TNA Bound for Glory on Bravo 2 - TV Review

It’s multi-man madness time again, as Total Non-Stop Action travelled to California for their biggest show of the year, Bound for Glory, headlined by Sting challenging A.J. Styles for the TNA World title, and shown on a three day delay here in Britain on Bravo 2, with Mike Tenay and Taz handling commentary duties.

The show began with Amazing Red, now apparently managed by former commentator Don West, defending the X Division title against Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Suicide, Homicide and Christopher Daniels in an Ultimate X match. It’s the usual X division fare hear, plenty of fast paced action and numerous high spots with those concerned throwing each other all over the place, which was very entertaining in it’s own way. Once again Daniels looked the pick of the crop here, with his battle with Suicide atop the X structure the highlight of the match. It didn’t get either of them the win though. Red had followed them up to the top, and after they’d taken each other out, he climbed down through the structure and claimed the belt, retaining his title in the process. Nice action throughout, and a good way to open the show.

Things went downhill a little as Taylor Wilde and Sarita defended the Knockouts Tag Team titles against the Beautiful People, now with Lacey Von Erich in their corner. This was basically the same kind of match they had last month, even down to the referee bit at the beginning, although that was obviously changed a little, this time with old Earl Hebner applying a lip-lock to Lacey before sending her to the back. The ending was just the same though, with Taylor getting the pin on Madison with a bridging back suplex after Sarita had taken her out with a drop kick off the ropes. Come on guys, if you’re going to give us the same match two months in a row, at least come up with a different ending!

The title action continued with Kevin Nash defending the Legends title against Eric Young and Hernandez, with Young promising to give Nash a big wad of cash if he could take Hernandez out. So you’ve got one wrestler putting a bounty on another. Haven’t heard that before, have we? Anyway, Nash and Young doubled up on big Super Mex, with the big guy once again showing some great moves, before old EY double-crossed Big Sexy. As he was about to power bomb Hernandez, Young pushed him into Nash’s nether region, before pinning the champion to win the title. It was okay, but it could have delivered a lot more.

Sadly, I cannot review the next match, the TLC or whatever it was match featuring Booker T & Scott Steiner, the British Invasion, Beer Money and Team 3D, with both the TNA and IWGP Tag Team titles on the line. If you recall, Nick Aldis, the man behind the Brutus Magnus gimmick, has threatened me with legal action if I say anything negative against him on the internet, and as Mr. Aldis has still failed to withdraw his threat, I’m still unable to say anything about his TNA performances, which I feel is a great shame. But as I’ve said before, I’m not going to send him an e-mail begging him to withdraw his threat. However, I’m not going to stop anyone else from doing this. (His website address is www.gladiator-oblivion.com, wink wink.)

Normal service is resumed with the fifth title match in a row, with ODB defending her Knockouts title against Awesome Kong and Tara. Taz made a good point before this match started - why is a spider getting it’s own ring introduction. Anyway, this was a nice little match, with good exchanges throughout, Tara fighting with a woman in the crowd (that woman looked like a natural by the way), and Raisha Saeed costing her big buddy the match, throwing a chair into the ring that Kong just didn’t want to use, which ODB later used by driving her face first into it, getting the title retaining pin. One question though - ODB did this right in front of the referee - so why wasn’t she disqualified?

Finally, it was on to non-title action, with Samoa Joe facing Bobby Lashley in a submission match. This turned out to be a rather exciting encounter, and some good submission exchanges early on, and both men putting in a good effort, with Lashley getting the win with what looked like an arm triangle. No tap out from Joe here though, as the referee stopped the match.

The Monsters Ball match pitting Abyss against Mick Foley, with Dr. Stevie as the special referee, was next. This was another of those okay matches, although it could have been a whole lot more. Big Abyss took the big bump early on, falling off the entrance way scaffold through the stage after a series of punches from Foley. Later, Stevie was taken out a couple of times, Daffney went through a barbed wire board, Foley used the taser on Abyss, before the masked man got the pin by choke-slamming Foley onto another barbed wire board, using Stevie’s limp arm to make the count. Okay, some of the bumps were good, but still, this just seemed to be lacking that certain something.

Then came the sleeper match, with big Matt Morgan facing Kurt Angle. This was a lot better than I expected it to be, with some good back and forth action, plenty of near falls, and both men putting in great performances, before Angle got the winning pin with a victory roll. This was definitely the match of the night for me, and a nice show of sportsmanship at the end with Angle shaking Morgan’s hand.

Not even the main event could top that, as Sting challenged A.J. Styles for the TNA World title. This proverbial battle of the generations was great, with Sting putting in his best performance for ages, and Styles looking as great as always. So we had good action throughout, and again, plenty of near falls, until the finish came out of nowhere, with Styles taking Sting down with a pele kick from the ring apron, and getting the pin after a splash off the top rope. Styles didn’t celebrate in the ring afterwards though, as he called Sting back to the ring. The icon didn’t announce his retirement as everyone expected though, saying that he could stay in TNA forever. A good match, but the quick finish kind of spoiled it a little for me.

In conclusion - once again the boys and girls of TNA have given their fans a mixed offering. While some matches were very good, others weren’t that good, and others just left me scratching my head, because they could have delivered so much more. But then again, that’s TNA for you I’m afraid, and you have to take the good with the bad.