Slammiversary 2008: Styles-Angle and Joe's King of the Mountain Defense Give the Anniversary Show a Powerful Finish

Slammiversary 2008 began with an untelevised tag-team warm-up before the pay-per-view broadcast, not with a ninth television main-card attraction. The Motor City Machine Guns, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, were credited with defeating the team of Lance Hoyt and a partner listed as Johnny Devine in one contemporary June 8 results report. This offered Shelley and Sabin a small early win without an X Division title or other prize on the line. Unlike the fully televised bouts that followed, the surviving reports do not establish the match duration, a reliable sequence of spots or which Machine Gun made the deciding cover. Assigning a complete match narrative or invented finishing move would mislead the reader.

The opposition also has a genuine source discrepancy: the June 8 TPWW/WrestleAttitude contemporary results credit Hoyt and Devine, whereas the independent Cagematch event card lists the Rock 'n Rave Infection duo of Jimmy Rave and Hoyt. WrestleFile preserves the established Hoyt/Devine Event File participants pending resolution and records the competing report rather than silently replacing one participant. The C+ (6.8) is a modest historical supporting-match assessment, not an eyewitness evaluation of an unavailable bell-to-bell broadcast. The available facts justify only the winner, dark-match placement and the unresolved opponent identity.

Petey Williams entered Slammiversary as X Division Champion wearing a protective faceguard for an injured orbital bone, with Scott Steiner and Rhaka Khan accompanying him. Kaz sought to reclaim championship momentum after a prominent TerrorDome win, making this a clear singles-title attraction. Across 15:19 the wrestlers traded counters and near falls, including Kaz's springboard DDT, an Ace Crusher and a reversal of the Canadian Destroyer into an inverted piledriver. Williams attacked with a slingshot hurricanrana, a Canadian Legsweep and a leg-capture DDT, but could not hold Kaz down. The champ's allies increasingly affected the contest as Kaz threatened to win.

Khan distracted the referee, allowing Steiner to pass Williams a lead pipe. Williams struck Kaz in the head, opening a visible cut; Kaz still escaped the attempted cover, then fought through a Sharpshooter and connected with the Wave of the Future for another near fall. Kaz knocked Steiner away from the apron, but Williams seized the moment to land the Canadian Destroyer and pin KAZ, retaining the X Division title. After the bell Steiner, Khan and Williams attacked Kaz until the returning Abyss hit Black Hole Slams on all three. The B+ (8.0) credits the demanding reversals and hard-fought title defense, while the pipe shot and manager interference prevent treating it as a pure two-person wrestling victory.

The Beautiful People brought Moose, also known as Mickie Knuckles, to face Gail Kim, ODB and Roxxi in a six-woman match. Angelina Love and Velvet Sky tried to avoid taking the brunt of the opening exchange, leaving Moose to confront Gail and ODB. Roxxi then absorbed the longest sustained attack. Moose lifted and slammed her for a near fall, Sky trapped her in an octopus hold and Love took advantage of Kim's storyline injured knee when Gail finally tagged in. Kim countered from the ropes with a cross-body on Sky, but Love dragged the action back toward the injured leg. A single-leg crab almost forced Kim to submit before she eventually reached the ropes. The heel unit controlled the middle stretch without producing a decisive cover.

The finish turned on ODB entering fresh. When Moose kept stretching Kim in another submission, ODB broke it up, then took the tag after Kim escaped with head scissors. ODB knocked Sky off the apron, fought off Love, spat her drink in Moose's face and put Moose down with a running powerslam. **ODB PINNED MOOSE** for the three-count, not Gail Kim or Roxxi, even though the result lists all three winners. The inherited C+ (6.7) captures a competitive undercard story built around Roxxi surviving punishment and Kim's injured knee, with ODB delivering the conclusive response. This is worth skimming for that comeback and its link to the Knockouts rivalry, not for a championship switch.

LAX defended the TNA World Tag Team Championships against Team 3D at Slammiversary, accompanied by Hector Guerrero and Salinas. Brother Devon and Hernandez opened with a physical exchange before Homicide cut off the challengers with arm drags and quick covers. Team 3D then isolated Homicide, using the guardrail, referee positioning and frequent double teams to prevent him from making a recognized tag. Hernandez eventually entered and suplexed both opponents, but Team 3D tried to restore control with their familiar What's Up setup. Homicide pushed Devon from the top rope, and the challengers lost momentum as all four wrestlers and the accompanying seconds converged near the finish.

Johnny Devine ran into the ring with a kendo stick, but Hector Guerrero stopped him. Salinas climbed the turnbuckle and delivered her own What's Up variation on Brother Ray. Hernandez raised Devon on his shoulders for a Homicide clothesline, then positioned Brother Ray for Homicide's frog splash, but Devon pulled the referee from the ring to stop the count. As Team 3D recovered and attempted to set up the 3D, Homicide unexpectedly rolled **BROTHER RAY** into a three-count, keeping the belts with LAX. The win was not a pin of Devon, nor a direct pin off the preceding frog splash. The B+ (8.2) rewards the well-structured heat segment, hectic ringside saves and surprise pin with a sharply defined title result. Interference adds spectacle but also limits how decisive the champions looked before the cover.

