As told in the predictions, Bound for Glory was about confirming a positive trend. This biggest PPV of the year for the company was made for that, proving the last few months were not a fluke but a real direction. Who remained Champion? Who became Champion? Which match is El Patron going to be involved in? I told you he may change the fate of a match, or of the whole night. Did he?
No pre-show matches, no TNA Hall of Fame induction so The Frenchy is bringing you straight into Bound for Glory glorious details…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUS0L_nPI-U]
Six contenders for one Championship. The X-Division match was meant to be a great one as Champion Trevor Lee was squaring off with Matt Sydal, Garza Jr., Super X-Cup winner Dezmond Xavier and former X-Division Champions Sonjay Dutt and Petey Williams in a 6-Way match. But it started badly as only 2 wrestlers were allowed to be in the ring at the same time, if a wrestler was tagged in or was sent outside, which made it a tag match and not a 6-Way (something even the announce table was confused about). Trevor Lee came without his sidekicks, but The Canadian Destroyer got a huge pop from the crowd. Quick-paced, high-flying powerful match, of course. Xavier showed quickly he deserved his spot in the match, starting the match with Sydal. But tags happened so quickly legal men changed constantly. Garza Jr. seemed not to be 100% and so was 100% in the match. Dezmond Xavier clearly was the sensation of the match, his handspring rolling flip corkscrew splash to 4 guys outside followed by the corkscrew senton on Dutt was really nice to watch. But in the end, yes Petey Williams hit the Canadian Destroyer on Dezmond Xavier, but Trevor Lee threw him out, made the pin and kept the title. Like Jeremy Borash stated, he stole the victory.
Taiji Ishimori vs. Tyson Dux was not on the card. But with the cancellation of Taya vs. Rosemary match, there was a blank to fill. As Laurel Van Ness was walking through the crowd, we had the chance to have a second X-Division match. NOAH wrestler and former Super X-Cup competitor Marufuji easily won the bout with a nice 450 splash. The camera was more focused on Laurel Van Ness than on the match. Bad move, not sure her make-up was more interesting than what happened in the ring…
Here came El Patron, unannounced as stated JB. Yes, Alberto is back in IMPACT and he was not happy at all. Because the guys who told him he was amazing when he started with the company screwed him. El patron gave his heart and soul to the ring and cowards took his title away because they were stuck on Internet reports. Meanwhile, nobody was taking care of Alberto and his family. So tonight he will do something. He then came to the announce table to call JB a backstabber because he never called or texted him when he was suspended. Alberto let think he would beat down Borash but changed his mind and promised something amazing would happen tonight.
Was it really Abyss in the ring (he was presented as Allie…)? Because when you needed the help of 2 women to win a match, something wasn’t good. Some pre-taped backstage segments that never allowed the crowd to click with the match. Abyss made Grado dance before kicking him between the legs. Grado was the first to get the weapons out, stapler, trash can, barbed wire boards. But Abyss has always been the master at this game, so he stapled Grado’s head, tossed him into barbed wires, got out his bag of thumbtacks and laid them on the mat. Grado was gutsy enough to try to use a cheese grater between Abyss’ legs and hit him with a garbage can, but he landed into barbed wires. Abyss also brought the spike board and some kendo sticks. But Laurel Van Ness and Rosemary came out of nowhere, the first to get her revenge on Grado, the second to help her former Decay partner Abyss. Rosemary misted Laurel but instead of succeeding in reasoning Abyss, he chokeslammed her into thumbtacks. Big mess with a 2-count rung as a win for Grado. The shadow of Abyss rallied and connected with what seemed to be a Black Hole Slam for the win. Okay, Grado is going back to the UK but the match was very bad to watch.
If this Team IMPACT vs. Team AAA match was a question of respect, both teams still haven’t found what they were looking for. Ethan Carter III was absolutely not interested in the match, letting Storm and Edwards suffer the wrath of the whole Team AAA, Texano, Fantasma, and Pagano. While the referee (how old was he?) was keeping Team IMPACT in its corner, Team AAA made a nice work, stomping Edwards together, Storm later. When Texano used his bull rope on The Cowboy’s back, EC3 woke up and got involved in what was a classic match. A nice moment with the 5-Men Tower power that led to a massive powerbomb from Team AAA on Edwards and EC3. As the referee was busy keeping Storm in his corner, EC3 hit a low-blow on both Texano and Pagano (great way to gain some respect…) hit one-percenters on the two. Storm asked EC3 to take Pagano’s head off and hit the superkick for the win and the beer celebration. Even for Edwards who was receiving medical attention outside as he paid a hard price in this match. Storm and EC3 could never be friends, there was so much hate in their eyes, even with a beer in hand.
What was a 5150 Street Fight, that was the question? The answer was pretty simple: nothing else than a huge mess. It could have been the match of the night but something went wrong in this confrontation between Tag Team Champions oVe and LAX. Ortiz, Santana, and Konnan attacked oVe as they were making their way to the ring. If Santana used the kendo stick, Jake Crist was the first to use a chair. So oVe understood they would have to be even more mean then LAX. Tables and garbage made their appearance and Santana decided to climb the scaffolding, something like 15 to 20 foot high and dropped on Dave Crist set on a table. Awesome but “déjà-vu”… When the action finally came to the ring, ladders and chairs were involved, both teams were excruciatingly in pain. The problem came when Sami Callihan arrived because oVe were able to win the match on their own, the same way Konnan was letting his guys do as he was barely involved in the match. But Callihan sent powder into Konnan’s eyes, flipped Santana on a ladder, piledrived Ortiz through a table and offered the win to oVe. Sami Callihan may now be a member of Ohio Versus Everything, the crowd had still to accept him in their family.
