WILLIAMS CORNER: SLAMMIVERSARY XV REVIEW
Slammiversary XV, The 15th Anniversary of Impact Wrestling, Which we now know is now rebranded as Global Force Wrestling, Went down magnificently with a fantastic mixed bag of tricks and surprises that made for some cheeky mark out moments. A great start to the new "new era" under the Jarrett/Anthem regime.
First off, Just a quick review of the several returns that happened at the grand event. Jeff and Karen Jarrett promised surprises, and surprised we were. The return of Father James Mitchell with Abyss' Mask was a shock to the system, despite a gut feeling that the old Abyss would return. A return for X-Division legend Shark Boy, playing into the story of JB and Park having to rely on "old friends" was a nice nostalgic touch with a heads up to the past of the company. To the matches, The Pre-show intergender six-man tag match was a nice paced match, and a nice way to get you in the mood for the event. How can you not love Allie! The team of Braxton Sutter, Allie and Shera gave a solid back and forth match with rivals Kongo Kong, KM and Laurel Van Ness.
The Four team tag match for the GFW and Impact World Tag Team titles was one of, if not the most entertaining match I've seen in a long long time. I was in awe at the speed and skills of the 8 men involved, I was worn out watching it! and it was only the first match of the main card. A true Slammiversary standout match that will stand the test of wrestling time! All four teams showed great athleticism and agility in this hyperspeed match, aswell as a great showing for the LAX, who have been on top form, matching, or even beating the level set by the original LAX!
The DeAngelo Williams/Moose Vs Chris Adonis/Eli Drake match is going to be reminisced as the greatest ever match featuring a celebrity or outsider of the wrestling business. The performance of DeAngelo, which was outstanding, sadly outshone the great work put in by Moose, Adonis and Drake, who represented the wrestling business with great pride. For the first time the wrestling business didn't look like a joke when outsiders took part, like the Jay Leno, Laurence Taylor and most others did.
Now onto Storm vs EC3 in the strap match. It was for me the best Strap match I've ever watched from any company, mainly because of the selling for this match, you could almost have been taking the lashings yourself, that's how realistic the two performed. The ending with the collapsing of James Storm, literally moments after the ringpost spot was a great twist especially as Storm was on the cusp of hitting the winning Last Call Superkick that would have taken Carter out for the three count. Great match, and a classic.
The Mathews/Steiner vs Borash/Park match would go down a success, Despite it's heavy criticism in the lead up. The match couldn't have been a classic by any means, it wasn't ever going to be a Lashley/Patron match or a Carter/Storm match, and thankfully it never tried to, It went for a Great War like match, however with a more realistic feel than the clash between the Hardy's and Decay. The crowd ate up the match that was split up with half in the impact zone and the other half on the video screen. Steiner looked as good as always, Not missing a step, Mathews also put on one hell of a display. The match was a comedy bout that turned into a brutal war, It worked well.
The Alisha and Eddie Edwards Vs. Angelina and Davey Richards clash wasn't as long as you would think, but it went long enough to not get bored, as often happens in No Holds Barred matches. Story telling once again excelled the match standards with lots of protecting the other half spots between the husbands and wives. It was a nice ending to the Eddie/Davey saga which was a brutal and bitter feud.
Sonjay Dutt vs Low-Ki was a slow start, however, in a good way. A great homage to the actual wrestling ability's of both men, then the typical X-Division style would enter later on, well it was the X title after all! The Low-Ki counter of the sunset flip into the warriors way for the first fall was spectacular, for me the moment of the match. This was a great match that carried alot of significance, with both stars being key and integral figures in the historic and legendary X-Division.
The first title unification match of the evening between GFW champ Sienna and Impact champ Rosemary was a bold match between the companies two toughest stars. The submission finish was a bold statement to signify the end of Rosemary's 2017 reign of dominance, even if it was after Sienna used the belt to knock out her opponent behind the referee's back after a distraction from the outside by Laurel Van Ness.
Finally, the main event that was hyped more than any other match in recent history, Lashley vs El Patron in the second and final title unification match for the Impact World and GFW World Titles was everything and more than what was expected. Patron and Lashley went above and beyond to make this one of the greatest matches of all time, while many can think of better matches, this to me has got to be up there, at least in the top matches in the company's history. Plus, the finish allowed Lashley to be able to retain some dignity due to the outside distraction from Dos Caras. Plus the match featured some nice memorable moments from King Mo and Dos Caras, who both got involved quite a bit.
Overall, I thought this was a good event that was stacked full of great wrestling, nice twists and decent hardcore matches. Out of 5 stars. I'd give this PPV a confident Four Stars.
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