Awesome Kong's $25,000 open challenge gave the Slammiversary crowd an abrupt change of tone after the competitive tag-title match. Jeremy Borash presented Serena Deeb and Josie Robinson as prospective challengers, and Kong's manager Raisha Saeed selected Serena to face the Knockouts champion first. Serena signed the release, tried an early takedown and briefly climbed onto Kong's back, but the size disadvantage was obvious. Kong tossed Serena across the ring and drove her into the guardrail on the floor, then even stopped to attack Josie as she watched. Serena had no extended control sequence to offset the punishment.

Kong brought Serena back inside, landed the **IMPLANT BUSTER** and pinned her decisively in the recorded 2:26. This was a challenge match, not a successful defense of the Knockouts Championship against a ranked division contender, and winning the advertised cash was only a possibility for the challengers. Kong's victory immediately set up a second confrontation with Josie, who had antagonized her at ringside. The D (4.8) reflects the short runtime and foregone outcome rather than a claim that Serena wrestled a substantive back-and-forth bout. SKIP works for a selective match-quality rewatch; the segment is chiefly useful to explain Kong's double-win presentation and the separate Josie challenge.

Kong's second $25,000 challenge followed immediately after Serena Deeb had lost. Josie Robinson, presented as the local Memphis challenger, signed her own release and slapped the champion before they fought. Josie received a warmer response and more offense than Serena: she pushed Kong, fought from ringside and briefly benefited when Kong struck the ring post with her hand. The champion nevertheless controlled most of the exchange by throwing Josie against the guardrail and following with heavy chops. This was not the continuation of Serena's pin, and the two challengers should not be combined into one statistical match result.

Josie returned inside and tried another attack, but Kong regained control and planted her with the **AWESOME BOMB** for the pinfall in the recorded 1:42. The winner was Kong, not Serena or Raisha Saeed, and no Knockouts title changed hands. This abbreviated second bout gave the on-site audience another underdog moment without developing into a sustained contest. Its D (4.5) is a narrow judgement on the short standalone match, while the full two-bout challenge segment has more entertainment value than either individual rating might suggest. Keeping the two fights and their distinct finishing moves separate also prevents a Match Finder user from confusing the Implant Buster against Serena with the Awesome Bomb that finished Josie.

A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle received more than twenty-two minutes for their singles grudge match, with Tomko initially accompanying Angle before referee Earl Hebner sent him backstage. Angle worked Styles down with suplexes, headlocks and strikes, targeting the challenger's neck while Styles responded with dives and counters. Styles escaped a series of Germans and answered with a release German of his own. Angle landed a super Angle Slam from the top turnbuckle for a near fall, then repeatedly tried to trap Styles in the Ankle Lock. Styles countered with an inverted DDT and a Pele kick, but a Styles Clash attempt was turned into another ankle hold. The lengthy exchange made both wrestlers look capable of the decisive fall.

Styles finally rolled through the ankle submission and kicked Angle into referee Hebner, causing a referee bump. Karen Angle appeared with a steel chair and tempted her husband to take it, distracting him long enough for Styles to hit the **STYLES CLASH** and pin ANGLE at approximately 22:44. Karen did not herself pin or strike Angle. After the decision she embraced Styles, only for Kurt to attack him with the chair; Tomko returned and blocked security as Angle reapplied the ankle lock. The A (9.1) reflects the top-class counter wrestling and long-form escalation, although the distracted finish and violent post-match attack complicated what had been an emphatic singles performance.

Samoa Joe entered the five-man King of the Mountain match as TNA World Heavyweight Champion against Booker T, Christian Cage, Rhino and Robert Roode, with Kevin Nash serving as special enforcer. Under the stipulation, a wrestler had to score a pin or submission to become eligible to hang the championship belt above the ring; the person who took a fall went to a penalty box. Booker first pinned Rhino with the Book End, then Roode pinned Christian after striking his ladder with a chair. Rhino rolled up Roode, Christian later pinned Booker after a frog splash from atop the penalty box, and the standings kept changing while Nash intervened to enforce the penalty-box rule. Those intermediate falls were eligibility and penalty events, not the championship-winning finish.

Late in the match Booker used the title belt against the field and tried to hang it himself. Nash stopped him with a powerbomb from the ladder, and Joe pinned ROODE with the Muscle Buster at approximately 19:31 in one detailed historical log, qualifying the champion to climb. Joe then ascended the ladder and **HUNG THE BELT** to win and retain the championship. He did not win this stipulation simply by pinning Roode: the belt hanging was the final scoring action. The Event File preserves its inherited 19:49 match duration, while another contemporary archive lists roughly 19:52; that small timing discrepancy does not change the winner or mechanics. The A- (8.8) rewards a comprehensible five-man specialty match, an active enforcer and the champions hard-earned decisive climb.