On Sunday June 17th at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium five TNA stars will compete in the fourth King of the Mountain match to determine the TNA World Heavyweight Champion. Jeff Jarrett has gone by the nickname the “King of the Mountain” for quite sometime, but those that are new to TNA may not know that the name originated by his participation in the first King of the Mountain match. Some of you out there may be reading this column and may have heard about the match, but not know the rules and stipulations. For those that haven’t I thought I would take this opportunity to run it down for you. Here is refresher course for those of you that do know and you all can relax because there won’t be a test afterwards.

The bout is basically a reverse ladder match. Instead of climbing a ladder to the top to retrieve a championship, you are trying to hang the gold. You have five TNA stars to start the match. All five are considered ineligible to climb the ladder until they score a pinfall or submission on one of the other four. Falls and submissions can count anywhere in the building. The wrestler that gets pinned or submits has to spend two minutes in a penalty cage. More than one TNA star can be in the cage at one time. The TNA star that scores a pin or submission is then eligible to try to hang the title. The TNA star must take the championship, climb a ladder and hang it on a hook above the ring. One catch is that during the course of the match any TNA star that is eligible can steal the championship away and try to hang the championship for himself. If the championship is dropped at anytime during the course of trying to hang it on the hook, it goes back to the ringside area.

The King of the Mountain match has taken place three other times. The first took place on June 22nd, 2004 in Nashville. The TNA stars that participated were Jeff Jarrett, “Wildcat” Chris Harris, Raven and then champion, Ron “The Truth” Killings. On that historical night in TNA history, Jeff Jarrett walked away the winner and new champion.

The second KOTM match took place the next year at Slammiversary in Orlando, Florida. On that night Raven won and achieved his self-proclaimed destiny of becoming World Champion. That night he faced Abyss, Sean Waltman, Monty Brown and at that time the champion, AJ Styles.

Last year marked the second time Jeff Jarrett won the King of the Mountain match for the World Championship, beating then-champion Christian Cage, Sting, Abyss and Ron “The Truth” Killings.

This year there are five qualifying matches to determine who exactly will be in the match come June 17th. This happened because of the controversy surround the end of the triple threat championship match at Sacrifice last month. There are three spots left in the KOTM match because Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle won their respective qualifying matches.

It’s hard to say what would make a TNA star a favorite to win this TNA exclusive match. Endurance and strength, in my opinion, have to be two major attributes they must have to win a match like this. I believe good old fashioned luck and being at the right place at the right time play a part as well. As of this writing there are still many TNA stars on the current roster that have a potential shot at being a part of the KOTM matches. It’s all up to Jim Cornette to decide who will compete over the next few weeks in one of the final qualifying matches and be given the chance to win the World Championship. The wait is nearly over and then on June 17th we will see who takes that step to greatness.
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