BRM Reviews TNA Bound For Glory 2015
Posted: Oct 7th, '15, 16:53
TNA Bound For Glory 2015 (10/4/2015)- Concord, NC
Wasn’t there supposed to be some super-secret surprise third announcer?
ULTIMATE X MATCH FOR THE TNA X-DIVISION TITLE: Tigre Uno(c) vs. Manik vs. DJ Zema Ion vs. Andrew Everett- 6.5/10
In his first televised TNA match, Everett has been thrown in to a clusterf*ck title match he hasn’t earned in any way at all. It’s like TNA doesn’t even remember that giving out title shots like Halloween candy like this is exactly what killed this division in the first place.
Josh tells us that “Tigre Uno embodies what it means to be an X-Division superstar.” And that, my friends, is the problem. Tigre Uno is just a guy who does moves. He has no character and has been given no story. And that is how this entire division has been treated for almost the entirety of the last four years.
The match was exactly the spotfest you’d expect, but the complete and total lack of any story of build made it impossible to care about the result.
After the match, Gregory Helms came out to congratulate Tigre Uno. Josh talks about how he was the longest-reigning Cruiserweight Champion in history, and all I could think was that he is currently so fat that it seems impossible to believe that he was ever a cruiserweight.
EC III PROMO- it was a pretty good promo, but the whole time all I could think was they are wasting so much time that should be going to important PPV matches.
BOUND FOR GOLD GAUNTLET MATCH FOR A FUTURE WOLRD TITLE SHOT: Mr. Anderson vs. Jesse Godderz vs. Eli Drake vs. Al Snow vs. Aiden O’Shea vs. Robbie E. vs. Mahabali Shera vs. Tyrus vs. Chris Melendez vs. Tommy Dreamer vs. Abyss vs. Pope- 0.5/10
Fifty-two year old Al Snow showed up and beat up two guys whose combined age is barely half of that.
Eli Drake was eliminated first, so I guess that’s his reward for cutting so many good promos in his feud with Drew McIntyre.
When Shera came out, his music kept playing the entire time, like an Indian New Jack. This was done so he could get everyone to do his dance move… because a #1 contendership match is a logical place for all of the wrestlers to stop what they’re doing and start dancing. Aiden O’Shea somehow freed himself from this silliness and punched Shera in the face (which by this point I was thankful for) and in the craziest coincidence in the world, Shera’s music stopped playing right has he got punched in the face. Also, for some reason, Shera getting punched in the face made the others stop dancing.
You know how they’ve been pushing Shera on TV so much? Well in this match he was eliminated in a way that made him look like a complete and total chump.
The parade of old men continues with Tommy Dreamer. He comes out in yellow polka-dot tights. He also paid homage to the late great Dusty Rhodes by being fat.
Pope got to be in this match even though he is an announcer. His involvement consisted of him getting into the ring, then realizing he would have to face Tyrus and Abyss, so he eliminates himself. They did this because every year everyone’s favorite part of the Royal Rumble is always when JBL is introduced as a “surprise” entrance and gets in the ring for at most fifteen seconds before being eliminated and it never leads to anything. The sad part is that while my previous sentence was clearly sarcastic, it would not surprise me if the TNA bookers actually did believe that was everyone’s favorite part of the rumble.
The stuff with the final two was good (albeit short), but the rest of this was either boring or bad.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Ethan congratulates Tyrus on his victory and says that this allows Tyrus to challenge for any title he wants to. I could have sworn they specifically said that this was for a future shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Title. Tyrus told Ethan was going to come after his title.
TNA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Wolves(c) vs. Trevor Lee & Brian Myers- 7.75/10
The announcers started to talk about how the Wolves don’t waste any movement in a match and how “every second counts”… and while this was happening, Davey Richards took the time to pose before hitting a move. I howled with laughter.
The match was standard tag team fair with Eddie playing a good babyface in peril.
DREW GALLOWAY PROMO- awesome. He sounded exactly like the type of babyface who should be winning your world title in the main event of the biggest show of the year.
TNA KING OF THE MOUNTAIN TITLE MATCH: Bobby Roode(c) vs. Bobby Lashley- 8/10
I can see people calling this finisher overkill and I will admit that it is the sort of match that I myself would normally call finisher overkill, but for whatever reason it just worked for me this time.
JB INTERVIEWS MATT HARDY- very good, aside from the part where he said Jeff was the referee to make sure that he got a fair chance. Didn’t he have a fair chance in his last title match and lose clean?
EARL HEBNER HALL OF FAME VIDEO PACKAGE- sure. Whatever. It was what it was.
