Slammiversary XVI was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Impact Wrestling . The event took place on July 22, 2018, at The Rebel Complex in Toronto , Ontario, Canada. It was the fourteenth event under the Slammiversary chronology.
62-645: Eight professional wrestling matches were contested at the event and were broadcast live on pay-per-view. The main event saw Impact World Champion Austin Aries successfully defended his title against Moose . The undercard also featured acclaimed matches such The Latin American Xchange retaining the Impact World Tag Team Championship by defeating The OGz in a 5150 Street Fight, and Pentagón Jr. defeating Sami Callihan in
124-448: A Mask vs. Hair match . The event received universal acclaim from fans and critics. The event featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines . Wrestlers portrayed villains , heroes , or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. At Redemption , Impact Wrestling announced
186-474: A Six-way elimination match on July 20, 2024, at Slammiversary in Montreal , Quebec , Canada to win the title. Dave Meltzer Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s David Allen Meltzer (born October 24, 1959) is an American journalist who reports on professional wrestling and mixed martial arts . Since 1983, Meltzer has been
248-560: A Tuxedo match , and Last Man Standing match . The Storm/Roode match was originally a Bull Rope match but Storm asked Carter to change it to a Florida Death match , which was not on the "Wheel of Dixie", which Carter agreed to. Also, the winner would be decided at TNA Final Resolution of 2013. To date, the championship has had seven belt designs, with the original title belt (which was unveiled in May 2007) having on its center plate an imprint of an eagle with its wings extended. The word "World"
310-483: A Mask vs. Hair match, when Pentagon performed a package piledriver to win the match. After the match, Pentagon shaved Callihan's hair with a razor on the ramp, while Fenix held Callihan's arms. In the main event, Austin Aries defended the Impact World Championship against Moose. Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Curtis Granderson served referee's duties for the pre-match (where the championship belt
372-463: A collaboration between them during the 90s, Scherer alleged that he gave him first-hand information, but then Meltzer published something different. Former WWE wrestler John Bradshaw Layfield has alleged that WWE gave Meltzer false information, which Meltzer then published. In May 2015, Meltzer reported that Destination America had decided to cancel Impact Wrestling by late September 2015. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) vehemently denied
434-805: A crowd that surprisingly didn't lose much momentum despite the Pentagon vs. Callihan semi main event being so insane". Dave Meltzer 's Wrestling Observer Newsletter rated the Mask vs. Hair match and the Impact World Championship match as the best of the show at 4.25 out of 5 stars, and the four-way match and the Impact World Tag Team Championship match 3.75 stars. The worst rated match was the Impact Knockouts Championship match at 1.5 stars. TNA World Heavyweight Champion The TNA World Championship
496-524: A fan at first. A short time later, he began maintaining a tape-trading list, and would occasionally send match results and news updates along with tape updates. Meltzer stated that he wanted to keep his friends in college "in the loop" for his tape trading and the happenings in the business, as the mainstream wrestling magazines catered to a somewhat younger demographic. Meltzer popularized the star rating system (devised by Jim Cornette and his childhood friend Norm M. "Weasel" Dooley), which rates matches on
558-571: A globe centered with TNA's logo at the top and bottom of each. At each end of the title belt there was a small plate that covered the championship belt snaps with TNA's logo engraved on each. At the November 8, 2010 tapings of the November 11 episode of Impact! , TNA introduced a new design for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt, which the champion Jeff Hardy dubbed the "Immortal Championship", as part of
620-540: A globe with "World" inscribed above the globes and "Champion" inscribed below them and the outer side plates featuring the Impact logo but without the owl design. Blue shading had filled the Impact logo, the owl design, and the globes and logos on the side plates, but in 2020, the belt was modified with red shading replacing the previous blue to reflect the new color of the Impact Wrestling logo introduced following
682-558: A kendo stick to Edwards. Alisha Edwards and Dreamer left, while Edwards stayed in the ring. Later, Matt Sydal defended the Impact X Division Championship against Brian Cage. He failed to do so, as Cage performed a Drill Claw on Sydal to win the title. In the fifth match, Su Yung defended the Impact Knockout Championship against Madison Rayne. Yung applied the Mandible Claw until Rayne fainted to retain
