10 Interesting Facts About Slammiversary 2017 By Hakeem Fullerton

Intro: I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that 2017 was easily the worse year in company history; With a combination of negative press, rising competition from other promotions, a shrinking roster, questionable figure heads running the company and a serious lack of finances forced TNA to merge with Global Force Wrestling which lead to Double J, Jeff Jarrett back in charge of the company (a decision that I'm sure the company or the fans wouldn't immediately regret soon afterwards).

Despite all of this, there was one great thing that came out of this disastrous and that would be the Slammiversary 2017 PPV.

A show that featured an amazing four way tag team title match featuring newcomers, Santana and Ortiz, a number of unification matches, and somehow even a No DQ tag team match between Josh Matthews and Scott Steiner vs. Jeremy Borash and Joseph Parks was enjoyable.

While the year would get a lot worse for the company following this event, Slammiversary 2017 is easily one of the best things to come out of a very bad year and today I'll be talking about 10 interesting facts you probably didn't about it.

10. A WWE Superstar Was In The Crowd

Wrestling promoters hate see one of their own superstars appear on a rival promotion's television or pay per view programming, especially if there still signed with the promotion when they appear on the opposing side's product.

This has led to wrestles being unsurprisingly fired from the company they work for with the most infamous one being that time in 2008 when one half of the "The Highlanders", Robbie McAllister (real name Derek Graham-Couch) was soon released from the WWE following his appearance at a TNA TV taping where he sat as a guest and the camera managed to catch footage of him there.

At Slammiversary 2017, a fan wearing a black shirt and a blue polka dotted Lucha mask was spot sitting in the front row and enjoying the show.

Now at first, no one knew who this person was but, it wasn't until some eagle eye observers looked at a few photos taken of this individual and they began to deduce that this person was more than just a fan, but in fact, it was non other than former NXT and Divas Champion, Paige.

At the time Paige was dating and later engaged to then GFW world champion, Alberto El Patron and in order to make sure that she didn't lose her job with the WWE similar to McAllister, Paige donned a disguise complete with a fake name to ensure that no one would recognize her.

For the most part, the large majority of people in attendance didn't recognize her and Paige was able to keep her job with the WWE without worries of being given her walking papers.

9. Barry Scott Returns For The PPV Cold Open

Depending on how long you've been watching the product, the name Barry Scott may not immediately click upon hearing it for the first time. However, even if you don't recognize his name, you will most certainly recognize his voice.

Barry Scott is the man who is known for being the voiceover/narrator to many of TNA/Impact Wrestling's promo and video packages with his most memorable one being his narration of for the "Cross The Line" video which would begin and end an episode of TNA Wrestling in late 2000's.

After years of being away from the company, the man that some fans call "The Voice of TNA" would make his return by both narrating and even appearing on camera for the cold open/introduction video for Slammiversary 2017, a moment that gave diehard TNA fans a nostalgia trip that they wouldn't soon forget.

Proving after all this time that he hadn't lost a step, the company would have Barry Scott voiceover the cold open for Slammiversary 2018 as well as few more narrations in the current Impact product with the most notable being the self aggrandizing and ego pandering cold open, which was commissioned and starring former Impact Grand champion, Moose.

8. They Event Was Filled With Star Studded Cameos

In recent years, Slammiversary has pretty much replaced Bound For Glory when it comes to being the most important and must see PPV in TNA/Impact History.

They event much like Bound For Glory is often seen as the company's answer to WrestleMania, and on this night that this was proven to be true.

The show featured a large number of stars from the sports world including names like MMA stars and personalities like King Mo and Dan Lambert, Legendary Mexican pro wrestlers, Dos Caras and El Hijo de Dos Caras and even TNA originals like Shark Boy and Father James Mitchell appeared on the show.

Other sports celebrities who appeared on this show were professional stock car racer, Austin Dillion and former Cleveland Browns footballer, Gary Barnidge were also seen accompanying NFL star, DeAngelo Williams to his match...speaking of.

