10 Interesting Facts About Slammiversary 2018 By Hakeem Fullerton

Intro: 2018 can be seen as an important year in modern wrestling history as the landscape of the professional wrestling world would be changed for here on in; Key events like WWE signing a ten year deal with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to host events in the area, they 'All In' event which lead to the rise of All Elite Wrestling and the weakening of Ring of Honor but mostly important the year also saw the resurrection of a wrestling promotion that many believed was dead and soon to be buried.

Considered by many to be the best PPV in company history if not one of the best PPV's of the year and of the decade, Slammiversary 2018 was the night that got wrestling fans and journalists alike to pay attention to Impact but for the first time in a long time it was for all the right reasons.

An amazing set and venue for the event, spectacular in-ring action, a wild and energetic crowd, and a few career defining matches to boot helped to make Slammiversary 2018 one of the all time best and today I'll be mentioning 10 interesting facts about this amazing show.

10. The Grand Championship Was Officially Gone During A Press Conference

The new regime of Don Callis and Scott D'Amore wasted no time in 'trimming the fat' off the company following their takeover in early 2018 and they decided to get ridden off much they ideas that the previous regimes had incorporated over the years including the Impact Wrestling Grand Championship.

On August 13th 2016, the TNA/Impact fan base was Introduced to a brand new title belt called the Grand Championship by then TNA figurehead, Billy Corgan; The title would officially get it's first champion a few months later at that year's Bound For Glory with Aron Rex (the former Damien Sandow in WWE) winning the finals of a tournament to crown the very first champion.

Throughout much of the titles lifespan the belt was held by seven people between August of 2016 to July of 2018, with the names like Moose, EC3, Matt Sydal, Drew Galloway, Austin Aries and...Josh Matthews all holding the gold at some point.

On June 4th 2019, a Slammiversary press conference was held with the announcement of two title matches (the world title match and the Knockouts title match) taking place at Slammiversary but in addition to that, Austin Aries who was both the Grand champion and world champion at the time made an announcement saying that the Grand championship would be absorbed into the world title thereby making the Grand championship a non entity in Impact Wrestling canon moving forward.

Which makes sense because after a championship is held by someone like Josh Matthews all creditability seizes to exist.

9. Curtis Granderson Made His Return At Slammiversary

Slammiversary can easily be considered, Impact's version of WrestleMania as the event usually sees a combination of pro wrestling and the stars of the sports world coming to create moments that become interesting bits of trivia for lists like.

This was certain proven to be true when the outfielder for the Toronto Blue Jays, Curtis Granderson was brought in as the special guest belt holder for much of the main event between Moose and Austin Aries with Curtis even getting a few moments to shine in the closing moments of the match.

However, this wasn't the first time that Curtis Granderson made an appearance at one of Impact Wrestling's most celebrated pay per views. At Slammiversary 2009, Curtis Granderson who was apart of the Baseball team, the Detroit Tigers was seen as they official belt holder for the opening contest, which was a King of the Mountain match for the X Division Championship.

Fast forward nine years later and Granderson would be doing the same thing again but this time in the main event.

8. Many of The Wrestlers At This Event Were Making Their Slammiversary Debuts

2018 was the beginning of a new era for Impact Wrestling; After years of some of their more well regarded and big names leaving or jumping ship to other promotions, the company desperately needed some new names to generate some new life and intrigue back into the promotion.

The new regime didn't waste anytime on capturing new stars as names like Brian Cage, Killer Kross, Scarlett Bordeaux, The Lucha Bros., Tessa Blanchard, Rich Swann and many more got wrestling fans interested to see what Impact was going to do with their new talent.

At Slammiversary 2018, most of the wrestlers who either wrestled or appeared on screen for the event were names that fans enjoyed watching from 2016/17 onwards or the new signees curiosity of the new regime; In fact out of the 24 wrestlers who appeared on this event only 14 of them were making the Slammiversary debuts.

