PPV REPORTS 10/14 TNA Bound for Glory PPV Report: Schwimmer's "alt perspective" detailed rundown
Oct 16, 2007 - 1:06:10 AM
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TNA Bound for Glory PPV
October 14, 2007
Duluth, Ga. at Gwinnett Centre
Report by Ryan J. Schwimmer, PWTorch contributor
Hi everyone and welcome to Schwimmer's TNA Bound for Glory "alt perspective" report. I was looking forward to this pay-per-view a lot, so I had pretty high expectations. Let's get right to it.
A fairly cheesy intro video package shows about the word ‘Glory' and everything that goes along with it. Somewhere, Scott Steiner's confused. "Glory? There's a ‘G' in front of that word?"
(1) No. 1 Contender Ultimate X Match for the TNA World Tag Team Championships: XXX (Senshi & Elix Skipper) vs. LAX (Homicide & Hernandez).
Excellent way to start a show. TNA is brilliant for starting with this match. The crowd is unbelievably hot already, and that really didn't go away all night. Great action through and through by the two teams. The worst part about this match, was (not shockingly) the announcing. I'm so tired of Don West I could scream. He needs to learn how to take a breath between sentences. The only really big bump anyone took off the ropes was when Homicide and Elix Skipper tangled each other up and Homicide turned it into a neckbreaker from the ‘X' ropes. Elix Skipper was involved another really high spot when he did a cross-body block onto Hernandez from the top of one of the columns holding up the ‘X' ropes. Senshi also hit a sick Warrior's Way onto Homicide who was tied up in a Tree of Woe. Finish comes when Hernandez Border Tosses Skipper from the ring to the outside onto Senshi and Homicide. Hernandez climbs up and grabs the ‘X' for the win.
MATCH WINNERS: New #1 Contenders to the TNA World Tag Team Championships: LAX.
MATCH ANALYSIS: Total Nonstop Action (Pun intended). At least three of these guys are stars (My jury's still out on Skipper). Senshi is incredible and I love seeing him in these types of matches. What we need to see now, though, is a feud between XXX and the Motor City Machineguns, so we can see Senshi vs. Sabin again, some of the best matches I've ever seen in TNA. LAX vs. Styles & Tomko should be good for the belts. (Oh come on, like you didn't know they were winning coming into this show?)
Now we see Kurt Angle, Karen Angle, and Kevin Nash arriving to the building separately. Mike Tenay points out that we can tell they're arriving separately by the time on the bottom of the screen. We now get a run-down of the rest of the show, before a good interview in the back with Christian, AJ Styles, and Tomko. AJ was particularly hilarious giving shout-outs to people in his hometown of Atlanta, GA.
(2) Fight for the Right reverse battle royal which turns into a regular battle royal which turns into a one-fall match for seeding in a tournament to determine the new #1 Contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Jimmy Rave, Lance Hoyt, Shark Boy, Petey Williams, Kaz, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, Kip James, BG James, James Storm, Chris Harris, Eric Young, Robert Roode, and Riki... Junior Fatu.... TNA proudly announces they've officially won the title for "Most Complicated Matches Ever." So all these guys start on the outside, the first eight guys in then start the regular battle royal, then the last two are in a one-fall match. The first parts of these matches are stupid, in my opinion. Petey Williams was left out of the final eight here, which is a big mistake if anyone's seen this guy wrestle. I had a really bad feeling that Rikishi Fatu Jr. or whatever his name is was going to win this. That was before it was explained that the final eight was going to be seeded 1-8 in a tournament. To save a lot of time here, the matchups after the seedings: 1-seed Eric Young vs. 8-seed James Storm. 2 Robert Roode vs. 7 Junior Fatu. 3 Alex Shelley vs. 6 Chris Sabin (Which should be great). 4 Lance Hoyt vs. 5 Kaz.
MATCH WINNER: It really doesn't matter.
MATCH ANALYSIS: Mildly entertaining at spots. Most of all a big waste of time.
Interview in the back with Team Pacman. They acknowledged that the NFL won't let Pacman wrestle, so they've found a substitute, some joker named Consequences Creed. Har har, Truth & Consequences. Verrrrry funny. We can hear some screaming and yelling, and the camera moves around the corner to see Kurt & Karen fighting.
