TNA Celebrates Seven Years at Slammiversary

Back in 2002, businesswoman Dixie Carter and pro-wrestler Jeff Jarrett and his family conceived the idea of a small wrestling organization that bypassed television and went straight to pay-per-view.

The organization Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) would go on to become the second-largest wrestling promotion in the world besides Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). 

TNA's base is in Orlando and it's limited traveling schedule became a major draw for wrestlers tired of the grueling schedule they had to face at other companies. 

Eventually, the company expanded beyond just pay-per-views and began taping a weekly show, IMPACT!, at Universal Studios, but the schedule remained light. 

With more popular wrestlers making the jump to TNA and the influx of promising young talent, the company's fan base slowly grew.

TNA also became popular because of it's use of a hexagonal wrestling ring and it's exciting X-Division wrestling.

On Sunday, June 21 TNA came to the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan for it's seventh anniversary pay-per-view Slammiversary. 

With solid matches throughout the card and a big swerve to end the night, the pay-per-view more than lived up to it's hype.

Before the show went live, the British Invasion defeated Eric Young and Detroit native Rhino. Young caused the loss by walking out of the arena during the match.

Slammiversary officially began with a X-Division King of the Mountain match. 

The King of the Mountain match is a TNA original and is basically a reverse ladder match with the wrestlers having to climb a ladder to hang a belt rather than take one down.  The wrestlers have to pin someone to become eligible to climb a ladder and if you are pinned you must spend two minutes in a "penalty box".

The X-Division match featured hometown faves the Motor City Machine Guns versus Jay Lethal versus Consequences Creed versus Suicide.  The match also featured a special guest time keeper in the Detroit Tigers' Curtis Granderson. 

The match was fast-paced and action-packed and ended with Suicide taking out Alex Shelley to retain his X-Division belt.

Next up was a Second Chance Match between "The Franchise" Shane Douglas and Christopher Daniels. If  Douglas won, he would get Daniels spot on the TNA roster. 

The match started out slow and Douglas was hurt in the middle of it causing it to be shortened, but the last couple of minutes were solid.  Daniel's moonsault to win the match was particularly entertaining.

The women's Knockout Title match was up next between Beautiful People champion Angelina Love and recent WWE defect Tara. 

It wasn't too bad for a women's match and featured a lot of ringside action. Love ended up retaining her title after interference from her teammates.

Next up was a Monster's Ball match with Raven and Daffney versus Abyss and Taylor Wilde.  A Monster's Ball match is basically an anything-goes hardcore match and this one didn't disappoint.

The match was full of action and the women held their own.  Most of the match took place outside the ring and in the crowd and featured a Wilde stage dive on to Daffney who was laid out on a table. 

Daffney later took a dive into a pile of Tacks but the distraction gave Raven a chance to pull out the win by DDT'ing Abyss into a chair.

The Sting/Matt Morgan Main Event Mafia spot match was next.  The match wasn't very long, but was pretty good. 

Morgan was in charge most of the match until Sting took over at the end to get the win after doing two death drops on Morgan.

The TNA tag titles were on the line in the next match with Beer Money challenging the champion Team 3D, a crowd favorite. 

The match featured a lot of back-and-forth action and double-teaming.  Beer Money ended up winning the belts after the British Invasion came out and distracted the referee. 

The main match of the evening was another King of the Mountain match for the TNA World Title. 

The match featured AJ Styles versus Samoa Joe versus Jeff Jarrett versus Kurt Angle versus current champion Mick Foley.  The match was easily the stand-out match of the night and featured a appearance by Angle in a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey to taunt the Detroit Red Wings fans.

All five competitors put on a good show as rivals Jarrett and Foley took out their frustrations on each other.  They all took bumps off the ladder and Styles in particular put on a great show. 

In the end, Joe stopped Style from winning the match as he and Angle both climbed the ladder. In a shocker, Joe voluntarily handed the belt to Angle and allowed him to win.

As the pay-per-view ended, the other Main Event Mafia members (except Sting) came out to celebrate and welcome Joe into the group.