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May 19, 2004, the Deadly Draw match ended in controversy when Jeff Jarrett hit the champion A.J Styles with his trademark guitar which gave the opportunity for Ron Killings to hit his Scissors kick for the win and his second title. To make sure that everyone got their fair shot to win the title director of authority Vince Russo decided to make it a King of the Mountain ladder match. The object of the match is to climb the ladder and hang the NWA championship on the hook. To be able to use the ladder you must pin one of your opponents and send him to the penalty box outside of the ring for two minutes. The match happened June 2, 2004 and it was the first of its kind. The participants in the match were AJ Styles, Ron Killings, Jeff Jarrett, Raven and Chris Harris. The match was one of the best ladder matches I had seen in a long time.

The match started with AJ Styles hitting the styles clash on Jeff Jarrett and sending him to the penalty box and getting to use the ladder. Following the first pin, Chris Harris got a kick on Raven getting the pin sending him to the penalty box and getting to use the ladder. While in the penalty box Raven and Jeff Jarrett made a deal to co. exist when they got out. Ron Killings got the next pin on Chris Harris, sending him to the penalty box and getting access to the ladder. Chris Harris entered the penalty box with his enemy for the past couple of months Raven leading to them fighting in the penalty box. The match was long and gruelling with everyone gaining access to the ladder. As the match reached its close it looked like the champion Ron Killings was going to retain his title. Killings was climbing the ladder very close to hanging the title when Jarrett came out of the penalty box with his guitar in hand. Jeff took his trademark weapon and KO'd him with it. After finishing him off Jeff climbed up the ladder and hooked the belt winning the first King of the Mountain match and win his third NWA title.

The three-year anniversary of TNA was coming up and the NWA title picture was all mixed up. There were three people who believed that they were in line for AJ Styles newly won NWA championship. Due to all of the controversy that was going on, current director of authority Dusty Rhodes decided that the only way to settle it was to make a King of the Mountain II match for the Slammiversary ppv month from when he announced it. The Participants announced for the match were champion AJ Styles, Monty Brown, Abyss and former champion Jeff Jarrett. There was one spot left in the match and after a week they decided that it would be Sean Waltman. Even though it looked like the match was set the night of the ppv it would change in a major way. During the pre show of the ppv Jeff Jarrett came out to celebrate the departure of director of authority Dusty Rhodes from TNA. His celebration was short lived as Raven showed up to confront the new man in charge Larry Zbyszko about taking Sean Waltman out of the match and putting him in. Jarrett decided to take the time to take a shot at Raven which resulted in a huge brawl. When he went to the outside to get away from Raven Jeff Jarrett, was taunted by a fan. Jarrett snapped and attacked the fan, beating him till security arrested him. Due to Jarrett's arrest, Larry Zbyszko made the only decision he could put Raven in Jarrett's spot.

King of the Mountain II started with a bang with Monty Brown hitting the pounce on Raven pinning his opponent and sending him to the penalty box. Monty Brown continued his attack, taking out Sean Waltman and sending him to the penalty box second. Monty Brown went for a third pin pouncing AJ Styles but it would be Raven getting the pin sending Styles to the penalty box. Abyss got the next pin hitting Monty Brown with the black hole slam for Brown's trip to the penalty box. The Champion returned from the penalty box to hit the spiral tap and pin Abyss sending him to the penalty box. AJ Styles and Sean Waltman's friendship over the weeks prior ended when they were both scaling the ladder and Waltman hit Styles with the x-factor for a pin and AJ's second trip to the penalty box. The next few minutes were a staple war that ended with Sean Waltman scaling the ladder. AJ returned from the penalty box with revenge on his mind climbing the ladder on the opposite side of Waltman. Abyss got into the ring and pushed the ladder with Styles and Waltman on it down knocking them to the floor. Abyss started to climb the ladder but fell victim to the pounce off the ladder through a table. The match reached its end when Raven grabbed Monty Brown and hit him with his signature Evenflow DDT. Raven climbed the ladder and hooked the belt winning King of the Mountain II and achieving his destiny of becoming NWA Champion. .

On May 11, 2006 the official announcement was made for King of the Mountain 3. The first participant announced was the reigning heavyweight champion Christian Cage. Later that night on Impact Abyss beat Rhino in a match taking the second spot in the match and his third title shot in three months. This past week on impact the third spot in the King of the Mountain match was filled when two time former NWA Champion Ron Killings beat Monty Brown in a qualifying match. Three weeks from now the four year anniversary of TNA will take place. It will celebrated with the three hour ppv event Slammiversary headlined by King of the Mountain. Two spots in this huge main event are yet to be filled and it will be interesting to see who joins the historic match. When the five men are picked the question left to answer is who will be the King of the Mountain. All I know is that with a strong group of heavyweights in spots and two more still to come this King of the Mountain must be the best of the three . When it's all said and done I believe that this one will be not only the best of this type of match but the match of the year in 2006 for TNA.

by Jeff Springer ..