The rest of Slammiversary was good as well. The Naturals retained their NWA World Tag Team titles in a great match with Team Canada, Christopher Daniels retained the X Division title over both Michael Shane and Chris Sabin. Shocker pinned the returning Alex Shelley in an excellent match. Samoa Joe made his TNA debut by destroying Sonjay Dutt. Lance Hoyt lost his match to Bobby Roode, but became an even bigger babyface by taking Coach D’Amore out of action.

Go to TNAWrestling.com and catch up on Impact. All you need is Real Player, which they can hook you up with as well. I’ll hit you with the highlights here…

Results: 
Michael Shane d. James Storm
Shark Boy d. David Young
Samoa Joe d. Delirious
Christopher Daniels d. Elix Skipper

Thoughts: Shane is accompanied by Traci, while Storm has Chris Harris as backup. I will give Harris props for trying to cuff Traci. Rudy Charles does not play their game though, and tosses both of them from ringside. West makes a good point about how Storm is out of his element because of his lack of recent singles’ matches. After watching Raw, I forget that a color commentator is actually supposed to make points like that. After both she and Harris were tossed from ringside, Traci reappears at the top of the ramp, with Alex Shelley in tow. Hey, it wouldn’t take me that long to do whatever Traci wanted, I can promise you that. Shane ends up with the win after a superkick finished off a distracted Storm. Solid match that sets up a backstory for No Surrender. Father James Mitchell makes his return backstage, as he’s seen talking to Abyss. Mitchell promises to get Abyss his first one-on-one World Title match. Monty Brown and Outlaw interrupt a 3LK interview, with Monty doing an excellent Road Dogg impression. BG no-showed the interview, playing off of the problems he and Konnan had at Slammiversary. It wouldn’t be Impact if David Young wasn’t jobbing. Will he ever get a win? Jeff Jarrett is backstage demanding a title shot and Larry Zybysko basically tells him to shut up. I don’t mind some silly gimmicks, but Delirious might as well just be Idiotic. Thank you Samoa Joe for annihilating him, double thanks for continuing to choke the moron after the bell. Elix gets bonus points for hiding next to the heel entrance to sneak attack Daniels. Good to see Skipper get in a lot of offense too, I thought he took a little too much of a beating in their PPV match. The match was really good, with Daniels getting the submission out of nowhere. I think the idiot yelling “What” during Raven’s promo really didn’t understand him. Mitchell interrupts and then proceeds to up the ante on one dollar words. Abyss ends the verbal stand off with a Black Hole Slam.

Results: 
Sean Waltman d. Sonjay Dutt
Lance Hoyt d. Eric Young
Abyss d. Sonny Siaki
AMW d. Simon Diamond/Trytan
AJ Styles d. Alex Shelley

