the card was between A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle, which Styles won by pinfall after performing a Styles Clash. Another primary match on the undercard was for the TNA World Tag Team Championship between The Latin American Xchange (LAX) and Team 3D, which LAX won after Homocide pinned Ray with a roll-up. The main matches on the undercard were TNA X Division Champion Petey Williams defending his title against Kaz, Awesome Kong's $25,000 Fan Challenge, and The Beautiful People and Moose versus Gail Kim, O.D.B., and Roxxi. Also as part of the event, SoCal Val and Jay "Black Machismo" Lethal were to bekayfabe married but was stopped by the bestman Sonjay Dutt. Ace Young was the musician for their wedding.
Contents |
[edit] Report
[edit] Background
The main feud heading into Slammiversary is the quest for TNA World Heavyweight Championship through the King of the Mountain match. After successfully defending the title at Sacrifice against Scott Steiner and Kaz, Samoa Joe is set to defend the title in the KOTM match. Samoa Joe announced that Management director Jim Cornette would pick four contenders and he would pick four contenders, and those eight men would compete in qualifying matches to determine Joe's four opponents at Slammiversary. It was announced on the May 15 edition of TNA Impact that Cornette's 4 were Robert Roode, Tomko, Matt Morgan, and James Storm. On the May 22 edition Joe's picks were announced and they were A.J. Styles, Christian Cage, Rhino, and Booker T. The first qualification match for KOTM was Robert Roode vs. Matt Morgan. In which Roode won with a roll-up. The second was Booker T vs. A.J. Styles. Booker won by pin after a Book End. After that match AJ was beaten down to a bloody pulp by Booker T, Team 3D, Tomko, and Kurt Angle. The third KOTM qualifier was Rhino vs. James Storm. Rhino won the match after a Gore. The fourth was between long time friends turned rivals Christian Cage vs. Tomko Christian won the match after the Unprettier and help from AJ Styles .
Another feud is between the X Division Champion Petey Williams and Kaz. At Sacrifice Kaz won a X Division TerrorDome match to become Number 1 contender to Williams' X Division Championship. These two are scheduled to fight at Slammiversary for the title.
Another feud is for the TNA World Tag Team Championship between the champions LAX and Team 3D. This feud started at Sacrifice where the two teams met in the finals of The Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament for the vacant World Tag Team Championship. The next week on iMPACT! Team 3D blamed Hector Guerrero for their loss and attacked him. On the May 29 edition of iMPACT! the two teams were placed in a match for the World Tag Titles at Slammiversary.
Another feud heading into Slammiversary is between A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle. Kurt and his wife Karen had decided to separate prior to Lockdown so that he can focus fully on his then-challenger Samoa Joe. Angle for many weeks had been thinking that AJ and Karen were seeing each other and now that he wasn't fighting Joe for the TNA World Title anymore he wanted to rekindle with Karen. On iMPACT! he made a speech to Karen to come back to him and to understand that the World title comes first and she came fourth after his gold medals and their children. She however refused to take him back. Later in the night AJ was being beaten to a bloody pulp by Tomko, Booker T and Team 3D. After Karen's attempts to stop the beat-down had failed, she went to the back and to her husband, who then ran out with a chair and chased Tomko, Booker T and Team 3D out of the ring. However, when Kurt saw that Karen was showing emotion to AJ, he nailed him with a chair and continued the beat-down with the four heels. The next week on iMPACT! AJ and Kurt were put in to a match at Slammiversary. On the same night they got into another brawl until Tomko, Booker T, and Team 3D came out again to help beat AJ down. Christian Cage tried to make the save for AJ, but failed.
Also to occur at Slammiversary is the return of Abyss. In the past few weeks on Impact there have been promotional videos (seen here and here) airing a possible return of Abyss. It wasn't until the May 29 edition of iMPACT! that the third video aired that he would return at Slammiversary. In the videos you can see that he doesn't have his mask on. At this time it is unknown if he will return with it on or off.
An angle heading into Slammiversary is the wedding of Jay Lethal and SoCal Val. On the May 15 edition of iMPACT! Lethal (kayfabe) proposed to Val, who responded with an "OH YEAH!". During the segment Sonjay Dutt can be seen angered by the answer and question. The weeks leading up to Slammiversary Lethal and Val have been planning their wedding, while Dutt booked singer Ace Young to perform at their wedding and will serve as Lethal's best man in the ceremony. Young appeared on the May 25 edition of iMPACT! debuting a video for his song Addicted which has video footage of Val and Lethal in it. Also appearing at the wedding will be wrestling legends Jake Roberts, Kamala, Koko B. Ware, and George Steele.
