I honestly wasn't expecting a lot from
this Pay-Per-View heading into it, and that isn't a great way to be
heading into what is supposed to be TNA's biggest show of the year.
The build up had included a couple of decent episodes of Impact
Wrestling, but whilst I tended to come out of the show feeling
entertained, they didn't really make me want to watch this show any
more, mainly due to haphazard booking and the awful heel turn of
Dixie Carter dominating most of the show.
The show kicked off with a promo video
outlining the lead up to the main event, that would see AJ Styles
challenge for Bully Ray's World Heavyweight Championship. I thought
this was very well put together, and TNA had clearly put some effort
into the production of the video, but Styles spent most of the video
talking about his issues with Dixie Carter, instead of his opponent.
The Styles/Ray build up should of written itself, but TNA have some
how managed to balls it up.
X Division Championship Ultimate X Match:
Jeff Hardy
Versus
Austin Aries
Versus
Chris Sabin
with Velvet Sky
Versus
Samoa Joe
Versus
Manik ©
The
main feeling I got coming away from this one was that a lot of talent
had been wasted. This wasn't the greatest showcase of any one of
these guys talents, and a lot of them looked uninspired by their
situation. There was some decent spots thrown into the mix, like a
Suicide Dive from Samoa Joe onto Jeff Hardy and a well worked
hurracanrana spot that saw Manik take Chris Sabin to the outside, but
with nothing particularly stringing them together, which with a lot
of history between all five of these guys was pretty mind numbing.
The Ultimate X stipulation wasn't used to it's full extent with very
little interaction with the structure, and towards the end of the
contest it became more of a Ladder match, which I kind of defeats the
point of Ultimate X. If they wanted a Ladder Match, then they should
have just gone ahead and made it a Ladder match. The finish involved
Chris Sabin using Velvet Sky as a distraction for Jeff Hardy,
allowing him to sneak up the Ladder and after some battle with Hardy,
grab the belt to win his seventh X Division Championship. Whilst the
finish was a little clichéd, it work well enough here with Sabin's
character development, but I think if they'd have had Sky turn heel
on Hardy, by pulling him from the X structure then it would have been
much more effective than what was actually shown. It wasn't exactly
terrible, but with the talent and history involved it should have be
a lot better.
Winner and NEW X Division
Champion: CHRIS SABIN (11 Minutes, 50 Seconds)
It's
nostalgic replay time! Tonight's theme is AJ Styles' greatest hits,
which seems a bizarre choice seeing as in storyline TNA President
Dixie Carter is trying to push Styles out of TNA. The first video
shows Styles becoming the first X Division Champion on 19th
June 2002, at TNA's second weekly PPV, in a bout that also involved
Jerry Lynn, Lo-Ki and Psicosis, which TNA should have looked at when
putting together the multi-man X-Division match that opened the show.
Bad
Influence are out next to complain about not being booked on the
show. Kazarian calls it a travesty, and the crowd seemed to agree
with him and so do I. Bad Influence have routinely been the most
entertaining part of any TNA show for over a year and a half, and
should have been a bigger part of this show. Eric Young was out to
warn Bad Influence that they had awoken a monster (Kazarian and
Daniels had attack Joseph Park during the Pre-Show on Spike TV) and
out came Abyss routinely destroying Bad Influence with a series of
signature moves. It was teased that Abyss might turn on Young as
well, but instead Abyss simply picking him up from the corner. As a
short segment, this didn't have a lot wrong with and was a good way
of reintroducing Abyss to the fold after far too long. A feud between
Bad Influence and the Abyss/Young duo has potential, although Bad
Influence are on the brink of becoming too popular to be heels due to
TNA's constant mistreatment of the duo.
Backstage
in the Interview area, a dapper Jeremy Borash interviewed World Tag
Team Champions James Storm & Gunner about their upcoming title
defence against The Bro-Mans. I was really impressed with Gunner
here, this is certainly the best promo that I can remember him
delivering, he came over as an old-school ass kicker and if TNA go
down that root with him I can see him doing pretty well for the
company. Storm's promo was loud and humorous, as we've come to expect
from the Cowboy, messing around with JB. This interview was a nice
addition for the show, as was needed to give some context to the
upcoming tag title match.
