Bound For...More Of The Same?

For those that had the chance to see TNA's version of "WrestleMania" dubbed Bound For Glory, this roller coaster of a PPV had it's limited ups but definite downs. Going in, there were two major headlines rolling into the minds of the fans purchasing the PPV...

1) Will Robert Roode (One half of Beer Money w/ James Storm) capture TNA World Heavyweight Gold from Kurt Angle?

2) How bad will this match between Hulk Hogan (Age: 58) and Sting (Age: 52) really be?

By the end, leaving the Movie Theater (I've never seen a wrestling PPV or anything else other than a movie before in a movie theater setting), I was never sad, or even let down given the recent hype for Roode on the TV show over the last month, Impact Wrestling, and demotion of Vince Russo from Head Writing but disappointed that Hogan and crew couldn't even pull off a marginally better performance to make this PPV stand out from a random TNA PPV, ala, TNA No Surrender other than the setting and location being outside the Impact Zone.

Let's get onto the rolling thoughts with this show from last night.

Because of the last few weeks of TNA Impact Wrestling highlighting the positives of making Robert Roode into somewhat of a Main Eventer, after winning the Bound For Glory Series (A 6 month roller coaster ride to determine the #1 contender at Bound For Glory featuring the 10 top guys in the company that aren't champions), they had really built this series up Roode by beating AJ Styles, Frankie Kazarian, Gunner, James Storm, top guys in TNA, to get him ready for BFG in Philly.

I had an open mind without any negative thoughts going in to this event.

The movie theater feel was very cool in Port Washington despite the price of it being 22 dollars a ticket. It made me feel like I was in a time-warp back to 1985, watching WrestleMania 1, on closed circuit with a closed out theater to see some wrestling. I thought the group I was going with would be the majority in the theater watching this event.

This movie theater in Port Washington did such a good job advertising (not really), that you couldn't even tell the theater was showing a wrestling event, not even as if you were in the theater on the headlines of the movies they were showing. So we paid the money for the tickets and it was the same room that was showing Dolphin Tale. For my money, I wanted TNA to get Morgan Freeman to do the opening video but suffice to say, that was not enough...

When the theater doors first opened there were the 5 of us and 1 more guy in coming early (Half hour early) to get a good seat. If you came at 10PM, you could have picked anything in the theater it was that empty. I fully expected there to be a total of 7 people show up. There was 14 so I was somewhat impressed. Apparently, this was one of the 130 theaters that would be showing BFG live worldwide. Still, this is more theaters than the WWE would show for John Cena's next movie, The Reunion, before it hits Walmart the following week. Well done TNA.

Yes, I attended the show with my girlfriend, Amanda, (who's a casual fan, taking in her first TNA experience), two former co-hosts of OTR in Mike "Bon" Hawkins, and Josh Chapdelain. Josh's friend Dillion (Sorry if you're reading this and I got the name spelled wrong) tagged along also.

First match that started off the pre-show at about 7:45PM was Mexican America (As politically correct as they come) of Hernandez, and Anarquia, defending their Tag Team Titles against Inc. Inc. of Jessie Neal and Shannon Moore. Match was slow paced and methodical and not entertaining to the Philly crowd in the Liacours Center at Temple University nor the one in the Port Washington movie theater. I felt more compelled to get snacks than watching all of this match take place. I got my Popcorn, Soda and a candy, so I was set before 8PM when the show would actually start.

By the way, anytime you have Satind give you a song for the main theme of a PPV, it's generally a bad idea to begin with. On with the main show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq03On6z3Is&feature=channel_video_title

TNA has this running routine of airing an X-Division match, whether it be singles or multi-man match to start the PPV off and get the PPV off to a hot start. X-Division Title match = Austin Aries (c) vs. Brian Kendrick. A nice solid opener that featured Aries get some noticeable spots in like the Air Raid Missile through the middle ropes to the outside at bullet like speed. Gotta give credit to Kendrick for having the shin pads covering his bare feet for the unique and strange quality of this character... I'm giving credit to any pro wrestler that has ever wrestled barefoot like the late-great, Umaga, and also the lone remaining Von Erich brother, Kevin Von Erich. Aries wins with the corner dropkick and Brain BUSTAHHHHHHHHH!!! (Japanese Commentator call) combo to retain. This was one of the highlights in the show.

Next Match was designed to relive 1998 in 2011 in Philly with a match between RVD and Jerry Lynn. A full metal mayhem match which gave the crowd more reason to jump for the spots and not the match itself. Alot of concussion inducing spots later and this mess of a match was over. With all the head trauma and concussion discussion that takes place in 2011, you have to wonder why this match would even be needed in 2011. A big time thumbs down. Work safer, not dumber.

Third match on the card was a triple threat match between Samoa Joe, Matt Morgan and Crimson. Samoa Joe as the heel is getting the smart mark crowd reaction in Philly similar to Aries did in the first match of the night. Not good. Matt Morgan and Crimson gang up on Samoa Joe. Not good. Crimson just sucks in every way possible and has the look of a guy you'd make out of the generic sampler from WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2006. A slow and plodding match that would indicate Samoa Joe wanting to leave TNA after the next few months. Crimson with a spear gets the win after Morgan does the work on Samoa Joe.

That was part 1 of TNA BFG recapped (Gotta get to class) and part 2 will be put up either later tonight during Raw or sometime tomorrow.

Till next time,

I'm Nick Malone.