83 Weeks - TNA Slammiversary 2010 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

TNA Slammiversary 2010

Slammiversary took place on June 13th, from the Impact Zone, in Orlando, Florida

It drew 1,100. Admission was free

Since TNA wasnt making money off ticket sales, what was their main income source at this time?

Speaking of that, Keller reported - Sports Business Journal published two reports on WWE and TNA business, mainly with focus on TNA's business model trying to grab market share from WWE. The profile of TNA included some comments on the company's revenue by TNA president Dixie Carter, which is a rarity for the privately-held company. TNA is claiming 75 percent revenue growth from 2008 to 2009, mainly from the increase in house show touring. "Our revenues have grown significantly," 

Carter said. "We're finally getting the momentum we need." Carter also claimed "people are more aware of us than ever" due to the addition of Hulk Hogan. Yet, TV ratings are barely at the 1.0 rating level back on Thursday nights, which is well below where the company was one year ago. As part of the focus on live event touring helping TNA's revenue, SBJ included a quote from Carter indicating she feels its important to bring TNA to the fans. "It's imperative," Carter said. "Universal Studios, we're very lucky to have them as a marketing partner. But it's very important that you go and bring the show to other people." 

This was the first time since 2006 that Slammiversary was held in the Impact Zone. It's an event marking the 8 year anniversary of the company

We're coming off of the Sacrifice pay per view, where Rob Van Dam successfully defended his World Title against AJ Styles. Here at Slammiversary, RVD would be defending the title against the man that he beat in a matter of seconds in RVD's TNA debut, Sting

Let's get to some company news heading into Slammiversary

Meltzer reported - Hulk Hogan filed a lawsuit against Post Foods, which makes Cocoa Pebbles cereal. The suit comes from a Cocoa Pebbles TV commercial with a character called Bulk Boulder, with long blond hair and a Hogan style mustache with a big physique. The minute I saw that commercial, I figured this was a lawsuit waiting to happen if they didn’t get his approval, and if they did, the character wouldn’t have been called Bulk Boulder. 

Bulk Boulder is a champion pro wrestler clearly based on the 1980s Hulk Hogan, who in the commercial, beats up Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, but then Bam Bam gets in the ring and destroys the champion, breaking him into little pieces. Hogan, who before becoming Hulk Hogan, wrestled under the name Terry “The Hulk” Boulder, claims Post Foods never contacted him or got permission to use what he contends is his likeness to promote the cereal. I think they didn’t realize he used to be Terry Boulder. 

He said he first contacted Post Foods on this claim in August, when he became aware of the commercial, and the ads had continued. 

In the lawsuit, he claimed the depiction of his character is that his likeness “is shown humiliated and cracked into pieces with broken teeth” and claimed the degrading depictions have harmed his character. I don’t know about that. 

Also, Hulk Hogan is testing out a new concept called “An Evening with Hulk Hogan and Friends,” with the debut show being on 7/18 in Coquitlam, BC. It’s a Q&A session in a theater with Hogan as the star, along with Jimmy Hart, Brutus Beefcake, Greg Valentine, The Nasty Boys, Honky Tonk Man and Hillbilly Jim. 

Meltzer reported - Ross Forman, who was in the public relations department and has been with the company almost from the start, was let go a few weeks ago although it just became public this past week. It was said to be due to budget cutbacks. The thing that people were talking about that may have nailed him was something completely out of his control. Among the things he did was put together the TNA trading cards deal with TriStar since he’s got a legit sports background, and he did all of the writing for the cards. 

Everything he wrote had to be approved before it went out. For the most recent set of cards, the focus theme on all the cards was TNA was taking over Monday nights. Well, the day the cards came back to be shipped out was the day after Spike moved them back to Thursday, and there was an office uproar, particularly from Dixie Carter about the cards pushing Monday. A few were surprised noting that Forman is super tight with Kevin Nash dating back to the WCW days, and figured Nash would have been able to save him.