A.J. Styles [photo by Wade Keller (c) PWTorch]
(3) TNA World Tag Team Championships: Christian Coalition (A.J. Styles & Tomko) vs. Team Pacman/"Truth & Consequences" (c).
The announcers very much overplayed the fact that they are wrestling a substitute for Pacman because they had no time to prepare for this guy. Decent back-and-forth action. Towards the end of the match, Ron Killings went for a rollup as Pacman threw a bunch of money into the ring. It finally bit him in the rear, though, as referee Earl Hebner grabbed the cash and started putting it in his pockets instead of counting. Finish comes with a Tomko/Styles double-team corkscrew for the win.
MATCH WINNERS: New TNA World Tag Team Champions: Tomko & AJ Styles.
MATCH ANALYSIS: A little disappointing for a match featuring AJ & Tomko. I'm definitely not a fan of Truth (or Consequences, for that matter), but I thought this match could have been a lot better.
JB is interviewing Karen Angle in the back and for some stupid reason they bring money into the equation. JB asks "Do you realize how much money comes along with that belt?" Then she goes to Kevin Nash to beg that he talks to Kurt again, and he says there's no point. Then Karen belittles him about being old and broke. It was an awfully awkward spot. If I rated promos, this would get a .5/5. But I don't.
(4) TNA X Division Championship: Christopher Daniels vs. Black Machismo (c).
This match is entirely too early on the card, first of all. Machismo cuts a promo saying "Ooohhh yeah" before the match. Man, this guy is so over I'm embarrassed. The announcers are still too busy talking about Karen Angle to talk about the match through most of it. Decent back-and-forth action throughout the match. Finish came when Lethal hit a Lethal combination off the top rope for the win.
MATCH WINNER: X Division Champion Black Machismo.
MATCH ANALYSIS: This was a pretty good X Division matchup but could have been a lot better. The X Division is too deep and too good for this to be such a run of the mill match.
Interview in the back with the Steiners. Scott yells a lot and it's really hard to understand him. Something about tables and freaks out there. Oh, and he also said "Faaaaat asses" a few times. Rick barks.
(5) Two out of Three Falls Tables Match: The Steiner Brothers vs. Team 3D.
The teams fight out of the ring for quite a while before moving into the ring. At two separate points in the match, someone in the crowd hands Scott a beer and he either throws it or spits it into Brother Ray's face. The 2/3 falls: 3D onto Rick through a table, Frankensteiner from Scott to Brother Ray through a table, and after a distraction from the Motor City Machineguns (completely randomly), Top-Rope bulldog onto D-Von through a table for the win.
MATCH WINNERS: The Steiner Brothers.
MATCH ANALYSIS: A fairly entertaining match. It was a little slow-paced for my taste, but that's to be expected with a few old, broken, and fat wrestlers.
(6) TNA Knockout Championship Gauntlet Battle Royal: Ms. Brooks and Miss Jackie Moore start.
After 60 seconds, we get Ariel from ECW, who is wrestling under her real name (and possibly her real personality as a Latina street thug) Shelly Martinez. Things don't get interesting until Awesome Kong comes in. Even then, things really don't get interesting until she's finally eliminated, and nastiness ensues. As she flips over the top rope, her top comes completely over her head for second or two, and we officially have the LARGEST wardrobe malfunction in wrestling history. The match comes down to a one-fall match between Gail Kim & Roxxi Laveaux. Gail Kim wins. Oh yeah, and Christy Hemme might be hurt because Kong broke her in half before showing her retardedly large breasts.
MATCH WINNER: First-Ever TNA Knockout Champion Gail Kim.
MATCH ANALYSIS: This match was very rushed and not entertaining at all. I think the 5-way match for the final spot on iMPACT was longer than this 10-way Battle Royal.
Promo in the back featuring Nash and Angle. Another awkward moment until you realize that they're just setting up an in-ring return for Nash. Kevin says he's not going to back Kurt up, and Kurt basically says "without me, you have nothing." He ends the promo with, "Excuse me, I have to take a big nasty Nash." Funny... if you're in 3rd grade.
(7) Samoa Joe vs. Christian Cage (w/Special Enforcer MATT MORGAN... you know, because he's so big his name has to be in All Caps).
