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Tag: TNA Slammiversary

  • TNA Slammiversary 2016 live results: Drew Galloway vs. Bobby Lashley; Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy

    For the first time since October 2015, TNA Wrestling returns to world of pay-per-view with Slammiversary, the 12th such event in company history and the sixth held in Orlando, FL. The show is available on most major cable providers, as well as FITE.tv.

    We’re looking for your thoughts on the show, so you can send a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

    For the second straight year, Drew Galloway finds himself in the main event as last year, he was involved in the King of the Mountain title five way. This year, he defends his title against a game challenger in Bobby Lashley who is looking to regain the title. Also on the show, the Hardy brothers do battle in a Full Metal Mayhem match and all of the organization’s titles are on the line. 

    X-DIVISION CHAMPION TREVOR LEE VS. EDDIE EDWARDS VS. DJ ZEMA ION VS. ANDREW EVERETT

    This match was one big move after another — too much for the crowd at some times and getting them back in it for others. The finish saw Edwards win the title pinning Lee with an inside cradle as Lee went for his fisherman buster. Good opener. Gregory Helms was kicked out from ringside at the beginning after coming out with both Lee and Everett. Everett did a springboard twisting dive, took a backdrop onto the ring steps, and also did a super Frankensteiner off the top rope.

    – EC 3 interview. He put over that Bennett was the first guy to pin him but that was a catalyst for becoming the best wrestler.  Carter tried to get the fans to sing his song and only a few did.

    – They showed a clip of Dixie Carter announcing Sting for the TNA Hall of Fame in 2012. They announced that the 2016 inductee would be on TV Tuesday night.

    BARON DAX & BASILLE BARACKA (w/AL SNOW) VS. MAHABALI SHERA & GRADO

    The match was really bad. The finish saw Dax have Shera over his knee like a backbreaker, and Baracka coming off the middle rope with a Bret Hart forearm. Snow uses a whistle as his gimmick which didn’t work 26 years ago with John Tolos and is only slightly better now. Snow’s gimmick is he wants wrestling to be great again. This match wasn’t a good example of that. Dax & Baracka are the former Marcus Louis &  Sylvester Lefort from NXT with Lefort now sporting a shaved head. 

    – Gail Kim and Maria Kanellis are going back-and-forth in the back as they were supposed to wrestle but Kanellis has a broken hand. Kim said Kanellis is a liar, and said she’s wrestling with a bad knee. Billy Corgan is out as William Corgan. He said he’s got the X-rays and the hand was broken. Corgan, at first, seemed to be playing heel as he was wearing sunglasses. He showed the X-ray and said that the minute Maria is cleared, Gail will get the match. Maria said her hand may never heal and she may never be able. Corgan announced a triple-threat match with Sienna vs. Jade vs. Gail Kim for the Knockouts title and it’s starting…right now.

    JADE VS. GAIL KIM VS. SIENNA FOR THE KNOCKOUTS TITLE

    Another bad match. Gail had Sienna pinned with Eat Defeat but Allie pulled Kim’s leg. Kim attacked Allie and then went after Maria. Allie threw the belt in to Sienna but Marti Bell jumped in. Bell then turned on Jade and hit her with a cane, leading to Sienna pinning her. They did more than the prior match but the crowd wasn’t much into it and they tried cool moves but most of the stuff didn’t look crisp.

    Jeremy Borash interviewed Bobby Lashley. He made Borash announce him as the new world champion.

    JAMES STORM VS. BRAXTON SUTTER

    Storm did an interview saying he’s been at every Slammiversary. He said 14 years ago a man gave punk kids like he, Abyss and A.J. Styles a chance.  Storm said that people said he’d never make it. Fans were chanting Orlando. He said there’s a lot of guys who need an opportunity because 14 years ago, nobody knew James Storm.

    This was a short and perfectly professional match that the crowd didn’t care about because they don’t know Sutter (the former Pepper Parks). Sutter survived both a backstabber and codebreaker, but was pinned after a superkick which was the one move that didn’t look good.  Storm then drank beer with Sutter after the match.  It felt like Storm was going to take him under his wing and then, one will turn on the other.

    – Eli Drake interview with Borash. Drake is a really good promo. He called Bram a cross-eyed halfwit, and that Eli Drake is perpetual bad assery.

    – They showed a clip of Dixie Carter inducting Kurt Angle into the Hall of Fame. With the exception of Earl Hebner, everyone in their Hall of Fame is gone from the company.

    KING OF THE MOUNTAIN CHAMPION ELI DRAKE VS. BRAM

    Not much to this at all. They did a few countout teases. The big spot was Drake giving Bram a backdrop on the floor after Bram had taken the mats off previously. Bram used a DDT, which they call the Brighter Side Of Suffering, but Drake rolled out of the ring.  Drake got back in, hit a clothesline and got the pin.

    – Mike Bennett interview. He said he was the best wrestler on the planet and has the hottest wife in TNA.  At least the second one, you can make a good argument for.   

    ETHAN CARTER III VS. MIKE BENNETT

    Carter won with a TKO on a chair and the One Percenter. The crowd was into it at the end, but this was a tough crowd for obvious reasons and also because most are people who don’t watch the TV and don’t know the stories. They both worked hard. Bennett kicked out of the first One Percenter. The second time, Maria threw in a chair, which distracted ref Brian Hebner so he didn’t start the count for several seconds. Bennett used his Miracle In Progress (Michinoku driver on a chair), but the ref was distracted and slow in counting. Carter kicked out of a piledriver. Not a great match, but easily the best since the opener.

    – Matt Hardy did his preacher interview.