The Jeff Hardy trial scheduled for this past week has been delayed again, until 7/6. Hardy and attorney James Van Camp were in court on 6/3 waiting for his case to be heard but due to a busy calender for the session, they ran out of time before his case. The court calender for 7/6 shows Hardy only facing one charge, felony trafficking in opiates. A call to Superior Court said that the other charges were dropped, but Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger denied that was the case, saying all the charges were still pending in an interview with local newspaper The Pilot.

If the other charges were dropped, he would be facing a maximum penalty of six months in jail. Police arrested Hardy on 9/11, two weeks after he finished up with WWE, finding 262 prescription Vicodin pills, 180 prescription Somas, 555 milliliters of anabolic steroids, powdered cocaine residue and drug paraphernalia.

Meltzer wrote - Flair’s contract was a one-year deal calling for 52 dates. Considering he’s been on virtually every TV and every PPV, they are running through the dates early and will have to ink him to a new deal if they want to keep him. One person noted that one of the reasons for looking at Reid Fliehr (who may be signed, Ric said he had and in TNA the assumption was it was true, but talking to several who should know, none of them could confirm it) is that if Reid is signed and put on the road, or for that matter, just used on big shows, they figure it’ll be easier to get Flair to agree to add dates for the deal without charging them a difficult price for the added shots. 

Meltzer wrote - Scott Hall didn’t appear at his arraignment on 6/9 after his arrest on drunk and disorderly and resisting arrest charges from the late night of 5/13, two nights before the last PPV. He has pleaded not guilty. Apparently the Hitching Post bar in Chuluota, FL, outside of Orlando, had the entire incident filmed.

He later reported - Scott Hall was officially let go due to the arrest getting out. While some were talking double standard because Jeff Hardy has far more major charges, the thing is that aside from Hardy being a bigger current star and there are always inconsistent standards in wrestling, Hall really is in a lot rougher shape than Hardy. They decided to strip The Band of the tag titles as opposed to having Kevin Nash & Eric Young defend them and lose them. 

Jeff Jarrett in an interview with Brian Fritz, on the move back to Thursday: “The TNA fan, the TNA watcher wanted us on Thursdays. They spoke their mind and they wanted us on Thursdays so we would be foolish to stay on Mondays for a number of reasons, for numbers, for our focus groups.” He pushed that it’s going to be a three-hour block starting in a few weeks. .

Meltzer reported - ODB, real name Jessica Kresa, 32, quit TNA on 6/14. She had made a lot of noises of late about being unhappy with what had happened to the women’s division. She was not a favorite of management and hadn’t been used well with the new regime which valued television model looks above unique charisma, the same reason she was never signed by WWE even though she was the most over woman in OVW when it was their developmental program. She’d been with the company for a little over two-and-a-half years. In recent weeks, she talked about loving wrestling but it being time to make a change, and wanting to get into acting. 

TNA had recently moved back to Thursdays, ending the new Monday Night Wars. Here's the ratings of their first few weeks back

May 13 - 0.93 rating 

May 20 - 0.95 rating 

May 27 - 0.96 rating 

June 3 - 0.87 rating 

June 10 - 0.99 rating 

Meltzer wrote - Eric Bischoff, on the Monday Night Mayhem radio show, on the pushing of older stars ahead of the former TNA stars: “I have to say this, and this may piss off some people in TNA, but I hate the term homegrown talent. We’re not selling vegetables here or freshly-made pies. This is about creating awareness. Our survival, our ability to grow our audience and appeal to a broader audience isn’t about appealing to the same people who’ve been watching this, and quite frankly, the audience hasn’t grown all that significantly over the last four, five or six years or you probably wouldn’t be talking to me right now. 

This is about growing and expanding the audience. You gotta grow the brand, and you do that by bringing in people, whether they’re movie stars, television stars or anything else, who have a broader appeal because they have been out there in front of other people in a bigger, broader audience then perhaps the talent you already have on the show. That’s not a knock at all on the talent that TNA currently has, but it does reflect the need that in order for TNA to grow, you have to bring in people that have a broader appeal worldwide.” That all makes sense on paper, even though it didn’t end up happening that way. 

