A SLAM! Long Forgotten (9/19/2015) Results: THE RETURN!

The hard camera pans the ringside fans and “Luna” by the Mountain Goats plays over the sound of the ovation. A short video package plays for the live audience on the screen as well as for the WF Network audience, highlighting some of the greatest moments in SLAM! Wrestling history back ten years ago: the nearly 300-day World Championship reign of Rob Conway, only topped by the year-long reign of Austin Aries; the rise of the Revolution, headed by Aries, and the rise of Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin from tag team standard to feuding champions, the feud with NWA pitting Conway against Triple H, jumping forward to the Trios Tournaments, first the Jessup McFarlane annual and later the SLAM!-branded World Trios Tournament. The new wave of SLAM! Stars is highlighted, including Alberto ‘el Patron,’ Celeste Bonin, C.M. Punk, Matt Sydal, Sami Zayn, Tyler Breeze, and more.

Jim Ross and Paul Heyman welcome the at-home audience to the show from the ringside booth before sending it to Tom Phillips in the ring who welcomes the fans in attendance at the Mayo Clinic Sports Center in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. He runs down the card and then introduces the first match of the night.

The two men go back-and-forth with neither catching a high-impact move for the first few moments, feeling each other out in this first-time match-up. Malenko seems to have Neville well-scouted, having matched up against the high-flying Cruiserweights of WCW. He grounds “the Man that Gravity Forgot” for several moments, holding him down in a headlock on the mat. When chided by the crowd, Malenko threatens to hold the move throughout the course of the match, but eventually Neville stretches his foot to the ropes. Malenko lets go of the hold momentarily and gets dumped to the outside by the up-and-comer. Neville hits a somersault plancha on the outside and takes control. After a fluery of high-flying offense, Neville downs Malenko near the corner of the ring with a brainbuster, following it up with his patented Red Arrow for a pinfall victory. (9:38)



Dean Ambrose makes his way to the ringside area and grabs a microphone from the announce position. He announces to the audience how “great it feels to be able to f***ing say ‘f***’ again,” after years of being part of a PG product. Phillips reminds him that he’s still not supposed to say that word in SLAM! Wrestling, but Ambrose dismisses it, saying he is “ready to kick some ass.”

The two men break out the hardware early as Ambrose quickly takes out a Singapore cane and cracks Goldust with it. The “Bizarre One” battles back, eventually employing a wooden palette to his advantage, propping it in the corner and slamming Ambrose through it to set up for Shattered Dreams. When Ambrose is able to duck out from the corner before Goldust delivers the move, he rings his neck across the top rope and then pulls out a barbwire coated plywood sheet, sliding it into the ring. Ambrose hits Goldust with a Nigel Lariat and then plants him head-first on the barbwire with his Dirty Deeds double underhook ddt for a pinfall victory. (7:19)







The Party Animals and Emma – though capable wrestlers in their own right – decided to frustrate Money & Power with comedy. They outsmarted the trio of Mark Henry, MVP, and Big E Langston for a time, but eventually the power won out and the heels took control of the match, dominating Rose and keeping him in their corner of the ring. Eventually, Rose broke free, tagging in Emma. She cleared out MVP from the ring but then ran square into Mark Henry. He tossed her from the ring, but she caught herself on the apron, climbing the ropes and attempting and cross body, but Henry caught her. At the same time, El Torito climbed the ropes and attempted a cross of his own, but the World’s Strongest Man caught him as well! As Henry gloated, holding them in the air, Rose regained his composure and nailed Henry with a superkick, making him fall back to the mat. Rose would effectively eliminate Big E and MVP from the ring, and Emma and Torito’s combined weight was enough to hold Henry down for the three count and the victory! The trio slipped out of the ring as MVP, Big E, and Henry got back to their feet, glaring down at the victors. After the match, replays showed that members of the Rosebuds may have held MVP back from breaking up the pin! (12:27)



“The Perfect Son” enters the ring first to a mixed reaction from the crowd before “Cult of Personality” cracking over the speakers and the upstart CM Punk makes his way down the entryway to a large reaction. Hennig tries to slow the pace early against Punk, holding him to the mat, but eventually the Straight Edge Star fights back, hitting kicks and strikes before finally gearing up before rallying into a high knee in the corner and a bulldog. Full in control, Punk climbs to the top rope for a flying elbow, but Hennig is up. He climbs to the ropes but Punk fights back, eventually setting him up for the Pepsi Plunge! Hennig breaks it up and tries to set up for a superplex, but Punk fights back and takes him down with a cross body to the mat. Punk locks Henning in the Anaconda Vise, forcing a submission. CM Punk celebrates the win with fans at ringside leading into intermission.(16:29)



