By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

-Christian’s appearance ended up being pretty anticlimactic. The crowd pop wasn’t great, and his speech by design was pretty tame. It’s almost as if the TNA fans knew he was just visiting and they were loyal enough to resent that he wasn’t staying and was going back to where he returned after his TNA run, WWE. That, or else Christian just isn’t over as a big star. Or a mix of both. In any case, cutting to the video he threw to, and then not going back to him, felt rather unceremonious. Did security escort him out of a public exit while the Sting video aired?

-TNA’s match finish booking is so outdated, and the main event finish really took a good show and ended it on a flat note. What they booked didn'’t "put heat on Roode" as much as it put heat on the promotion for ending PPVs flat. And then the idea that Sting can beat down Roode afterward and that’s supposed to make up for the lead legendary babyface losing on a cheap finish is 15-20 years past its freshness date. Sting walked through a main event at three-quarters speed (which at his age is fine, but he shouldn’t be headlining PPVs anymore, at least not World Title singles matches) and then fell backward off the stage and smashing Roode through a table doesn’t make up for it. I suppose it’s appropriate for TNA.

-Hulk Hogan’s platitudes were almost too much to take. He gave Booker T a run for his money, talking about “strap on your seatbelts” and “bolt down your seats” and “I’ve been around the block a few times, if you know what I’m talking about” and “this company is shooitng to the moon” and “things keep changing around here” and “I love pushing people’s buttons around here.” None of that means anything. They’re all just bloviating cliches.

-It’s a blessing in disguise for Crimson to have that streak ended. It’s so limiting that every match is about the winning streak and it limits the give and take that’s part of telling a good story in a feud. Having James Storm beat him in his return match is a great choice and Slammiversary is a good setting.

-It’s so agravating that Sting, just minutes before his World Title shot, tells the fans he wants to “entertain” them tonight and doesn’t mention one word about wanting to “win for them” tonight. As always, Sting’s strength is not his mic work. He's got a World Title match and he can't stay in character enough and play along with the idea that he wants to WIN, not just ENTERTAIN? It's a sign of the times as much as Sting's weakness on the mic, but this was not a glorious memorable moment, but rather a window into what has limited Sting from having the type of impact on TNA that this ceremony and all of the tributes paid to him try to build him up as having had.

-Pretty noteworthy that Jeff Jarrett wasn’t given much attention at all throughout the show and wasn’t present. Are they saving his return to be a huge deal and didn’t want to ruin the “surprise” by having him make a cursory appearance here at the tenth anniversary show? If that were the case, he’d be in more video packages and there’d be more mentions of him in passing by the wrestlers such as A.J. Styles talking about the history of the company. TNA the first eight years, give or take, was practically primarily designed around getting Jarrett over as a mega-star, so if you were followiing TNA all of these years and bought into that message, you’d be confused at how he wasn’t even a footnote other than Dixie quickly mentioning his name along with his father’s in her speech. Almost as glaring by his absence was Don West. He was the enthusiastic voice of the fan for so many years and just recently left. Whatever the circumstances, he should have been flown in for the show and made an appearance and spoken briefly. He deserved that, and so did the fans who felt a bond with him as he got as excited as they did at home watching TNA’s early action.

(Keller's full TV reports with much more added analysis like the items above along with key quotes from the show are part of his VIP-exclusive report posted on the ad-free PWTorch VIP website and published in the weekly PWTorch Digital Newsletter.)

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