It was a year after WCW closed its doors that the wheels set in motion for a new promotion to begin. They didn't know it at the time, but Jeff and Jerry Jarrett's creation, Total Nonstop Action wrestling, would grow to become the second largest wrestling promotion in the United States. Nine years later, TNA honored the birth of its company by putting on the 9th edition of Slammiversary, though no mention of the anniversary was made. Not surprising considering the decision makers employed by the company today....
Still, this was a show that had a pretty decent card going in, and in a couple of cases, some of the matches were billed as the blowoffs to long feuds. Most of the matches got TV time as well so all of the pieces were in place for a good show. But did TNA deliver? Well, on the wrestling side, yes. The booking side, which of course this piece focuses on, that my friends is another story.........
With that in mind, let's rate the booking for TNA Slammiversary IX (2011):
TNA Tag Team Championship: Alex Shelley and James Storm(c-kinda) vs. The British Invasion - Great start to the show. Solid match and no ridiculous swerve to start the show. Some thought this might happen given Alex Shelley's substitution into the match, but I'm glad things stayed the way they are. The British Invasion just got back together and have literally done nothing other than win their match at the last Pay Per View. If they are to be champions, they should probably earn some credibility. It's a good thing that they didn't change the titles yet, though it's certainly coming. Smart move and good start to the night.
Matt Morgan vs. Scott Steiner - Ok, another two months essentially wasted are now in the past. Morgan got the win as he should have. Now, can we get him doing something important please? You know, like winning the TNA World Title? Do it!
TNA X-Division Championship: Abyss(c) vs. Brian Kendrick vs. Kazarian - Remember when X-Division title matches didn't mean a lot but at least were show stealers? Yeah, me too.....Maybe it's the fact that I don't like triple threats, but I didn't like this at all. The guys worked hard, but I have a lot of issues with this one. For one thing, Abyss slows down the pace of the match so that two guys who put on a great match a couple of weeks ago can't do anything like that. The finish was weak and I have to make mention of the elephant in the room here. Why now does Abyss need "the art of war" to win matches? I could understand outsmarting opponents when they are larger or more experienced or something, but now? Couldn't and shouldn't Abyss just be a monster and use his size to crush the X-Division? I don't understand why he needs to outsmart guys way smaller than him? This would be a great story if he was competing for bigger things, but for the X-Division it's just silly. The dude is billed as double of the size of his competitors, shouldn't that be enough? Him winning here is fine since I'm guessing the payoff will be at Destination X, but this wasn't so good. A lot that doesn't make sense here and I'm very much looking forward to the end of this storyline so Abyss could use this art of war stuff on someone remotely his size.
Crimson vs. Samoa Joe - I still think Crimson is in way over his head as he's quite a green worker, but this was much better than when he couldn't life Joe a month ago. Joe doesn't seem to care anymore but at least he did enough here to make Crimson look decent. It was obvious that Crimson would win and he did so this was fine. I wish Joe cared about his weight though because he's infinitely better than Crimson when he cares and the fact that he's relegated to this role is a true shame. Someone needs to talk some sense in to Joe, because if he got his weight issues in check, he'd be something to watch. Now, he's fat and lazy, not a good combination. On the other hand, Crimson needs weight as he's a monster that's too thin. Get him on some protein and slow his push a little bit. There's no way he's ready for the main event yet. Plus, if he gets the belt before Matt Morgan, I riot!
Knockouts Championship: Mickie James(c) vs. Angelina Love - If Winter controls Love, why wouldn't she use Love as a pawn to help HER win the belt? This control stuff doesn't make sense to begin with, but I don't understand why Winter would want her zombie to win the belt instead of her. It seems backwards to me. Anyway, this was pretty bad, especially the botched finish. I love Mickie, but if these Knockouts can't take her finish, she might need to change it. Then again, if she was facing someone that didn't need to be a zombie, that might be easier. I'm very down on this whole story and I hope it's revealed soon so we can move on to ANYTHING ELSE!
