Rebooking Slammiversary 2006

Neal Wagner: There were clearly some issues with Slammiversary 2006 as seen in the review. I’m going to pick more at the King of the Mountain match and why the screwjob finish wasn’t needed to get to Sting against Jeff Jarrett at Bound For Glory. On a show that is hyped as an anniversary celebration and “one of the biggest nights in TNA history,” do you really want to end things on a controversial note? Maybe you do on a different pay-per-view, but not at something on the caliber of a WrestleMania or SummerSlam.

Here’s what should have happened instead: the finale of the match could see Christian Cage be the first man to retain the World Heavyweight Championship in the King of the Mountain. It would make sense considering TNA spent half the night putting emphasis on how no champion had ever retained the title in the match. Cage could have moved forward and maybe drop the belt to Jarrett the next month at Victory Road.

Have Sting interfere in the match on behalf of Christian (maybe to stop Scott Steiner from interfering on behalf of Jarrett), but when he goes to hit Jarrett with his bat, Jarrett ducks and Cage gets hit, causing “The King of the Mountain” to score the win and the title. Sting now can get his shot against Jarrett at Hard Justice in August and then we get back on course with Christian screwing Sting on purpose for payback.

Sting can go away for a couple months and return at Bound for Glory against Jarrett and win the championship. As for Christian, he can go straight to the end of his friendship with Rhino, leading to the 8-Mile Street Fight as happened at Bound for Glory. Sting and Christian can then collide in the future in what would be a red-hot feud for the next year.

John Corrigan: King of the Mountain sucks. Props to TNA for trying to create a new match type, but this will never make anybody’s top five stipulations. The penalty box can be fun, but there’s no logic in climbing up a ladder to hang the belt up, only to immediately take it down. That’s why in my rebooking of Slammiversary 2006, I’m scrapping the match altogether.

Instead, let’s take the five participants and make two matches. After unsuccessfully challenging for the World Heavyweight Title the previous month at Sacrifice, Abyss needs to be reheated. Therefore, he’ll face Ron Killings and follow the template of Sting vs. Vader from the early ‘90s. Killings can look resilient against the monster, but ultimately gets put away with the Black Hole Slam.

As for the main event, Christian Cage can defend the title against Sting and Jeff Jarrett. Following Neal’s playbook, Sting can still end up costing Christian the title with the bat, Jarrett can scoop the gold and Sting and Christian can up feuding into 2007. TNA still gets its controversy, the seeds are planted for future pay-per-views and the fans still get a hot main event.