While many of these names would leave Impact following a successful run in the company or some kind of scandal or controversy, this event and the one that came before it (Redemption 2018), made it clear to Impact fans as well as critics that a new beginning was happening in Impact Wrestling.

7. Johnny Impact Made His Return To The Company

Following his departure from the WWE in the early 2010's, John Morrison went on to heal from injuries he suffered previously before going on to wrestle in numerous promotions like Lucha Libre, Lucha Underground (where he would meet his future wife, Taya Valkyrie) and a couple of other independent promotions between 2012-2019, before appearing and signing with Impact Wrestling (then known as GFW Impact) in 2017.

During his Impact run Morrison would go under the name of "Johnny Impact" and was treated like a big deal during this time; Also around this time, Johnny was involved in a few film and T.V. projects most notably as a contestant for the hit reality show "Survivor" where Impact was scheduled to be on the show's 37th season called "David vs. Goliath".

In order to write Johnny off of television, Impact management booked Johnny's on-screen rivals, Kongo Kong and Jimmy Jacobs to injured him on the April 19th episode where he would get sent head and face first into the steel steps. After his time on Survivor finished, Impact would announce on social media that he would be coming back to Impact Wrestling at the Slammiversary PPV but he wouldn't be the only one....

6. Rich Swann Couldn't Compete In The Opening Four Way Match Due To Injury

Speaking of that international fatal four way, the match between Johnny Impact, Rey Fenix, Taiji Ishimori and Petey Williams is seen by many as one of the all time best opening contests in Slammiversary history and it's easy to see why.

The action throughout was fast paced, it didn't looked too overly choreographed and it got the fans interested for what's to come for the rest of the show. As great as the match was, it does make a few fans wonder as to what the match would have been like if Rich Swann was involved.

For those who don't know, Rich Swann was originally suppose to be in this match instead of Petey Williams but an injury would cause those plans to change. You see, Impact Wrestling and Major League Wrestling or MLW were having a working agreement to use each others stars for their respective show however, it was one of these shows that led to a sudden change for Impact's yearly PPV.

During an episode of MLW, Swann suffered a concussion and as a result he would be unable to compete in the four way match at Slammiversary, however Impact was able to find a suitable replacement in form of former TNA X Division champion and Canadian born wrestler, Petey Williams.

Swann would make a speedy recover from his injury a few months later and continued to work in both Impact and MLW.

5. Taiji Ishimori Announced That He Would Be Wrestling At The Event

For some wrestling fans Japanese superstar, Taiji Ishimori is best known for his time in New Japan Pro Wrestling where he wrestles under the "Bone Soldier" gimmick for the Bullet Club. However before all of that Ishimori was wrestling in Impact from 2017-18.

As part of a partnership between GFW/Impact Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Noah (a company which Taiji was a part of at the time), the Japanese wrestler competed in a large number of bouts for Impact ranging from a multi man tag team match at last year's Slammiversary, to taking part in the 2017 Super X Cup tournament to defeating Trevor Lee to become X Division Champion before ultimately losing the belt in a title vs. title match at the Crossroads event in early 2018 against Matt Sydal.

By March of that same year, Ishimori announced that he was leaving Pro Wrestling Noah, which left many fans to wonder if he would be coming back to Impact for any future events and sure enough the fans got there answer as on June 4th 2018 it was revealed that Taiji would be making his returning to Impact Wrestling at Slammiversary to take part in the fatal four way match under his new gimmick as the Bone Soldier.

Taiji would wrestle for the company a little while longer as he and Petey Williams would compete against each other and the later the Desi Hit Squad following the pay per view.

4. The Knockouts Title Match Was Made As A Way To Write Off Madison Rayne

In the lead up to Slammiversary, Madison Rayne was seen feuding with newcomer, Tessa Blanchard while then Knockouts Champion, Su Yung was seen feuding with former champion, Allie but as Slammiversary was growing closer and closer the roles were reverse with Madison feuding with Su and Allie feuding with Tessa...So what gives?

Apparently in January of 2018, it was announced that Madison Rayne would be a part of a female championship tournament for Ring of Honor and she was looking to leave Impact Wrestling for ROH.