Following intermission, Commissioner Fitzsimmons makes his way to the ringside area, flanked by Big in Japan (Gallows and Albert). He takes a microphone from Tom Phillips and climbs into the ring. He begins, “I hope everyone is enjoying themselves here tonight! It’s been a long time since I’ve watched wrestling let alone been involved with it. So, I hope you are getting what you paid for… That being said, I’m out here now to make a couple of announcements. First, I’d like to address the elephant in the room and that is Three Rope Wrestling. 3RW, I have in my hand a cease and desist letter in regards to your usage of the name Saturday Night SLAM!. We are the only SLAM! that the wrestling world needs, and Stephanie McMahon, if you have a problem with that, I can see you in court – or I can send Gallows and Albert to settle things.” Gallows and Albert nod their heads. “Now, with that ugliness out of the way, I do have some exciting news from SLAM! fans, and that is the announcement of our November show. Not to look too far ahead of Insidious in Boston, Massachusetts next month, but November will be a big month for SLAM! as we present the SLAM! Tenth Anniversary Weekend. SLAM! will present a three-night event in Nashville, Tennessee known as Aged to Perfection. That weekend we will decide each of the SLAM! Championships – the Super X Cup, the Tag Trios, and the World Class titles in a two-night show for the WF Network on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 28-29. Friday night will be our Black Friday event featuring preliminary matches in the Tag Trios tournament as well as the first two inductees into the SLAM! Wrestling Hall of Fame! As the fans on the WF Network just saw, we will be inducting the two competitors in the historic war between SLAM! and the National Wrestling Association – former SLAM! World Champion Rob Conway and NWA World Champion Triple H! Oh, and also: Conway will be in action on both nights of Aged to Perfection!” The crowd erupts in cheers as Fitzsimmons leaves the ring.



Zeb Colter grabs a microphone as he and Noble get into the ring. He lets Paige know that they are giving her one final chance to leave the ring and accept that women are not fit to be in the ring against men. Paige holds out a hand to Noble and they shake. Colter climbs from the ring and Noble starts to leave, but Paige turns him around, giving him a knee to the stomach. She hits Noble with the Rampaige for a pinfall victory! Noble and Colter look apoplectic. Noble grabs the referee but he nods his head that it was a legitimate win! Paige leaves having won the battle, though perhaps not the war. (0:12)



For all intents and purposes, these men put on the match of the night. Each man gets in some of his signature moves, including a nearfall on a Helluva Kick, Sydal hitting a suicide plancha to the outside on all three, Breeze knocking down Balor with a Super(Model)kick, and Balor planting Zayn with a Bloody Sunday for a nearfall of his own. The ending sequence plays out as Balor climbs to the top rope to hit Tyler Breeze with the Coup de Grace, but Matt Sydal dumps him to the outside. Sydal climbs to the top rope, but Zayn is back and plants him with the Brainbustaaaah! off the top turnbuckle. Before Zayn can get the pin, Breeze, who climbed back to his feet, hits him with the Beauty Shot, knocking him from the ring and stealing the pinfall victory. (32:01)[/span][/div]




El Patron shows off his genius early in the match, fighting off Celeste’s attempts at grounding him with strikes of his own. Used to being a powerhouse in the women’s division, Celeste is forced to break out some innovative offense to keep herself alive as Alberto works the arm. Celeste shows off some of her athleticism with a dive to the outside after dumping Alberto, but he moves out of the way, pulling his manager, Ricardo Rodriguez, in the way. The former Del Rio takes Celeste into the ring and hits a stiff kick, but somehow Celeste kicks out! Del Rio starts signaling for the cross armbreaker, but Celeste counters and hits him with a powerbomb! She stumbles back into the corner to set up for a spear, but Rodriguez jumps on the apron behind her. He attempts to hit Celeste with his bucket, but she reverses el Patron into the blow. He stumbles back and she plants him with a spear, flipping over him for a pinfall victory! Before she can celebrate, Rodriguez jumps into the ring and the pair begin a two-on-one. (14:23)

Before the duo can get far into their beat down, the Godzilla March theme plays over the speakers before a hip hop beat and none other than Samoa Joe makes his way down the entryway! Alberto jumps out of the ring, leaving Ricardo to fend off Joe himself. The Samoan Submission Machine takes him down with a pair of clotheslines and then drops him with a Muscle Buster.

---

(c) 2015 SLAM! Wrestling for WrestlingFigs.com