a thirty-minute pre-show prior to the event. The debut of newly signed wrestler Samoa Joe was announced heading into the show where he would be pitted in a bout against Sonjay Dutt. Storylines Slammiversary featured nine professional wrestling matches and one pre-show 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 into a wrestling match or series of matches. The main event at Slammiversary was a King of the Mountain match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, in which the champion A.J. Styles defended the title against four other competitors. At TNA's Lockdown PPV event on April 24, Styles defeated Abyss in a Six Sides of Steel Cage match. With the victory, he earned a shot at the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against then-champion Jeff Jarrett at TNA's Hard Justice PPV event on May 15. At Hard Justice, Styles defeated Jarrett to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. On the May 20 episode of TNA's television program TNA Impact!, Jarrett demanded a rematch for the title from Director of Authority Dusty Rhodes. Rhodes agreed, but instead announced that a King of the Mountain match would be held at Slammiversary in which Styles would defend the title against Jarrett, Monty Brown, Abyss—who won a Twenty-Man Gauntlet for the Gold at Hard Justice to become number one contender—and a mystery wild card opponent. A storyline also connected to this match was the on-screen suspension and quitting of TNA wrestler Raven. On the May 20 episode of Impact!, Raven attacked Larry Zbyszko of the NWA Championship Committee after he refused to make Raven the wild card entrant in the King of the Mountain match. Rhodes suspended Raven for touching TNA personnel; Raven therefore "quit" the company in the storyline. On the May 27 episode of Impact!, Raven's reasons for the attack and for quitting TNA were revealed: he felt Rhodes was holding him back from achieving his "destiny" of winning the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. TNA promoted a Three Way match for the TNA X Division Championship between then-champion Christopher Daniels and the challengers Chris Sabin and Michael Shane heading into Slammiversary. At Hard Justice, Sabin teamed with Traci to face the team of Shane and Trinity in a Mixed Tag Team match. The match ended with Traci and Shane turning on their partners,