TNA WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Gail Kim(c) vs. Awesome Kong- 6.5/10
Josh says “I have had this match circled for quite some time as it relates to Bound For Glory.” Well… I guess that solves the whole mystery third announcer question, as this sentence makes it clear that Josh is currently being possessed by Mike Tenay.
So they just did this big thing inducting Earl Hebner into the TNA Hall of Fame for being the greatest referee ever… and then they follow it up with this match where he just lets Kong grab a chair and when Gail’s husband reaches over the barricade to pull the chair away, Earl becomes your typical incompetent pro wrestling referee and spends way too much time arguing with this guy instead of watching the match, thus allowing Kong to cheat and use chairs. Other than that, the match was fine and the finish was pretty darn great.
JB INTERVIEWS JEFF HARDY- eh
NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Eric Young vs. Kurt Angle-
Christy tells us that this is a No DQs match. I don’t ever remember seeing that in the hype. Kurt says that he talked to Dixie and got the stipulation changed, apparently without Eric being consulted at all. That doesn’t seem very fair.
So they spend the first couple of minutes shining Kurt up until EY manages to hit a piledriver, damaging Kurt’s injured neck. Kurt rolls out of the ring and rolls around on the floor grabbing his neck and medical personnel rush out to check on him. The head doctor determines that Kurt cannot continue the match and tells the referee as such… and for some reason the referee never orders for the bell to ring to signify the end of the match, even as Kurt is being helped to the back.
EY then attacks the doctors. Then he starts to beat Kurt up some more. Kurt keeps telling him “it’s off,” which seems to me like a clear sign that even Kurt Angle believes that he can no longer compete and thus has forfeited the match. The referee has STILL not called for the bell. He’s telling EY to put down the chair, so he clearly believes the match should be over, but for some reason he won’t do his f*cking job and call for the bell, and because of it he is putting Kurt Angle’s life at risk. No security is coming out to help Kurt, nor are any of the wrestlers even though these terrible things Eric is doing to him could well result in permanent paralysis or even death (oh… and the fans are responding to this supposed threat to Kurt’s life by chanting for EY to smash Kurt’s head into a Captain America shield that some fan brought along).
Of course the reason that the referee never called for the bell was so Kurt Angle could make a comeback and defeat Eric Young because it’s not like Kurt is leaving the company or anything, right? Then again, between this and the way that they put AJ and Sting over when they left, it wouldn’t surprise me if wrestlers who are leaving TNA not only get to be put over in the ring at the expense of guys who are staying, but Dixie also probably writes them fifty-thousand dollar check and then watches in quiet reverence as they drop trou and take a dump on her desk then wipe themselves with Gaburick’s shirt.
TNA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH WITH JEFF HARDY AS SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE: Ethan Carter III(c) (w/Tyrus) vs. Matt Hardy vs. Drew Galloway- 7/10
Two seconds into the match, Matt Hardy, a babyface, lies about Tyrus interfering in the match to get him ejected from ringside. You would think that this would be a dead giveaway that Jeff and Matt are going to turn heel with Jeff helping Matt to win the title… except that this is TNA and I wouldn’t put it past them to do this spot and have Jeff turn heel by helping Ethan retain.
Drew was on top of EC III’s with Ethan’s shoulders flat on the ground for at least five seconds while they were waiting to take Matt’s moonsault, but Jeff didn’t even try to count for a pin. Maybe it would have been better to get a TRAINED, PROFERSSIONAL REFEREEE to officiate the main event of the biggest show of the year?
So they do this spot where Ethan kicks Drew in the nuts right in front of Jeff to try to get Jeff to disqualify him so he will retain the title… except they already did a table spot so clearly this match doesn’t have any disqualifications. That was dumb.
Then, in the very next spot, Jeff prevented Ethan from using a chair. So either this was extremely stupid, or Jeff Hardy is a terrible referee and the company looks stupid for making him the referee of this match.
So Matt Hardy gets his big moment where he finally wins his first world title in his home town… except that the win is tainted by Jeff’s interference so it doesn’t really feel like Matt has accomplished anything. Hooray for TNA!
STUFF HAPPENS BACKSTAGE- Ethan is angry after losing this title match, so he yell at Dixie and at John Gaburick, including shoving Gaburick over a table, which is exactly what ROH did with Jay Lethal to write Jim Cornette out. Except that this is TNA so they didn’t ever to anything to establish Gaburick OR EVEN TELL US WHO HE WAS until about a second before he got shoved over the table, so the whole thing had almost no impact on me as a viewer.
MATT HARDY PROMO- awesome
This was… an okay show from TNA. There was some very good stuff but also some very bad stuff. The problem is that this promotion is dying and while an awesome PPV would have felt like something of a shot in the arm (at least for morale and buzz if not financially), they delivered a PPV that let us know that this is the same old TNA, making the same old mistakes.