Another feud heading into Slammiversary is between The Beautiful People and Moose versus Gail Kim, O.D.B., and Roxxi. This feud started at Sacrifice 2008, when Roxxi got her head shaved bald as per stipulation after she lost the TNA Knockouts Makeover Battle Royal to Gail Kim with help from Love. Since Kim had won an immunity from the shaving, Love would have been shaved bald had Roxxi won the match. On the May 15 edition of iMPACT! The Beautiful People cost Kim her match for the TNA Women's Knockout Championship and later in the evening they cheated their way to a victory over Roxxi and ODB in a tag team match. The following two weeks Love gained pinfall victories over ODB and Roxxi after Sky interfered in both matches. On the June 5 edition of iMPACT! ODB would finally end the Beautiful People's winning streak by defeating Velvet Sky in a street fight. However, after the match Love, Sky and their new associate Moose beat down Roxxi, ODB and Kim. It was announced later on iMPACT! that Kim, ODB and Roxxi would face The Beautiful People and Moose in a 6 women tag match at Slammiversary.
[edit] Event
The show began with a TNA's normal video package that uses their tag-line "Cross the Line". Then it switched to a video package that promoted the main matches on the card and Jay Lethal's and SoCal Val's wedding. Then a very small video played, with the song "Release the Flood" by Dust for Life, to start the event.
The opening match was the TNA X Division Championship match between the defending champion Petey Williams (with Scott Steiner and Rhaka Khan) and the challenger Kaz. Before the match began, Williams placed a black face mask on his head and face, to protect his face from being injurd any further as a result of him already sustaining a injury a few weeks earlier on iMPACT!. The match was high paced, exciting, and went around 15 minutes. Mid-way through the match Steiner and Khan interfered to help Williams. With Khan trying to distract the referee, but for her trouble got drop-kicked by Kaz. Kaz then ran off Steiner after he threw Williams a steel pipe behind Kaz's and the referee's back. As soon as Kaz turned around Williams hit him in the head with the pipe. Petey then threw away the pipe and grabbed the ref (who was attending to Khan) to go for the pin, after he flipped Kaz over, but Kaz would kicked out of the pinning predicament. The match would go on for another minute or so with Kaz now visibly bleeding from the forehead. The finish came when Kaz rolled Petey up into a rana but Petey rolled through, picked up Kaz and hit the Canadian Destroyer, to get the pin and to retain his X Division Championship. After the match, Steiner, Williams, and Khan all beat-down Kaz. With Steiner saying he would make sure Kaz didn't get his world title shot on that week's iMPACT!. Steiner would then continue the beat-down until Abyss made his return to action. Abyss returned with a new look, he had a grey and black mask and a white prison jumpsuit on. He then entered the ring and stood toe to toe with Steiner until Steiner grabbed Williams and threw him at Abyss where he then performed a 360° Black Hole Slam on Williams. While Abyss was trying to get up, Steiner attacked him, until he went for a Irish wipe which Abyss reversed and then hit Steiner with a 180° Black Hole Slam. After he got up, he grabbed Khan and performed a 270° Black Hole Slam on her as well. Afterwards Abyss picked up Kaz and carried him backstage.
While Abyss carried Kaz backstage, Commentators Don West and Mike Tenay spoke about the up coming matches for the night, until Eric Young interrupted and said that he had found Elvis. He also said that he had a seat reserved for him and that he would make appearance there that night.
After the segment, a video package aired, talking about the special guest Enforcer Kevin Nash. About his role in the main event, the King of the Mountain match, and his friendship with TNA Champion Samoa Joe.
The second match was a 6 woman tag team match between Gail Kim, O.D.B., and Roxxi and The Beautiful People (Angelina Love and Velvet Sky) and Moose. Before the match, TNA aired a small promo hyping it up as well as the Knockouts Division. The match began with Moose being left by the Beautiful People and getting beat-down by Kim, ODB, and Roxxi. After about a minute into the match, The Beautiful People tried to leave and let Moose get beat-down, but they were stopped by Kim and ODB. The match officially began with Moose and Roxxi squaring off one on one in the ring. The match was fast paced at first, but it switched to technical wrestling around mid-way through. It lasted around 10 minutes. The finish came when Kim and Roxxi were brawling with Sky and Love outside the ring. While ODB and Moose were in the ring, ODB performed a running powerslam on Moose to get the pin and the win for her team.
After the Knockouts match, a promo aired talking about Rhino and his up coming chance at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in the King of the Mountain match. After the promo aired, there was a interview with Rhino explaining why he would win the King of the Mountain match. Immediately following the interview, there was a promo hyping the up coming TNA World Tag Team Championship match.
