TNA Slammiversary 2008 Review

OK! TNA Slmmiversary is over and I took my time to write my own review because I was a little unsatisfied with it all. The good news is that overall, the wrestling was great, as always with TNA but it felt it had something missing. The first match, Kaz vs Petey Williams was pretty good, just as we would expect from the two. It was obvious that Scott Steiner would get involved but what was not really expected was the end. Petey Williams won, of course, but what was special was the ending that saw Kaz getting beat up and Abyss appearing out of the blue. Then we had the 6 man tag team match that featured the TNA Knockouts, a match that was good but it did feel as simply something extra that needed to be there as the knockouts are popular in wrestling.

Now the next match was one that I wanted to see: LAX vs Team 3D. Needless to say that it is quite special to see LAX with that lovely knockout near them (not to mention she delivered a What's up to Team 3D) and Hector Guerrero of course. As I expected this wrestling match was pretty good with a lot of interference and good double team moves and an ending that was definitely unexpected. Homicide with a quick roll up and LAX maintains the belts.

Awesome Kong then had 2 matches and she also laid out Elvis. That was quite hilarious but the matches against Kong from this invitational are not that entertaining. We basically see Kong destroying every single woman. Now the entire Elvis part was not entertaining at all from my point of view although it is always nice to see that Awesome Bomb delivered. Then we had the wedding with Jay Lethal, something we all knew how it was going to turn out, just like the Edge and Vickie Guererro wedding that will happen in the WWE. Everything was long and the former wrestlers doing it like crazy, including the snake and it all. Not that great but not bad on the whole.

Now the next match was the one that I personally wanted to see: Kurt Angle vs AJ Styles. The entire storyline was well built and these two wrestlers are very good, with a lot of technical skill. We did expect a great match and it was, although it was not the best these two can give. There is the question of whether or not Kurt Angle is 100% but still, by just looking at the entire match we can realize that this is not over. As I expected, AJ Styles won the match after a distraction by Karen Angle. AJ got beat up afterwards but still, a great way to continue a feud.

Next we had the main event: the King of the Mountain match, a very unique one in professional wrestling, one that is sure to be of high quality, no matter what happens. As expected, Kevin Nash got involved in the match but it was all made so that Booker T would have the opening towards a feud with Samoa Joe. Kevin Nash cost Booker the title when he got involved and Samoa Joe retains the title. A pretty good pay per view on the whole but still, I do have the feeling that for a Slammiversary pay per view, TNA could have done better.

TNA Genesis 2007 Kaz vs Christian Cage

This was the final of the Fight for the Right wrestling tournament organized in TNA to offer the winner a title match at the world championship. Kaz was the underdog of course and Christian Cage, "The Instant Classic" was the one that was supposed to win, given his experience in ladder matches as this was a ladder match. Christian Cage instructed AJ Styles and Tomko to stay out of the arena but this did not happen of course. We saw what looked like a devastating frog splash by Cage on Kaz, who was put on a ladder outside the ring. That one there was the highlight of the match in my view but the inverted DDT from the ladder by Christian Cage was also lovely and a classic when it comes to his ladder matches. The end was pretty interesting and I did not see it coming. Both wrestlers were on the ladder, small distraction by AJ Styles and then the ladder fell with both Kaz and Cage still on it. Kaz held on but Christian Cage landed on Tomko and AJ Styles. The winner thus became KAZ, who I do not really think is going to get the title at the end but hey, the guy is still young and pretty good.