It was meant to happen. Gail Kim is a 7-time IMPACT Knockouts Champion as she’s about to retire. The same way Trish Stratus did in 2006 in Toronto. They may have been short on time because this match between Champion Sienna, Allie, and Gail Kim ended a little too quickly to prove Kim deserved to win the match. Because Sienna really was the strongest woman and proved it right in the match. Allie showed she was not as stupid as the bunny that represents her on the screen, unloading tough kicks and a nice codebreaker. Sienna was in absolute control, hitting the AK-47 on Allie but Gail Kim went for the Eat/Defeat on Sienna for the win (so Enzo Amore stole his finishing move to a woman…). No time for Kim to celebrate as we rushed to the following match. Great moment for Gail Kim but Sienna was really supposed to keep the belt.
Seemed like IMPACT crowd had no clue on who Jimmy Jacobs is as there was zero reaction from them as he walked onto the stage. Instead of heading to the ring, he headed down the ramp and reached the announce table. Borash asked Jacobs what he was doing there. Jacobs said it was Bound for Glory and asked where else he would be. JB replied Jacobs doesn’t work there. Jacobs answered that’s what Borash thinks… Seems like there’s a new announcer in town (as well as a backstage producer)…
The interest of a cage match is to avoid people from the outside to be involved in the match. Something American Top Team members absolutely didn’t understand as they turned the tag team match between Lashley/King Mo and Moose/Stephan Bonnar into an ambush. Dan Lambert, ATT’s trainer, opened the cage and let the ATT fighters be involved in the match. Moose was impressive, Bonnar did a good job. But with the cage opened, the team stood in front of a wall. Moose could have stopped them all but Lambert entered the cage, distracted Moose, allowing the ATT guys to hit him from behind and Lashley to spear him for the win. Sorry for Moose, but this match was to forget.
Alberto chose his winner and future opponent for the title. “He’s taking the Championship match away from our fans”, Josh Matthews stated. Of course, Chris Adonis was on the side of the IMPACT Champion Eli Drake and interfered in the match. But Johnny Impact knew the song by heart and countered the sneak attacks. It was a good match, intense and well-balanced. Drake hit the Gravy Train but Johnny kicked out. Johnny hit the Starship Pain and came for the pin but… the referee disappeared and Alberto appeared. Impact saw him, wanted to dive on El Patron but Alberto took out the referee instead. He hit Drake with the title belt, hit Impact with a chair, placed Drake over Impact, woke up the referee who did the 3-count. Drake was still the Champion, but obviously, El Patron won the match. Best for business, like he said…
To be very honest, this was not the PPV expected in view of what happened over the last few months. With ONE chair shot, El Patron and IMPACT annihilated all the recent efforts made by the company and it’s very sad. One title change, and the most expected one of course, and no real candidate for match of the night… But I will stay positive as the tapings of the upcoming weekly episodes are starting tonight and can way be better than this one-night-only. X-Division is now stacked with amazing talents. Giving the title to Gail Kim, who’s about to retire, is for me a way to give the keys of the Knockouts castle to talents like Taya Valkyrie, Rosemary, Allie, Laurel Van Ness, Alisha Edwards or Sienna who are definitely rocking the house and are the future of the division (Gail Kim will make her retirement speech this Thursday on IMPACT). On the tag team side, efforts have to be made but oVe is definitely a proud leader for the branch. Even if Team AAA lost the match, we can see how IMPACT’s partnerships with AAA, NOAH, BCW or The Crash are fruitful and are driving the “old-school” IMPACT guys into new corners (Eddie Edwards and El Hijo del Fantasma will square off this Thursday for the NOAH Heavyweight Championship on IMPACT). But the Global division is in limbo, so many talents, so much legit contenders who could make this division a hit to finally come back to El Patron. Thursday’s episode will be a do-or-die one. Cause if the sky is a limit, the ground is another one…
*****
Bound for Glory Full Results:
* X-Division Championship: Trevor Lee (c) defeated Petey Williams, Garza Jr., Sonjay Dutt, Dezmond Xavier and Matt Sydal
* Singles Match: Taiji Ishimori defeated Tyson Dux
* Monster’s Ball Match: Abyss defeated Grado
* Team Impact (Eddie Edwards, EC3, and James Storm) defeated Team AAA (El Hijo del Fantasma, Pagano, and Texano)
* World Tag Team Championship: oVe (c) defeated LAX
* Knockouts Championship: Gail Kim defeated Allie and Sienna (c)
* Six Sides of Steel match: King Mo & Lashley defeated Moose & Stephan Bonnar
* Global World Championship: Eli Drake (c) defeated Johnny Impact
All screenshots and videos courtesy of Impact Wrestling