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#1732793012203744-525: A match in MLW , he was replaced by Williams. Next, Allie faced Tessa Blanchard. In the end, Blanchard performed a hammerlock DDT on Allie to win the match. After that, Eddie Edwards faced Tommy Dreamer in a House of Hardcore rules match. Edwards won after he performed a Boston Knee Party on a chair into Dreamer's face. After the match, Dreamer offer Edwards his hand. Edwards' accepted the handshake after his wife, Alisha Edwards , arrived at ringside. Dreamer gave
806-688: A scale of zero to five stars (sometimes going into negative stars in the case of very bad matches) in a similar manner to that used by many movie critics. Meltzer has also given ratings that have exceeded five stars. The first 6 and 6.5 star matches took place in 1981 (as rated by Dooley, not Meltzer). The highest he has ever rated a match was seven stars, given to Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega for their match at Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall in June 2018. Wrestlers such as Bret Hart have written how proud they were when their performances were praised in
868-451: A tremendously enjoyable show, with nothing at all BAD, and the roster stepping up big time and simply delivering. It's amazing that when you allow the talent to really do their thing and have a hot crowd that good things happen." Jason Powell from Pro Wrestling Dot Net praised the event as being a "very good effort from Impact Wrestling". He felt that the opening match was "the type of crazy and fun four-way one would expect from these guys",
930-471: A white strap) and declared himself the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion after defeating Hernandez and Michael Elgin in a triple threat match , which was originally to be for the Impact World Championship but reigning champion Tessa Blanchard missed the tapings due to the COVID-19 pandemic . While the title was not recognized as an official championship by Impact, Moose had several title defenses. On
992-524: Is a professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It is the promotion's principal championship. Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won via pinfall or submission. The current champion is Nic Nemeth , who is in his first reign. Before the championship was created, TNA controlled the NWA World Heavyweight Championship via an agreement with
1054-518: Is displayed by the referee before the start) events. Aries performed a brainbuster to retain the title. Slammiversary received widespread critical acclaim. Nolan Howell of Slam Wrestling declared that "Impact Wrestling made a statement here with what could be the best show of the year, at least in American wrestling". Howell's best-rated match was the Impact World Tag Team Championship match at 4.5 out of 5 stars, noting that "it really captured some of
1116-491: The Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter rated the Mask vs. Hair match 4.75 stars, describing the match as "very hardcore", and that "it's different from anything else you'll see on a mainstream wrestling level in the U.S." He declared the match as one of his "favorite matches all year so far, across any promotion ". He rated the four-way match 4.5 stars, noting that Johnny Impact is "a guy that, if booked
1178-507: The Immortal storyline. The new design consisted of a purple strap with a silver center plate depicting a masked head (designed to resemble Hardy's face with face paint), the TNA logo on the forehead and blue lines along the mask. There were four irregular dodecagonal side plates on the title belt, shaped like stars with rounded edges on two of the sides of these plates. The Immortal title belt
1240-648: The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). In 2007, the agreement between TNA and the NWA ended, leading to the creation of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. The championship was unveiled on May 14, 2007, at the taping of TNA's primary television program, Impact! , which aired on May 17, 2007. The inaugural champion was Kurt Angle , who also holds the record for the most reigns at six. When TNA changed its name and became Impact Wrestling in March 2017,
1302-505: The WON . Others, such as Cornette himself, PWInsider ' s Dave Scherer and Seth Rollins have criticized Meltzer's system. Meltzer himself has stated that his star system is "the least important" work he undertakes and has said that wrestlers and fans place far more importance on the star ratings than he does. Nevertheless, Meltzer's ratings are frequently are hot topic within the world of professional wrestling, and were so particularly in
