I decided to just follow up Hard Justice 2005 with TNA Slammiversary 2005 because it was another first in TNA’s PPVs as well as the third-anniversary show.
This event had a few cool things go down and one of my favorite event names ever. It’s in the top three with Starrcade and Wrestlepalooza.
The question is: was TNA Slammiversary 2005 better than Hard Justice 2005? Let’s find out!
Low-Tier
Ron Killings vs. The Outlaw—listen, I had Billy Gunn fatigue in TNA. It’s nothing with his wrestling it’s basically being “The Bad Ass” or “Mr. Ass” with different names.
If he’d shown up with a tweak to his gimmick or something maybe I would’ve been interested in seeing as much Billy Gunn post-2003 but here we are in 2005.
Plus, we all knew that The New Age Outlaws were going to get back together in TNA but—ugh, whatever. Low-tier match.
Bobby Roode vs. Lance Hoyt was a meh match. “Meh” doesn’t mean trash or bad it just means that on a PPV that people paid for this wasn’t the wave.
If it had been on Impact, this would’ve been mid-tier at the minimum. It’s not bad but you could skip this match without being conflicted about doing so.
You also won’t be conflicted about skipping the AMW vs. 3 Live Kru match.
Mid-Tier
The Six Pack Match opener featured Amazing Red, Shark Boy, Delirious, Elix Skipper, Jerrelle Clark, and Zach Gowen. This match was exciting as hell.
If it had the seven-minutes and change that our two low-tier bouts had—or at most ten minutes—this would’ve been an incredible, messy, flashy bout.
At the minimum, this was a good way to start the show and would’ve been exotic-tier on any given Impact between 2004-2005.
There was a time when I just wasn’t impressed by Alex Shelley as a singles wrestler at all. Shelley against Shocker did nothing for me then but I appreciate the match now.
I believe the placing and pacing were both decent and it had the right amount of time. It really should’ve run after Roode-Hoyt as a cleanser.
The NWA Tag Title match between champions The Naturals and Team Canada ran a few minutes longer than necessary.
Coach D’Amore’s interference got old fast but it was A-OK in matches with some kind of stakes. An above-average match that would’ve been a dope main event on Impact.
Samoa Joe bulldozing Sonjay Dutt and sending him back to the lobby via submission made for an awesome debut. It was short but was a good intro for Joe in TNA.
Exotic-Tier
So, Daniels facing Shocker last month wasn’t the most electrifying of X-Division title defenses but this one? Against Chris Sabin and Michael Shane? Match of the Night.
Chris Sabin is a match enhancer. He was basically a more athletic, risk-taking Jeff Jarrett sans the charisma and mic skills at this point. However, he rocked in competitive bouts.
Put him with two others in an elimination match—or just a multiple-person—and watch him keep pace and bring the razzle-dazzle.
Daniels was always good but sometimes it depended on the opponent or just who else was involved. You know what else depended on who was involved? King of the Mountain!
This is a match that always made little sense. It was like mixing a ladder match with a Texas deathmatch and a reverse battle royal.
When the rules are read, they make less sense to those at home than those in attendance and it’s just confusing until you’ve seen one or two of them.
That doesn’t make it any less of a stupid match in concept but the action was awesome Also, Raven winning a World title any time after 1996 was a big deal.
No one was putting major titles on Raven—and that’s a shame. This match was shorter than it should’ve been but they got a lot down in under 15 minutes. Bonus points for that.
TNA Slammiversary 2005 Verdict: Mid-Tier (6.5/10)
This show was better than Hard Justice 2005. If that NWA Tag Team title match had been against America’s Most Wanted, I could see this being an exotic-tier show.
Luckily, it had that dope X-Division Title three-way match and a fun, exciting King of the Mountain. The action was just as wild as the rules were confusing—and it worked!
https://youtu.be/T0KRvLwrnww
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