The Grandslam Championship is the symbolic title awarded to any wrestler who wins all titles in a promotion that they’re eligible for. With many championships getting sidelined as the promotion grows and many new championships getting introduced, it is rare for a wrestler to complete the ‘Grandslam’.
But AJ Styles had been with TNA for nearly 14 years and has won every title available in the company – in fact, he was the first Grandslam champion in TNA history: Something he accomplished 8 years ago today, in a match against Booker.T
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TNA considers the NWA/TNA World title, NWA/TNA Tag team title, the X-Division title and the Legends/Global title wins to complete the criteria. Styles is among the four men who have completed the feat alongside Abyss, Samoa Joe and Eric Young.
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Let us take a look at what else happened on 15th March through the years.
#1 Jeff Hardy loses his home in a fire – 15th March 2008
Jeff Hardy faced a lot of personal trauma during his final days in the WWE and nothing was more heartbreaking than what happened on March 15, 2008, when his North Carolina home burned down to the ground in a fire. Jeff lost his possessions and even his dog tragically burned to death.
It was Jeff’s brother Matt who first noticed fire coming out of the house, but there was nothing he could do once he reached the house. Jeff was serving his second suspension due to a violation of WWE Wellness policy at the time.
The events were later inserted to add spice to the ongoing story line between Matt and Jeff which lead to a match at Wrestlemania.
#2 Marty Jannetty’s SmackDown debut – 15th March 2005
Marty Jannetty had tremendous success in the early nineties as one-half of the Rockers alongside Shawn Michaels.
Michaels began his singles run by famously throwing Jannetty through a glass window on the sets of the ‘Barbershop’ segment (hosted by Brutus Beefcake) and went on to become one of the greatest WWE Champions of all time.
Jannetty had success as a singles wrestler as well, beating Michaels to win the Intercontinental title once.
However, dissatisfied with the lack of direction of his character, Jannetty had left the WWE in 1996. He would return to the company nine years later to hype Michaels’ Wrestlemania 21 super match with Kurt Angle.
Angle had claimed that Jannetty had taught Michaels all that Michaels knew and that he would now teach his former Rockers partner how to tap out in the ring as well, Angle would then challenge Jannetty to a singles match on the March 15 SmackDown tapings.
Angle would make good on his promise, submitting Jannetty and would go on to make Michaels tap out at ‘Mania as well.
Jannetty’s return match would be well received and he would be given a full-time contract by the WWE, only for him to be released three months later
#3 AJ Styles become the first TNA Grandslam Champion – 15th March 2009
TNA Wrestling is indeed the house that AJ Styles built. Having been with the company since its inception till 2015, the X-Division headed by Styles was the main attraction of TNA during its formative years.
Styles would jump to the Heavyweight division as well and despite owner Jeff Jarrett booking himself to be Champion for most of the company’s initial run, AJ won the World title as well. Within a year of the company's inception, Styles would capture the NWA World Heavyweight, NWA Tag team and X-Division titles.
Years later, Jarrett would book former WWE/WCW stars like Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, Kevin Nash, Booker T, Scott Steiner and Sting to win important titles, sidelining TNA’s home grown talent with the exception of Styles.
Banking on such aging stars – many of them had no desire to produce great matches – and it eventually led to a negative reversal in fortunes for TNA, but Styles’ stellar work rate saw his stock rise.
On March 15, 2009, at the Destination X PPV, Styles would win the only TNA title to elude him – the newly introduced TNA Legends Championship – and became the first man to complete the TNA Grandslam i.e. win every available title with the company.
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