Thoughts: Wow, streaming is much better. We begin with a recap of the Abyss/Raven confrontation from last week. Waltman’s music is growing on me, it’s not as awful as I thought it was. Poor Sonjay is starting to tread into David Young Impact jobber territory. It’s good to know Sean is still a fan of the crotch chop, he brought all of his old heel tactics. Sonjay did hit a sweet pseudo-619 type move on the outside, it was the highlight of the match. It was a little slower paced match than you’d expect. Terry Taylor interviews a visibly upset Team Canada, they tell us that Coach D’Amore is in traction after the chokeslam and moonsault from Lance Hoyt. Petey Williams steps up as a leader of the group, he says he’s the captain of the team. I demand that he has a ‘C’ stitched on his Team Canada jersey for the PPV. The fans go retarded for Hoyt, which amazes me every time. I know that Impact is still airing on TV in a few markets and overseas, but I HATE the commercial interruptions in the matches. Hoyt/Young was a fun little match, the fan reaction for Hoyt always helps. Requisite Team Canada beatdown follows the match, which draws The Naturals out to help out Orlando’s favorite son. Hoyt, Stevens, and Douglas then went backstage to fire up some Depeche Mode DVD’s. Monty Brown makes his case to Terry Taylor for being a World Title contender. He says he’ll earn Zybysko’s respect. Please do not sign me up for an Abyss frog splash, Siaki should’ve been dead. Abyss/Siaki was very good. Sonny needs a singles push, can we wave bye-bye to Apollo please? It is good to see that Abyss has improved at wedging the chair between the ropes. Raven attacked Abyss during the post-match beatdown of Apollo, hitting the Evenflow DDT, pulling him headfirst into the chair with the chain, and challenged the big man to a Double Dog Collar match at the PPV. Hooray for the return of Simon Diamond, boo to the return of Trytan. Couldn’t he have at least been forced to wear a Muskateer outfit? Simon does still have a problem though, poor fella. What’s the Prodigy and Prodigette doing these days? During the AMW/Diamond & Trytan match, Jeff Jarrett came out to talk smack to Mike Tenay. He did plant the seed that Matt Hardy doesn’t show up, he’s taking credit for it. That’s one way to cover your bases. AMW ended up getting the win in a good tag match. A snazzy Christopher Daniels is interrupted by Petey Williams, who ends up getting a title shot at the PPV. Alex Shelley’s entrance makes you want to backhand him, well done Mr. Shelley. While the crowd chants for AJ, about three guys try a little too hard to be “indy” and chant for Shelley. These guys had a really good match on Impact last Fall, and they do a good job to live up to it again. Waltman comes out to join the announce team during the match to build up his match with AJ at the PPV. Shelley did a crazy inverted Pedigree, I hate to know what it’s called. AJ won with the Styles Clash, after busting Shelley’s nose. The show ends with Waltman mockingly congratulating Styles and Jerry Lynn coming out to break it up. Are we possibly building up to the return of Lynn in TNA? Excellent show this week.

Results: 
Chris Sabin d. David Young
Zach Gowen NC Mikey Batts
Samoa Joe wins Triple Threat Match over Shark Boy and Elix Skipper
Petey Williams d. Amazing Red
Abyss d. Cassidy Reilly
Naturals/Lance Hoyt d. Team Canada (Roode/Young/A1)

Thoughts: It’s amazing how impressive Young can be when you give him a little bit of offense in a match. Even though it seems like it’s the direction they’re going with Samoa Joe, Young would make an excellent X-Division bully. He had a sweet German suplex follwed by a clothesline combination in the middle of the match, really nasty. While Sabin celebrated, Samoa Joe came out to kill him. Not beat him down, but I think he really tried to kill him. Good segment, it definitely makes you want to see their match on the PPV. Negative points to AJ for wearing a pink Polo shirt during his backstage interview, even Larry Zybysko seemed put off by it. He gathered himself enough to announce that Jerry Lynn would be the guest referee for the Styles/Waltman match at No Surrender. AMW hypes their PPV match with Michael Shane and Alex Shelley. I miss when Storm used to tell us what his Mamma told him about their opponents. Jarrett came out to interrupt the Gowen/Batts match, which wasn’t all that upsetting. Smashing his guitar over Gowen’s head, that might be a little rude. Imitating Zach hopping around, that was downright mean. Bonus points to you, Mr. Jarrett. The triple threat was highlighted by Joe double German suplexing both Skipper and Shark Boy. They continue to build up Joe, I’m just wondering if he’s going to eventually go after the X Division title or the World Title. Speaking of the X Division champion, Daniels joined in on commentary during the Williams/Red match. He got an eyeful, it was a fun, fast-paced match. Probably even too fast, although it’s good to see Red back in fine form. Isn’t it, Don West? Backstage, Monty Brown threatens 3LK again, what a shock. Can we move along in the Outlaw/BG James saga, please? If I was Cassidy Reilly, I’d just leave when I saw that Abyss was going to kill me again, that had to the fourth or fifth time he’s been squashed. This time, Abyss gets the better of Raven in the post match brawl. The main event was fun. Hoyt’s inexplicable enormous popularity + the hatred for Team Canada = a fun match to watch. Fun little show this week, although it might have been better to cut a match or segment to flesh out some of the matches a bit more.

