The two biggest events on the TNA Wrestling pay per view calendar are Bound For Glory (its flagship pay per view, similar to WWE Wrestlemania) and this Sunday’s Slammiversary event. With their upcoming pay per view on June 13th, TNA Wrestling makes history… but they’re failing in the process.
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Slammiversary 2010 marks the first time ever that the yearly event (which started in 2005) that a King of the Mountain match will not be held on the card.
For those who don’t know, the King of the Mountain match is essentially a 5-man reverse ladder match, whereby the winner of the match is the individual whom is able to climb a ladder and place the World Championship belt on a clasp hanging from the rafters (a regular ladder match involves climbing a ladder and retrieving an object – typically a championship belt – from it’s position being dangled from the rafters by a clasp). I will admit that the rules for a King of the Mountain match are somewhat convoluted.
According to the Wikipedia explanation, here are the rules for the King of the Mountain match:
The competitors in the match start out as “ineligible” to win. In order to become “eligible”, a wrestler must score a pinfall or submission on an opponent. The opponent who submits or is pinned is forced to spend two minutes in the “penalty box” cage. More than one wrestler can be in the cage. This often results in wrestlers fighting inside the cage or forming some sort of alliance.
Once “eligible”, the wrestler may win the match by retrieving the belt and hanging it on the hook suspended above the ring with the aid of the ladders. A TNA official maintains possession of the belt and circles the ring, staying out of the action as much as possible. When a wrestler wishes to hang the belt, he must retrieve it from the official. Once the belt is in play, any other wrestler who is eligible may attempt to steal the belt and hang it. Once the belt has been dropped and no wrestler is attempting to hang it, a referee returns the belt to the official.
Even without a change to the rules of the match, it should still be on the card, and it wouldn’t take much to alter the card to put that on there, nor would the past few weeks of Impact had to have been changed much to accommodate it. It would’ve made huge sense this year, especially considering all the great high-profile competitors in TNA right now and the Top 10 they’ve got.
Currently the World Title match is Rob Van Dam defending the belt against Sting, who was identified as the #1 contender after beating Jeff Jarrett. There are easily 3 more guys who could’ve been included in the match:
- Samoa Joe – at current, he’s not even ON the card.
- AJ Styles – definitely has heat with RVD and a history with Sting
- Kazarian – they’re trying to establish him in the upper card, he’s got a storyline with AJ right now, putting him in the Top 10 and associating him with Ric Flair and giving him some heat with the former World Champion AJ Styles
That would leave Jay Lethal without an opponent, same with Kurt Angle. Those guys could square off in one of Kurt Angle’s “rebuilding” matches, and you could even have Jay Lethal take him to the limit and have it end in a draw. They could have another match between the two of them a couple weeks from now on Impact, Kurt Angle could win with a technical move used for a pinfall, they could shake hands, and it would really elevate Jay Lethal (another thing it appears TNA is trying to do).
Aside from the three names I would’ve had involved in the King of the Mountain, there are plenty of other guys you could elevate if you would’ve put them into the World Title reverse ladder match instead.
- Matt Morgan – they’ve definitely been trying to elevate him, and who wouldn’t have wanted to see this huge athlete in a ladder match?
- Hernandez – I know “Super Mex” just made his return, but he could’ve made his return as the 5th guy in the King of the Mountain, as he definitely has some huge heat with Matt Morgan
- Jeff Hardy – He’s paired up in a tag match at Slammiversary, but that could’ve easily have waited, and the Motor City Machine Guns could’ve taken the match with Beer Money Inc. He’s a former WWE World Champion, and TNA is barely capitalizing on that fact
- Ken Anderson – If Jeff Hardy was going to be in the King of the Mountain match, you could’ve definitely put Ken Anderson in it too. He’s a very athletic guy, and although his history of injury makes me wary that he’d survive the ladder match, he’d still benefit from being there
- Desmond Wolfe – he’s got a match with Abyss on Slammiversary, and while that’s a decent feud they’re pushing, this is essentially a rematch from the last pay per view, and there’s no reason why they couldn’t both be in the King of the Mountain… though I’m listing them this low on my list because they wouldn’t be my top choices to be involved in the 5-man King of the Mountain.
All in all, TNA Wrestling could’ve done a lot better with the Slammiversary card, and amidst the changes they could’ve made, the easiest one would’ve been to continue with the on-going 6-year long trend of having the June King of the Mountain match.
