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Here are my thoughts on the show
Build for the Pay Per View
One thing that TNA has done well over the last few months is the way they build for the pay per view on the final show before the pay per view. With the exception of the Knockouts Title match between Roxxi and Madison Rayne, every match on the card for Sunday was featured in some way on the show. They also gave us one of the matches that was originally announced for Sunday on this week’s Impact so instead of the tag title match, we will have a battle of former tag team partners when Hernandez and Matt Morgan wrestle.
As for the World Title, they did things throughout the show with Van Dam and Sting. They had Sting interrupt a Van Dam promo and take the title belt. Then we saw Sting talk about how he might have the belt now, he is going to own it on Sunday after he beats Van Dam. Then we had Van Dam walking around a deserted backstage area (during a broadcast) looking for Sting and his belt. Then the show ended with these two men brawling through the back and into the ring where Sting ended up with the advantage.
They had Douglas Williams out to join Taz and Tenay at the announce table during Brian Kendrick’s match since they are wrestling on Sunday. Kurt Angle had a ‘warm up’ match against an X Division wrestler since Kazarian is a member of the X Division.
The show started with participants in three of the nine matches on the pay per view in the ring to set up their eight man tag match at the end of the show. It also added to the tension between A.J. Styles and Frankie Kazarian for the professional respect of Ric Flair.
We found out that the Abyss/Desmond Wolfe was turned into a Monster’s Ball Match.
The video packages during the show did a good job of showing the importance of Slammiversary and how much it means to the company.
Other thoughts on the show
While I think the A.J. Styles/Ric Flair pairing has been disappointing, at least he is dressing like a champion even though he does not have the title. If only the rest of his friends had received the memo for the opening segment because he looked like the teacher taking his students on a field trip.
I thought A.J.’s promo at the start of the show was good. I liked how he still showed some anger at Frankie Kazarian for taking the role of Ric Flair’s current favorite.
If A.J. said that Ric Flair was not with them tonight, why were the people in the ring expecting Ric Flair to come out when his music played?
If Jay Lethal is trying to re-establish himself as himself instead of someone who imitates other wrestlers, I did not think it was necessary to have Lethal return to the Flair imitation again.
They did a good job of building the main event for the show with the announcement of the teams in the eight man tag match. It paired up three matches for the pay per view in the match.
Why did they make Abyss/Desmond Wolfe a Monster’s Ball match on the Impact before the pay per view? Why not have the match announced a few weeks in advance?
Did someone recently watch Bill Hicks shows for the Brian Kendrick promo talking about the X Division Title Match he has on Sunday?
I liked that Douglas Williams came out to watch the Brian Kendrick match against Homicide since he is wrestling Kendrick on Sunday.
I have really liked the way that Douglas Williams’ character is against the high flying nature of the X Division to try to make it a division that focuses on putting on wrestling matches instead of spotfests that don’t tell stories.
I thought the Homicide/Kendrick match could have been better. I thought Homicide was very good in the match and showed the people in the company that they are missing the boat with him. Homicide was in control of most of the match while Kendrick was all over the place. I did not like that Homicide had to try to resort to using the screwdriver. Why didn’t the referee stop the match instead of trying to take the screwdriver and cost Homicide the match.
Why did Jesse think that Brother Ray was the one who attacked him and Shannon Moore with the cards since that was something that Orlando Jordan was doing.
I thought Brother Ray cut a good promo for his match with Jesse Neal. It did not make me want to see the match any more than before the show. I am worried that we will end up seeing the end of Team 3D after this match with Devon siding with Jesse. I thought it was a good touch to have Brother Ray get in a cheap shot on Jesse when he left the ring.
I don’t know why they showed the footage from the Jeff Jarrett/Sting ‘match’ from Sacrifice on this week’s show.
I did not like the segment in the back with Matt Morgan, his invisible friend, and Eric Bischoff. Bischoff’s line about Morgan’s tag team partner loving him . . . to death sounded so forced. I also did not like that they are pulling the tag title match from the pay per view and putting it on Impact. Why advertise something for a few weeks and fail to deliver it?
Jeff Jarrett’s comments about Sting regarding how it was a ‘different’ Sting than he ever saw was good. It sounds like since Jarrett is going to be out of action for a while, they are building to Sting and Hulk Hogan. I did like how he talked about how Slammiversary is ‘his show’ and how he will not be able to wrestle on that show.
Maybe Matt Morgan is complaining because he is put in a tag match with a man who was put on the shelf by him a few months earlier.
Why did the security put Matt Morgan down instead of taking him to the back on the stretcher and leave the ring while The Band walked to the ring? What does it say about the company when they would let the match take place after a wrestler is immobilized?
I liked Kurt Angle’s promo about how he is going to get ready for his match against Kazarian on Sunday by wrestling an X Division wrestler in his first match back. However, if he is going to face someone like Kazarian, shouldn’t he be wrestling someone who focuses less on high impact moves since Kazarian does use some mat wrestling.
I thought the Red/Angle match was very good for the time that they were given. Red was able to get in some offense, but you knew that Angle was going to get the win. I was a bit surprised that there were so many moves that impacted Angle’s neck. The match reminded me of what we might have seen between Angle and Rey Mysterio. They were both in overdrive during the match so it looked smooth in the ring.
I thought the video package about Slammiversary was good. I liked how Kurt Angle talked about how it was about the wrestlers. The comments about the Sting/Van Dam match in the segment were well done.
I thought the eight man tag match was good. The main purpose was to get three of the top matches on the pay per view established. I thought Styles, Roode, Storm, and Wolfe worked well together. I thought Wolfe and Hardy had some problems when they were in the ring together. I did not like the ‘typical X Division’ spot where everyone hit their ‘signature move’ in the middle of the match.
With the way that Desmond Wolfe and Chelsea interacted during the match, I have a feeling that Chelsea is going to end up with Abyss and turn on Wolfe on Sunday at the pay per view since that is the ‘end of the 30 days’.
The Sting/Van Dam brawl at the end was okay but took too long. Where was security to break things up? You would think that they would want to make sure that the two men in the main event are able to make it to the pay per view.
What to watch on DVR: The video package for Slammiversary; A.J. Styles’ promo at the start of the show; Douglas Williams’ commentary during the X Division match; Kurt Angle versus Amazing Red; and the eight man tag match.