7. Reviews On DeAngelo Williams' Performance

The second match of the show saw former NFL star turn pro wrestler, Moose taking on the team of Eli Drake and Chris Adonis (Chris Masters in the WWE) with his partner: former Pittsburgh Stealers lead running back, DeAngelo Williams.

Williams' involvement with the company first saw him getting confronted by former TNA tag team champion, Davey Richards before helping out Moose on an episode of Impact.

In the lead up to this event, Williams would mention how he love professional wrestling and how he respected the sport and the people involved, before announcing to places like ESPN that he would be stepping into the ring at Slammiversary.

The match itself was good as it saw Moose and Williams defeat Drake and Adonis, with Bryan Alvarez talking about Williams' performance in 2017 and mentioned "Pretty damn amazing in his first-ever match".

Dave Meltzer's response to DeAngelo's performance was truly something as Meltzer went out to talk about Williams' performance by saying "Has the potential to be one of the greatest wrestlers I've ever seen" and compared him to names like Kurt Angle and Matt Riddle.

Unfortunately as soon as his time in wrestling started, it ended as a mere few days following they event, Williams would reportedly state that he was retiring from pro wrestling on July 5th 2017.

Williams would make one more appearance in Impact Wrestling as DeAngelo was seen interacting in a segment with Austin Aries in the lead up to Slammiversary 2018's main event.

6. Alisha Edwards Signed With The Company Months Before

In the lead up to the intergender tag team metal mayhem match at Slammiversary, Davey Richards and Angelina Love were attacking Eddie Edwards on an almost weekly basis but this feud would end up becoming a family affair as Davey's then significant other, Angelina Love not only got involved but so was Eddie's wife.

Eddie Edwards' real life wife and pro wrestler, Alisha got herself involved in this storyline following a surprise attack by Angelina during a main event match with Lashley and Eddie on an episode of Impact.

To this day it remains one of Alisha's best matches within the company, however there maybe some fans who may mistaken see this intergender tag team match as her very first match within the company but in reality, this wasn't her first time.

Alisha first appeared in the company in the late 2000's taking on names like Awesome Kong for the Knockouts Championship before returning to Impact as a part of the one night only TNA shows.

In 2017, months before Slammiversary, Alisha took part in another one of these one night only shows, this one called 'Victory Road: Knockouts Knockdown'.

Alisha would advance to the finals of a four-on-four tag team match which saw her team come out victorious; But before the show came to an end Karen Jarrett came out and announced to the world and Alisha herself that she would the newest Knockouts on the roster and she's been with the company ever since.

5. EC3 is Undefeated At Slammiversary

Ethan Carter the Third also known as EC3 became a megastar during his run in TNA in the mid to late 2010's following his first departure from the WWE and it's third brand, NXT.

In the early stages of his time in the company, EC3 had obtained a massive unbeaten streak where he was never pinned or submitted since his debut at Bound For Glory 2013 until 2016 where he was pinned by "The Miracle" Mike Bennett on an episode of Impact.

However, there is another undefeated streak that EC3 has and that would be his win-loss record at Slammiversary. Between his first match to his last one at this event, EC3 has had four wins with zero losses at Slammiversary.

The first one saw him defeating Bully Ray in a Texas Death Match at Slammiversary 2014, his victory in a tag team match at Slammiversary 2015, his win over Mike Bennett at Slammiversary 2016 and lastly his victory against James Storm in a strap match at Slammiversary 2017.

4. James Storm's "Concussion"

Speaking of that strap match, at Slammiversary EC3 took on James Storm and everything was going according to plan until that moment in the match where EC3 rammed Storm's head into the ring post which would later see Storm become disoriented and collapse in the midst of the match ensuring Ethan Carter's victory.

Following the event, reports began to come out that James Storm had suffered a 3rd grade concussion in the match which leaves the person suffering from it completely unconscious for a number of seconds requiring months of physical therapy to recover.

However, it turns out that James Storm had not suffered a concussion at all and that it was all a work.

