[2007-06-17-TNA-Slammiversary] Kurt Angle vs Samoa Joe vs A.J. Styles vs Christian Cage vs Chris Harris

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[El-P]

Not sure I would call it the best KOTM match, but it sure was a great one, redeeming the very disappointing mess of the previous year. It's also probably the very point where they should have pulled the trigger on Samoa Joe before it was too late. Angle didn't need the title (he's a guy who doesn't need a title to be at the top). He wasn't the worst choice (AJ Styles needed to be rebuilt as a top guy and Christian already was there for most of the year) but even Chris Harris would have been better as far as creating a new legit main event star. I'm not overly familiar with the chronology of the events to follow, but I do think this highlights the point where it was obvious TNA would not create any new star and would only trust WWE names at the top. It was Samoa Joe's to win there.

The post-match was kinda idiotic since this whole feud was already done to death by this point, and Angle's attitude was confusing, as it has never been clear if this guy should be considered a heel or a babyface. (he even acknowledges it on the following iMPACT, where he makes it a clear heel turn, for that week at the very least)

This match is also one of Christian's best performance.

[G. Badger]

This match was a lot of fun and of course had a lot of good highspots with the ladder and penalty box. AJ really put his body on the line as did Christian. I'm watching this as a Kurt Angle retrospective study rather than in context with the day to day booking. El-P's assessment seems pretty spot on. I have to think TNA used the title (the newly created TNA world title rather than the NWA one that they'd used up to this point) to lure Kurt to sign with them BUT also he was the biggest star so, it perhaps would give legitimacy to the title as well as entice new viewers if Kurt was the BIG focus.

Anyways, this was a very good match with a ton of action and excitement.