Slammiversary XV preview and predictions - match by match

Impact Wrestling will be airing their first pay-per-view (PPV) of the new era of the promotion tonight with Slammiversary XV. It’s the 15th anniversary of the promotion and with that, they’re going to try to pull out all the stops.

For this preview, instead of going really in depth with every match, I’ve decided to make this more of a quick hit style. That way people who are curious about ordering can get the main idea of what is going on. There will be a brief synopsis of the match. Then I will rate the match on my personal anticipated I am for it between 1-5. (1 being not interested at all and 5 being very excited.) At the end, I’ll give my prediction for that match.

Let’s do it:

Alberto El Patron (c) vs. Bobby Lashley (c)

Title vs. title

The day Alberto El Patron debuted, he was gratned an Impact championship match against the champion Bobby Lashley. Alberto actually won the match and the title, but because he used the championship as a weapon at the end of the match (Lashley tried to first), management stripped him of it and gave it back to Lashley.

Eventually, Impact absorbed former Jarrett promotion Global Force Wrestling (GFW) and with it, all of its champions. Former Impact talent Magnus was GFW champion. However, he lost it to Patron in a one on one bout.

They will be merging the Impact title (which still has “TNA” written on it) and the GFW title and likely unveil a new belt. (Though with word that the promotion will be rebranded GFW, maybe not.) Alberto’s father Dos Caras will be in his corner. Bellator fighter King Mo will be in Lashley’s

Personal anticipation: 4 - I think they’ll go all out for this to make it as big as possible. And both guys are talented enough in the ring to go all out. The worry of an overbook is going to be there given the presence of cornermen and all, but I think this will feel big when it happens.

Prediction: Alberto El Patron

EC3 vs. James Storm

Strap match

Since the new era, EC3 has turned back into a villain. And he’s really good at it.

His heel turn came at the expense of James Storm. Carter kept being denied or losing opportunities at the world title. So when the Cowboy had a championship match against Bobby Lashley, Ethan him in the head with a beer bottle. This cost Storm the match.

EC3’s dark turn has involved whipping people with a strap. This included a time that he tied Storm to the ropes and really wailed on him. Because of that, this is a strap match.

Anticipation: 3 - Both of these guys are good characters, but I don’t have high hopes for this being any classic, especially given the gimmick. It doesn’t help that this feud took a long detour, derailing its momentum.

Prediction: EC3

Sienna (c) vs. Rosemary (c)

Title vs. title

The demonic Rosemary has been the Knockouts champion since last year. Sienna defeated GFW Women’s champion Christina Von Eerie (who hasn’t been seen since.) Now the titles will merge.

Recently, Rosemary has taken to helping the bubbly Allie, who has personal issues with Sienna and Laurel Van Ness. Laurel and Sienna blame Allie for Braxton Sutter (Allie’s current beau) leaving Laurel at the alter and driving Maria away to the WWE.

It should be noted that at the time Sienna won the GFW Women’s title, she had issues with Karen Jarrett. However that hasn’t been part of the story in awhile.

Anticipation: 5 - I may be looking forward to this the most. I’m just a huge Rosemary fan. She may be my favorite part of Impact given her unique look and character and her commitment to it. Sienna has been great this run too. While neither have had a great chance to show off their talents in the ring, this is their chance. My enjoyment of the characters is enough to get excited for this.

Prediction: Rosemary

Josh Mathews & Scott Steiner vs. Jeremy Borash & Joseph Park

Ah the dreaded announcers feud. Josh Mathews and Jeremy Borash hate each other and have for months. Early on this led to bickering on air instead of calling matches. However, that subsided when they separated them from commentary most of the time.

Because of their issues, they decided to fight at Slammiversary with partners of their choosing. Borash picked attorney Joseph Park (the alter ego of Abyss). Mathews upped the ante by choosing the Big Bad Booty Daddy Scott Steiner. That put the fear of God into Borash and Park.

There’s nothing on the line. There’s been no announced stipulation that the winning announcer calls commentary and the other doesn’t.

Anticipation: 2 - This match has two people who don’t wrestle, one person who pretends he doesn’t wrestle, and one who doesn’t wrestle much at all any more. That’s the recipe for quite the train wreck. The question is whether Scott Steiner can make it an entertaining one with his unpredictability

Prediction: Borash and Park (who will find his inner Abyss)

Eddie Edwards and Alisha Edwards vs. Davey Richards and Angelina Love

Full Metal Mayhem match

This is the one story that’s started before the new regime. Davey Richards cost Eddie during a title match against Lashley early this year. He accused his former tag partner of forgetting about him when Richards was out rehabbing a knee injury.

To make matters more personal, Davey’s wife Angelina Love attacked Eddie’s wife Alisha and made her watch Davey beat down Eddie.

Since then, these four have been at each other’s throats. There was a really great no DQ match between Eddie and Davey that Richards came out victorious.

There’s no stipulation to this match but will likely be the end of this feud.

Anticipation: 5 - While I don’t know how the tag style in this match will work, I trust the participants to put on a really fun bout.

Prediction: Eddie & Alisha Edwards

Sonjay Dutt (c) vs. Low-Ki

2 out of 3 falls X Division title match

Sonjay Dutt has been in and out of Impact for pretty much its entire existence and in that time, he was never able to win the X Division title. He had a chance when he returned to Impact the most recent time as part of a multi-man title match, but the returning Low-Ki ended up winning it instead. During that match, Low-Ki busted up Dutt’s eye.

Finally, in his home country of India, Dutt defeated Low-Ki to win the title. The following week, the former champion requested a rematch at Slammiversary and Dutt was happy to oblige. While things seemed cordial after the handshake, Low-Ki attacked Dutt afterwards.

Anticipation: 4 - This should be a good match given the talent of both men.

Prediction: Low Ki

Moose and DeAngelo Williams vs. Chris Adonis and Eli Drake

There isn’t much to this. Moose has had problems with both Adonis and Drake so enlisted friend and NFL running back DeAngelo Williams for help. While Williams has not been on TV (outside training videos) to build this match, he was on a couple months ago alongside Moose.

Anticipation: 2 - The idea of feeding someone like Eli Drake to DeAngelo Williams in this match doesn’t sit well. It’s always possible that Williams wants to get into wrestling and if that’s the case cool. But as a one off to get main stream media coverage, this does little for me.

Prediction: Moose and DeAngelo Williams

LAX vs. El Hijo del Fantasma and Drago vs. Naomichi Marufuji and Taiji Ishimori vs. Laredo Kid and Garza Jr for the tag team championships

When the new regime took over, there were no current tag champs. The tag champs prior were the Hardys and they left after a somewhat contentious negotiation (they hate each other).

There was a fatal 4-way to crown new Impact tag champs, which LAX won. (This version of LAX are two young guys named Santana and Ortiz led by Konnan and Homicide. There’s a female member named Diamante as well.) Then for some reason, Impact decided to crown new GFW tag champs since those belts were currently vacant. LAX won that as well.

Anticipation: 3 - Given the talent, the in ring work will probably be really good, but there’s no story to it. It’s mainly to show off their relationship with other promotions.

Prediction: LAX

---

Slammiversary XV will be airing tonight on PPV at 8 EST. You can also follow along with the live thread here.