TNA Bound For Glory 2006

TNA Bound For Glory 2006 (10/22/2006)- Detroit, MI

We start with a shot panning all over the arena, and I notice two things:
1) There are a ton of people in the arena (apparently 3,600 or so), so props to TNA.
2) of these 3,600 people, there are two whom I immediately dislike: A pair of buddies holding up signs that say �"Bound For Cory” and �"Brad For Glory.” I hope these idiots get punched in the face during a crowd brawl.

KEVIN NASH OPEN INVITATIONAL BATTLE ROYALE- 6/10
WOW! They are really punishing Aries for doing that ROH show during that blizzard. Not only was he suspended for a while and then kept off of TV, but they are now dressing him like mid-90’s Shawn Michaels. He also wound up getting humiliated via the Wiggle and few headbutts to the groin from a midget (I swear I’m not making that last part up). At least they seem to recognize his talent, too, because he went the distance in this match. The match has the usual suspects, plus a few random surprises, including D-Ray 3000, who immediately started teaming up with Shark Boy and pulling out some of their old tag team offense. The winner of the match was presented a trophy that Kevin Nash readily admitted was a bowling trophy that he stole from his father. Shelley was jealous that Nash was giving the trophy to Aries.

AMW PROMO- not a bad promo, but the whole thing was a bad idea.
Before this promo we got a recap of a segment on Impact in which LAX attacked AMW and Hernandez gave Gail Kim a Border Toss, and it made me realize how stupid TNA is for putting Gail WITH Lei’D Tapa because Gail takes the most fantastic bumps of any woman I have ever seen. Let her fight the monster, you idiots!
I guess this was done to turn AMW babyface, but why would you do this BEFORE Bound For Glory? All it does is take attention away from the tag title match because LAX are now also feuding with AMW, and AMW’s whole promo was focused on the LAX, so there was absolutely no hype at all for this match, making it seem completely unimportant.
Harris’ claim that Gail Kim is an �"innocent 110 pound girl” is ridiculous to the point that it almost comes off like the same sort of heelish lie that AMW would normally tell, because anyone who has watched any AMW matches in the past year knows that Gail is anything but innocent and incapable of defending herself.

FOUR WAY TAG TEAM MATCH: America’s Most Wanted vs. The James Gang vs. Team 3-D vs. The Naturals- DUD!
Yes, the aforementioned match that comes off as entirely unimportant features the greatest tag team in TNA’s history up to this point (AMW), one of the greatest tag teams in wrestling history overall (the Dudleys), one of the most popular tag teams in wrestling history (The New Age Outlaws), and the #1 contenders to the NWA Worlds Tag Team Titles who TNA has spent months trying to build up (the Naturals).
Everyone does some stuff, then the James Gang and AMW just kind of disappear, leaving just the Dudleys and the Naturals. Seeing as how TNA has spent all summer building the Naturals up, Vince Russo decides to immediately undo all of that by having them get pinned clean, showing that despite all of the build-up they got, they are still not in close to the same level as the other three teams in this match (and to really kill them off, their finisher got kicked out of, too). Of course, they were still the #1 contenders, so all of this made them look like even bigger chumps when they got their tag title match on Impact a few days later.

JAKE �"THE SNAKE” ROBERTS PROMO- pointless. Jake didn’t really say anything of substance.

MONSTER’S BALL MATCH WITH JAKE �"THE SNAKE” ROBERTS AS SPECIAL GUEST RERFEREE: Brother Runt vs. Raven vs. Samoa Joe vs. Abyss (w/James Mitchell)- 4/10
Raven comes out wearing some sort of weird cage on his head, which Don West helpfully calls �"something right out of the movies” and which Tenay painfully misidentifies as a �"Hannibal Lecter mask.”
Jake wasn’t even wearing a referee shirt. Between that the fact that he is so damn tall, I kept forgetting that he wasn’t one of the competitors.
So they did this crazy spot where Runt climbed some scaffolding but Abyss followed him up and chokeslammed him off of it onto some sort of platform. Then Abyss dove off of the platform onto Runt…AND THE F*CKING CAMERA COMPLETELY MISSED IT! Anyone in wrestling knows that you don’t climb up something in a match like this just to climb down it! There is no f*cking excuse for the director not knowing what was about to happen! There is no reason to EVER get a f*cking close-up shot of the damn referee, when someone is climbing on something, even if that referee is Jake Roberts.