    MATT HARDY VS. JEFF HARDY IN A FULL METAL MAYHEM MATCH

    They did a ton of weapons. Both worked real hard. The match story is that the new Matt kept kicking out of everything including a Twist of Fate and senton as well as a Twist of Fate through a table.  The finish saw Jeff come off the top rope, jumping over the post, and put Matt through a table, pinning him on the floor as it was falls count anywhere rules. Lots of ladder spots. Jeff opened a ladder that stretched from one side of the rope to the other, and Jeff put Matt through the ladder off the top. Matt powerbombed Jeff through a keyboard set up bridging the apron to the guard rail. The problem was there was little reaction to some of the insane kickouts.  

    – Decay interview. 

    TNA TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS DECAY (ABYSS & CRAZZY STEVE) VS. BROMANS (ROBBIE E & JESSIE GODDERZ)

    Rosemary is in the Decay corner and Raquel in the BroMans corner. Abyss & Steve retained as Abyss gave Jessie a Black Hole Slam and then powerbombed Steve on top of him.  All action, good match. Robbie & Jessie are very underrated as a team, particularly with Jessie’s athletic ability. He had Steve in the Boston crab/Adonis crab twice and Steve tapped, but the ref had mist blown in his eyes the first time and missed the tap. The second time, Abyss saved him. The women also got involved for a spot.

    – Drew Galloway said he’s worked 16 years to be the world champion in the main event on PPV. He said he’s been defending this title in multiple companies, and said he tapped out Kurt Angle so he sure as hell can beat Bobby Lashley.

    TNA WORLD CHAMPION DREW GALLOWAY VS. BOBBY LASHLEY — KNOCKOUT OR SUBMISSION ENDS IT

    Real good match. Lashley won the title clean in the middle when Galloway passed out from a head and arm choke. They kept the shenanigans out of this one. Galloway was bleeding afer missing a running flip dive and crashing through a table. Galloway came back and used a tombstone piledriver, but he missed the running kick and Lashley hit a big punch that led to him putting on the choke. Galloway used moves like an Emerald Fusion and a sharpshooter — both on the ring steps. 

    We’ll talk more about this show tonight on Wrestling Observer Radio.

  • Galloway, Lashley, Broken Matt and Brother Nero highlight TNA return to PPV

    Since 2005, Slammiversary has celebrated the company’s June debut and it has usually been one of its biggest events of the year. This year, we have a title-heavy show with the King of the Mountain, World Tag Team, and World Titles on the line.

    Here’s the lineup:

    TNA World Champion Drew Galloway vs Bobby Lashley in a submission or knockout only match

    Lashley has cut the best promos of his career since turning heel and he is perfect in his role as an ass-kicking MMA world-beater who feels like he’s the best and just needs Drew’s gold to prove it to the world. Drew has been a fine white meat babyface champion, although his TNA matches haven’t given him as much of a chance to shine as they theoretically should. With this being his first PPV main event as a champion, we should get an outstanding match aided by the knockout or tapout stipulation.

    Strangely, they haven’t really focused on that aspect in theh TV build. One would think that having Lashley, the badass MMA fighter, knock people out in squashes to hype him up would be done. Instead, they’ve tried to get over Drew’s crossface as his top finisher for submissions and the Sick Kick as his knockout shot. I guess since Lashley has the MMA credibility, they want to build Drew up as the badass since he’s facing a legit shooter – but it’s a bit odd.

    Jeff Hardy vs Matt Hardy in a Full Metal Mayhem Match

    The explosion of the former Hardy Boyz may not be the main event, but its build has certainly been the most interesting for every possible reason. They’ve had issues since Matt turned heel, and when Jeff broke Matt’s brain by swanton bombing him off of a balcony, we got the debut of Broken Matt Hardy – complete with a wacky accent and white streak in his hair. He plays piano, writes poetry, and despises Brother Nero. If you’ve missed their rivalry, you can get caught up on all the best (and worst) of it here.

    Decay (Abyss/Crazzy Steve) vs The Bromans (Robbie E/Jesse Godderz) for the TNA Tag team titles

    The Bromans and their new trainer Raquel just debuted and earned the number one contendership, so it would make sense to keep that momentum rolling by having them win. Decay hasn’t done a thing with the titles yet anyway, and this kind of match just shines a light on how minimal the tag division is in TNA right now.

    The rest of the card:

    Maria and Gail Kim have been feuding for months now, with their rivalry coming to a head in Maria’s first PPV match in the company. Her husband Michael Bennett’s issues with EC3 dominated television over the last few weeks and with Bennett being the first person to pin EC3, one would expect an EC3 win here.

    Eli Drake cashed in his Feast or Fired briefcase to win the King of the Mountain Title and celebrated with some free champagne. With the title win just happening, it seems too early to take the title off of Eli Drake – but it’s the KOTM Title, so it doesn’t really matter who holds it. Former champion Bram will attempt to wrest the belt away from Drake.  

    Knockouts Champion Jade doesn’t have a match set for the card. The same goes for X Division Champion Trevor Lee – although they could do another Ultimate X match to further the issues between Lee and Andrew Everett. Any or all of these can probably be expected to be added to the PPV on the go-home show that airs this coming Tuesday.

    The build-up for the show has been largely enjoyable even if it wasn’t always for good reasons. As hilarious as the Matt vs. Jeff build has been, Raquel’s acting is even worse. The Matt and Jeff stuff has gotten more eyeballs on the product via Youtube, so that’s a plus. It’s doubtful that it will translate to an increase in buys, but it should be a fun way to spend an evening. It should certainly be far better than their last live PPV, which was done with three days notice and full of last-second matches.