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#17327930122031364-585: The card , Cage was scheduled to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Kurt Angle and Sting in a three-way match . That night, the onscreen graphic used to refer to the champions and their respective championships credited both Cage and Team 3D as still being NWA champions. Angle defeated Cage and Sting to win the World Heavyweight Championship. During subsequent TV tapings for
1426-575: The " Wall Street Journal of professional wrestling". Bret Hart recalled that during his career most of his colleagues were keen to be featured and praised by Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter , and stated he was glad that WON served as a legitimate source of news within professional wrestling following the Montreal screwjob incident. Industry veteran Terry Funk recalled in his 2013 autobiography being impressed by WON : I immediately thought that this thing
1488-514: The "new TNA World Heavyweight Champion". but later on, Cornette stripped Angle of the TNA championship due to the controversial finish of the match at Sacrifice. and scheduled a King of the Mountain match for the championship at TNA's Slammiversary on June 17, 2007. This match type involves five participants racing to gain a pinfall or submission to become eligible to hang a championship belt to win. On May 15, 2007, Jeremy Borash unveiled
1550-586: The February 23, 2021, episode of Impact! , Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore officially sanctioned Moose's self-proclaimed championship. At Sacrifice , Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated Moose to unify the championships. The TNA title was deactivated, and the Impact World Championship was briefly referred to as the Impact Unified World Championship. As Impact Wrestling returned to its original name, TNA Wrestling,
1612-627: The GFW name was dropped, and the company name reverted to Impact Wrestling when the company severed ties with Jeff Jarrett , and he took the GFW name with him. However, Impact Wrestling kept the Global Championship name for their championship and the title was then called the Impact Global Championship. On the February 1, 2018, episode of Impact! , the title became known as the Impact World Championship. On June 4, 2018,
1674-501: The Impact World Championship, though still represented by both belts (with the white strap TNA belt being swapped out for the original black strap version shortly thereafter). In August 2021, after Christian Cage won the title, the TNA belt was retired once again. Prior to Hard to Kill (2024) in January 2024, the company reverted back to the TNA name. To reflect the change, TNA President Scott D’Amore presented Alex Shelley , who
1736-420: The Impact World Tag Team Championship match as a "crazy brawl that the broadcast team and production had a hard time keeping up with". Powell praised the Mask vs. Hair match, while noting that it "was really good for what it was, but it would have been terrific in the culmination of a long blood feud". Of the Impact World Championship match, Powell said that it was a "good main event with hard work from both men and
1798-620: The June 14 episode of Impact! . Angle ended up winning the King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary over Joe, Cage, Styles and Harris, who was a mystery participant chosen by Cornette, to become the "undisputed TNA World Heavyweight Champion". In early 2017 After TNA rebranded as Impact Wrestling, the name of its flagship show, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship changed its name to the Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship to reflect
1860-739: The September 16 edition of Impact! , which led to Eric Bischoff making the final match at Bound for Glory a three–way. On October 29, 2013, TNA President Dixie Carter vacated the TNA World Heavyweight Championship after the previous champion A.J. Styles . Carter scheduled an eight-man tournament to determine a new champion, that would begin on November 7. Seven of the eight men were former TNA World Heavyweight Champions including Jeff Hardy , Chris Sabin , Bobby Roode , James Storm , Kurt Angle , Austin Aries , and Samoa Joe . The eighth would be determined later in
1922-463: The Slammiversary report on 411 Mania , Larry Csonka, rated the event an 8.5 out of 10 which was higher than last year's event that was given 7.2 out of 10. Csonka stated that Slammiversary "was a rather great show with a lot of great wrestling to love, and a PPV show that felt, for the first time in a long time, they really gave the talent a chance to go out, do their thing and succeed. This was
Slammiversary XVI - Misplaced Pages Continue
