TNA Slammiversary 2006
TNA Slammiversary 2006 (6/18/2006)- Orlando, FL
PRE-SHOW MATCH: Team Canada (Eric Young & A-1) vs. The Naturals- 3/10
After the match, Shane Douglas comes out and yells at the Naturals for not â€"not doing what it takes†to win and be a champion. Then he gives two examples of himself working through injuries… and I’m not sure why Shane is so angry here. I don’t know if either of the Naturals was injured here, but if so, they definitely worked through it. Shane says that he will now train them and they will not set foot in the Impact Zone again until Shane says they are ready… but if they lose again, Shane vows to â€"franchise†their asses. I’m not sure what, exactly, Shane is threatening to do, but it sounds disturbingly painful.
MAIN SHOW:
BINGO HALL BRAWL: Team 3-D vs. The James Gang- 6.5/10
A good hardcore brawl. Worked well as an opener.
JEFF JARRETT PROMO- was going very well, but then it started dragging on.
HANDICAP MATCH: Rhino vs. Bobby Roode & Scott D’Amore- 4.5/10
Hilariously awesome heel pre-match promo by D’Amore. He talks about how he doesn’t even need Roode’s help and how he will kick Rhino’s ass... and then when Rhino shows up, D'Amore gets this look on his face like he crapped himself and starts to run away. CLASSIC heel stuff.
The match itself was great for what it was supposed to be, and functioned as a good blow-off for this feud. Also, D’Amore does a MOONSAULT!
SAMOA JOE PROMO- good
X-DIVISION RANKINGS MATCH: Alex Shelley vs. Senshi vs. Shark Boy vs. Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Petey Williams (w/Scott D’Amore)- 7/10
This was your standard spotty X-Division multi-man match. Shark Boy sitting up out of the tree of woe and doing the ass-biting spot to counter Petey’s attempt at the O Canada Nut Squash was a brilliant spot. The final two put on a pretty decent little mini-match.
NASH & SHELLEY BACKSTAGE- Shelley was goofy. Nash was great.
KEVIN NASH vs. CHRIS SABIN- 6.5/10
Nash made Sabin look great here. Nash might have won the match, but he definitely put Sabin over.
AMW & GAIL KIM PROMO- all three were good… until James Storm said he was â€"happier than a fat gopher in soft dirt.†Anyone have any idea what this means?
LAST CHANCE MATCH FOR THE NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: America’s Most Wanted(c) (w/Gail Kim) vs. AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels- 8/10
More of the awesome action we got from these two teams last month. Daniels and AJ’s â€"neutralizer†for Gail Kim turns out to be Sirelda, who gives Gail a great chokeslam, then carries her off to the back.
STING PROMO- decent.
TENAY REVEALS THE NEW FACE OF TNA MANAGEMENT- It’s Jim Cornette. Yay. He cuts a decent promo.
SCOTT STEINER PROMO- good (although his claim about having beaten Cena is inaccurate).
SAMOA JOE vs. SCOTT STEINER- 4/10
This was the match I was most looking forward to (especially after watching Sacrifice 2006), and it was living up to the excitement... until it went to the outside and then it all went to sh*t.
Scott Steiner grabs a chair and shoves the referee. He then hits Joe with the chair. Twice. At this point the referee has had enough, and he declares… that both guys have a ten count to get back in the ring or else they will be counted out.
WHAT THE F*CK?!
They have already been on the outside for a while! To make matters worse, and the ref decided to try to enforce the rules by telling Steiner not to use the chair... and in response to this Scott shoved him and then proceeded to use the chair twice… so rather than DQ Steiner, the ref just says â€"f*ck it. If I can’t enforce the â€"no weapons†rule, I guess I’ll try enforcing a different rule instead.†Steiner responds to this proclamation by the referee by first hitting Joe with the chair again before rolling into the ring. This was done to set up a count-out tease… but the entire time, the crowd is chanting â€"DQ Steiner!â€
Later on, Joe had the Coquina Clutch applied from a standing position, but Steiner broke it with a blatant low blow… which Don West thought was a â€"backwards headbutt.†I don’t know how he mistook one for the other. Steiner then got in some offense with a great half-nelson suplex and an extremely crappy looking Steiner Recliner. Joe powered out into an Electric Chair position, then Steiner took the worst Hot Shot I have ever seen, which was followed by Joe hitting the snap powerslam… and THAT was the finish. WHAT THE F*CK?! I don't think Joe has ever pinned anyone with that before... and he gets the pin with it here at Slammiversary in this major match against Scott Steiner?
