Slammiversary (2008)

Infobox Wrestling event
name=Slammiversary (2008)


tagline="Shake…Rattle…and Roll!"
"In a town where legends are made, one strives to reach immortality"
theme=Release the Flood (Dust for Life).
promotion=Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
date=June 8, 2008
attendance=2,000
venue=DeSoto Civic Center
city=Southaven, Mississippi
lastevent=Sacrifice (2008)
nextevent=Victory Road (2008)
event=Slammiversary
nextevent2=TBD
lastevent2=Slammiversary (2007)

Slammiversary (2008) was the fourth annual Slammiversary professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), which took place on June 8, 2008 from the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Mississippi. Seven professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's card. As per a tradition of Slammiversary events, a staple match in TNA titled the King of the Mountain match returned and took place in the main event for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. After the event went off air, while a independent construction crew hired by TNA were dissembling the set for the event, a worker by the name of Kevin "Angus" Sinex fell to his death when the scaffold that he was working on broke and collapsed. Causing him to fall nearly 20 feet to the concrete floor below. Another man was also injured in this catastrophe, as he lost a thumb.

The event featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. The main event featured the King of the mountain match, with Kevin Nash as Special Guest Ringside Enforcer, for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, in which Samoa Joe (Joe Seanoa) defeated Booker T (Robert Huffman), Robert Roode, Christian Cage (William Reso), and Rhino (Terry Gerin) to retain the championship and become the first to ever retain in the King of the Mountain match. The other main event saw A.J. Styles (Alan Jones) defeat Kurt Angle, who was accompanied by Tomko (Travis Tomko). Two featured bouts were scheduled on the undercard. One was for the TNA World Tag Team Championship between The Latin American X-Change (Homicide [Nelson Erazo] and Hernandez [Shawn Hernandez] ), who were accompanied by Salinas (Shelly Martinez) and Hector Guerrero (Hector Llanes), (LAX) and Team 3D (Brother Ray [Mark LoMonaco] and Brother Devon [Devon Hughes] ), in which LAX were victorious. The other was for the TNA X Division Championship, which saw the reigning champion Petey Williams defend the championship is his first defence against Kaz (Frank Gerdelman). Williams defeated Kaz to claim victory in the match.

Background

The main feud heading into Slammiversary was the quest for TNA World Heavyweight Championship through the King of the Mountain match. After successfully defending the title at Sacrifice against Scott Steiner and Kaz, Samoa Joe was set to defend the title in the King of the Mountain match (KOTM). Samoa Joe announced that Management Director Jim Cornette picked four contenders and he picked four contenders, and those eight men competed in qualifying matches to determine Joe's four opponents at Slammiversary. It was announced on the May 15 episode of "TNA Impact!", that Cornette's four were Robert Roode, Tomko, Matt Morgan, and James Storm. On the May 22 episode of "Impact!", Joe's picks were A.J. Styles, Christian Cage, Rhino, and Booker T. The first qualification match for KOTM was between Roode and Morgan. In which Roode won with a roll-up. The second was Booker T versus Styles. Booker won via pinfall after a Book End. After the match, Styles was beat to a bloody pulp by Booker T, Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon), Tomko, and Kurt Angle, because of this Styles turned face. The third KOTM qualifier was the encounter between long time rivals Rhino and Storm. Rhino won the match after executing a Gore. The last qualification match was between long time friends turned rivals Cage and Tomko. Cage won the match after an Unprettier with help from Styles.