Wasn’t there supposed to be some super-secret surprise third announcer?
ULTIMATE X MATCH FOR THE TNA X-DIVISION TITLE: Tigre Uno(c) vs. Manik vs. DJ Zema Ion vs. Andrew Everett- 6.5/10
In his first televised TNA match, Everett has been thrown in to a clusterf*ck title match he hasn’t earned in any way at all. It’s like TNA doesn’t even remember that giving out title shots like Halloween candy like this is exactly what killed this division in the first place.
Josh tells us that “Tigre Uno embodies what it means to be an X-Division superstar.” And that, my friends, is the problem. Tigre Uno is just a guy who does moves. He has no character and has been given no story. And that is how this entire division has been treated for almost the entirety of the last four years.
The match was exactly the spotfest you’d expect, but the complete and total lack of any story of build made it impossible to care about the result.
After the match, Gregory Helms came out to congratulate Tigre Uno. Josh talks about how he was the longest-reigning Cruiserweight Champion in history, and all I could think was that he is currently so fat that it seems impossible to believe that he was ever a cruiserweight.
EC III PROMO- it was a pretty good promo, but the whole time all I could think was they are wasting so much time that should be going to important PPV matches.
BOUND FOR GOLD GAUNTLET MATCH FOR A FUTURE WOLRD TITLE SHOT: Mr. Anderson vs. Jesse Godderz vs. Eli Drake vs. Al Snow vs. Aiden O’Shea vs. Robbie E. vs. Mahabali Shera vs. Tyrus vs. Chris Melendez vs. Tommy Dreamer vs. Abyss vs. Pope- 0.5/10
Fifty-two year old Al Snow showed up and beat up two guys whose combined age is barely half of that.
Eli Drake was eliminated first, so I guess that’s his reward for cutting so many good promos in his feud with Drew McIntyre.
When Shera came out, his music kept playing the entire time, like an Indian New Jack. This was done so he could get everyone to do his dance move… because a #1 contendership match is a logical place for all of the wrestlers to stop what they’re doing and start dancing. Aiden O’Shea somehow freed himself from this silliness and punched Shera in the face (which by this point I was thankful for) and in the craziest coincidence in the world, Shera’s music stopped playing right has he got punched in the face. Also, for some reason, Shera getting punched in the face made the others stop dancing.
You know how they’ve been pushing Shera on TV so much? Well in this match he was eliminated in a way that made him look like a complete and total chump.
The parade of old men continues with Tommy Dreamer. He comes out in yellow polka-dot tights. He also paid homage to the late great Dusty Rhodes by being fat.
Pope got to be in this match even though he is an announcer. His involvement consisted of him getting into the ring, then realizing he would have to face Tyrus and Abyss, so he eliminates himself. They did this because every year everyone’s favorite part of the Royal Rumble is always when JBL is introduced as a “surprise” entrance and gets in the ring for at most fifteen seconds before being eliminated and it never leads to anything. The sad part is that while my previous sentence was clearly sarcastic, it would not surprise me if the TNA bookers actually did believe that was everyone’s favorite part of the rumble.
The stuff with the final two was good (albeit short), but the rest of this was either boring or bad.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Ethan congratulates Tyrus on his victory and says that this allows Tyrus to challenge for any title he wants to. I could have sworn they specifically said that this was for a future shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Title. Tyrus told Ethan was going to come after his title.
TNA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Wolves(c) vs. Trevor Lee & Brian Myers- 7.75/10
The announcers started to talk about how the Wolves don’t waste any movement in a match and how “every second counts”… and while this was happening, Davey Richards took the time to pose before hitting a move. I howled with laughter.
The match was standard tag team fair with Eddie playing a good babyface in peril.
DREW GALLOWAY PROMO- awesome. He sounded exactly like the type of babyface who should be winning your world title in the main event of the biggest show of the year.
TNA KING OF THE MOUNTAIN TITLE MATCH: Bobby Roode(c) vs. Bobby Lashley- 8/10
I can see people calling this finisher overkill and I will admit that it is the sort of match that I myself would normally call finisher overkill, but for whatever reason it just worked for me this time.
JB INTERVIEWS MATT HARDY- very good, aside from the part where he said Jeff was the referee to make sure that he got a fair chance. Didn’t he have a fair chance in his last title match and lose clean?
EARL HEBNER HALL OF FAME VIDEO PACKAGE- sure. Whatever. It was what it was.
TNA WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Gail Kim(c) vs. Awesome Kong- 6.5/10
Josh says “I have had this match circled for quite some time as it relates to Bound For Glory.” Well… I guess that solves the whole mystery third announcer question, as this sentence makes it clear that Josh is currently being possessed by Mike Tenay.