Oh… and to make things even worse, as they are panning the crowd for reactions, one guy in the front row who they focused on seemed to have the same opinion of this finish as me, so he threw his arms up in the air and gave a disappointed â€"what?â€! They immediately stopped panning the front row for reactions after that happened.
JB INTERVIEWS CHRISTIAN- He asks â€"who’s the champ?!â€â€¦ and you can barely here a reaction from the crowd. Christian, brilliant promo that he is, recovers by telling JB â€"I’m still talking to you, b*tch. Who’s the champ?†Calling JB a b*tch for no reason seems way too far for a babyface to go. The promo as a whole wasn’t very good, either.
KING OF THE MOUNTAIN MATCH FOR THE NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Christian Cage(c) vs. Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Ron â€"The Truth†Killings vs. Abyss (w/James Mitchell)- 6.75/10
A pretty mediocre match with nothing standout going on until the Sting-Christian stare-down on the ladder, which felt like a big moment (which it should have, as it was something that had been hinted at for months).
Then we got the finish.
Yeah… this finish. The conspiracy. I will say that the execution here was great and they got exactly the reaction they were going for with the fans angry enough to litter the ring with trash even before Jarrett actually hung the belt up. Was this a screwjob? Of course. Should they have really done this as a PPV main event? Probably not. No one likes a screwjob. This one feels slightly different, though, and the reason for that is the last few seconds of the PPV.
As Jeff Jarrett triumphantly carries the belt up the ramp, referee Rudy Charles runs out of the tunnel and snatches the belt away from Jeff, then hands it to Jim Cornette as he emerges from the top of the tunnel. This one little touch made the whole thing feel like an important part of an ongoing story, rather than a screwy finish, and seemed to immediately promise us that there would be some justice on Impact. It also gave Cornette something to do to allow him to make an immediate impact, and in a way that promised us that the reign of Jeff Jarrett getting help from management to get away with heelish BS would soon be over.
Overall, a disappointing show from TNA, with the main event, the 3-D vs. James Gang match, and especially Steiner vs. Joe match not delivering. The tag title match was awesome, but not enough to make up for the major disappointments.
PRE-SHOW MATCH: Team Canada (Eric Young & A-1) vs. The Naturals- 3/10
After the match, Shane Douglas comes out and yells at the Naturals for not â€"not doing what it takes†to win and be a champion. Then he gives two examples of himself working through injuries… and I’m not sure why Shane is so angry here. I don’t know if either of the Naturals was injured here, but if so, they definitely worked through it. Shane says that he will now train them and they will not set foot in the Impact Zone again until Shane says they are ready… but if they lose again, Shane vows to â€"franchise†their asses. I’m not sure what, exactly, Shane is threatening to do, but it sounds disturbingly painful.
MAIN SHOW:
BINGO HALL BRAWL: Team 3-D vs. The James Gang- 6.5/10
A good hardcore brawl. Worked well as an opener.
JEFF JARRETT PROMO- was going very well, but then it started dragging on.
HANDICAP MATCH: Rhino vs. Bobby Roode & Scott D’Amore- 4.5/10
Hilariously awesome heel pre-match promo by D’Amore. He talks about how he doesn’t even need Roode’s help and how he will kick Rhino’s ass... and then when Rhino shows up, D'Amore gets this look on his face like he crapped himself and starts to run away. CLASSIC heel stuff.
The match itself was great for what it was supposed to be, and functioned as a good blow-off for this feud. Also, D’Amore does a MOONSAULT!
SAMOA JOE PROMO- good
X-DIVISION RANKINGS MATCH: Alex Shelley vs. Senshi vs. Shark Boy vs. Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Petey Williams (w/Scott D’Amore)- 7/10
This was your standard spotty X-Division multi-man match. Shark Boy sitting up out of the tree of woe and doing the ass-biting spot to counter Petey’s attempt at the O Canada Nut Squash was a brilliant spot. The final two put on a pretty decent little mini-match.
NASH & SHELLEY BACKSTAGE- Shelley was goofy. Nash was great.
KEVIN NASH vs. CHRIS SABIN- 6.5/10
Nash made Sabin look great here. Nash might have won the match, but he definitely put Sabin over.
AMW & GAIL KIM PROMO- all three were good… until James Storm said he was â€"happier than a fat gopher in soft dirt.†Anyone have any idea what this means?