1984-456: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt on that day's edition of TNA's online video podcast TNA Today . The five participants for the King of the Mountain match were determined in a series of standard wrestling matches that took place on Impact! leading up to the event, with Angle defeating Rhino in the first bout to gain entry on the May 17 episode of Impact! . On the May 24 episode of Impact! , Samoa Joe defeated Sting to become
2046-523: The TNA and original GFW Global Championship belts were used in tandem to represent the unification of both titles. At Destination X 2017 , the GFW Global Championship belt, with an updated color scheme and Impact logos on the side plates, became the sole belt used. Following the departure of Jeff Jarrett from the promotion, the company reverted to the Impact Wrestling name and the title belt was updated with an Impact name plate to reflect
2108-519: The Vatican or State Department and not do as good a job as Dave Meltzer does on wrestling". R. Tyson Smith, a professor at University of Pennsylvania , cited Meltzer as "the foremost authority on professional wrestling in the United States" in his 2014 book exploring identity, masculinity, and the act of violence in professional wrestling, while wrestling historian Pat Laprade has called WON
2170-464: The center. The second side plate on each side is gold with TNA logo in the center. The third side plate on the right side features the Anthem logo in gold and red. Overall, there have been 59 reigns shared among 34 wrestlers. The inaugural champion was Kurt Angle, who won the championship by defeating Christian Cage and Sting in a three-way match on May 13, 2007, at TNA's Sacrifice event. Angle also holds
2232-527: The championship then became known as the Impact Global Championship. Since the February 1, 2018 episode of Impact! , the title has been known as the Impact World Championship. On June 4, 2018, the title was unified with the Impact Grand Championship , with the latter title being officially retired. At Rebellion , Moose appeared with the old TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt (its 3rd design from 2011 to 2017, later modified with
2294-441: The change. A new title design was introduced at Impact Wrestling's Redemption on April 22, 2018. The gold center plate has the Impact logo with "World Champion" inscribed below the logo. An owl sits above the Impact logo, representing Impact's parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment . On each side of the center plate is a group of four smaller gold plates, with the inner side plates featuring separate corresponding halves of
2356-405: The date for Slammiversary XVI. At the June 4 Slammiversary press conference, two title matches were announced for the event. The pay-per-view opened with Fenix, Johnny Impact, Petey Williams and Taiji Ishimori in a Fatal 4-way match. Impact performed a Starship Pain on Fenix to win the match. Rich Swann was scheduled to participate in this match, but due to a concussion that he suffered during
2418-733: The late 2010s following the awarding of six stars to the Omega vs Okada match at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in 2017. Meltzer's reputation is divisive; his work is generally praised amongst journalists, scholars and historians. In the professional wrestling business, he is considered more controversial, particularly by those targeted by his reporting or damaged by it. In 2016 the Washington Post referred to Meltzer as "pro wrestling’s preeminent journalist" while in 2013 Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated called Meltzer "the most accomplished reporter in sports journalism" and stated "You could cover
2480-512: The latter full control over both titles. NWA Executive Director Robert Trobich also stripped then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Christian Cage and then-NWA World Tag Team Champions Team 3D of their respective championships, ostensibly because Cage refused to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against wrestlers from other NWA territories. That same day, TNA were scheduled to produce their Sacrifice event, in which both Cage and Team 3D were to defend their respective championships. On
2542-425: The move to AXS TV. At Sacrifice on March 13, 2021, Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated TNA World Heavyweight Champion Moose to unify the two championships. Following this, the 2020 red shaded Impact belt and the white strapped TNA belt were used jointly to represent the unified world championship; the unified title was briefly referred to as the Impact Unified World Championship before reverting to being called
Slammiversary XVI - Misplaced Pages Continue
2604-717: The name changes of the company. At Slammiversary XV , GFW Global Champion Alberto El Patron defeated Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Lashley to unify the titles, with the GFW Global Championship being dropped and the Impact World Heavyweight Championship changing its name to the Unified GFW World Championship as Impact Wrestling began rebranding once again as GFW. In September 2017, GFW reverted their branding to Impact Wrestling,
