TNA’s biggest party of the Summer is just around the corner and with all the hype, promotional work and the matches that have been set in place it’s easy to see how the 20th edition of Slammiversary is looking to be one the best in recent memory.
While the main event tends to be the biggest selling point for any pay-per-view, it’s on the opening contest that should (in theory) set the tone for what fans can expect throughout the rest of the night.
Slammiversary has been host to some incredible matches and moments over the years with some of the them being the first match on the card, so let’s this time now and go over the ten best matches to open TNA’s biggest summertime event.
10. Kurt Angle vs. Kazarian (Slammiversary VIII)
The inaugural year of the Hogan/Bischoff era in TNA had it’s highs and lows for sure, but one thing I think many of us forget is that amongst all the WWE 2.0 stuff that would effect the company over the years, there was also some really great wrestling like first time ever meeting from Slammiversary 2010 between former X Division Champion, Kazarian and Wrestling’s Only Olymipic Gold Medalist, Kurt Angle.
A little bit of context for this match-up here: After TNA decided to do a ranking system to determine who the future number one contender’s for the world title, Kurt was given the number two spot in the rankings, however Angle decline the position as he wanted to work his way up to the top of the list.
This gave way to this match with Kazarian using his speed, agility and a few cheap tricks in order to get the better of the wrestling machine, but that’s easier said than done when taking on Kurt Angle who delivers about dozen suplexes onto Kaz throughout this match.
Several near falls and a vicious ‘Fade to Black’ which almost put Angle out for the count are also notable moments in this bout which ends with Angle making Frankie submit to the Ankle Lock; Whilst not pretty in a few places, the action and crowd investment helps to make this bout stand out from the rest.
9. Petey Williams vs. Kaz (Slammiversary 2008)
The X Division (much like the Cruiserweights in WCW) were always looked upon to have a phenomenal match on any card their on, so it may come as no surprise that they’ve opened more than there fair share of PPV’s especially at Slammiversary.
At Slammiversary 2008, the opening contest saw Frankie Kazarian (or Kaz at the time) challenge reigning X Division Champion and Scott Steiner ‘Mini Me’, Petey Williams in the latter’s first match after suffering an injury to his orbital bone.
While Petey does look out of it in some points and we do get some involvement from Steiner and his ‘freak’ Rhaka Khan in this match, It does nothing to take away from how good this match is with Williams being able to shake off the ring rust to counter much of Kaz’s offensive while the challenger holds nothing back even after a shot to the face with a lead pipe leaves him busted open.
A solid start for what would be a great pay-per-view.
8. The X Division Ladder Match (Slammiversary 2014)
An often forgotten event is Slammiversary 2014, probably do the fact that this came at a time when most fans began to tune out following the departures of names like AJ Styles, Sting, Christopher Daniels and Kazarian.
That said this show does have some great matches like the triple threat world title match in a steel cage, Bully Ray versus EC3 in a Texas Death Match, but the most memorable as to be the opening ladder match for the X Division Championship.
Six of TNA’s best high flyers and future champions were in this match including Tigre Uno, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, a pre-Decay version of Crazzy Steve, Manik (played by the future TJP) and a pre Bullet Club version of Sanada.
Like all ladder matches this one was full of great moments: Manik hitting a suicide dive on Sanada before the bell rings, Crazzy Steve’s helicopter spin with the ladder around his neck, The Wolves tag teaming all the competitors before finally battling each other on top of the ladder and perhaps the most iconic would be Manik hitting a sunset flip powerbomb from one side of the ladder to the other on Davey Richards.
The champion does retain his title in the end, but after such a car crash style of match the fans just witness I think they would’ve been happy with any of these wrestlers walking out as X Division champion.
7. The Ultimate X Match (Slammiversary 2022)
Speaking of car crash style matches which involved the X Division, we know come to the first of many Ultimate X matches to kick off Slammiverary with this one from the 2022 PPV for the X Division title Involving three former champions: Trey Miguel, Kenny King and Ace Austin along with names like Andrew Everett, Alex Zayne and ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey.
Highlights include a number of tag team combo moves the wrestlers hit on each, the flurry of offensive from Zayne and Austin, Bailey climbing the ropes high above the ring before dropping to hit the Ultimo Weapon, a tower of doom powerbomb spot and Trey hitting a Canadian Destroyer from the top rope onto Zayne…good lord this match was awesome.
After some fighting with Ace Austin to jockey for position on the ropes, Mike Bailey grabs the belts and wins his very first TNA X Division Title…Shame it ended at the hands of Kazarian to set up a world title match everyone knew he was going to lose, still this match was ruled.
6. The Ultimate X Match (Slammiversary 2023)
One year out from Mike Bailey’s capture of the X Division title in Ultimate X, the French Canadian is back at it again except this one is for a shot at the X Division title with a suprise sixth entrant in the form of a returning Jake Something.
Much like the previous entry, the wrestlers formed short alliances in order to get their numbers advantage especially on Jake Something in the early stages and high risk maneuvers like Alan Angels hitting a double Spanish Fly off the top rope, Kushida and Kevin Knight delivering a hybrid of a missile dropkick mixed with the Doomsday Device and Bailey’s massive moonsault from the top of the metal trusses got the fans chanting everything from ‘Holy Shit’ to ‘This is Awesome’.
Speaking of Alan Angels, props to the former AEW star for utilizing this match’s no DQ stipulation as he managed to batter everyone with steel chair shots and finding creative ways to low blow his opponents in the final stretch of the match.
Another great Ultimate X match to start off the show.
