Slammiversary (2020) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Impact Wrestling. It took place on July 18, 2020 at the Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. It was the sixteenth event under the Slammiversary chronology.

Seven matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Eddie Edwards defeated Ace Austin, Trey, Rich Swann, and Eric Young (the last two being unannounced participants) in a fatal five way elimination match to win the vacant Impact World Championship. In other prominent matches, Chris Bey defeated Willie Mack to win the Impact X Division Championship and Deonna Purrazzo defeated Jordynne Grace by submission to capture the Impact Knockouts Championship.

Results:


Open Tag Team Challenge
Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) def. The Rascals (Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier)



Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley seemed a little off-sync a bit at first, but by the end of the match, they seemed to be back to their old selves. This was one hell of a surprise and definitely got me to mark out right off the bat. I was definitely expecting the Good Brothers to make their debut here since they announced their signings with the company Friday night at midnight.

I thought it was little jarring that the Rascals would lose here if this was a one-off, but from the events that occurred later in the night, it seems to be that MCMG's return is far from over.

It's pretty nuts that Shelley "retired" a year or two ago, but manages to reunite and wrestle as both the Time Splitters with Kushida in NXT and now back with Chris Sabin in MCMG for two different companies in 2020.




TNA World Heavyweight Championship Match
Moose (c) def. Tommy Dreamer


This match was held under "Old School Rules" which was just an excuse to make this a No DQ match to make Dreamer feel more at home. I thought Dreamer's promo in the package to set the stage for this match had a lot of zingers in it, especially the line about "No one paid to see Moose in the NFL and they sure as hell ain't paying to see him wrestle." That just added fuel in the fire for Moose royally thrashing Dreamer. Dreamer got some shots in but it was all for nothing as Moose hit the Spear for the win. Not a bad match at all though.





Kylie Rae wins 11-Knockouts Over The Top Rope Battle Royal for #1 Contender Spot for the Knockouts Championship
Match included: Kylie Rae, Susie, Nevaeh, Havok, Taya Valkyrie, John E. Bravo (as "fake" Taya and Rosemary), Rosemary, Katie Forbes, Alisha Edwards, Tasha Steelz, Keira Hogan, Kimber Lee, and Madison Rayne.


I thought this match was going to be like one of those typical throwaway battle royals like WWE does just to get their all of their women on the roster on the PPV just to say that they did it. Instead, this match was a well-representation of how well structured that IMPACT's women division is. This is easily the best women's division in mainstream wrestling right now. Yes, over WWE's too since theirs is riddled with just as much awful and cringe-worthy booking like AEW's for anything and everything that doesn't involve NXT or the Horsewomen. IMPACT deserves the praise for the wealth of talent that they have assembled in this division from newcomers to veteran talent from around the independent scene. I didn't have any favorites in this match I could have easily seen any single one of these women pick of the win. I couldn't tell you the last time I felt that way watching one of these matches in AEW or WWE.

I've seen people react to this match like it was the worst match that they have seen all year and I honestly think those people need their eyes checked when those same individuals think that the AEW Women's Division is this best thing going right now in terms of women's wrestling. My biggest knock on this match was the poor attempts at comedy with Bravo in this match at multiple points as both Taya and Rosemary respectively.

While I'm not too crazy about Kylie Rae, I'm not upset with the decision for her to win this match. She could be arranged to be the underdog babyface against either the powerhouse superiority of Grace or the technical prowess of Purrazzo, so it's win-win either way in this case.

From the way how IMPACT keeps encouraging these pairings and partnerships between the Knockouts, I think it's more than appropriate that IMPACT brings back the Knockout Tag Team Championships and really show WWE how to properly book a women's tag team division.





A wild Heath Slater appears!


Immediately following the end of this match, Slater slides into the ring and declares himself the hottest free agent out there in professional wrestling. I think he was backstage smoking some of RVD's stash before coming out here. He exchanges a few words with one of the boys from the Desi Hit Squad and squashes him thoroughly.

Slater would reunite with his good buddy, Rhino, later into the show, only to be informed by Scott D'Amore that among the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing concerns that he shouldn't be there as he's NOT signed to an IMPACT contract. Rhino assures his buddy that he's going to have this ironed out before the tapings on Tuesday, but to let Slater's kids know that he said hi. I got a good chuckle out of this for sure since apparently IMPACT doesn't give a damn about Slater's kids just like WWE and Brock Lesnar.




X-Division Championship Match
Chris Bey def. Willie Mack (c) to become the NEW X-Division Champion


Chris Bey is someone that I'm sure that either AEW or NXT is going to snatch up in a few more years, but for now, I'm glad to see him getting to work with guys like Willie Mack in the X-Division.