World Tag Team Championship Match:
The Bro-Mans
with Phil Heath
Versus
James Storm & Gunner ©
Good
acceptable tag team action. The crowd was pretty dead for the start
of this one, as it built slowly with The Bro-Mans effectively working
over Gunner in their corner, until an impressive Super Fall-away Slam
allowed Gunner to make the hot tag to Storm. From here, the match
really got going for me, with a series of exciting and well worked
near falls for both teams began to get the crowd interested, with a
Spinebuster/Backstabber combo from Storm & Gunner on Robbie E,
being a particular highlight. The finish saw Robbie E distract the
referee by throwing a title belt into the ring, allowing The Bro-Mans
to double team Storm hitting a Heart Attack on the Cowboy to pick up
the pinfall victory and win their first World Tag Team Championship.
The only problem I had with the finish was that it wasn't
particularly clear what had happened to Gunner, which isn't the fault
of the performers, it had more to do with poor camera and editing
work. If they run with The Bro-Mans as champions, and make them look
credible on Impact Wrestling for a few weeks then they could lead to
some entertaining moments and potential for feuds, and it also gives
a chance for both Storm and Gunner to move back into pursuing singles
gold.
Winners and NEW World Tag
Team Champions: The Bro-Mans (11 Minutes, 50 Seconds)
Footage
was shown of Kurt Angle's Hall of Fame evening the night before, with
speeches from clips of speeches from Samoa Joe, Magnus and Sting,
before Jeremy Borash introduces Sting for the actual induction, it
was all a little confusing. Sting put over Angle as a family man,
before bringing out the man himself. Sting presented Angle with his
Hall of Fame watch, I'm guessing they left the meaningful speeches
for the night before, as Sting honestly looked like he didn't want to
be there. Bizarrely, Angle went on to turn down the induction saying
that he didn't feel like he deserved the induction because of the
mistakes he'd made in his life, before leaving the ring. The crowd
didn't have a clue to react here, and I'm not sure anyone in TNA had
even thought about how they wanted the crowd to react either. I
thought it was pretty tasteless of TNA to use Angle's very real
personal matters as storyline, it's not like it's never been done in
wrestling before, but it just didn't sit well with me.
More AJ
Styles based nostalgia was on the way, this time Styles's World
Heavyweight Championship win at No Surrender 2009, in a five way
including Kurt Angle, Matt Morgan, Hernandez and Sting, with the
crazy confetti and the TNA roster flooding the ring straight after.
They were really playing up Styles' past achievements, it would have
been nice to have seen some Bully Ray moments as well, just to shrink
the giant signposts that TNA were planting with these videos.
Backstage,
TNA President Dixie Carter met with Ethan Carter III (Formerly WWE's
Derrick Bateman) with it being revealed that Ethan was Dixie's
nephew, I'm happy to see how that unfolds for now, even if Dixie was
giving one of the hammiest performance I have ever seen, reciting her
lines in a weird rhythm. Dixie told Ethan that she had hand picked
his opponent for tonight, which was mildly interesting at best.
Knockout's Championship Three-Way Match
Gail Kim
Versus
Brooke Tessmacher
Versus
ODB ©
This
was not half bad, but it had a potential to be a lot better. The
three women involved in the match didn't really connect with the
three-way concept, with a lot of one-on-one stuff with the two heels
each taking turns against ODB. The early parts of the match felt like
everyone was simply going through the motions, with Gail Kim
especially spending a lot of time on the outside. They pulled out the
Figure Four on the ringpost, which is always impressive, and nice
sequence that saw ODB unable to Superplex both women, leading up to a
near fall for Tessmacher after an elbow drop on Kim. Following a ref
bump, they went for the finish, where it looked like ODB had the win
after a Delayed Vertical Suplex on Tessmacher and BAM on Kim, in what
looked like a decent finish to the bout, but this is TNA so all was
not as it looked. With ODB about to get the win, out came Lei'D Tapa,
and for some unknown reason instead of going for the pinfall, ODB
went after Tapa and was quickly disposed off, Tessmacher quickly went
the same way, with Kim simply falling into the pinfall to win her
third Knockout's Championship. It was then revealed that Tapa was in
cahoots with Kim, leading to obvious parallels to be drawn between
the two and AJ Lee and Tamina Snuka in WWE. I think this ending would
have been more effective if this had been used to re-debut Lei'D
Tapa, instead of the strange re-introduction on Impact Wrestling a
few weeks back.