Meltzer reported -  The Sports Business Journal covered pro wrestling and had a significantly larger article on TNA than WWE (likely because of greater cooperation). Dixie Carter claimed TNA would be gaining market share from WWE this year due to more television exposure, more live shows, and the buzz created by having Hulk Hogan. The article was weak because they didn’t even examine how adding so many high profile stars has led to diminished ratings and average house show attendance. The article said TNA is presenting rougher wrestling than WWE by using thumb tacks, broken glass and barbed wire. Carter claimed in the article TNA has been profitable the past few years. WWE, on the other hand, pushed its move to PG. Donna Goldsmith said WWE is looking at gaining sponsorships from quick service restaurants, insurance companies, package goods and auto company. 

I know that for the past decade, it’s bothered Vince McMahon about how no auto companies would advertise on WWE programming (they haven’t done MMA either). Goldsmith also said that the celebrity guest hosts on Raw attract new fans to the show and bring back lapsed fans who no longer watch. The article noted WWE not revealing its price points for its sponsors. TNA was also vague, claiming revenues have grown significantly but not saying what the numbers were. 

Meltzer reported - Carter has been calling Paul Heyman about coming in for the ECW angle and taking creative control of the company. The pitch is that if he comes in, Vince Russo will walk away from creative, but stay with the company (in other words be there to replace him when things go South). Bischoff would be there to help create new programming. Spike has been involved with talks. 

Right now Heyman is working on marketing Brock Lesnar, has two book projects he’s working on, and has a creative agency. He has not been offered the Dana White position (full control plus 10% ownership), although he would not want to be the public face of the company and up front like White, but the behind-the-scenes guy (that’s if he would do it and odds are right now not strong that would happen). But the issue isn’t the booking. Booking alone may make TNA better, but it won’t turn the company around. 

You’d need a complete turnaround when it comes to branding, positioning, marketing as a viable alternative product (very hard fighting an incumbent in the marketplace that has probably a 90-92% market share, and you would have to clean house and have both a new concept of pro wrestling and an ability to both find new stars (recruiting and strong developmental, and the fruits of those labors would be a minimum five years and these days people in wrestling don’t even have five weeks of patience), create new stars and get them to cross over. 

That takes us to the ppv. Mike Tenay and Taz did the commentary

In an attempt to hype the show, Dixie Carter claimed in mid-week there would be an announcement that would change wrestling history. Of course she was crying Desmond one too many times. She talked about how excited she was and couldn’t sleep, and how Kevin Kay of Spike TV thought it was big. 

Then, the night before the show, at a party, she changed her story to the big surprise would be evident in a few weeks, and there would only be a minor surprise on the show (Tommy Dreamer doing a run-in). 

First match is Kurt Angle vs Kazarian. Storyline was Angle had to win matches to move from #10 in the top 10 to #1

Kurt Angle pinned Kazarian in 14:12 in a great match. Crowd was hot, and never fully came close to this level the rest of the night. Lots of near falls including Angle using a series of four German suplexes in a row. Kazarian came back with an Omori driver and that shocked the crowed, because they went silent thinking Angle got hurt again, but did pop for the kick out. An inherent problem up until that point is no matter what Kazarian did, nobody in the crowd thought he had a prayer of winning. Angle used an Olympic slam for a near fall. Angle was up for a moonsault, but Kazarian pulled him off with a power bomb and used the ropes for leverage, but angle kicked out. Kazarian went for a second Omori driver, but Angle reversed into an ankle lock. ****

Next match was Douglas Williams defending the X-Division title against Brian Kendrick. Williams has been the champion since 5.16.10 and this is his first defense. Kendrick beat Williams on the May 13th Impact to earn this title shot. 

Douglas Williams retained the X title beating Brian Kendrick in 9:34. Very good match. Williams used a back suplex on the floor, Kendrick used a tope and a missile dropkick, as well as a shining wizard. Williams went for his Chaos Theory suplex but Kendrick blocked it by biting Williams’ hand. Williams ended up using a tornado DDT for the clean win. The story, and the announcers did play this up, is that all this time Williams has run down high flyers and talked about how ground and pound is best, but he was a hypocrite since he used a flying move to get the win. ***½