So Mitchell handed Abyss the bag of thumbtacks, but Jake the Snake apparently decided that thumbtacks would not be allowed in this anything goes match. He grabs the bag containing his snake (which Abyss is afraid of). Raven steps in and seems to tell Jake it is okay for Abyss to use the tacks, so Jake shoves him. Raven hits Jake from behind and goes for the Raven Effect, but Abyss (who Jake had just prevented from using his signature weapon, and is death afraid of the gigantic snake Jake was about to bring out before Raven interrupted him), for some logic-defying reason, makes the save.
Some fighting happens and after Abyss takes a sick, dangerous bump face-first into the tacks, Joe locks in the Coquina Clutch. Jake gets up to check for the submission, but Raven hits Joe twice in the back with the chair, breaking it up. He hits Joe a third time, then goes for a fourth chairshot, but apparently three chairshots is the limit in this anything goes match, because despite watching the beating the whole time, Jake only now grabs the chair from Raven and gives him a DDT. Joe then hits the Muscle Buster for the win, and seeing as how Joe pinned the NWA World Heavyweight Champion at the last PPV and has now won the big four-way Monster’s Ball match at this PPV, it shouldn’t surprise you that Abyss, who lost this match, is the one who will challenge for the NWA World Heavyweight Title at the next PPV.
A decent match ruined by a logic-defying finishing sequence meant to justify the presence of a pointless referee. Having Jake in the match got us this sh*tty finish, the director focusing on him instead of Abyss’ dive, and the knowledge that our big scary monster is afraid of snakes. Was this really worth the cost of brining Jake in on a show where he’s not going to sell any buys anyway because you the main event is the match you have been building up to for ten months? (For those wondering, Jake did put the snake on Raven after the match).

EY & LARRY Z BACKSTAGE- EY is lacking confidence for tonight’s match. Larry Z says there is no way that EY can beat him.

LOSER LEAVES TNA: Larry Zbyszko vs. Eric Young- DUD!
This was extremely short. I would have been fine with it as a segment if EY hadn’t used a foreign object to win. Larry Z is 54 years old and is on his way out of the company. What does it hurt to have EY beat him clean?

JIM CORNETTE & KURT ANGLE SEGMENT- good
Jim has absolutely no voice right now. Apparently he has been sick lately. He says he has one very important announcement to make, which is that if Joe (who recently had a confrontation with Kurt Angle) interferes in the main event, he will be fired.
Angle came out, put over the crowd, and said that he should call the main event right down the middle. Joe then came out and they started to brawl but were pulled apart extremely quickly.

TNA X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH: Senshi(c) vs. Chris Sabin- 8.25/10
Awesome match with an extremely hot crowd that went absolutely ape-sh*t for all of the nearfalls and the finish.

Okay, the director needs to be fired. He cut to a shot of some cheering fans IN THE MIDDLE OF A F*CKING PIN!

CHRISTIAN CAGE PROMO- good. Standard heel stuff about everyone from Detroit is a bum and how badly he is going to hurt Rhino tonight.

8 MILE STREET FIGHT: Christian Cage vs. Rhino- 7/10
The crux of the angle here was that Rhino was getting revenge for a concussion Christian had given him, and they used that well in the story. Rhino would get his offense in but Christian would always cut him off with a weapon shot to the head. Great match.

KONNAN PROMO- okay. I was more distracted by the fact that he was wearing a Padres Jersey but a Dodgers hat.

SIX SIDES OF STEEL MATCH FOR THE NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels(c) vs. LAX (w/Konnan)- 7.75/10
They definitely hit the necessary level of violence for this feud. Homicide even pulled out his �"ghetto fork” from ROH. LAX beat AJ and Daniels down after the match, setting up perfectly for AMW to come out and make the save… but for some reason, that never happened.

