Slammiversary 2006 Review: King Of The Mountain

By Slammiversary 2006, Total Nonstop Action (currently known as Impact Wrestling) was making waves in the wrestling world.

Top talent like Christian Cage, Sting, Team 3D, Rhino and Scott Steiner were coming on board because they saw the paradigm shift happening. For the first time since the Monday Night War, it felt like WWE had real competition. Slammiversary, one of TNA’s signature events of the year, was going to be another milestone for the company. However, it fell short of expectations.

Slammiversary 2006 opens with a video emphasizing the King of the Mountain main event and how in its previous two incarnations no champion had retained, so the odds weren’t in Cage’s favor. Jeff Jarrett commented “there will be a point in the match where Christian’s ego and Sting’s ego will clash and cancel each other out and that’s when I take advantage.” That bit of foreshadowing was a nice hook throughout the evening.

While the opening pyro goes off, Team 3D and the James Gang (aka New Age Outlaws) come brawling into the arena to begin the Bingo Hall Brawl. Bubba and D-Von win after giving Kip James a 3D through a table. This match was probably done in the best way possible considering these two teams doing a straight wrestling match by this time wouldn’t draw any major appeal. This would be the last major match pitting these four against one another as The James Gang broke up shortly into 2007.

The next set of matches fall under the category of “way too much time spent here.” The handicap match where Rhino finally gores Scott D’Amore and gets his hands on Bobby Roode is good, but too much time was taken to build the heat for Rhino to make a quick comeback and get the win. The X-Division Rankings Elimination Match was good, too, but there have been so many superior X-Division matches. The lineup – Petey Williams, Sonjay Dutt, Jay Lethal, Alex Shelley, Shark Boy and Senshi (Low Ki) – screams perfection on paper, but the bout missed the mark. I didn’t understand why there was so much emphasis put on each man’s ranking to determine who is next in line for Samoa Joe and the title. Why couldn’t this match have just been a simple elimination No. 1 contenders atch with the winner getting a title shot sooner than later?

Finally, we go to Kevin Nash in an X-Division Showcase. It was a fun storyline, but Nash should have been managing Shelley for this match against Chris Sabin and let them tear down the house. Nash against Sabin wasn’t bad, but we’ve seen recently how a big man like Brock Lesnar can work with someone the size of a Finn Balor, Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles. “Big Sexy” isn’t on that level. Nash in 1996 vs. Shawn Michaels or in 1999 against Rey Mysterio, YES. Not at Slammiversary 2006, though.

The match of the night goes to the NWA Tag Team Title clash between America’s Most Wanted and their challengers: Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles. The storyline was that Styles and Daniels had challenged multiple times before this night and each time Gail Kim would interfere and cost them the belts. This would be their “Last Chance” to win the titles and Styles and Daniels had promised a surprise neutralizer for Gail Kim. The action was excellent with the only misstep being the big reveal. When a woman, later known as Sirelda, would come out and chokeslam Kim, the crowd seemed slightly indifferent about it.

Styles and Daniels would end the match with a combo frog splash/Best Moonsault Ever. The celebration with the crowd was a great moment and would be replayed over the course of the next few months of their reign. Towards the end of the match, we would see Storm accidentally hit Harris with a beer bottle intended for Daniels, leading to AMW’s breakup in November. The trajectory of their careers following the split was interesting, as the one who everyone pegged as future world champion (Harris) faded into obscurity and Storm would go on to great success.

Scott Steiner vs. Samoa Joe was better than I remembered. The only issue is the finish, as Joe scores a pin off a quick power slam, but half the crowd couldn’t see what happened and was confused by the outcome. After all, the “Samoan Submission Machine” had been defeating foes for a year with either the Muscle Buster or Coquina Clutch.

And now we come to the King of the Mountain. The amount of greatness in the ring for this match is astounding. Christian Cage defending the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against former NWA Champions Jeff Jarrett, Sting and Ron Killings, as well as future champion Abyss. Everything was good until the ending (see the trend?) when Christian and Sting would battle over the title at the top of the ladder until Earl Hebner tipped it over.

This happens just moments after Larry Zbyszko low blowed Christian to prevent him from hanging the title and winning the match. Jarrett would immediately pick up the belt and hang it up to win. As garbage filled the ring, he carried the title up the entrance ramp until a referee took it from him and delivered it to the new authority figure Jim Cornette. A pointless and nonsensical screw job finish made up slightly with the final scene of the title being held up because management isn’t dealing with Jarrett’s schemes anymore. There are so many different ways to go about this match and still get to the eventual destination of Sting vs. Jarrett at Bound For Glory in October.

This show suffers from lackluster storytelling and poor finishes. I would go out of my way to watch AMW vs. Styles and Daniels and the King of the Mountain. A new and unique gimmick match like that can be successful if done correctly and not oversaturated like WWE has done with nearly all of its gimmick matches. TNA did the King of the Mountain right up to this point, but Slammiversary 2006 was its first black eye.