page_title: Victory Road (2008)
section_title: Storylines
hierarchical_section_title: Victory Road (2008) / Production / Storylines
caption_attribution_description: English: Booker Huffman
context_page_description: Victory Road (2008) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion that took place on July 13, 2008 at the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas. It was the fourth event under the Victory Road name and the seventh event in the 2008 TNA PPV schedule. Eight professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's card, three of which were for championships.
  The main event was for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, in which the champion Samoa Joe defended the title against the challenger Booker T. The match ended in a no-contest after interference from Sting and various security personnel, thus causing Joe to retain the championship. A Six Man Tag Team Full Metal Mayhem match was also featured at Victory Road, pitting the team of A.J. Styles, Christian Cage, and Rhino against the team of Kurt Angle and Team 3D. Angle and Team 3D were the victors in the contest. The TNA World Tag Team Championship was defended in a "Fan's Revenge" Lumberjack match at the show, in which the champions The Latin American Xchange defeated Beer Money Incorporated. to retain the title.
context_section_description: Victory Road featured eight professional wrestling 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 in a wrestling match or series of matches.
  The main event at Victory Road was for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship between then-champion Samoa Joe and the challenger Booker T. Joe and Booker T previously fought at TNA's Slammiversary PPV event on June 8 in a King of the Mountain match for the title, which Joe won to remain champion. On the June 12 episode of TNA's television program TNA Impact!, Booker T claimed that Joe did not beat him at the event due to interference from Joe's mentor Kevin Nash. This led to Nash stating that Joe could not beat Booker T in a one-on-one match. After this segment, Joe announced that Booker T and he would face at Victory Road for the title. Since Houston is Booker T's hometown, TNA promoted the match as him attempting to win the championship for the people of Houston. On the July 10 episode of Impact!, Sting proclaimed that he did not know which of the two would win at Victory Road, but that he would be there to watch.
  The predominate storyline heading into the event was the rivalry between A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle, both members of The Angle Alliance. On the February 14 episode of Impact!, TNA held the scripted wedding of Angle's real-life wife Karen Angle and Styles despite Angle and Karen still being married on-screen. Afterwards, Karen and Angle separated in the storyline on the March 13 episode of Impact!. TNA continued to build the situation with Angle attempting to reconcile with Karen on the May 15 episode of Impact!. Karen refused Angle's request on the May 22 episode of Impact!, leading to Angle turning on and assaulting Styles later in the episode due to his jealousy of the affection Karen showed for Styles. This led to a match between the two at Slammiversary which Styles won after a distraction by Karen. The two faced in a Lumberjack match on the June 12 episode of Impact!, which Angle won before it ended in a brawl between Styles, Angle, Tomko, Christian Cage, Rhino, Abyss, and Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray). Afterwards, Team 3D and the team of Cage and Rhino became involved in the feud with Team 3D joining Angle, while Cage and Rhino sided with Styles. Team 3D then injured both Cage and Rhino in the narrative, with Rhino being knocked out on the June 19 episode of Impact!, while on the June 26 episode of Impact! Cage was slammed through a glass table by Brother Ray. Rhino returned from injury on the July 3 episode of Impact!, challenging Team 3D and Angle to a Six Man Tag Team match at Victory Road, while teasing at adding Full Metal Mayhem rules to the bout. TNA promoted the match for the event afterwards.
  The conclusion to the 2008 TNA World X Cup Tournament was held at Victory Road with two matches completing the final two rounds. The World X Cup was a tournament consisting of teams competing against each other for points. There were four teams each made up of four men, with three teams representing a country and one representing TNA. These teams were Team TNA (Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Curry Man, and Kazarian), Team Japan (Masato Yoshino, Milano Collection A.T., Naruki Doi, and Puma), Team Mexico (Averno, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero, and Volador Jr.), and Team International (Alex Koslov, Daivari, Doug Williams, and Tyson Dux). The World X Cup began on the June 19 episode of Impact!, with round one being tag team matches worth one point each. Round one concluded on the June 26 episode of Impact!. Round two was standard wrestling matches worth two points each on the July 3 and July 10 episodes of Impact!. The fourth round was announced on the June 19 episode of Impact! to take place at Victory Road in an Ultimate X match. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that the third round of the tournament would be a multi-man team elimination match consisting of the wrestlers not competin
caption: Booker T challenged Samoa Joe for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Victory Road.
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