2666-458: The next two episodes of Impact! , TNA did not acknowledge the NWA ending their agreement with TNA but gave a storyline explanation as to why a new championship was created. Management Director Jim Cornette , TNA's on-screen authority figure at the time, decided that "that due to TNA's growing worldwide exposure, the company needed to have its own TNA title belts". At the first episode, broadcast on tape delay on May 17 Angle introduced himself as
2728-403: The night in a gauntlet match, which was eventually won by Magnus last eliminating Kazarian and Sting . Match stipulations for the tournament were determined by spinning the "Wheel of Dixie"; options included a Falls Count Anywhere match , a Bull Rope match , a Submission match , a Ladder match , a Full Metal Mayhem match , a Coalminer's Glove match , a Tables match , a Dixieland match ,
2790-481: The old LAX feel, with great brawling and hardcore spots that really took the blood feud atmosphere up a notch". He rated the main event 4.25 stars out of 5, noting that it "was going to be hard for this to top the rest of the card, but it delivered and then some with Aries continuing his run as one of the top heels in the game. Moose delivered on his end as well with some great big man offense and demonstrating an ability to go beyond that with his bumping." Mike McMahon of
2852-721: The publisher and editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON), a dirtsheet primarily addressing professional wrestling. He has also written for the Oakland Tribune , the Los Angeles Times , Yahoo! Sports , SI.com , and The National Sports Daily . He has extensively covered mixed martial arts since UFC 1 in 1993 and also covers the sport for SB Nation . He has been called "the most accomplished reporter in sports journalism" by Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated . Meltzer
2914-442: The record for the most reigns, at six. Josh Alexander 's first reign is the shortest at three minutes while his second reign is the longest at 335 days. Tessa Blanchard is the only woman to ever win the world title. The title has been vacated seven different times. Nic Nemeth is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated defending champion Moose , Josh Alexander , Steve Maclin , Frankie Kazarian , and Joe Hendry in
2976-462: The right way, Impact can build around ". He also rated the Impact World Tag Team Championship match 4.5 stars, while noting that while he's "OK with just one hardcore match on a show", both Edwards-Dreamer and LAX-OGz "had culminated and called for a more aggressive match ". He also observed that the two matches were different, as "LAX vs. OGz was a lot more athletic with more big moves, while Dreamer and Edwards relied on more weapons ". The writer of
3038-426: The second participant. The third qualification match was held on the May 31 episode of Impact! between A.J. Styles and Tomko , which Styles won. The next bout pitted Chris Harris against James Storm on the June 7 episode Impact! , which ended in a double disqualification , therefore neither man advanced to the King of the Mountain match. The final qualification match was won by Christian Cage over Abyss on
3100-518: The title was renamed soon after to reflect the change. After Impact Wrestling rebranded to Global Force Wrestling (GFW) later that year, the title was unified with the original GFW Global Championship at Slammiversary XV and became the Unified GFW World Heavyweight Championship. Following Destination X , the title took the GFW Global Championship name and kept the former TNA lineage. On October 23, 2017,
3162-448: The title was unified with the Impact Grand Championship and on March 13, 2021, it was unified with the TNA World Heavyweight Championship , which was briefly sanctioned in 2021 as a separate title from the Impact World Championship. In January 2024, Impact Wrestling reverted back to the TNA name, thus renaming the title as TNA World Championship. TNA Wrestling was formed as NWA: Total Nonstop Action in May 2002. Later that same year, TNA
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#17327930122033224-428: The title. After the match, Yung put Rayne inside a coffin. Next, The Latin American Xchange (Santana and Ortiz) accompanied by Konnan defended the Impact World Tag Team Championship against The OGz (Hernandez and Homicide), who were accompanied by King, in a 5150 Street Fight. Santana performed a Frog Splash on Homicide who were laying on thumbtacks to retain the title. After that, Pentagon Jr. defeated Sami Callihan in
