BY WADE KELLER, PWTORCH EDITOR

The following is the cover story of the PWTorch Newsletter from five years ago this week that I wrote covering TNA's Fourth Anniversary event, Slammiversary. It included the end of Christian's NWA World Hvt. Title reign and the end of America's Most Wanted long NWA Tag Team Title reign. Jim Cornette was a prominent part of the show, plus TNA responded to the revival of ECW.

PWTorch Newsletter #920
Cover Dated: June 24, 2006
Headline: TNA celebrates four years at Slammiversary
Subheadline: Christian loses title, Samoa Joe scores big win, Cornette introduced

Aware that the relaunch of ECW and it's stellar first-week rating changed the wrestling landscape, TNA came out firing on Sunday. The Slammiversary PPV marked the four year anniversary of the country's only nationally televised alternative to WWE's three brands.

The show was newsworthy, marked by the end of Christian's NWA World Hvt. Title reign, the introduction of Jim Cornette as a new spokesman for the company, Samoa Joe's statement win over Scott Steiner, and A.J. Styles & Christopher Daniels ending the record-length NWA Title reign of America's Most Wanted.

In the end, though, what a lot of TNA fans saw was a step backward as Jeff Jarrett was announced as the winner of the King of the Mountain main event and the new NWA World Hvt. Champion. For all TNA may have accomplished during it's fourth year, many saw Jarrett returning to the top as a potential sign that nothing had really changed.

However, seconds later, Cornette stepped out onto the stage, ordered a ref to retrieve the title belt from the celebrating Jarrett, and declared that the decision in the ring might not stand.

The next night at the TNA Impact tapings in Orlando, Fla., Cornette declared the NWA Title vacant. Jeff Jarrett, by virtue of his tainted win the night before (a result of Larry Zbyszko low-blowing Christian as he was about to win), would be the no. 1 contender and face the winner of a four-way match at the Victory Road PPV. The other top four contenders would be Samoa Joe, Scott Steiner, Sting, and Christian Cage. That leaves open the possibility that the first PPV of TNA's fifth year will end with Jarrett regaining the title, or a new era beginning with Samoa Joe as champ, or less likely Sting, Christian, or Steiner winning it.

Steiner showed he still has legs under him as he battled Joe on Slammiversary to a good match, highly anticipated in great part because of stellar mic work by Steiner in the weeks leading up to the match, and the intrigue over how TNA would book the finish and how Joe and Steiner would mesh in the ring. Joe's offense looked different against someone much more muscular than he usually wrestles, but still effective. In the end, Joe won clean with a swift powerslam. The win for Joe marked an official elevation as he defeated a top tier heavyweight during the Monday Night War, a follow-up on his win over Jeff Jarrett in a tag match last month on PPV.

TNA, with a strong Impact and strong PPV since ECW's critically panned but ratings-winning debut on SciFi the previous Tuesday, showed it is ready for a fight. The rating for Impact dropped to a 0.7 due to being shifted an hour later (although being replayed on both Friday and Saturday night helped the cumulative audience remain as large as usual headed into the PPV), but TNA showed its fans it is ready for a battle with ECW.

Not only did they show it with a PPV featuring four three-star plus matches, but through fighting words. Brother Ray (a/k/a Bubba Ray Dudley) told fans during the PPV pre-show that he predicted it. "We said it, you guys knew it, the whole world knows it. That product sucks," he said, in reference to ECW's revival. "It's a zombie-free Impact Zone," declared Mike Tenay on commentary, another timely dig at ECW's Sci-Fi debut.

Cornette gave a long speech establishing his role as TNA's on-air authority figure. Although he didn't take any direct shots at ECW, he made it clear to TNA fans that TNA has a niche and that year five should only get better.

First, he praised the stellar tag team match featuring Styles & Daniels beating America's Most Wanted, then he said there have been political agendas standing in the way of TNA becoming all it can be, but he would make sure that was no longer the case. That part of speech is a storyline attempt to play off of the real world heat on Jeff Jarrett, who has been accused of holding back TNA by booking himself as a main eventer. By winning the King of the Mountain match, only to have Cornette strip of the win and the NWA Title afterward, it sets up an on-air feud that plays off of fans' real frustrations with Jarrett's push, and presents Cornette as the person representing their frustrations. Whether fans will buy into a worked Cornette-Jarrett feud as a satisfactory means to work through their frustration with Jarrett's push remains to be seen. They may see it as Jarrett playing them as marks, which is how he sees fans who boo him.

Cornette looked into the camera and told all TNA personnel that there are three goals: he wants people who can have great matches, who can sell PPVs, and who can draw TV ratings. He said if you can do one of those three, you are on Cornette's good side. He said if not, it's not a good thing for them. He said if they don't think he has pull, they're wrong. He said he has management on his side and if it comes down to "me or you, you ain't gonna make it." He said they want what's best for the fans because that's what's best for business. "TNA will be the new face of wrestling, and the new face of TNA will be success," he said. "I know it's been said before many times in many ways, but believe me baby, you ain't see nothin' yet."

TNA has a talent roster with more depth than at any time in its four-year history, and Cornette may be an on-air presence that can help give that talent a sense of direction and make viewers feel more represented. But if it involves feuding with Jarrett as a main eventer, it could backfire as fans will see Cornette as an excuse for Jarrett to retain on top. Cornette, though, could also be an on-air force who keeps Jarrett from cheating his way to the top.

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