Who Could The Mystery “TNA Originals” Be At Slammiversary?
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Slammiversary over these past years has started to become Impacts big yearly event and has really had that must see feel to it. This year however it has that must see feel to it, this is because Slammiversary 2022 will be Impact Wrestling’s 20 year anniversary and it will be held on the exact date of the very first TNA show.
With such an important and historic event on the horizon, the options are endless to what we could see. TNA has been a company where at some point pretty much every wrestler has walked through the door. This includes wrestlers like CM Punk, Seth Rollins and even Will Osprey, through the 20 year history so many talents have made at least 1 appearance, and for 1 night, we could always see a return?
Since we had Slammiversary announced, many Impact fans have been creating all sorts of fantasy matches with the current roster and past wrestlers who we grew attachments to. While some may feel the main event doesn’t offer much in Josh Alexander vs Eric Young, this is the perfect representation of a current up and coming talent vs an Original veteran from the TNA days in Eric Young.
Over the past few weeks we have seen a few names from the TNA days show up. Names like Shark Boy, Kazarian and even The Wildcat Chris Harris have shown up to begin the build up to Slammiversary. Even if you’re not fully aware of it, Impact are planting the seeds for Slammiversary as we slowly see more and more TNA originals show up.
So far Impact have announced 5 matches for Slammiversary, While all five look like they will knock it out of the park (and you know we will likely get at least 3 more), 2 of those matches have a lot of interest to us Impact fans. This is due to the fact that we could very well see former TNA originals make their return.
The first of these matches is one of Impact’s most loved and earliest created gimmick matches, The Ultimate X. This match was actually created back in The Asylum back in 2003 and has been a staple in the company ever since. Currently we have the X Division champion Ace Austin defending his title against Trey Miguel, “Speedball” Mike Bailey, Kenny King and Jack Evans. Evans is making his return to Impact Wrestling for the first time in over a decade.
Looking at the talent that is already in this match, and the experience that all 5 have in The Ultimate X, you know this match will be a candidate for match of the night. If we look at the wrestlers in the match and who could be considered as a call back to te TNA days, you could very well look at Jack Evans? He was an original member of Team Canada back in 2004 (Another link to Team Canada here), and he would appear again along with Kenny King around 2012.
While not a huge amount of history there is a little bit and some that you feel Impact could you Evans or King as one of the OG’s in this match. However with one spot left to fill, you have to feel that Impact want to fill that spot with someone who has a hell of a lot more history with the company and gives us as fans, lots of nostalgia. The question is, who could that be?
One name that many fans are throwing around (myself included) is that of Amazing Red. He was a big part of the X Division creation in the NWA TNA days and is considered an X Division pioneer, he is someone that for a number of years we have been hoping to see show up again. When you look at X Division pioneers, other names like Matt Bentley, Homicide or even Jay Lethal would still be great to see and would not feel out of place? All of these names would be welcomed back and would be great to see, Impact have so many options that could show up and give us as fans that moment that will last forever.
When we speak of nostalgia and moments that can last forever, we are already seeing a match get set up that could hold the true key to our memories. This past week on Impact we saw Honor No More attack and injure Rhino after OGK’s match with Heath and Rhino. This led to The Motorcity Machine Guns and Kazarian looking concerned over Rhino’s condition and telling Scott D’Amore “something has to be done.” D’Amore then went on to announce a 5 on 5 match for Slammiversary.
The match will consist of Honor No More who will be represented by Eddie Edwards, Vincent, PCO and OGK (Mike Bennett and Matt Taven), taking on The Guns (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley), Kazarian and 2 mystery partners. D’Amore stated that he didn’t care who those partners were as long as they were Impact guys and stood beside them. He would also state that all 3 men (Kaz, Sabin and Shelley) were there from the Asylum days which really gets your mind thinking.
With these facts, you have to wonder who the final 2 names could? The Machine Guns and Kazarian have a lot of connections through their history in the company, be it another tag team or two singles competitors? We saw Shark Boy and Wildcat Chris Harris on the show this past week interact with Eddie Edwards as a possible tease, While they would be very interesting, you have to feel Impact have something else up their sleeve?
If you look at the names who are in this match, there are a lot of main event calibre talent. While we love Shark Boy he would feel very out of place here you feel, however there are still a lot of possibilities to who we could see? It’s very interesting that we have Kazarian in this match who is signed to All Elite Wrestling, because of this it is really not impossible that we could see someone else show up from AEW?