The third match was the TNA World Tag Team Championship match between the defending champions The Latin American Xchange (LAX) (Homicide and Hernandez with Salinas and Hector Guerrero) and Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon). The match was fast paced at first but it would latter slow down further into the match. It lasted around 16 minutes. Half way through the match, Brother Devine came out and interfered with a kendo stick, but was pulled out of the ring by Guerrero and beaten-down with the stick. The finish came when Brother Ray performed a low blow on Hernandez and Ray and Devon were setting him up for the 3D, but Homicide came from behind and rolled Ray up to get the pin and to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship.
Following the match, a promo aired hyping up Robert Roode's chance at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in the King of the Mountain match. With him talking about how he will walk out of Slammiversary World Heavyweight Champion. Then it switched to a interview between Jeremy Borash and Roode with a continuation of him talking about how he will win the championship that night and how he got to this stage in his career.
After the interview there was another promo that talked about Awesome Kong, and how she is the dominating force in TNA's Knockouts division.
The fourth match was Awesome Kong's $25,000 Fan Challenge. The participants chosen were Serena Deeb and Josie Robinson. Kong choose to take on Deeb from the 2. The match was mainly a squash. It lasted near 2 minutes and a half. The finish came when Kong performed an Implant Buster on Deeb to get the pin and the win.
Immediately following the match Kong attacked Robinson. By doing this it showed that Kong wanted to fight her in a match as well. Robinson signed the waver and the match began. It lasted near 2 minutes. It was a back and forth match, until Kong got the upper hand and set Robinson up for the Awesome Bomb. Following the performance of the move, Kong pinned Robinson to get the win.
After the 2 matches, Eric Young returned and said now the moment everyone has been waiting for, the return of Elvis. A impostor Elvis then entered the building, went to the ring and addressed the crowd. His address was short lived, as Kong attacked him and performed the Awesome Bomb.
Following the segment another promo aired hyping up Christian Cage and his chance at the TNA title that night in the King of the Mountain match. Following the promo there was a interview segment between Cage and Lauren Thompson. With Cage talking about his past World Championship reigns and his past King of the Mountain matches.
After the interview there was another promo that hyped the wedding of SoCal Val and Jay Lethal.
Following the promo, the wedding of Lethal and Val began. The segment began with the Groomsman entering the arena. They were Ace Young, Kamala, Jake Roberts, Koko B. Ware, and George Steele. After they entered, the Best-man Sonjay Dutt entered, followed by SoCal Val, and last Jay Lethal. This was internally set up to look like the marriage of Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth from SummerSlam 1991. The segment was around 13 minutes. The segment ended with Sonjay Dutt proclaiming that he was in love with Val and that she should be marring him and not Lethal. Because of this, Lethal became very angry with Dutt and began to argue with him until he went to check on Val, in which Dutt attacked him with the the part of the wedding set. After this, Dutt continued to beat down Lethal until Ware and Kamala attacked Dutt. Dutt fought them both off for a brief time, until Jake Roberts joined in to attacked Dutt. The fight came to a end when Roberts placed his snake on Dutt, which in turn got Dutt to run off in fear.
After the segment, a promo aired to hype up Booker T and his chance at the TNA Championship in the King of the Mountain match. Following the promo, there was a interview between Jeremy Borash and Booker T. With Booker talking about how he will walk out champion that night and that he has been treated wrongly in TNA.
The sixth match of the night was between A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle (with Tomko). Before the match began, TNA aired a small promo of their rivalry leading up to this match. The match was high paced at first but latter slowed down to a technical pace later into the match. Around 5 minutes into the match Referee Earl Hebner banned Tomko from ring side, because of Tomko trying to get involved in the match. It had a few spots. The finish came when AJ hit a kip-up frankensteiner on Angle, which force him to fall to the outside, while the referee was down. After Angle got back into the ring Karen Angle entered the arena and tried to give Angle a Steel Chair. After Angle grabbed the Chair, Karen wouldn't release it. Instead she pulled it from his hands and laughed, as AJ came up from behind and rolled Angle up and placed him in the Styles Clash position and performed the move to get the pin and the win. After the match Angle grabbed the chair from earlier and attacked AJ with it. Afterwards Tomko would return and fight off Security, while Angle beatdown on AJ and placed the Ankle Lock on him as well.
After the match there was another promo and interview with the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Samoa Joe and how he will walk out the TNA Champion after the King of the Mountain match. After the interview there was another promo on the history of the King of the Mountain match.