Winner
and NEW Knockout's Champion: GAIL KIM (10 Minutes, 25 Seconds)
Backstage,
new interviewer Gil Corsey attempted to catch up with World Tag Team
Champions The Bro-Mans, and ended up getting showered in protein
shake, in what was pretty funny segment. I still have hope for The
Bro-Mans Tag Title run after this. Corsey also looked like a good
addition to the broadcast team, bringing an energy to the show that
was lacking in a lot of areas.
Up next
in Jeremy Borash's interview room was Bobby Roode. Roode did a good
job of his promo with some intense delivery as he continues to play
his role down to a tee, even if the content and storyline that he's
having to deal with at the moment is pretty poor. Roode finished off
by saying that he would make Kurt Angle tap out in their bout later
tonight, which felt refreshing for a heel, as it's become so easy for
guys to simply play the cowardly heel and get away with it.
Bobby Roode
Versus
Kurt Angle
In
terms of in ring action, this was by far the strongest match on the
card, building up nicely with some solid amateur style wrestling at
the beginning. At times, Kurt Angle looked a little bit slow, but
that's understandable considering the amount of time that he's had
off, his age and everything else he's had to deal with over the last
few months, and those limitations were worked round very well and
with the way the match built didn't end up effecting the bout that
much. Everything in the bout felt like it was done with a purpose,
with both men bringing their impact moves to the contest, before the
focus of the bout moved to their respective submission holds. The
highlight of this bout for me, was a really well done false finish,
with Angle transitioning Roode's Cross Face into an Angle Slam, with
the crowd absolutely hooked. Then the match was ruined. With Roode
passed out from Angle's Ankle Lock, the referee went to raise Roode's
hand to check if he was out and accidentally put Roode's hand on the
ropes, causing the rope break. It was just felt so stupid and looked
like they were trying to pull a screwjob angle, but they weren't. I
was pulled straight out of the match that Angle and Roode had worked
so hard to get me interested in. The actual finish was just as silly,
with Angle hitting a Super Angle Slam on Roode that saw both men down
for an extended period of time, Roode managed to get to his feet
first and fall onto Angle to pick up the pinfall victory. For me,
this one needed a definitive finish, but left more questions open
than it answered.
Winner:
BOBBY ROODE (21 Minutes)
After
the match, they had Angle put onto a stretcher with a silent crowd,
before Angle refused the medical help and left on his own. With so
many people concerned about Angle's real life health, I thought it
was really distasteful to have people believe he had suffered an
actual injury here. I'm not sure where they are going with Angle at
the moment, but for his sake I'd hope he is at least used sparingly
by TNA from now on.
More AJ
Styles nostalgia was up next, this time showing Styles retaining the
World Heavyweight Championship against Sting at Bound For Glory 2009.
They were really building up the main event, and showing a truly
classic Bound For Glory main event that people were truly invested
in, put a lot of pressure onto Styles and Bully Ray to deliver
something good in their match later on.
It was
then backstage were Bully Ray talked to members of Aces & Eights
who were not shown on screen. I'm guessing they wanted people to
think they had re-signed some of the members that had left the group,
by not showing them, whether anyone truly believed that Mr. Anderson,
DOC, Devon or even D'Lo Brown would be getting involved in the main
event, who knows?
Ethan Carter III
Versus
Norv Fernum
It was
time for Ethan Carter III's début, and on the biggest stage TNA has
to offer, they decided to pit him against Norv Fernum (PWG's Peter
Avalon) in an enhancement match. For what is was, this match was
okay, and if it was on Impact Wrestling I would have had no problem
with it, but this a PPV, the biggest pay-Per-View of the year
supposedly. Carter picked up a quick victory after a mild comeback by
Fernum, hitting a Headlock Driver to get the pinfall. Carter has
potential, and I enjoyed his run on NXT a short while ago, but this
wasn't a great way for him to début.
Winner:
ETHAN CARTER III (3 Minutes, 25 Seconds)
Magnus
was up next in Jeremy Borash's Interview room, cutting a so-so promo
on his upcoming match with Sting. Magnus failed to draw me in for
most of the promo, mainly due to his tone and rhythm of delivery,
which at times could have done with changing pace and tone to make
his words really begin to stand out. Understandably, Magnus did look
nervous here which probably effected his performance on the mic,
which is usually pretty sound.