Results: 
Team Canada (Williams/Young) d. Christopher Daniels/Samoa Joe
Simon Diamond/Trytan d. Sonny Siaki/Apollo
Shocker d. Sonjay Dutt
Team Canada (Roode/A1) d. AJ Styles/Sean Waltman

Thoughts: All the Jarrett haters riot, as the show opens with a recap of Jarrett’s attack on Zach Gowen and his promo about the World Title. Interesting pairing of Joe and Daniels in the opening tag match, besides the fact they both kick 847 kinds of ass, it could be used to set up dissension between the two of them. Petey is one of the better heels going today, he really makes you want to smack him upside the head. I like giving Sabin’s character a bit of an edge by attacking Joe, he deserved it after last week. I also liked Williams getting the pin and the Canadian Destroyer on Daniels. Great, great, great opening match. I hope Cassidy Reilly made his tye dyed TNA shirt in his basement. He pledges his allegiance to Raven in a weird interview. Diamond and Trytan aren’t an awful team. Outlaw and Monty Brown really hate K-Dawg’s pre-match spiel, they attacked 3LK before the scheduled match even began. BG James is still on the side of a milk carton, we’ll see if he shows up on Sunday. Dutt continues his jobbing streak against Shocker. Just go ahead and make a new J.O.B. Squad with Sonjay, David Young, and Cassidy Reilly. James Mitchell is brilliant on promos, he even scares me a little. Jerry Lynn explains that he knows both Waltman and Styles well and got involved in their match because he helped build the X Division and wants the match to be as good as it can be. Tenay explains that Waltman requested to team with Styles this week and Zybysko liked the idea. Good work by both Tenay and West in setting up their PPV match. Also, good booking by TNA in having Team Canada get the win here. The Canadians needed a win over a quality opponent, and adding more to the Styles/Waltman story is smart. I’m really looking forward to the PPV match. Raven got the last word, I think Michell has inspired Raven’s promos as of late as he delivered here. I hope people check this week’s Impact out, it should add to the PPV buyrate.

RAVEN vs. ABYSS
Double-Dog-Collar "No Surrender" Match for the NWA Title

Raven walked out of Slammiversary as the surprise World Champion. Whether TNA was trying to capitalize on the current ECW nostalgia or not, it was a good idea to shake things up. Abyss was also in the King of the Mountain match, having given up yet another one on one World Title match. James Mitchell made his return to TNA and promised to deliver that one on one title match that has continually eluded Abyss. After a promo battle between Raven and Mitchell on June 24’s Impact, Abyss made his claim for a title shot by delivering a Black Hole Slam to Raven. The following week, Raven got his revenge after Abyss’ win over Sonny Siaki. He used Abyss’ chain against him, and proceeded to challenge the big man to a Double Dog Collar match for the World Title at the PPV. It’s also a No Surrender match (nice, huh?), meaning that you cannot quit in this match. A little much perhaps, but it does set the bar pretty high for a brutal match.

If we go back in time, Mitchell also has other motives for going after Raven. He was butchered at the hands of Raven in late 2003 after a long feud with Mitchell’s New Church. That was Mitchell’s first, and thus far only, match in his career. Mitchell next turned Raven’s own Gathering (CM Punk and Julio Dinero) against him in early 2004, but Raven ran all of them off as well. Mitchell hadn’t been seen in TNA since then, until his surprise return last month. Abyss is his latest recruit in an over two year long war with Raven.
  

CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. PETEY WILLIAMS
X Division Title Match

Petey Williams, the Captain of Team Canada and de facto leader in Coach D’Amore’s absence, talked his way into this match by interrupting a Christopher Daniels backstage interview on the July 1 Impact. He then went out the following week and defeated Amazing Red in an impressive performance. He punctuated his month by pinning Daniels after a Canadian Destroyer in a tag match on this week’s Impact.

This is the first time Daniels has really been made to look vulnerable in his X Division reign. He’s held the belt for four months, and been dominant for the majority of it. The self-proclaimed “Mr. TNA” has defeated his former tag team partner Elix Skipper, Mexican superstar Shocker, TNA’s favorite son AJ Styles, and both Chris Sabin and Michael Shane in the same match.
  