The next match was Madison Rayne vs Roxxi for the Knockouts title. Rayne has been the champion since April 18th, and this is her 4th defense. Before the match starts, she gets on the mic and says that tonight she has everything to lose and nothing to gain. so she challenges Roxxi to put her TNA career on the line. Roxxi agrees just as Rayne hits her with the mic to start the match 

Madison Rayne beat Roxxi in 4:14 to keep the Knockouts title. You could see the budget cutting here as no Lacey Von Erich or Velvet Sky here. Rayne said she was putting up her title but Roxxi wasn’t putting up anything. She wanted Roxxi to put up her career like Tara. Roxxi agreed. That’s when Rayne nailed her with the mic, busting her open bad. Rayne kicked out of the Voodoo drop the first time. The second time Roxxi did it, Rayne rolled out of the ring. Rayne used something similar to Gail Kim’s WWE finisher. Better than most women’s matches in either promotion. Roxxi was in tears when this was over but they cut away so as to make the stip mean as little as possible. *3/4

Jesse Neal pinned Bubba Ray Dudley in 5:53. This segment really sucked and started the downturn of the show. Bubba called Devon to the ring. Then Shannon Moore ran in as well. Bubba said he was glad Moore came out because he wanted to apologize to everyone. He said he’d been acting like a bully and a douchebag. That’s the other Bubba. Crowd chanted “You’re a douchebag” at him. He said Devon talked sense into him, that he had no business treating Jesse this way and Jesse was just doing everything they taught him to do. He said Jesse wasn’t a failure in the Navy like he said, and he only said things to be hurtful to him. He said Jesse was really a hero. Moore left. Bubba, Devon and Neal hugged and raised each others’ hands. 

The problem is, Vince Russo has been doing these identical swerves for years now and everyone in the crowd knew what was coming. The only thing is, I think when they raised hands, people figured Bubba was attacking him. 

Instead, they all walked out of the ring and it appeared they weren’t going to even have the match, and then Bubba attacked Neal. Devon tried to attack Bubba but security held him back. Bubba was chopping him hard and beating on him. The match was a disappointment because you could see Neal is really green when it comes to a singles “fight” match as his stuff didn’t look good. Bubba had the match won when Dreamer came out. The crowd popped pretty big, like they do whenever a newcomer arrives who used to be a star. Bubba missed a senton and was hit with a spear. All that early mic work was a complete waste of time. 3/4*

Matt Morgan beat Hernandez via DQ in 5:20. Hernandez claimed he had been home for months due to a herniated disc. He’d been on national TV almost every week since the injury angle. Morgan apparently lost his luggage, so had to work in street clothes. So they did an angle where he came out with a neck brace on and had a note from his doctor claiming he couldn’t wrestle. After the speech before the last match, this was a bad idea. Hernandez came out and attacked him and threw him in the ring. Morgan threw Hernandez’s shoulder into the post three times. By the third time, there was no crowd reaction. 

Morgan then tried to choke Hernandez with his shirt. That’s a firing offense. Hernandez then threw down the ref for the DQ. Stupid tired mic work. Check. Bad match. Check. Bad finish. Check. After the match, Hernandez tried for revenge by kicking Morgan into the post, but Morgan moved, and instead he kicked ref Brian Hebner. They tried to sell it like Brian Hebner had a rib injury and Earl Hebner ran down to check on his son. ½*

Hogan then explained the wrestlers’ code. You see, wrestling is real, but wrestlers don’t actually want to hurt each other. But Sting broke the code when he did the number on Jarrett. We’ve seen a zillion examples of guys laid out for dead with cards placed on them and all of a sudden this angle is breaking the code. The next thing you know, some guy will be fired shooting a rubber band at another guy while the next week they’ll try and portray attempted vehicular manslaughter and that’s considered action adventure and fine.