A few of the names on AEW’s roster that we could see appear may be Sting, Samoa Joe or even Lance Archer? All 3 have a varied history but would all be welcomed back. Joe and Sting were a huge part in making TNA and establishing it’s name, while Archer never managed to establish himself in TNA, you could see they saw something in him and it would be great to see what we could have had.
While there are many wrestlers who are active, there are also many former talents who are currently on the inactive list, however for one night, a return could always be possible? Names like Monty Brown, Raven or even Ken Shamrock would be a very nice touch to bring everything back in a full circle.
We haven’t seen Brown in the wrestling business since 2007, and Raven has been absent from the business for the last few years too. Shamrock was last present in Impact back in 2019 but has not resurfaced since however this could be the perfect time for that to happen for one or all 3 of these?
When you look at these six names all of them would fit very well with the 3 that are on team TNA Originals to go against Honor No More (to add variety).
While it’s likely to see 2 single wrestlers show up on team TNA originals, it’s also not impossible that we could see another tag team join the 5 man team. Some possible tag teams that are out there that give us that “flashback feel” are teams like LAX (Homicide and Hernandez) and The Naturals (Chase Stevens and Andy Douglas).
LAX had some great matches with The Machine Guns, Beer Money and Team 3D in the mid 2000’s, together with the Guns and Kaz they could really create some chaos against Honor No More. The Naturals were a big part of TNA’s tag team division in the early days of the company and in a way, were the Guns before the Guns were around. We saw Chase Stevens recently and it will be great to see them reunite after all these years, even if it is for a one and done
While both these tag teams would be amazing (and even if they don’t appear in the 5 on 5 it will still be great to see them), I think deep down there are 2 tag teams that us Impact fans are really crossing our fingers for. Those two teams being XXX and Americas Most Wanted. When you talk about tag teams who built the TNA Tag Team Division, Two of those pillars were AMW (James Storm and Chris Harris) and XXX (Christopher Daniels, Low Ki and Elix Skipper). While it may seem a stretch at first glance, it could be more possible than you may think for these teams to show up.
We have already seen Chris Harris make an appearance on Impact this past week confronting Eddie Edwards, his last appearance was when he showed up for James Storm’s 1000th match in the company. Storm has made various appearances with Impact since Bound For Glory 2020 and is still freelancing. He is not officially signed anywhere so what we saw last week could be the first step into getting Americas Most Wanted back together again inside an Impact Wrestling ring?
As for XXX this team is a little more interesting, simply because all three members have taken different paths. Daniels and Low Ki have remained in the wrestling industry while Skipper has not been active since 2009, Low Ki and Daniels have also had spells in Impact over the past few years, however in Low Ki’s case, it didn’t end on good terms. All three have a very different situation and because of this it will be vary interesting to see who (or if) we see?
It would be great to see Elix Skipper back as you always felt like he had so much more to offer, plus you know what he can do when given the opportunity. While it may be unlikely to see someone show up who’s not been in the business for 13 years, it’s probably more likely than someone who has left on bad terms with the company you feel? And for a single night for the fans, you wonder if it’s tempting?
Christopher Daniels is the link in everything here however, while he was a big part in XXX, he was also Kazarian’s tag team partner in Bad Influence (SCU in AEW), It’s also worth noting that when Daniels returned last year, he returned to his Bad Influence theme music. Daniels is also a big part of behind the scenes in AEW so you could very easily see him showing up. Even if we just see a Bad Influence reunion, that would be amazing. It’s also not out of the realm of possibility that we see Daniels show up along side James Storm, those two have a history of holding the NWA tag team titles back in 2004 together.
There are certainly a lot of different options that Impact have to pick from,.while it would be amazing to see talents like AJ Styles, Bobby Roode and Abyss from WWE, you feel it’s very unlikely given their track record (which is a shame given how integral those names were to TNA).
Personally if I was the booker I’d like to see Amazing Red in the Ultimate X and probably AMW in the 5 on 5, simply because it would make everyone on the team feel a little different rather than just fall into the X Division style format (even though many of the wrestlers have changed their style over the years).
It’s very likely we can still see a lot of the names above in some way or another, maybe video packages, backstage segments or confronting wrestlers after matches? Plus Impact as of now only have 5 matches announced (and only 3 are fully confirmed) so there’s lot’s of room for more to come in the coming weeks. Who do you think we’ll see at Slammiversary for Impact Wrestling’s 20 year Anniversary show? This will hopefully pull on the heart strings.
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