So they just did this big thing inducting Earl Hebner into the TNA Hall of Fame for being the greatest referee ever… and then they follow it up with this match where he just lets Kong grab a chair and when Gail’s husband reaches over the barricade to pull the chair away, Earl becomes your typical incompetent pro wrestling referee and spends way too much time arguing with this guy instead of watching the match, thus allowing Kong to cheat and use chairs. Other than that, the match was fine and the finish was pretty darn great.
JB INTERVIEWS JEFF HARDY- eh
NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Eric Young vs. Kurt Angle-
Christy tells us that this is a No DQs match. I don’t ever remember seeing that in the hype. Kurt says that he talked to Dixie and got the stipulation changed, apparently without Eric being consulted at all. That doesn’t seem very fair.
So they spend the first couple of minutes shining Kurt up until EY manages to hit a piledriver, damaging Kurt’s injured neck. Kurt rolls out of the ring and rolls around on the floor grabbing his neck and medical personnel rush out to check on him. The head doctor determines that Kurt cannot continue the match and tells the referee as such… and for some reason the referee never orders for the bell to ring to signify the end of the match, even as Kurt is being helped to the back.
EY then attacks the doctors. Then he starts to beat Kurt up some more. Kurt keeps telling him “it’s off,” which seems to me like a clear sign that even Kurt Angle believes that he can no longer compete and thus has forfeited the match. The referee has STILL not called for the bell. He’s telling EY to put down the chair, so he clearly believes the match should be over, but for some reason he won’t do his f*cking job and call for the bell, and because of it he is putting Kurt Angle’s life at risk. No security is coming out to help Kurt, nor are any of the wrestlers even though these terrible things Eric is doing to him could well result in permanent paralysis or even death (oh… and the fans are responding to this supposed threat to Kurt’s life by chanting for EY to smash Kurt’s head into a Captain America shield that some fan brought along).
Of course the reason that the referee never called for the bell was so Kurt Angle could make a comeback and defeat Eric Young because it’s not like Kurt is leaving the company or anything, right? Then again, between this and the way that they put AJ and Sting over when they left, it wouldn’t surprise me if wrestlers who are leaving TNA not only get to be put over in the ring at the expense of guys who are staying, but Dixie also probably writes them fifty-thousand dollar check and then watches in quiet reverence as they drop trou and take a dump on her desk then wipe themselves with Gaburick’s shirt.
TNA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH WITH JEFF HARDY AS SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE: Ethan Carter III(c) (w/Tyrus) vs. Matt Hardy vs. Drew Galloway- 7/10
Two seconds into the match, Matt Hardy, a babyface, lies about Tyrus interfering in the match to get him ejected from ringside. You would think that this would be a dead giveaway that Jeff and Matt are going to turn heel with Jeff helping Matt to win the title… except that this is TNA and I wouldn’t put it past them to do this spot and have Jeff turn heel by helping Ethan retain.
Drew was on top of EC III’s with Ethan’s shoulders flat on the ground for at least five seconds while they were waiting to take Matt’s moonsault, but Jeff didn’t even try to count for a pin. Maybe it would have been better to get a TRAINED, PROFERSSIONAL REFEREEE to officiate the main event of the biggest show of the year?
So they do this spot where Ethan kicks Drew in the nuts right in front of Jeff to try to get Jeff to disqualify him so he will retain the title… except they already did a table spot so clearly this match doesn’t have any disqualifications. That was dumb.
Then, in the very next spot, Jeff prevented Ethan from using a chair. So either this was extremely stupid, or Jeff Hardy is a terrible referee and the company looks stupid for making him the referee of this match.
So Matt Hardy gets his big moment where he finally wins his first world title in his home town… except that the win is tainted by Jeff’s interference so it doesn’t really feel like Matt has accomplished anything. Hooray for TNA!
STUFF HAPPENS BACKSTAGE- Ethan is angry after losing this title match, so he yell at Dixie and at John Gaburick, including shoving Gaburick over a table, which is exactly what ROH did with Jay Lethal to write Jim Cornette out. Except that this is TNA so they didn’t ever to anything to establish Gaburick OR EVEN TELL US WHO HE WAS until about a second before he got shoved over the table, so the whole thing had almost no impact on me as a viewer.
MATT HARDY PROMO- awesome
This was… an okay show from TNA. There was some very good stuff but also some very bad stuff. The problem is that this promotion is dying and while an awesome PPV would have felt like something of a shot in the arm (at least for morale and buzz if not financially), they delivered a PPV that let us know that this is the same old TNA, making the same old mistakes.