The main event was the King of the Mountain match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. The participants were Samoa Joe, Robert Roode, Christian Cage, Booker T, and Rhino. While each entered the arena they had their own video package air, hyping up their presents going into the match. Before the match, Jeremy Borash announced the participants with their nicknames, statistics, and where they were billed from (like how boxing matches and MMA fights begin). The match then officially began. It went around 20 minutes and had many spots. The way the match is set up, you must qualify to be eligible to win. To qualify you had to pin or make someone submit inside the ring. The order in which the participants qualified were, Booker T pinned Rhino after a Book End. Robert Roode pinned Cage after a chair shot to a ladder that Cage was holding. Rhino pinned Roode with a roll-up. Christian Cage pinned Booker T after a frog splash. And Samoa Joe pinned Roode after a Muscle Buster. After you qualify, you then have to hang the belt up to win the match. The finish came when Joe qualified after a Muscle Buster on Roode. Then he rushed up the ladder to hang the belt and to be the first ever champion to walk into the King of the Mountain match and walk out champion. Before Joe hung the belt, Enforcer Kevin Nash stopped Booker T from winning by performing a Jackknife Powerbomb on Booker from a ladder. The reason of this was Booker had attacked Nash earlier in the match and to protect his investment in Joe.
After the event went off the air, TNA construction crews were disassembling the Slammiversary set. As the set was being disassembled, an employee of TNA fell to his death, after the scaffold that he was working on collapsed. He then fell the distance from the scaffold to the arena floor. Another TNA employee was also on the scaffold as it collapsed. As a result, they were both rushed to the Desoto County Hospital in Southaven, Mississippi. The second employee lost one of his thumbs as a result of the tragedy. While the other employee died at the hospital later in the night.
Shortly after the incident, TNA updated their official website with the following statement:
A tragic accident following TNA's Slammiversary Pay-Per-View event at the Desoto County Civic Center in Southaven, Mississippi, resulted in the death of an employee of a TNA independent production contractor.
The accident occurred following the conclusion of the event as technical crews worked to disassemble the TNA set.
Currently, TNA is working in cooperation with local authorities to investigate the details surrounding the accident.
TNA is deeply saddened by this tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family in their time of loss.[3]
The worker who died from this incident was by the name of Kevin "Angus" Sinex. It is not yet known who the second man that was injured is. On the June 12 edition of iMPACT!, many of the superstars wore bands on their arms with the letter "A" on them. This is believed to have been a tribute to the deceased employee.
[edit] Aftermath
[edit] King of the Mountain Qualifying Matches
- Robert Roode defeated Matt Morgan - (Impact, May 22)
- Booker T defeated A.J. Styles - (Impact, May 22)
- Christian Cage defeated Tomko - (Impact, May 29)
- Rhino defeated James Storm - (Impact, May 29)
[edit] Matches
- Petey Williams (w/Scott Steiner and Rhaka Khan) defeated Kaz to retain the TNA X Division Championship[4] (15:18)
- Williams pinned Kaz after a Canadian Destroyer.
- After the match, Abyss returned and attacked Steiner, Williams and Khan, delivering a Black Hole Slam to each of them.
- Gail Kim, O.D.B., and Roxxi defeated The Beautiful People (Angelina Love and Velvet Sky) and Moose[4] (10:15)
- O.D.B. pinned Moose after a running powerslam.
- The Latin American Xchange (Homicide and Hernandez) (w/Salinas and Hector Guerrero) defeated Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship[4] (15:44)
- Homicide pinned Ray with a roll-up.
- Awesome Kong (w/Raisha Saeed) defeated Serena Deeb in a $25,000 Fan Challenge[4] (2:26)
- Kong pinned Deeb after an Implant Buster.
- Awesome Kong (w/Raisha Saeed) defeated Josie in a $25,000 Fan Challenge.[4] (1:53)
- Kong pinned Josie after an Awesome Bomb
- A.J. Styles defeated Kurt Angle (w/Tomko)[4] (22:50)
- Styles pinned Angle after a Styles Clash
- After the match Angle hit Styles with a steel chair.
- Samoa Joe defeated Robert Roode, Booker T, Rhino, and Christian Cage (w/Kevin Nash as the Special Ringside Enforcer) in a King of the Mountain match to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship[4] (19:51)
- Booker qualified by pinning Rhino after a Book End.
- Roode qualified by pinning Cage after a chair shot.
- Rhino qualified by pinning Roode with a roll-up.
- Cage qualified by pinning Booker after a frog splash.
- Joe qualified by pinning Roode after a Muscle Buster.
- Joe hung the belt to win.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Banks, Bill (2007-12-30). Upcoming TNA Pay-Per-Views and "iMPACT!" in Orlando live events. TNAwrestling.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-07.
- ^ 6/5 Post Impact TNA Wrestling Update. TNAWrestling's Youtube Account (2008-06-05). Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
- ^ Man falls to his death at Slammiversary. TNAWrestling.com (2008-06-09). Retrieved on 2008-06-09.
- ^ a b c d e f g PPV Results: Samoa Joe Makes History. TNAWrestling.com (2008-06-09). Retrieved on 2008-06-09.
[edit] External Links
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