The predominate feud heading into Slammiversary was the long time awaited encounter of Styles and Angle. Angle and his wife Karen had decided to separate prior to Lockdown, so that he can focus fully on long time rival Samoa Joe and defending his TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Angle for many weeks was thinking that Styles and Karen were romantically involved with each other and now that he wasn't fighting Joe for the TNA Championship anymore he wanted to rekindle with Karen. On the May 15 episode of "Impact!", Angle made a speech to Karen to come back to him and to understand that the World Heavyweight Championship comes first and she came fourth after his gold medal and their children. She, however, refused to take him back. Later in the night Styles was being beaten to a bloody pulp by Tomko, Booker T, and Team 3D after his qualification match with Booker T for the KOTM. Karen came down to the ring in a attempt to stop the beatdown, however, failed in her attempt. She then went backstage and got Angle, who ran out with a steel chair and chased Tomko, Booker T, and Team 3D out of the ring. Instead of heading to the backstage area, Tomko, Booker T, and Team 3D convinced Angle to look at Karen as she confronted Styles. When Angle saw that Karen was showing emotion for Styles, he nailed him with the chair and continued the beat-down. The next week on "Impact!", Styles and Angle were put in to a match at Slammiversary. On the same night they got into another brawl until Tomko, Booker T, and Team 3D came out again to help destroy Styles with Angle. During the brawl, Cage tried to save Styles, but failed in his attempt.

Going into Slammiversary, the feud that surrounded the TNA World Tag Team Championship was between the champions The Latin American X-Change (Homicide and Hernandez) (LAX) and Team 3D. This feud started at Sacrifice, when the two teams met in the finals of The Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament for the vacant World Tag Team Championship. On the "Impact!" after Sacrifice, Team 3D blamed LAX's manager Hector Guerrero for their loss and attacked him. On the May 29 episode of "Impact!", the two teams were placed in a match for the World Tag Championship at Slammiversary. In the weeks leading to the event, Team 3D began to repeatedly try to attack Guerrero again and again, but each time were stopped by LAX, as they saved Guerrero each time.

From the women's division, the main feud heading into Slammiversary was between The Beautiful People (Velvet Sky and Angelina Love) and Moose, and Gail Kim, O.D.B., and, the newly dubbed, Roxxi. This feud started at Sacrifice, when Roxxi got her head shaved bald as per stipulation after she lost the TNA Knockouts Makeover Battle Royal to Kim with help from Love. Since Kim had won immunity from being shaving bald, Love would instead of been shaved bald had Roxxi won the match. On the May 15 episode of "Impact!", The Beautiful People cost Kim her match for the TNA Women's Knockout Championship, later in the evening they cheated their way to a victory over Roxxi and O.D.B. in a tag team match. Love then gained pinfall victories over O.D.B. and Roxxi after Sky interfered in both matches. On the June 5 episode of "Impact!", O.D.B. finally ended the Beautiful People's winning streak by defeating Velvet Sky in a street fight, however, after the match Love, Sky, and their new associate Moose attacked Roxxi, O.D.B. and Kim. It was later announced that night that Kim, O.D.B. and Roxxi would face The Beautiful People and Moose in a 6-Woman Tag Team match at Slammiversary.

A return angle that occurred at Slammiversary was the return of Abyss. Each week on Impact! TNA aired strange video packages showing Abyss in a mental institute acting sketaferinic. It wasn't until the May 29 episode of "Impact!", that the third video aired that announced he would return at Slammiversary.

Another angle heading into Slammiversary was the wedding of Jay Lethal and SoCal Val. On the May 15 episode of "Impact!", Lethal kayfabe proposed to Val, his on-screen girlfriend. After looking confused for a brief moment, she responded with "OH YEAH!", as Lethal had a Randy Savage impersonation gimmick. During the segment, Sonjay Dutt was visibly seen angered by the answer and question. Lethal and Val then planned their wedding together leading up to Slammiversary. On the May 22 episode of "Impact!", Lethal asked Dutt to be his best man at the wedding, Dutt accepted the offer. Later Dutt booked singer Ace Young to perform at Lethal's and Val's wedding. Young appeared on the May 25 episode of "Impact!", debuting a video for his song Addicted that had video footage of Val and Lethal in it. It was later announced that "Wrestling Legends" would appear at the wedding, they were Jake Roberts, Kamala, Koko B. Ware, and George Steele.