AJ STYLES vs. SEAN WALTMAN
Jerry Lynn is the Special Guest Referee

AJ thought Waltman was helping him in last month’s King of the Mountain match. It appeared that he was, as they made plans and then worked together throughout the match. AJ dropped the belt as he was trying to hang it to win the match, and Waltman even retrieved it for him. It was all a ruse by evil Sean though, he proceeded to give AJ an X-Factor off the top of the ladder. AJ was able to stop Waltman from winning the World Title, but Abyss pushed them both off a ladder, to the outside, through some tables. The last shots of AJ at Slammiversary were of him screaming at Waltman.

AJ got his wish as Director of Authority Larry Zybysko announced the match for No Surrender. After AJ’s victory over Alex Shelley on the July 1 Impact, Waltman came to the ring. They nearly got into it, but Jerry Lynn came out from the back to separate the two. The following week, Zybysko announced that Lynn would be the special guest referee for the match at the PPV. On this week’s Impact, Waltman requested that he team with AJ in an attempt to get into his head. Of course, a wayward spin kick ended up costing AJ the pin. Styles was not amused, and the brawl was on. Lynn was again the one to break it up and save it for PPV.

Lynn is the wild card here. His feud with Styles was what really ignited the X Division back in TNA’s early days. His feud over a decade ago with Waltman, then the Lightning Kid, in the Global Wrestling Federation put both men on the map.
  

AMERICA'S MOST WANTED vs. MICHAEL SHANE/ALEX SHELLEY

This saga began when AMW’s James Storm and Michael Shane had a match on the June 24 Impact. Shane ended up getting the win after Shane’s girl Traci convinced Alex Shelley to interfere on Shane’s behalf. AMW looks to have regained their form as of late, with a two match winning streak going into this match. This will be the first time Shane and Shelley have teamed.
  

ELIX SKIPPER vs. SHARKBOY vs. SONJAY DUTT vs. MIKEY BATTS
Super X Cup Qualifying Match

No backstory here, at least not between the guys in this match. The Super X Cup was a good X Division tournament TNA last held in 2003. That was what introduced us to Chris Sabin, as he claimed the trophy. The tournament is returning next month on Impact, with the winner of this match nabbing the last spot in the field. The winner will get an X Division Title shot, as well as a very spiffy trophy. A very spiffy trophy that will undoubtedly end up being smashed over someone’s head as always happens in wrestling.
  

3 LIVE KRU (KONNAN/KILLINGS) vs. THE OUTLAW/MONTY BROWN
Street Fight

Where is BG James? He hasn’t been seen in TNA since his match at Slammiversary where Konnan missed a tag in their match against AMW that saw James take the pin. While James and Konnan were arguing, Outlaw came out to try to get James to leave with him. The crowd chanted “New Age Outlaws”, but James ended leaving out of a side door by himself. He no-showed a scheduled interview with 3LK and Mike Tenay, which lead to some mocking from Monty Brown and Outlaw. From that, and some more Road Dogg impersonations by the Alpha Male, we have this match. These guys have been crossing paths for a while now, but the story this time revolves around BG’s absence. Will he show up to play a part in this match? Whose side is he on?
  

THE NATURALS/LANCE HOYT vs. TEAM CANADA

Lance Hoyt, Orlando’s new favorite son, put Team Canada’s Coach D’Amore in traction after a chokeslam and a moonsault at Slammiversary. The Canadians are not happy about this turn of events and want revenge. The Naturals had an excellent match with Team Canada at Slammiversary, retaining their NWA World Tag Titles after some help from their new “advisor” Jimmy Hart. These six men faced off on Impact on June 8, with the Naturals and Hoyt getting the duke.
  

SAMOA JOE vs. CHRIS SABIN

Joe debuted for TNA last month and has been on a killing spree ever since. He has been 847 shades of dominant in all of his appearances. Mike Tenay has made a big point of Joe only losing one match in the last three years. Sabin has been one of the more impressive members of the X Division, having held the title twice and winning Ultimate X three times.

After the match was announced, Joe attacked Sabin after his victory over David Young on the June 8 Impact. Sabin proved that he had guts by attacking Joe during his tag match the following week.
  

EXTRAS/CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
  

If you miss the show this weekend, I’ll be back on Monday with the recap. See you then…