3286-502: The top rope and down to the floor in order to eliminate others, until there were two men left who wrestle a standard singles match to become the first ever TNA-era NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Ken Shamrock defeated Malice to win the vacant championship with Ricky Steamboat as the guest referee at the event. The NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships were contested for in TNA until May 13, 2007, when NWA ended their five-year agreement with TNA, which had allowed
3348-820: The words "Heavyweight Champion" engraved in silver. On each side of the center plate was a group of three smaller plates, one with a TNA logo engraved while the other two featured separate corresponding halves of a globe, on either side of the TNA logo side plate. This belt—modified with a white strap—returned in April 2020 after Moose declared himself as " TNA World Heavyweight Champion " following defeating several past TNA wrestlers, and with then-reigning Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard being absent due to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions. Moose's title would remain unrecognized until February 2021, when it became officially sanctioned and recognized by Impact executive vice president Scott D'Amore . Following Slammiversary XV , both
3410-605: The world title also reverted back to its original name. On the August 19, 2010, edition of TNA Impact! , the TNA World Heavyweight Championship was vacated, after champion Rob Van Dam suffered a storyline injury. The title was put up in a tournament featuring the top eight ranked wrestlers in the TNA Championship Committee rankings . The finals of the tournament would take place at Bound for Glory on October 10. * Angle and Hardy wrestled another draw on
3472-656: Was born in upstate New York to a Jewish family. He later moved with his family to San Jose, California . Meltzer earned a journalism degree from San Jose State University and started out as a sportswriter for the Wichita Falls Times Record News and the Turlock Journal . He demonstrated an interest in professional wrestling and a journalistic approach to it early in life. Meltzer wrote several wrestling-related publications that predate WON , dating back to 1971. The most notable of these
3534-514: Was going to take off. There would be no stopping it. Instead of talking about the matches as if they were real competitions, like the newsstand magazines had one, Dave Meltzer wrote about the business behind the scenes. It had news and results from all over, and was obviously written about someone who understood the business...I saw it as a thermometer of sorts, to see how different things were getting over in different places. Conversely, PWInsider writer Dave Scherer has criticized Meltzer's work. After
3596-619: Was granted control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) governing body; subsequently becoming an official NWA territory as NWA-TNA. On June 19, 2002, NWA-TNA held its first show; a weekly pay-per-view event . The main event of the telecast was a twenty-man Gauntlet for the Gold match in which 20 men sought to throw each other over
3658-414: Was placed above the eagle's head on a ribbon. The ribbon was wrapped around the bird's wings and body. Five stars were engraved on the ribbon when it passed over each of the bird's wings and the word "Champion" as it passed over the bird's talons. The words "Heavyweight Wrestling" were printed across the bird's chest. At the top of the center plate there was TNA logo. Four smaller side plates had an imprint of
3720-494: Was replaced by the third design of the championship belt at the March 14, 2011 tapings of the March 17 episode of Impact! , introduced by the reigning champion at the time, Sting. The design featured seven gold plates over a black leather strap. The center plate had faux diamonds aligned along its multiple rounded edges, similar to that of the Big Gold Belt . Over the center plate was a large TNA Wrestling logo and below it
3782-483: Was the California Wrestling Report , ca. 1973–1974, which reported on the still-extant National Wrestling Alliance territories operating out of Los Angeles and San Francisco . The beginnings of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter date back to 1980, when Meltzer began an annual poll amongst those with whom he corresponded regarding professional wrestling. According to Meltzer, he was just
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#17327930122033844-445: Was the last champion under the Impact name with a new belt. The new belt has 5 gold plates. The center plate added more height with the top and bottom each pointed like a V-shape with the sides having various shapes. In the center plate, features World on top, the TNA logo over a gold and red globe in center and Champion at the bottom. The first side plate next to the center on each side features World Champion in smaller print and globe in
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