Event

The show began with a TNA's normal video package that uses their tag-line "Cross the Line". Then it switched to a video package that promoted the main matches on the card and Jay Lethal's and SoCal Val's wedding. Then a very small video played, with the song "Release the Flood" by Dust for Life, to start the event. The opening match was the TNA X Division Championship match between the defending champion Petey Williams (with Scott Steiner and Rhaka Khan) and the challenger Kaz. Before the match began, Williams placed a black face mask on his head and face, to protect his face from being injurd any further as a result of him already sustaining a injury a few weeks earlier on iMPACT!. The match was high paced, exciting, and went around 15 minutes. Mid-way through the match Steiner and Khan interfered to help Williams. With Khan trying to distract the referee, but for her trouble got drop-kicked by Kaz. Kaz then ran off Steiner after he threw Williams a steel pipe behind Kaz's and the referee's back. As soon as Kaz turned around Williams hit him in the head with the pipe. Petey then threw away the pipe and grabbed the ref (who was attending to Khan) to go for the pin, after he flipped Kaz over, but Kaz would kicked out of the pinning predicament. The match would go on for another minute or so with Kaz now visibly bleeding from the forehead. The finish came when Kaz rolled Petey up into a rana but Petey rolled through, picked up Kaz and hit the Canadian Destroyer, to get the pin and to retain his X Division Championship. After the match, Steiner, Williams, and Khan all beat-down Kaz. With Steiner saying he would make sure Kaz didn't get his world title shot on that week's "Impact!". Steiner would then continue the beat-down until Abyss made his return to action. Abyss returned with a new look, he had a grey and black mask and a white prison jumpsuit on. He then entered the ring and stood toe to toe with Steiner until Steiner grabbed Williams and threw him at Abyss where he then performed a 360° Black Hole Slam on Williams. While Abyss was trying to get up, Steiner attacked him, until he went for a Irish whip which Abyss reversed and then hit Steiner with a 180° Black Hole Slam. After he got up, he grabbed Khan and performed a 270° Black Hole Slam on her as well. Afterwards Abyss picked up Kaz and carried him backstage.

While Abyss carried Kaz backstage, Commentators Don West and Mike Tenay spoke about the up coming matches for the night, until Eric Young interrupted and said that he had found Elvis. He also said that he had a seat reserved for him and that he would make appearance there that night.

After the segment, a video package aired, talking about the special guest Enforcer Kevin Nash. About his role in the main event, the King of the Mountain match, and his friendship with TNA Champion Samoa Joe.

The second match was a 6 woman tag team match between Gail Kim, O.D.B., and Roxxi and The Beautiful People (Angelina Love and Velvet Sky) and Moose. Before the match, TNA aired a small promo hyping it up as well as the Knockouts Division. The match began with Moose being left by the Beautiful People and getting beat-down by Kim, ODB, and Roxxi. After about a minute into the match, The Beautiful People tried to leave and let Moose get beat-down, but they were stopped by Kim and ODB. The match officially began with Moose and Roxxi squaring off one on one in the ring. The match was fast paced at first, but it switched to technical wrestling around mid-way through. It lasted around 10 minutes. The finish came when Kim and Roxxi were brawling with Sky and Love outside the ring. While ODB and Moose were in the ring, ODB performed a running powerslam on Moose to get the pin and the win for her team.

After the Knockouts match, a promo aired talking about Rhino and his up coming chance at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in the King of the Mountain match. After the promo aired, there was a interview with Rhino explaining why he would win the King of the Mountain match. Immediately following the interview, there was a promo hyping the up coming TNA World Tag Team Championship match.

The third match was the TNA World Tag Team Championship match between the defending champions The Latin American Xchange (LAX) (Homicide and Hernandez with Salinas and Hector Guerrero) and Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon). The match was fast paced at first but it would latter slow down further into the match. It lasted around 16 minutes. Half way through the match, Brother Devine came out and interfered with a kendo stick, but was pulled out of the ring by Guerrero and beaten-down with the stick. The finish came when Brother Ray performed a low blow on Hernandez and Ray and Devon were setting him up for the 3D, but Homicide came from behind and rolled Ray up to get the pin and to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship.

Following the match, a promo aired hyping up Robert Roode's chance at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in the King of the Mountain match. With him talking about how he will walk out of Slammiversary as the World Heavyweight Champion. Then it switched to a interview between Jeremy Borash and Roode with a continuation of him talking about how he will win the championship that night and how he got to this stage in his career.