Last Man Standing Match: AJ Styles vs. Bully Ray - This match is a perfect example of why I don't like wrestling sometimes. Actually, let me also preface that it's the reason that TNA pissed me off with this show. For two months, Bully Ray has ducked AJ. He even got someone else to face him AND BEAT HIM last month to humiliate AJ. This became a hated match and a gimmick match, which logic tells us should be a FEUD ENDER. Last man standing means you beat your opponent so badly that he couldn't answer a 10 count. There's really nowhere to go from that, so clearly, AJ Styles was going to win here right? WRONG! On top of the idiocy of Styles losing comes the greater idiocy of HOW he lost. This was a great match to watch and delivered in every sense of the word.......until the end. AJ hits a great dive that rivals Jeff Hary's from 2008 onto Randy Orton, except this one had Styles and Ray crash through tables. Ray takes the brunt of it, yet both are up by 6? Then, Bully Ray is able to kick AJ through the stage and the count just keeps going? What kind of nonsense is that? I've seen stupid, but this is beyond stupid. I could almost live with Bully Ray winning. I still think it's incredibly stupid for that to happen as this feud doesn't need to continue, but I could live with that IF it was booked properly. This was not even close though. For such a great match to leave such a sour taste in my mouth, that takes absolute stupidity. Ladies and gentleman, long live the stupidity!
TNA Championship: Sting(c) vs. Mr. Anderson - Speaking of stupidity, behold the most prestigious prize in all of TNA! Ok, so the match wasn't expected to be great because Sting simply can't give you a great match at 52 anymore, but the hope was that the star power and booking would draw. For me, it did not. I'm actually ok with a title change as Sting to me should not be a champion at this age. He doesn't want to do a rigorous traveling schedule and he's simply not capable of putting on main event matches anymore, so taking the belt off of him in hopes of using him to elevate talent without the belt is a good idea. I'm not keen on giving the belt to Anderson because I find him to be incredibly overrated, but hopefully it will be another transitional reign. Still, the issue here is that after BLATANTLY saying that there would be no shenanigans, there were shenanigans. Some say it will be part of a storyline, but I say stop being stupid. I get that Hogan's a heel and he can lie, but it just looks stupid when you blatantly make a declaration like that as a heel. Saying something like that lets us know you WILL be involved and it just comes off as cheesy. If you want to interfere, DONT TALK ABOUT IT BEFOREHAND!!! Also, if you are going to cheat like Anderson did, dont do it right in front of the referee! It makes the referee look incredibly dumb for missing the low blow and takes away any sense of realism for the match. Really not a lot to get excited about here and the fact that it didn't main event is probably a good thing for the reason. Had this been the last thing fans saw, I can't imagine anything but criticism flowing TNA's way.
Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett - I actually have a stamp now so that I don't have to type out this matchup! Billed as the final battle, this was going to be the last match in the series, with Angle's gold medals on the line as well as #1 contendership to the TNA title. I don't understand why no one protested this like RVD or Matt Morgan, but that's neither here nor there. For some reason, this became a #1 contenders match and that part is fine. I don't get the medal stipulation though because who cares? What was needed was an actual stipulation to settle the score. Karen needed to be officially barred from ringside because we all feared she'd come back even after being injured, and maybe an "I Quit" match or something would have worked here. To end a feud that has lasted over a half a year with a regular match seemed very odd to me. It certainly wasn't the best match in the series and the conclusion of the feud just felt underwhelming as a result. Good match, but these two could have a good match in their sleep. It was right to have Angle win as he needed to win the feud, but this whole thing was so drawn out that it was hard to care anymore. Plus, the regular match didn't allow for anything too special to happen and that hurt this. In the future TNA, blow off your biggest feuds with good stipulations. THAT is when you do gimmick matches, not randomly on Impact!
As per usual, I was kind of rough on TNA. In fairness, the matches were pretty solid and it was a pretty good show in that sense. That said, the booking was questionable at best and that hurts the show for me a lot. Of course, this is a Rate the Booking piece so harping on the booking is sort of the idea, but in this case it deserved it! As I've been saying for a long time, just make sense! That's all I ask! Make some sense with the booking and this is a fantastic show. As it stands, it's an average show with good wrestling and below average booking. Well, at least Angle vs. Jarrett is finally over...........
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