LAST CHANCE MATCH FOR THE NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: America’s Most Wanted(c) (w/Gail Kim) vs. AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels- 8/10
More of the awesome action we got from these two teams last month. Daniels and AJ’s â€"neutralizer†for Gail Kim turns out to be Sirelda, who gives Gail a great chokeslam, then carries her off to the back.
STING PROMO- decent.
TENAY REVEALS THE NEW FACE OF TNA MANAGEMENT- It’s Jim Cornette. Yay. He cuts a decent promo.
SCOTT STEINER PROMO- good (although his claim about having beaten Cena is inaccurate).
SAMOA JOE vs. SCOTT STEINER- 4/10
This was the match I was most looking forward to (especially after watching Sacrifice 2006), and it was living up to the excitement... until it went to the outside and then it all went to sh*t.
Scott Steiner grabs a chair and shoves the referee. He then hits Joe with the chair. Twice. At this point the referee has had enough, and he declares… that both guys have a ten count to get back in the ring or else they will be counted out.
WHAT THE F*CK?!
They have already been on the outside for a while! To make matters worse, and the ref decided to try to enforce the rules by telling Steiner not to use the chair... and in response to this Scott shoved him and then proceeded to use the chair twice… so rather than DQ Steiner, the ref just says â€"f*ck it. If I can’t enforce the â€"no weapons†rule, I guess I’ll try enforcing a different rule instead.†Steiner responds to this proclamation by the referee by first hitting Joe with the chair again before rolling into the ring. This was done to set up a count-out tease… but the entire time, the crowd is chanting â€"DQ Steiner!â€
Later on, Joe had the Coquina Clutch applied from a standing position, but Steiner broke it with a blatant low blow… which Don West thought was a â€"backwards headbutt.†I don’t know how he mistook one for the other. Steiner then got in some offense with a great half-nelson suplex and an extremely crappy looking Steiner Recliner. Joe powered out into an Electric Chair position, then Steiner took the worst Hot Shot I have ever seen, which was followed by Joe hitting the snap powerslam… and THAT was the finish. WHAT THE F*CK?! I don't think Joe has ever pinned anyone with that before... and he gets the pin with it here at Slammiversary in this major match against Scott Steiner?
Oh… and to make things even worse, as they are panning the crowd for reactions, one guy in the front row who they focused on seemed to have the same opinion of this finish as me, so he threw his arms up in the air and gave a disappointed â€"what?â€! They immediately stopped panning the front row for reactions after that happened.
JB INTERVIEWS CHRISTIAN- He asks â€"who’s the champ?!â€â€¦ and you can barely here a reaction from the crowd. Christian, brilliant promo that he is, recovers by telling JB â€"I’m still talking to you, b*tch. Who’s the champ?†Calling JB a b*tch for no reason seems way too far for a babyface to go. The promo as a whole wasn’t very good, either.
KING OF THE MOUNTAIN MATCH FOR THE NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Christian Cage(c) vs. Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Ron â€"The Truth†Killings vs. Abyss (w/James Mitchell)- 6.75/10
A pretty mediocre match with nothing standout going on until the Sting-Christian stare-down on the ladder, which felt like a big moment (which it should have, as it was something that had been hinted at for months).
Then we got the finish.
Yeah… this finish. The conspiracy. I will say that the execution here was great and they got exactly the reaction they were going for with the fans angry enough to litter the ring with trash even before Jarrett actually hung the belt up. Was this a screwjob? Of course. Should they have really done this as a PPV main event? Probably not. No one likes a screwjob. This one feels slightly different, though, and the reason for that is the last few seconds of the PPV.
As Jeff Jarrett triumphantly carries the belt up the ramp, referee Rudy Charles runs out of the tunnel and snatches the belt away from Jeff, then hands it to Jim Cornette as he emerges from the top of the tunnel. This one little touch made the whole thing feel like an important part of an ongoing story, rather than a screwy finish, and seemed to immediately promise us that there would be some justice on Impact. It also gave Cornette something to do to allow him to make an immediate impact, and in a way that promised us that the reign of Jeff Jarrett getting help from management to get away with heelish BS would soon be over.
Overall, a disappointing show from TNA, with the main event, the 3-D vs. James Gang match, and especially Steiner vs. Joe match not delivering. The tag title match was awesome, but not enough to make up for the major disappointments.