According to Storm who talks about this situation with Nick Aldis in a recent YouTube interview, the finish to the match was to see Storm "suffer from a concussion" in the middle of the match thus leading to EC3's controversial win and as a result he would be off of TV for a couple of months. The Cowboy also mentions how people would ask him if he was suffering a concussion despite the fact Storm had no medical records to back up this claim; Even those working at Anthem Sports were curious only for Storm to response with a 'no'.

In any case, Storm was written off of TV following Slammiversary and he wouldn't be seen on Impact programming again until September of that same year.

3. Alberto's Promo After The Event

Alberto El Patron's second exit from the WWE and what came afterwards was a whirlwind of madness to say they least; As the former WWE and World Heavyweight Champion would not only get into a relationship with WWE wrestler Paige, but he would also find himself wrestling in Impact (then merged with Global Force Wrestling) where in the main of Slammiversary 2017 he would take on Bobby Lashley in a unification title bout for the TNA and GFW championships.

The show concluded with Alberto defeating Lashley to become the undisputed champion but there is one part of the show that pay per view audiences didn't see and that was El Patron's shoot promo on his former company.

In a video posted on YouTube, the crowd is heard cheering following the conclusion of the main event, when Alberto grabs the mic and begins cutting a very passionate promo where he thanks Lashley for giving him the fight his of life and can be heard using profanity throughout especially when referring to the WWE.

In the closing moments of this promo, "The Pride of Mexico" mentions that he wants to wrestle Lashley once again and that "this isn't Fucking Sports Entertainment" before the crowd could be heard chanting "Fuck WWE".

2. Alberto El Patron Wrestled His Last PPV Match At This Event

Despite winning the gold in the main event of Slammiversary, things would go downhill for both Alberto and the company following this event. A few weeks following the show, Alberto would be accused of domestically abusing Paige, which in addition to his sporadic rants on Twitter forced the company to strip El Patron of the title and he would be suspended for months following this scandal.

Bafflingly Alberto would be back at Bound For Glory 2017 where he not only cut a promo which not only saw him turning heel but he also played a crucial if not damning role in the outcome of the main event.

With a new regime in the form of Don Callis and Scott D'Amore taking over, the company planned to give Alberto another chance and put him in the main event against Austin Aries for the Impact World Championship at the Redemption PPV in 2018.

Sadly Alberto's problems got into the way once again as he no showed an Impact vs. Lucha Underground event that was taking place days before; This caused the new regime to terminate El Patron's contract with Impact Wrestling immediately following the cross promotion event making this event the last pay-per view match for the Pride of Mexico.

Rey Fenix and Pentagon Jr. would end taking Alberto's place at Redemption thus turning the world title match into a triple threat match and the rest as they say is history.

1. Mike Tenay Refused To Do Commentary For They Event

Slammiversary 2017 was booked to be the beginning of a new chapter for the company while also have few familiar faces from the past. One of those familiar faces was former color commentary and salesmen, 'DW' Don West, who returned to the company to do commentary one more time just like the old days.

While Don West was more then happy to return to do commentary for the company once again, his former commentary partner, Mike Tenay wasn't so happy. According to reports, the company were trying to convince "The Professor" Mike Tenay to return back to the commentary table for one more time but Tenay refused.

A persistent rumor/story that's been making the rounds for the last couple of years is that Mike Tenay left the company as he wasn't being used on TV or on commentary following the appointment of former WWE employee, Josh Matthews as the new play-by-play man for the commentary team.

Tenay would then officially retire from the world of professional wrestling following his departure from TNA in June of 2016. As a result, sports journalist and pro wrestling fan, Robert Flores was given the assignment to do commentary with Don West instead and the two did a remarkable job for a first time pairing.

Though many say that the spilt between the company and the professor was amicably, he hasn't be heard from since his exit and despite the pleads of many fans to see him come back for one more run at the commentary table or at the very least, be inducted into the TNA/Impact Hall of Fame, it's looks as though that he might be gone with no chance of coming back.