CAREER VS. TITLE MATCH FOR THE NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE WITH KURT ANGLE AS THE SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE: Jeff Jarrett(c) vs. Sting- 6/10
Sting comes out with new gear and a new variation on his facepaint, and this causes Tenay to react as if Sting had just not only beaten Jeff Jarrett to win the NWA World Heavyweight Title, but also prevented a terrorist attack while announcing that he had found a cure cancer. CALM THE F*CK DOWN, MIKE! It’s just some new facepaint, tights, and an ugly new robe! (and, of course, this new face paint means that the Sting masks TNA has been selling all night in their concession stands are now out of date).
Kurt was really annoying in this match. He seemed to be taking his job WAY too seriously. At times both Sting and Jarrett rolled to the outside to catch their breath and regroup and Kurt IMMEDUIATELY ran up behind them and yelled at them to get into the ring. It’s one thing for Kurt to try and stop someone from running away and getting counted out, but if you are the enforcer, your job is to enforce the rules, not to create extra restrictions.
Jeff and Sting start fighting on the outside, and rather than count for a count-out, the referee just followed them around and impotently yelled at them to get back in the ring. Not only was this poor refereeing, but it is also pretty much exactly what Kurt was doing, which Kurt didn’t take too kindly to, so shoved the referee around. Shouldn’t the �"Special Outside Enforcer” be there to protect the referee, not shove him around? Kurt was SOOO f*cking annoying here that I actually laughed when Jarrett accidentally knocked him out.
Of course, even after Kurt yelled at the referee to get into the ring, the ref just stood there doing nothing at all while Sting and Jarrett fought on the ramp for at least a full minute. Once they got into the ring he started doing his job again, and wound up counting a double down. When he was about to reach ten and declare both men knocked out, Kurt Angle ran into the ring and gave him an Angle Slam. This really annoyed me for two reasons.
First, the job of the special outside enforcer is to ENFORCE the referee’s decisions. The correct refereeing decision in this case was a double KO. Kurt doesn’t get to stop the ref from counting just because he doesn’t like what the finish is going to be. Secondly… was the Angle Slam really necessary? Come on, Kurt! You couldn’t have just ASKED him to stop counting? Or at least just punch him? He’s a referee. You know how fragile they are! An Angle Slam could put this guy in the hospital for weeks!
So Kurt became the referee, but he apparently didn’t really care about enforcing some of the rules, as he didn’t DQ Jarrett for either a blatant low blow or a guitar shot (and remember, this is TNA in 2006, so not only would Sting have won the match, but the title can change hands on a DQ, too). He did stop Sting from using his bat, though. Not sure when Jarrett gets to use low blows and weapons but Sting doesn’t. Way to enforce the rules there, Mr. Special Enforcer.
Anyway, Sting and Kurt fighting over the bat allow Jarrett enough time to recover and he hits Sting with a huge guitar shot… which Sting completely no-sold for a HUGE pop, then locks in the Scorpion Death Lock for the win.

Overall, a decent show from TNA. There is some great stuff on here, but a lot of crap, too. The show definitely did have that �"biggest show of the year” fell to it, which Bound For Glory sometimes struggles with. Definitely worth picking up for the cage match and the X-Division Title match if you can get the show for cheap.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Tenay- �"Jake Roberts, he’s the referee here really in name only if you think about it.”
No, Mike, �"if you think about it” that sentence is f*cking moronic! The referee �"in name only?” What the hell does that mean? That he can’t count pinfalls and ask for submissions? What other part of being a referee in a No DQ’s match is there?
And, of course, as Tenay is saying this, Jake starts to count a pin.

2. Tenay- �"Sting’s got the baseball bat! Maybe that’s his tribute to the Detroit Tigers?!”
Yeah. THAT is why Sting has the baseball bat. Because we have never, ever seen Sting use a baseball bat before.