Impact Wrestling Presents Bound For Glory 2015 -- Results & Afterthoughts

Despite the potential hurricane on the horizon and flooding throughout the Carolinas, Impact Wrestling held their annual Bound for Glory event on Sunday, October 4, 2015 from Charlotte, North Carolina. Many fans believe that this could potentially be the last Impact Wrestling Pay-Per-View event. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best, right?

Ultimate X Match for X-Division Championship – Tigre Uno def. DJ Zema Ion, Manik, and Andrew Everett to retain the title

Great opening match with a ton of exciting spots to get fans invested for the rest of the show. Everyone busted their asses off in this match. I’m glad that they are using Tigre Uno to legitimize the X-Division again. This division doesn’t need to be on the back burner, it should be at the forefront of TNA programming if they want to regain their former glory in the eyes of wrestling fans.

To the snarky wrestling fans on Twitter who had something to whine about that the match started without a bell, I have a question for you - why watch Impact Wrestling or any wrestling PERIOD if the only thing you're going to do is fucking complain about it. Fans like you are the eye sores of professional wrestling and why the state of the sport is in the mess that it is in currently anyway.

A hurricane swept through the Carolinas last weekend in more ways than one...

Of course, there were people who had something to complain about Gregory Helms showing up too after the match. Sure, the guy works backstage at TNA now and I didn't see it as a way to shoehorn himself into the show. He is a Carolina native as well, much like the Hardy Boys, plus it was a nice "endorsement" to the current X-Division champion to have the longest reigning Cruiserweight champion in history promote the reigning X-Division champion for a job well done tonight.

Bound for Gold Match – Tyrus wins the opportunity to challenge for ANY TNA title in the near-future. Tyrus openly expresses that he’s going for the World title to the dismay of EC3. 

For those who don’t know, this was TNA’s version of the Royal Rumble. I was thoroughly entertained with this match as it had everything that I miss from mainstream wrestling – some LIGHT comedy (thank you Pope/D’Angelo Dinero for that hilarious moment, along with everyone doing the Shera Shuffle at one point of the match), a small bit of nostalgia, and most importantly, great wrestling.

The Shera "Super" Shuffle?

TNA did a great series of teases with potential feuds here as I wouldn’t mind an Abyss vs. Tyrus feud or Jesse Godderz vs. Mr. Anderson (especially since he has a knack for putting young, newer guys over) feud.

By the way, that new O'Shea character is just Jay Bradley with a new gimmick as a wannabe Sheamus.

TNA Tag Team Championship Match – The Wolves def. Brian Myers & Trevor Lee to retain the titles

Brian Myers was formerly Curt Hawkins from WWE while Trever Lee is one of the Hardyz’ students. The Wolves and the team of Myers/Lee have been feuding for weeks building up to this event as part of the “invasion” of Global Force Wrestling and serves as the last remnant of that feud, whether you loved or hated it.

The Wolves are definitely one of the best tag teams in wrestling today and definitely the best TNA has to offer nowadays after most of the other teams have split up or departed (Dirty Heels, the Hardyz, Team 3D, etc.) but Myers/Lee definitely pull their weight in this match as well. This is another exciting match to watch with a lot of false finishes to keep you on the edge of your seats from start to finish.

TNA King of the Mountain Championship Match – Bobby Roode def. Bobby Lashley to retain

I’m glad that these two guys had another opportunity to work with each other as I loved their feud over the World title last year. Roode never got the chance to bounce back from that lost to Lashley when he was steamrolling through everyone that the TNA roster threw at him (like a full-time version of WWE’s returning Brock Lesnar last year). These two have natural chemistry with each other, so you really can’t go wrong here. The exchange near the end of the match which saw Lashley and Roode using each other’s finishers was a little reminiscent of WWE Vengeance 2002, but it just seems like there’s a lot of people “copying” their opponents’ finishers just to be doing it. Before that used to be a rare treat and now it seems like everyone in mainstream wrestling is doing it just for cheap pops. Here, I’m guessing that they wanted that extra “umph” to add to the finale here but the dynamic of them settling the score was more than enough for me. Regardless, this was another solid match on the card.

TNA Knockouts Championship Match – Gail Kim def. Awesome Kong to retain

I was a little disappointed with this one. Awesome Kong dominated Gail Kim for the bulk of the match until the action poured out to ringside, where Gail’s husband (Robert Irvine) got involved. That was a sick spot with the Implant Buster onto the steel chairs at ringside. Somehow, Gail manages to turn it around into a victory to retain the title - via a roll-up. I was expecting Gail and Kong to tear the house down after seeing the NXT Divas emulate the Knockouts’ style over the last two years.

Stick to Restaurant: Impossible, Robert. This is one fight you're NOT
going to win...

Am I the only one who was surprised that they didn’t do anything with the Dollhouse and the Beautiful People on this show or did they already resolve that feud prior to this event?

Kurt Angle def. Eric Young

This was Kurt’s first match back in the company after his neck surgery and I have to admit that I was fearing for Kurt’s well-being after all of the Piledriver spots and trauma to his neck.

EY just killed Kurt, folks.

To those hoping for a WWE return for Kurt, well you’re going to be disappointed. It looks like Kurt doesn’t have much left in the tank but then again, I thought the same thing of Sting when he was wrestling his last few matches for Impact Wrestling before popping up in WWE, so who knows. EY played his cards well as the villain here, but ultimately Kurt came out on top, fighting through the pain and agony like a true “Real American Hero”.

Triple Threat Match for TNA World Heavyweight Championship w/ Special Guest Referee: Jeff Hardy – Matt Hardy def. Ethan Carter III and Drew Galloway to become the NEW champion

This wasn't a bad match at all, but I felt it was a little in bad taste to have Matt Hardy pick up the win here after EC3 has been playing his card as one of (if not the best) pure heels in wrestling today. At least Matt pinning Galloway made sense as that finish kept EC3's undefeated streak intact. I don't think that the loss is going to hurt Drew Galloway as he has a knack for bouncing back from whatever obstacle gets thrown in his way, from the fallout of the Rising vs. Beatdown Clan feud to being the last man standing in the war of Impact Wrestling vs. Global Force Wrestling. I suppose TNA wanted to have Matt Hardy win in the Carolinas to cater to the natives in the crowd, but it would've given EC3 more heel heat to go over their "hero" despite the odds stacked up against him.

Even Baby Maxel was choked up at the moment after seeing his daddy
win the title... 

Matt Hardy winning the gold was a "feel good" moment that was a nice note to end the night on with the Hardy family clan joining the celebration - similar to how WWE tends to love sending everyone home at WrestleMania with a "happy" ending for the fans.

Closing Thoughts

There wasn’t not a single bad match on this PPV – no stupid finishes (other than the questionable roll-up finish to the Knockouts title match), no random interference, no bullshit. I’m still pretty bummed out that I didn’t get to attend the show live and in person, despite having bought tickets but I trapped in South Carolina with the flooding over the past weekend. I was glad to see that TNA managed to get a decent sized crowd for this event that was into the show from start to finish. If TNA keeps this up, maybe – just maybe they can bring people back into watching their product regularly instead of being the butt end of almost every wrestling fans’ jokes.