After a brutal attack on Ken Shamrock last week, Impact management announced on this week's episode that the Impact World Tag Team Champions, The North (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander), will put their titles on the line against Shamrock and Sami Callihan at Slammiversary.
As mentioned before, Shamrock was supposed to go one on one with Alexander, after Shamrock confronted The North for their harsh comments about him two weeks ago. Alexander decided that he wanted to pick a fight with "The World's Most Dangerous Man" that night. As Shamrock was heading down to the ring, Page and Alexander ambushed Shamrock from behind. Several referees and medical staff took Shamrock to the back, and their scheduled match did not occur.
This week, The North came out to address their attack on Shamrock. While they thought their attack was justifiable, Shamrock came down to the ring to fight them both. But before he was able to do so, Callihan's "ICU" image appeared, and in a matter of seconds, Callihan joined Shamrock in the ring. Upset that they both were attacked by Callihan and Shamrock, The North found Co-Executive Vice President, Scott D'Amore, and informed him of what just happened to them. D'Amore decided to make it official for the two teams to face each other on July 18th.
Looking back, Shamrock and Callihan have had quite the rivalry. Both men headlined the first night of Rebellion back in April. Their cinematic match saw Callihan turn on his oVe stable, as well as a controversial ending, due to Callihan passing out while locked in Shamrock's signature submission move, the ankle lock. Some thought that Shamrock won the match via tap out, but Callihan never tapped.
Following their violent encounter, Callihan cleared the confusion about the ending to their match by saying that he never tapped out. Shamrock agreed with Callihan's statement. After both men settled their differences, they shifted their focus towards the #1 Contenders Tournament for the Impact World Championship. Neither man was able to move past the first round.
It'll be interesting to see if Shamrock and Callihan can work together as a cohesive team, and possibly win the titles off of the longest reigning tag team champions in Impact history.