My TNA Catch-up, Slammiversary PPV Jun 09

X Division Championship, Jay Lethal vs Alex Shelley vs Consequences Creed vs Chris Sabin vs Suicide - This was being contested under King Of The Mountain rules where basically you have to get a pin or submission to become eligible to hang the belt to get the win and whoever you pinned or took the submission off spends 2 minutes in the penalty cage, as expected this was a beatdown on Suicide by everyone else as they'd all already promised to try and unmask him tonight (a plan which was totally forgotten in seconds it seems). First to become eligible was Suicide by pinning Lethal who was sent to the penalty box, Suicide then pinned Shelley whilst Lethal still had 25 seconds left before he was released.

It seems this year they haven't done what they used to do and have more than 1 person in the penalty cage at the same time. Lethal pinned Suicide after a Lethal Combination into a chair but Sabin & Creed dived on top also trying to claim credit for the pin, Lethal called for the belt to try and hang it & then it just turned into tag team versus tag team with Shelley & Sabin coming off the better from that feud. As Suicide was freed Creed pinned Shelley, Sabin was outside the ring "hurt" so Lethal & Creed double teamed Suicide.

Creed totally flubbed his Flip Suicide Dive onto Suicide who wasn't in the right position so Creed hit the ring mats hard (hence him screaming out "Oh my god!") but amazingly he got up and was involved in helping stop Sabins Flying Cross Body Block off the top of the penalty cage. Shelley went to set up a ladder but the ref told him he wasn't eligible yet so Sabin lay down for him & Shelley took the easy pin, Shelley was halfway up the ladder with the belt when Suicide cut him off with a nice Springboard Dropkick off the ropes.

Suicide took out both of Lethal Consequences, Creed by Suplexing him into the ladder which catapulted Lethal off the ladder into a hard fall on the canvas. Sabin became eligible after pinning Lethal with an excellent Tornado DDT, now everyone was eligible and it became a free for all. Lethals Flying Elbow onto Sabin on the ladder was pretty crazy & Lethal looked in agony after it, Shelley hitting Sliced Bread on Creed on the apron was completely mental but Suicide managed to hang the belt to take the win and retain his X Division title.

Second Chance Match, Shane Douglas vs Daniels - If Douglas wins he gets Daniels slot on the TNA Roster but if Daniels wins then Douglas leaves TNA forever! Very weak match with Daniels getting the win off the BME, apparently Douglas twisted his ankle early into the match but I never noticed it to be honest. This wasn't worthy of being on a PPV, heck I wouldn't have even put it as a curtain jerker on Impact for free.

Womens Knockout Championship, Tara vs Angelina Love (with Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne) - This was pretty below par until Tara hit her Spinning Slam which was very impressive, sadly that was the single high spot of the match as Sky interfered by spraying Tara in the face with "hairspray" allowing Love to hit the Lights Out to take an easy win to retain her title. I had the feeling this could have been a really good match if they'd given it more time and not had Sky & Rayne at ringside. Did anyone else notice the blood on Tara's right forearm just above her wrist, any ideas how that happened?

Monsters Ball Mixed Tag Match, Daffney & Raven (with Dr Stevie) vs Taylor Wilde & Abyss - The match stipulations are No DQ & weapons are legal. Both Daffney & Wilde did well in this match, Daffney taking the Press Slam from Abyss into Stevie & Raven then Wilde hitting a great Flying Cross Body Block into all of them.

Daffney also took a pretty hard fall off Abyss' shoulders after Wilde nailed her with the weapons around the head (having reviewed the highlight reel Daffney barely missed those ring steps), Wilde also made a nice Splash through a table onto Daffney. Daffney also took a great bump into the thumbtacks and it took Dr Stevie making the save to stop the 3 count but Abyss took the win after hitting the Black Hole Slam on Raven into the thumbtacks.

Matt Morgan vs Sting - If Morgan wins he joins the MEM. I think someone give the wrong info to the announcer who said if Morgan won he got Stings spot in the MEM, that'd be f**king difficult seeing as Sting is now their Godfather. A pretty boring match with Sting mainly jobbing to Morgan but Sting took the eventual win off the Scorpion Death Drop.

Tag Team Championship, Beer Money vs Team 3D - I assume they had no clue what to do in this match so they did nothing? The Amble Down (it was too slow to consider as a run-in) by The British Invasion was pointless but they distracted the ref long enough for Beer Money to win off the DWI on Devon to win the TNA Tag Team belts.

TNA Heavyweight Championship King Of The Mountain Match, AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe vs Jeff Jarrett vs Kurt Angle vs Mick Foley - just to recap King Of The Mountain rules you have to get a pin or submission to become eligible to hang the belt to get the win and whoever you pinned or took the submission off of spends 2 minutes in the penalty cage.

They were REALLY kicking the arse out of this match with the insanely long introductions (I assume they were trying to fill the time Daniels & Douglas didn't fill) & I'm not exactly sure under what grounds the 2 refs had the right to put Joe into the penalty cage or how Angle was eligible without actually having pinned anyone as the match hadn't even started yet. Were we looking at a completely new screw-job here?

Foley eventually came into the ring and allowed Jarrett to make the pin, when Foley came back Joe hit the Rear Naked Choke Hold and choked Foley out becoming eligible and sending Foley back to the penalty cage. Joe hit a great Suplex on Angle who took a good bump on the ladder when he landed but Joe took a bad hit falling from the top of the ladder hitting the bottom when Foley knocked it over.

Styles also had a bad landing after doing a Springboard which took Foley & Jarrett off the top of another ladder, Foleys move of the match had to be his Flying elbow drop off the top of the penalty cage onto Angle who he pinned to become eligible. Styles' Pele on Foley was way off target as the director was stupidly on the wrong camera revealing the miss but Styles being launched over the top rope onto Foley by Joe was totally crazy but Styles was able to make the pin on the ground (did they EVER announce this as falls count anywhere or was this another rule made up on the fly by the colour desk?) also why were they bothering to announce Foleys remaining time in the penalty cage as they hadn't done that for anyone else so I assumed this match was winding up to its finish.

The finish to this totally ruined the rest of the match that had set it up with Styles powerbombed off the ladder by Joe who climbed the ladder with Angle then gave him the belt and Angle hung the belt to become new TNA Heavyweight Champion. I guess all those secret conferences Joe had been having were with Angle then? So how the f**king hell are they going to bring Tazz in having ruined that opportunity? Or are they just not going to bother? Did anyone else think that Angle with his designer stubble looked a tad like Benoit?