After the interview there was another promo that talked about Awesome Kong, and how she is the dominating force in TNA's Knockouts division.

The fourth match was Awesome Kong's $25,000 Fan Challenge. The participants chosen were Serena Deeb and Josie Robinson. Kong choose to take on Deeb from the two. The match was mainly a squash. It lasted nearly two and a half minutes. The finish came when Kong performed an Implant Buster on Deeb to get the pin and the win.

Immediately following the match Kong attacked Robinson. By doing this it showed that Kong wanted to fight her in a match as well. Robinson signed the waver and the match began. It lasted near 2 minutes. It was a back and forth match, until Kong got the upper hand and set Robinson up for the Awesome Bomb. Following the performance of the move, Kong pinned Robinson to get the win.

After the two matches, Eric Young returned and said now the moment everyone has been waiting for, the return of Elvis. An impostor Elvis then entered the building, went to the ring and addressed the crowd. His address was short lived, as Kong attacked him and performed the Awesome Bomb.

Following the segment another promo aired hyping up Christian Cage and his chance at the TNA title that night in the King of the Mountain match. Following the promo there was a interview segment between Cage and Lauren Thompson. With Cage talking about his past World Championship reigns and his past King of the Mountain matches.

After the interview there was another promo that hyped the wedding of SoCal Val and Jay Lethal.

Following the promo, the wedding of Lethal and Val began. The segment began with the groomsmen entering the arena. They were Ace Young, Kamala, Jake Roberts, Koko B. Ware, and George Steele. After they entered, the Best-man Sonjay Dutt entered, followed by SoCal Val, and last Jay Lethal. This was internally set up to look like the marriage of Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth from SummerSlam 1991. The segment was around 13 minutes. The segment ended with Sonjay Dutt proclaiming that he was in love with Val and that she should be marring him and not Lethal. Because of this, Lethal became very angry with Dutt and began to argue with him until he went to check on Val, in which Dutt attacked him with the part of the wedding set. After this, Dutt continued to beat down Lethal until Ware and Kamala attacked Dutt. Dutt fought them both off for a brief time, until Jake Roberts joined in to attacked Dutt. The fight came to a end when Roberts placed his snake on Dutt, which in turn got Dutt to run off in fear.

After the segment, a promo aired to hype up Booker T and his chance at the TNA Championship in the King of the Mountain match. Following the promo, there was a interview between Jeremy Borash and Booker T. With Booker talking about how he will walk out champion that night and that he has been treated wrongly in TNA.

The sixth match of the night was between A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle (with Tomko). Before the match began, TNA aired a small promo of their rivalry leading up to this match. The match was high paced at first but latter slowed down to a technical pace later into the match. Around 5 minutes into the match referee Earl Hebner banned Tomko from ring side, because of Tomko trying to get involved in the match. It had a few spots. The finish came when AJ hit a kip-up frankensteiner on Angle, which force him to fall to the outside, while the referee was down. After Angle got back into the ring Karen Angle entered the arena and tried to give Angle a steel chair. After Angle grabbed the Chair, Karen wouldn't release it. Instead she pulled it from his hands and laughed, as AJ came up from behind and rolled Angle up and placed him in the Styles Clash position and performed the move to get the pin and the win. After the match Angle grabbed the chair from earlier and attacked AJ with it. Afterwards Tomko would return and fight off Security, while Angle beatdown on AJ and placed the Ankle Lock on him as well.

After the match there was another promo and interview with the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Samoa Joe and how he will walk out the TNA Champion after the King of the Mountain match. After the interview there was another promo on the history of the King of the Mountain match.