A good Chant Battle going on in the crowd featuring "Instant Classic" and "Let's Go Joe." Throughout the match, there were a lot of really good spots, and just great wrestling between the two. Joe and Christian both hit their normal spots. Joe dove through the ropes, Christian hit the reverse DDT. A good amount of false finishes, especially with the muscle buster, rear naked choke, unprettier attempts (and one that was hit which Joe kicked out of). Matt Morgan got involved when Tomko came down and fought with him while AJ Styles came in and actually interfered. Finish comes when Joe hits the muscle buster and locks on the rear naked choke. I'm sure now we'll hear that Christian has just "never been pinned" in TNA.
MATCH WINNER: Samoa Joe.
MATCH ANALYSIS: Like I said earlier, good fast-paced action and incredible wrestling. It would have been great without MATT MORGAN and the outside interference also, but sometimes that's just how it happens.
In the back, we see Nash talking to Sting. A slightly less awkward spot with Nash begging Sting to not annihilate Angle.
(8) Monster's Ball: Raven vs. Black Reign vs. Rhino vs. Abyss.
Lots of weapons used early and used often. The action starts in the ring but doesn't stay there for long, as we get treated to Raven coming off the second level of the arena through Abyss and a couple tables. Raven really looked like he hurt his arm or wrist pretty badly, but came back later. Fairly decent hardcore match, I guess. Not as exciting as previous Monster's Ball matches have been. I think Abyss won, because they talked the whole time about how he's never won Monster's Ball.
MATCH WINNER: Abyss.
MATCH ANALYSIS: Probably the worst actual match on the show, but it was fairly entertaining. I feel like I'm writing that phrase a lot. I don't want it to seem misleading, as up to this point I was very satisfied with the pay-per-view.
(9) TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Sting vs. Kurt Angle (c)
It's time for TNA's "dream match," which they advertised for iMPACT a while back but didn't deliver... twice... in the same show. A lot of good wrestling early. These guys really know how to put on a good show for the crowd. The Atlanta crowd was super hot for Sting (wow, that sounds terrible) throughout the entire match. The action spilled out to the floor for a while, and they migrated back to the ring where the action really picked up. Good false finishes. I think the first one was when Sting reversed the Olympic Slam into a roll-up. The finish started when Angle put on the Ankle Lock and Sting reversed it into the Scorpion Death Lock. As he had it on, Karen Angle ran to ringside and distracted them. Security and "Police" then followed to arrest her for violating the restraining order. During all the ruckus, which involved the referee helping police with arresting Karen, Kevin Nash comes to the ring and clothes lines Sting. Kurt hit an Olympic Slam and yelled for the ref to come back to the ring, and all the time allowed for just a two-count on the Stinger. The match continued on for quite a while after this, believe it or not. Nash came back in after the ref went down and Sting beat up on both him and Angle for a while. The real finish came when Kurt tried to use Sting's bat against him, and Sting caught it. Or, at least, that's what would have happened in a perfect world. In reality, Sting caught the bat with his face, and started to bleed profusely from his forehead. He hit the Scorpion Death Drop for the win. Afterwards he posed with the belt and Tenay and West yelled some more.
MATCH WINNER: New TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Sting.
MATCH ANALYSIS: This and the Joe vs. Cage match would have gotten 4.5's or 5's if they either a) had more time or b) didn't involve a ton of outside interference. Nonetheless TNA delivered with this dream match, and it was very entertaining. Sting will be getting one last title run, and it should be a good one.
PPV RATING (8.0): Very, very good pay-per-view featuring a ton of action. It was about a match or two overbooked in my opinion, as if some of these matches had a few more minutes each, it would have been totally top-notch. TNA hyped the Knockout Championship match a lot for it to be short and not really deliver. Interestingly enough, that's my main complaint.
REPLAY? Definitely. If you did not see this pay-per-view and you're a fan of professional wrestling, you're nearly obligated to watch this show.
Thanks everyone for reading my take of the pay-per-view. Sorry it got out to everyone so late. E-mail me with questions, comments, or reviews of my review! Xenorye@cox.net. I love getting it and got NONE from my last review. Thanks and see you all in a few weeks for Cyber Sunday.
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