5. LAX vs. Marufuji & Ishimori vs. Drago & Fantasma vs. Laredo Kid & Garza Jr. (Slammiversary XV)
Stepping away from the X Division for one moment, we turn are attention to the year 2017 which as most TNA fans might remember wasn’t a great time for the company yet somehow they produced a suprisingly great Slammiversary PPV.
The opening match saw four teams competing for the IMPACT and GFW World Tag Team titles with each team representing their respective companies: LAX for GFW/IMPACT, Marufuji and Ishimori for Pro Wrestling NOAH, Drago and Fantasma (aka Santos Escobar) for AAA and Laredo Kid and Garza Jr. (aka Angel Garza) for The Crash Lucha Libre promotion.
First reason why this match is great: Don West is at the broadcast table doing commentary (RIP DW), and secondly the action is simply fanastic with the pace of this match almost never slowing down and it’s all over the place with chops, kicks, leaps over the rope, leaps through the ropes and it’s an amazing showing from all four teams with some of them going on to achieve success in TNA, WWE and AEW in just a few years after this show.
LAX continued their dominance within the tag team division and unified the tag team titles in the process.
4. The X Division King of the Mountain Match (Slammiversary 2009)
Back to the X Division we go for this one and it’s quite surprising that in the history of this company there has only been one King of the Mountain match to involve the prestigious X Division Championship, which is crazy think about especially when you look at how awesome this match ended up being.
Since his debut in late 2008, Suicide became a thorn in the sides of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin of the Motor City Machine Guns with the skull faced wrestler even winning an Ultimate X match at Destination X 2009 to become the new TNA X Division Champion. This soon led to the Guns not to mention Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed getting into the crosshairs of Suicide which gave way to this match at Slammiversary 2009 where the champion was in a major disadvantage from the beginning due to the numbers game.
One of the more fascinating things about this match is that for most of the 20 plus minutes the wrestlers are given, they able to cause some damage and destruction with just one ladder and boy did they cause some destruction with moments like Jay Lethal being capulated off the ladder and avoiding a serious neck injury, Sabin running up the ladder to get to the penalty box and hitting a massive crossbody near the entrance ramp and Lethal hitting a Macho Man inspired elbow drop onto Sabin on the ladder.
Even without the ladder being used as a weapon fans also saw Shelley hitting a slice bread No. 2 on Creed whilst on the ring apron and Suicide leaping off a ladder to hit a high risk stunner on Shelley; The masked man of mystery retained his title in what might be one the best KOTM matches to not involve the world title.
3. Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries (Slammiversary 2012)
One of the biggest crowds in Slammiversary history bared witness to one of the most important shows in TNA history at the time as the company celebrated its 10 year anniversary with a PPV saw Sting being the first inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame, Christian Cage make a surprise return to the company plus hometown girl, Brooke Tessmacher beat Gail Kim to win her very first TNA Knockouts Championship…But if you’re going to start an event like Slammiversary on the right foot, you’ve gotta to do it with some X Division action.
Initially set to be a non-title match, Slammiversary 2012 saw Samoa Joe challenge Austin Aries for the X Division title in a bout between two men whose styles compare and contrast each other with Joe being an imposing force yet somehow his as fast as a cruiserweight while Aries is all about high flying but also is deceptively strong for a man his size.
As you can probably imagine, this match was spectacular from start to finish with Aries and Joe delivering some explosive offense both in and out of the ring while the fans in attendance eat it all up with the crowd evenly split on who they wanted to see win.
Another great match involving the stars of TNA’s X Division.
2. Johnny Impact vs. Rey Fenix vs. Petey Williams vs. Taiji Ishimori (Slammiversary XVI)
While 2012’s Slammiversary saw the company celebrating 10 years of its existence, the 2018 edition saw the company having one of the best comeback stories in recent memory. The venue, the build up and the crowd…all of it was sensational and naturally the opening contest started things off hot.
The international four way match saw Rey Fenix, a returning Johnny Impact (aka John Morrison), the Bullet Clubs own Taiji Ishimori and Petey Williams putting on an clinic in front of the Toronto crowd.
Chants of ‘This is Awesome’, ‘Impact Wrestling’ ,‘Fight Forever’ are heard throughout with some of those chants happening even before the wrestlers themselves lock up and when they do lock up it, can best be described as human pinball as all four are bouncing around in the ring and outside of it with the near falls being broken up by wrestlers coming seemingly out of nowhere.
Superkicks, signature moves and a few finishers towards the end help to make this match easily one of the top matches in 2018 for the company, but when it comes to the all time best to kick off Slammiversary that honor goes to…
1. The Ultimate X Match (Slammiversary 2021)
We have seen the X Division face off in King of the Mountain, singles, four way and ladder matches on this list but when it comes to the best of TNA’s X Division and the best Ultimate X match at Slammiversary, this one tops them all.
Everything about this match works from the competitors managing to throw caution to the wind with their offense to the hilarious but brilliant ways Rohit Raju would attempt to snatch away the X Division title to the simply fact that the fans were allowed to enter the building and cheer again after a year and a half of social distancing due to the pandemic.
In terms of OMG moments from this match I mean take your pick: Ace Austin’s moonsault off the trusses, all of the wrestlers putting each other in headlocks and submission holds at one point, Petey Williams hitting two of the best Canadian Destroyers of his entry career, Rohit putting Trey on top of Josh shoulder’s to hit a mega facebuster that legitimately knocked Alexander’s mouthguard of his mouth.
It’s insanity meets ingenuity meets the high risk style of wrestling that has come to define the X Division for a generation of fans; It’s without a doubt my pick for the best opening match in all of Slammiversary…Man this was a great list to write.
And that’s my list; What Do you think was TNA’s best opening match to take place at Slammiversary? Leave your thoughts down below and be sure to check out my article on the 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Slammiversary.