The main event was the King of the Mountain match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. The participants were Samoa Joe, Robert Roode, Christian Cage, Booker T, and Rhino. While each entered the arena they had their own video package air, hyping up their presents going into the match. Before the match, Jeremy Borash announced the participants with their nicknames, statistics, and where they were billed from (similar to how boxing matches and MMA fights begin). The match then officially began. It went around twenty minutes and had many spots. The way the match is set up, you must qualify to be eligible to win. To qualify you had to pin or make someone submit inside the ring. The order in which the participants qualified were, Booker T pinned Rhino after a Book End. Robert Roode pinned Cage after a chair shot to a ladder that Cage was holding. Rhino pinned Roode with a roll-up. Cage pinned Booker T after a frog splash. And Samoa Joe pinned Roode after a Muscle Buster. After you qualify, you then have to hang the belt up to win the match. The finish came when Joe qualified after a Muscle Buster on Roode. Then he rushed up the ladder to hang the belt and to be the first ever champion to walk into the King of the Mountain match and walk out champion. Before Joe hung the belt, Enforcer Kevin Nash stopped Booker T from winning by performing a Jackknife Powerbomb on Booker from a ladder. The reason of this was Booker had attacked Nash earlier in the match and to protect his investment in Joe.

After the event went off the air, TNA construction crews were disassembling the Slammiversary set. As the set was being disassembled, an employee of TNA fell to his death, after the scaffold that he was working on collapsedcite web|url=http://www.wrestleview.com/news2008/1213736023.shtml|title=More on the passing of a TNA crew member after "Slammiversary" - info|date=2008-06-17|accessdate=2008-06-19|publisher= [http://www.wrestleview.com WrestleView.com] ] . He then fell the distance from the scaffold to the arena floor. Another TNA employee was also on the scaffold as it collapsed. As a result, they were both rushed to the Desoto County Hospital in Southaven, Mississippicite web|url=http://www.wrestleview.com/news2008/1213736023.shtml|title=More on the passing of a TNA crew member after "Slammiversary" - info|date=2008-06-17|accessdate=2008-06-19|publisher= [http://www.wrestleview.com WrestleView.com] ] . The second employee lost one of his thumbs as a result of the tragedy. While the other employee died at the hospital later in the nightcite web|url=http://www.wrestleview.com/news2008/1213736023.shtml|title=More on the passing of a TNA crew member after "Slammiversary" - info|date=2008-06-17|accessdate=2008-06-19|publisher= [http://www.wrestleview.com WrestleView.com] ] .

Shortly after the incident, TNA updated their official website with the following statement:"A tragic accident following TNA's Slammiversary Pay-Per-View event at the Desoto County Civic Center in Southaven, Mississippi, resulted in the death of an employee of a TNA independent production contractor. The accident occurred following the conclusion of the event as technical crews worked to disassemble the TNA set. Currently, TNA is working in cooperation with local authorities to investigate the details surrounding the accident. TNA is deeply saddened by this tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family in their time of loss."cite web|url=http://www.tnawrestling.com/content/view/821/84/|title=Man falls to his death at Slammiversary|date=2008-06-09|accessdate=2008-06-09|publisher=TNAWrestling.com]

Aftermath

After Slammiversary Booker T would explain on the June 12 edition of "Impact!," that he was cheated out of winning the King of the Mountain match. He would then challenge Joe to a match at Victory Road in his home town of Houston, Texas for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Joe would later accept the challenge.

The Latin American Xchange (LAX) would later start a feud with the team of James Storm and Robert Roode. The two teams are now scheduled to meet at Victory Road in a "Fan's Revenge" Lumberjack match.

On the June 12 edition of "Impact!," many of the superstars wore bands on their arms with the letter "A" on them. This is believed to have been a tribute to the deceased employee, whos name was later released as Kevin "Angus" Sinex.cite website|url=http://www.wrestleview.com/news2008/1213148591.shtml|title=Update on the death of TNA crew member following Slammiversary PPV|date=2008-06-10|accessdate=2008-06-19|publisher= [http://www.wrestleview.com WresrleView.com] ] It is not yet known who the second man that was injured is.

King of the Mountain Qualifying Matches

*Robert Roode defeated Matt Morgan - small|(Impact, May 22)
*Booker T defeated A.J. Styles - small|(Impact, May 22)
*Christian Cage defeated Tomko - small|(Impact, May 29)
*Rhino defeated James Storm - small|(Impact, May 29)

Results

ee also

*List of TNA pay-per-view events
*Slammiversary

References

External links

* [http://www.TNAWrestling.com The official website of Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling]