Date: 6/10/12
Championship: X-Division
Location: Arlington, Texas
To open Slammiversary, TNA went with their X-Divison and two of the top guys to ever step foot in that division. Samoa Joe and Austin Aries, who actually had quite the memorable and historic match in ROH, where Aries won their World Title from Joe. Here you have your classic case of powerful big guy vs. determined smaller guy. They did a very good job of portraying the strength against speed aspect of the match. Joe would hit big offense and Aries would find a way to combat it. At one point, Joe went for elbow suicida, but Aries used his speed to dodge, run in and hit the heat seeking missile. Aries also did a good job in selling just how much Joe's offense took out of him. I appreciate that they didn't overdo the false finishes, with only Joe, the monster, kicking out of Aries' 450. The finishing sequence was also really good as Aries had to hit a flurry of moves, including a sick brainbuster, to finally put down the dominant challenger. Performances like this are why Aries would win the World Title less than a month later.
Match Time - 11:44 ***¾
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