Suicide wallops Williams in the exciting three-way. Photo credit: impactwrestling.com
Hulk Hogan started things off by first promoting his restaurant in Florida (where the show was being taped) and then bringing out pal Sting, trying to convince him to cancel the stipulation with his bout with Bully Ray at Slammiversary where he'll never be able to challenge for the World Title again if he looses. But 'The Stinger' was adamant about it, believing that all he needed was one chance against the Aces President to defeat him.
Brooke Hogan then joined them and blamed herself for the rise of Aces & 8s after falling for and marrying Bully. She was about to resign as President of the Knockouts division when her hubby Bully Ray came out and claimed the blame for himself, not Sting and Hulk, but admitted that he was still in love with Brooke and that she should share the blame too. Basically blame was mentioned a lot in the segment.
Suicide bested Joey Ryan and Petey Williams in an exciting Triple Threat contest. Much like last week's X Division three-way (sounds like a dirty movie) the wrestling came fast and each participant gave a stellar showing. I wasn't (and am still not) entirely convinced by always having Triple Threats in the X Division, but we have received some very entertaining matches from it.
Gut Check winners San Shaw and Alex Silva were scheduled to compete, but Wes Brisco, accompanied by Doc and Garett Bischoff, informed Shaw (I didn't remember him either) that him and his fellow Aces members had taken out Silva and then proceeded to attack him until Magnus marched down the ramp and chased them out of the ring. Magnus went on to claim that Wes didn't deserve his spot on the roster and berated him for attacking a young up and comer such as himself, then challenged him to a match right there and then.
Magnus won via disqualification versus Wes Brisco after fellow Aces & 8s members ran in and attacked him, but they were soon legging it as Samoa Joe raced out to his former tag partner's aid. So in the course of fifteen minutes the supposed hard and tough biker gang ran away from one man not once, but twice? Wow, they seem really deadly. To make things even more confusing Bully congratulated them afterwards, for what? The actual match itself had been a forgettable one, with pedestrian action for the most part.
Mr. Anderson pinned Kurt Angle in an enjoyable outing once it got going. After a drab start both men gave worthy efforts in their time allocated, which wasn't enough I felt. AJ Styles strolled out during the match up, distracting Angle and the referee, allowing Anderson to low blow his opponent and gain the one-two-three with a roll up.
Backstage a crazed Taryn Terrell attacked Gail Kim during an interview, only stopping once she'd be held back. During her interview Kim claimed that she should be challenging for the Knockouts Title not James. When was the last time she actually won a match?
As James Storm was about to announce his tag partner for Slammiversary, Bobby Roode and Austin Aries interrupted him, with 'The It Factor' stating that his four years in Beer Money with Storm were the worst of his career, and called his mystery partner a joke. Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Kazarian) also came out and mocked the other three teams they were facing on June 2nd, calling them inferior to themselves. They also added that it didn't matter who Storm's partner was, they wouldn't be up to their standards.
Shark Boy (I'd love to see someone's reaction to seeing and hearing him for the first time) made a welcome return and along with Robbie E stated his case to be Storm's tag partner. But it wasn't to be for either man as Gunner then came to the ring and took out Robbie and Shark Boy, with Storm then shaking his hand and confirming that he was his mystery tag partner. It was a decent segment.
Mickie James beat Velvet Sky (c) to obtain the Knockouts Title in an average and pretty sloppy encounter. You could visibly see James have to mouth instructions to Sky, the champion, during the bout, it was cringe worthy at times. If you didn't know any better it could've been a Gut Check contest, well maybe not that bad.
At least one positive came from this, the average Sky was relieved of the strap and James, one of the top female performers in the company has gained it. Towards the end Velvet (poorly) sold a knee injury out of nowhere, so a crazed looking James attacked the leg and applied a DDT for the victory and the strap. I think a heel turn is the way to go for Mickie right now, we've seen how well she can pull it off.
A proud Bully Ray introduced AJ Styles and even shared a beer with the tee totaller before asking Anderson to fit AJ with his own Aces & 8s waistcoat and finish up his initiation into the gang. But Angle then came out and claimed that Style's TNA legacy had gone right down the "crapper" after joining them, so Doc hit him from behind and sent him into the ring to be attacked by Aces, finally being cracked on the leg with a hammer by Styles.
As the gang members all celebrated, AJ then used the same hammer to strike a few Aces members before running off. It was a strange ending to the show, and I somehow doubt that the writers have a remotely logical explanation for it. AJ reenacting Sting's tactics with NWO years ago by infiltrating Aces & 8s and taking them down would've made much more sense, if been more predictable.
Overall it was an average show for the majority, with the James Storm tag team partner reveal segment, Anderson versus Angle and the X Division three-way being my only real highlights. Other then those moments it was either average, confusing or just dull.
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