I thought Bey broke his neck during that one neckbreaker spot off the ring apron at one point from how both of them landed off of the move. They didn't stop the match and kept going, but for Bey's sake, I hope he's alright.




IMPACT Tag Team Championship Match
The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) (c) def. Ken Shamrock & Sami Callihan


In terms of great tag teams in the current landscape of modern professional wrestling, The North go unnoticed. I guess part of that is because most people choose to ridicule and ignore IMPACT Wrestling (until their former talent shows up in AEW or WWE), instead of recognizing a lot of the great talents that they have under contract on their roster. Shamrock seemed like he was completely confused for a lot of spots towards the end of this match, but I thought this match was fine regardless. They had me going for a few points of the match where I thought Shamrock and Callihan were going to pick up the tag team gold, but this match ultimately added more coals to the fire in Shamrock and Callihan's heated rivalry.

I was glad to see The North retain, but the true icing on the cake was the moment when the Motor City Machine Guns came out after the match and issued a challenge for the tag titles to be contested on IMPACT this Tuesday night. Guess who's watching IMPACT this week for sure? This guy right here. I now that's going to be one hell of a match, without a shadow of a doubt.



IMPACT Knockouts Championship Match
Deonna Purrazzo def. Jordynne Grace (c)

This was arguably the best match of the night from both a competitive standpoint and from a psychological perspective. Deonna systematically targeted Jordynne's arms throughout this entire match until she was able to latch on a pair of Fujiwara Armbars to force Grace to submit since she was well beyond her threshold of pain. That was one hell of a way to establish the Virtuosa as a killer right off the bat. I was already a fan of the build to this match from the back and forth between both women in interviews and such, but this match was the icing on the cake. I'm really happy to see Deonna part of a women's division that knows full well how to take advantage of her strengths and put them on display instead of having her be a habitual enhancement talent.

No offense to Kylie Rae, but I don't see her having a snowball's chance in hell in dethroning Deonna following this convincing win against Jordynne tonight. I see her being the lamb sent to the slaughter which might push Susie over the edge in terms of containing whatever the hell is going on with her showing tendencies of Su Yung again. That could make for a good women's title feud before the inevitable rematch between Jordynne Grace and Deonna.



5-Man Elimination Battle Royal Match for vacant IMPACT World Championship
Eddie Edwards def. Ace Austin (w/ Madman Fulton), Rich Swann, Eric Young, and Trey Miguel

Rich Swann showed up earlier in the night on crutches, so when he showed up here as the fourth entrant in this match that was a lukewarm surprise at best. Then Eric Young came out to make his return as the fifth and final entrant. Can't say that I was thrilled to see EY back, but hey, WWE was doing jack shit with him and I honestly felt that he never fit in with their type of wrestling anyway, even when he was part of Sanity. I was totally expecting EC3 to enter this match and win the whole thing like everyone else was, but I can understand why they didn't go with the predictable route as well.

The elimination format of this match kept people guessing during the opening moments of the match of who was going to come out on top as I had Swann pegged to win at first with Ace Austin being my second favorite to win. They played up the injury angle on Swann for his elimination to create a feud between him and EY going forward, so that should be interesting.

I was glad to see one of the Rascals in this main event, but Trey ultimately fell short of getting revenge on Ace Austin. I thought Madman Fulton would have helped Austin cheat his way to victory, but it was Eddie Edwards who came out on top. I can't see Edwards being pegged to keep this title for long as this title victory felt like the company loyalist award more than anything else. I'm not knocking the match, but that's just how this felt in the end, especially after thinking back at how Michael Elgin was pegged and elevated to dethrone Tessa Blanchard with the odds stacked against her before those #SpeakingOut allegations and Tessa's inability to do business with the company on the way out took both of them off of the roster before this event came to pass.

After the match, Austin and Fulton would assault the new champion only for the Good Brothers to fake a potential partnership and lay out Fulton and Austin instead before celebrating with Edwards.




This event would end with this short teaser of EC3 being released from "jail" it seems in a manner heavily reminiscent of Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose's own departure from WWE. I'm more than ready to see what he does back within IMPACT Wrestling. If he doesn't get back into the conversation for the IMPACT World Championship then I don't know what they are thinking.



Closing Thoughts


From top to bottom, I thought Slammiversary was a great show that serves as the reset button that IMPACT needs right now to get people who they have turned off in the past to start watching their product again. I understand that IMPACT has made a wealth of mistakes over the years, but people are FAR more forgiving to both WWE and AEW nowadays and should extend some of that faith over IMPACT's way. The amazing talent they have on and off camera deserves to be recognized for their hard work here and not to be regulated as the redheaded stepchildren of professional wrestling.

This show was definitely the shot of adrenaline in the arm that I needed to make me interested in checking out their product on Tuesday nights again.
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