Abyss pinned Desmond Wolfe in 11:45. Chelsea was back with Wolfe as they did the 30 days had run out. Well, it was 24 days ago TV time and 27 days ago real time when Abyss got her, but I guess the finish of this match required Chelsea with Wolfe. People didn’t care at all about Abyss. It was the overdone garbage match with a barbed wire board, kendo sticks and eventually broken glass. Wolfe used garbage can shots to the head early. There was a box of weapons with a Teddy Bear wrapped in barbed wire. Wolfe got mad as apparently this was a signal that Abyss had been sleeping with Chelsea. Or at least he reacted like that. Crowd was so dead here it was sick. Abyss choke slammed Wolfe onto a gimmicked part of the platform. A few people, like a dozen, chanted “Holy shit” but for the most part it was quiet. Wolfe used a sunset flip power bomb on Abyss into the barbed wire board. His arms were all bloody from landing on the barbed wire. More kendo stick shots by Wolfe. Abyss ended up taking a face first bump into broken glass, and he was bleeding from that. About five people were chanting “This is awesome.” Wolfe then asked Chelsea for her purse. She gave it to him. 

He opened it up and something was missing. Well, I’m sure she’s afraid you might check her cell phone for messages because that’s how Matt Hardy found out about Lita. Actually he was mad there were no Brass Knuckles in the purse. She then pulled out her hidden Brass Knuckles, threw them to Abyss, and he punched Wolfe and pinned him with a black hole slam. DUD

Jay Lethal pinned A.J. Styles in 17:09. Styles got near falls with an enzuigiri and a high kneedrop. Crowd was tired and slow t react here. Lethal used a leg lariat and a moonsault block for a near fall. He hit the Lethal combination, but Styles kicked out. Styles used a fireman’s carry into a backbreaker for a near fall. Lethal used a back suplex into a diamond cutter for a near fall. Styles went for the Styles clash, but Lethal reversed it into a dragon suplex. Flair put Styles leg on the ropes to break the pin attempt. 

Lethal came back with the figure four. Styles made the ropes. Lethal used a backbreaker, but missed the elbow off the top. Styles hit Pele kick, and went to go to the top, but his leg injured by the figure four gave out. Styles managed to climb up, and then came off the ropes into a Northern lights suplex for the pin. People didn’t expect Lethal to win and the announcers played the win up big. Crowd was pretty tired, not reacting as well as you’d think. Flair was selling at Styles for losing and then Kazarian came out.

Jeff Hardy & Mr. Anderson beat Robert Roode & James Storm in 13:56. Hardy & Anderson did an interview where they named their team the Extreme Enigmatic Assholes. The crowd was chanting, “Let’s go assholes” early on. Hardy used a stunner on Roode. Hardy hit the swanton, but Storm pulled the ref out of the ring. Storm then dropped to the ground. Ref Slick Johnson got up, seeing Storm laid out, and blamed Anderson for pulling him out of the ring. 

While Hardy had the match won and the ref blames Storm for pulling him from making the count???? Storm used the Randy Orton draping DDT on Hardy for a near fall. Hardy used a stunner on Roode and tagged out to Anderson. Anderson used the Lambeau plunge on Anderson but Hardy saved. Anderson was busted open near the left eye, but won cleanly with the mic check. ***1/4

The next match is for the World Title, RVD defending against Sting. RVD won the title on April 19th and this is his 4th defense of it

Rob Van Dam retained the TNA title beating Sting in 10:51. They showed a clip before the match saying that even though he doesn’t like Sting, Sting was the No. 1 contender because he got so many votes from the fans. Actually, he got shockingly few. They brawled on the floor early. Sting was working wearing his workout shirt. Sting backdropped RVD over the guard rail and whipped him into the barricades. They were 4:25 in before they even got in the ring. Crowd got quiet with the two in the ring. 

Sting got a near fall after two Stinger splashes in the corner. RVD came off the ropes with a crossbody, but Sting moved and instead he nailed Earl Hebner. Sting used a bat shot to the gut, the jaw and the shin. Jarrett came out and took the bat from Sting and hit Sting with it. After a missed Stinger splash it was a kick to the jaw and a frog splash. *1/4

• Thumbs up 57 (65.5%)
• Thumbs down 6 (06.9%)
• In the middle 24 (27.6%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Kurt Angle vs. Kazarian 71

Jay Lethal vs. A.J. Styles 9

WORST MATCH POLL

Hernandez vs. Matt Morgan 36

Rob Van Dam vs. Sting 16

Abyss vs. Desmond Wolfe 14

Madison Rayne vs. Roxxi 8