Magnus
Versus
Sting
This
was not the match it needed to be, in order to make Magnus look like
a star. Where we should have had the young rookie digging deep to
defeat one of the best of all time, we had Magnus beating up an
almost elderly looking Sting, before a slow comeback by Sting,
including one of the worst looking Scorpion Deathlock's I have ever
seen, it looked more painful for Sting to put Magnus in the hold,
than it did for Magnus. The finish saw Sting asking Magnus to bring
it, with Magnus quickly locking in the Kings Lyn Cloverleaf to pick
up the submission victory. Magnus will become a star sooner of later,
and he's not far off at the moment, but this did nothing for the
Brit. If this isn't Sting's last match, there is something very wrong
in TNA.
Winner:
MAGNUS (11 Minutes, 5 Seconds)
In the
final build up for the main event, Jeremy Borash welcomed World
Heavyweight Champion Bully Ray into his Interview Room, with Brooke
Tessmacher in tow, who had apparently recovered from Lei'D Tapa's
attack earlier in the night. Ray continued to be a beacon of light in
crumbling mess that the Aces & Eights storyline has become, with
a stellar promo based around Guns N' Roses track “Welcome to the
Jungle”, as he sent a message to AJ Styles. Ray's transformation
from tag team specialist to one of the best heels in the business is
one of the true success stories in TNA, and it would have been nice
to see some focus put onto that during this show, as well as the AJ
Styles hype videos.
World Heavyweight Championship No Disqualification Match
AJ Styles
Versus
Bully Ray
with Brooke Tessmacher
These
two wrestlers had the potential to put on a compelling World
Heavyweight title main event, but once again TNA thought otherwise
and decided to send in the cavalry with a series of run ins and
ridiculous shenanigans, with the bout descending into chaos within
minutes. In between a distraction from Garrett Bischoff and Knux
doing his best 911 impression, Ray and Styles actually manage to
scramble together some decent action, showing a spark of what could
have been if this bout had been left to play out naturally, with a
crazy spot that Ray move out of the way of a springboard 450 splash
that sent Styles crashing straight through a ringside table, being
the pinnacle of the action for me. They repeated the spot where Bully
Ray removes the protective cover of the ring for the third, I didn't
enjoy the spot the first time it was done at Slammiversary and I
didn't enjoy it here either, and it just seemed unnecessary after
Styles had already taken a ridiculous bump through the table. Of
course, Dixie Carter had to make her presence felt in the bout,
keeping Styles from winning by shouting some stuff at referee Earl
Hebner, I'm not sure why the whole build up has been around Carter,
instead of the two guys in the match and her input here only dragged
the match down again, especially with the logic lapse that was the
coming. I thought the closing stages of the bout were actually really
well done by Styles and Ray, with Styles looking convincing fighting
from underneath after taking a serious beating from Ray, pulling out
last gasp move the Pele Kick, before delivering a chair shot and
hitting Spiral Tap to pick up a pin fall victory and win his second
World Heavyweight Championship. On it's own the end was fine, but in
context, why the hell didn't Dixie just stop it again? Overall, the
effort that Ray and Styles put into this one shouldn't be discounted,
because both men worked incredibly hard throughout the contest, but
there was just too much going on and taking the focus of the match
for me to really enjoy what they were doing.
Winner and
NEW World Heavyweight Champion: AJ STYLES (22 Minutes, 35 Seconds)
The
show finished up with images of AJ Styles celebrating in the crowd,
whilst Dixie Carter looked on mournfully, similarly to many of the
fans who paid money to watch this pay-per-view.
Overall,
Bound For Glory 2013 wasn't a vintage year for TNA's “biggest”
event of the year. Whilst at time the action within the matches was
good, it was often let down by poor booking and an over reliance on
“swerve” finishes. The talent still remains within TNA, but until
that talent is allowed to breath and then used correctly, TNA will
continue to put on disappointing shows like this one. At least
there's only four of these a year now though, eh?
Quick Results
X Division
Championship Five-Way Ultimate X Match
Chris
Sabin def. Jeff Hardy, Austin Aries, Samoa Joe and Manik ©
World Tag
Team Championship Match
The
Bro-Mans def. James Storm & Gunner © via Pinfall
Knockout's
Championship Three-Way Match
Gail
Kim def. Brooke Tessmacher and ODB © via Pinfall
Bobby
Roode def. Kurt Angle via Pinfall
Ethan
Carter III def. Norv Fernum via Pinfall
Magnus
def. Sting via Submission
World
Heavyweight Championship No Disqualification Match
AJ
Styles def. Bully Ray © via Pinfall
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