As a result of this, company decided to put the former five time Knockouts champion in a title match against Su Yung with the goal of putting over the Undead Bride but also to write off Madison in spectacular fashion.

Following her lost at Slammiversary, Madison was announced to have signed a one year deal with Ring of Honor in September however, issues regarding a reunion of the beautiful people in Ring of Honor caused problems between Rayne and ROH management and it ultimately led to Rayne wanting out of her contract and she left in February of the next year due to "Creative Differences".

She would return to Impact in March where she signed a multi-year deal with the company and has gone on to compete in a number of matches before becoming the host of her own kayfabe talk show and color commentator alongside real life husband, Josh Matthews.

3. It Marked The Original LAX's First Slammiversary Appearance In 10 Years

You can get a whole lot done within ten years, for wrestling fans it can feel like an eternity but for two former tag team champions it can be enough time to see a company reach the highest of highs and lowest of lows before making a surprise return to the promotion that made you famous.

At Slammiversary, the fans bared witness to a fight between two branches of the Latin American Xchange: The new version which consisted of Santana, Ortiz and original member/founder Konan, and the original version which consisted of Homicide and Hernandez but this time this version of LAX was under the leadership of Eddie Kingston, who has history with Konan and the group.

The feud saw the new LAX take on the OG version in a nontitle match which saw both teams brawl it out for brand and team supremacy. While the new guys picked up the victory, the feud would be far from over between both parties.

In addition to the match being amazing, what makes it interesting is that this was the first Slammiversary to involve Homicide and Hernandez as a tag team in 10 years...yes you heard me right, these two haven't wrestled on one of Impact's biggest shows as a duo within a goddamn decade; Their last appearance was at Slammiversary 2008 where they defeated Team 3D to retain their tag team titles and then fast forward ten years later and the original LAX proved that they could see go inside the ring.

2. Austin Aries Got Upset Over the Length of the of the Pentagon/Callihan Match

The Hair vs. Mask match between Sami Callihan and Pentagon Jr. at Slammiversary was an absolute classic period, the match was filled with so many iconic moments and is so great that it even made mine and Impact Wrestling's list and video of the best TNA/Impact Wrestling Matches of the 2010's. However, there is one person who wasn't so happy about the Callihan vs. Penta match at that would be former TNA/Impact world champion, Austin Aries.

After a heated Twitter exchange in February of 2019 between Aries and Callihan, it was revealed that one of the issues that both men had with one another was due to the fact that Austin Aries believed that the Sami/Penta match went on a little too long, which took some time away from the World Title bout between Moose and defending champion Aries.

Whether these claims by Aries are true, both men didn't work with each other during their time in the company and by the time Callihan was getting closer and closer to the world title picture, Aries was already out of the company following his controversial actions at Bound For Glory...but that's an interesting facts article for another time.

1. It Was The First Slammiversary In Company History To Sell Out

Since the company aired it's first Slammiversary event in 2005, many of the shows have been done well when it comes to attendance numbers but sadly it they weren't enough to cause the shows to be sold out from 2005-17.

However just like the perception of Impact Wrestling under the new regime, things would change and for the better; According to a number of reports, Slammiversary 2018 is first in the entire events history to have sold out the entire arena.

The event took place at the Rebel Entertainment Complex in Toronto Canada which can hold up to 2,500 people as it's capacity and Impact managed to sell the arena out.

This news shocked both fans and critics alike as no less than a few months earlier the company was looking at immediate shutdown following a disastrous merger between themselves and GFW in 2017, so to see the very same company who were close to joining WCW and the original ECW, pull itself out of this hellhole that they themselves created and produce a show like this and sell out the arena none the less was remarkable in every conceivable way.

Overall this event showed that Impact Wrestling was starting to take the right steps into becoming a serious wrestling company once again and despite any minor setbacks they would face going forward, Slammiversary and the entire year of 2018 proved that you can never count out Pro Wrestling's Greatest Underdog Promotion.

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