Bound For Glory 2009 (2014 Redo): Even When He Loses

Bound For Glory 2009
Date: October 18, 2009
Location: Bren Events Center, Irvine, California
Attendance: 2,400
Commentators: Taz, Mike Tenay

This is a lot of people, myself included, really liked as AJ Styles was back to being serious again and had won the World Title in a five way match the previous month. Tonight he’s defending against Sting because WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT STING IN THE MAIN EVENT??? Other than that we have a four way Full Metal Mayhem (TLC) match for two sets of Tag Team Titles because TNA felt the need to bring in Japanese Tag Team Titles. Let’s get to it.

The opening video shows most of participants of the main events, set to a hip hop song because almost every video is anymore.

We get quick soundbytes hyping up the bigger matches. AJ wants to fight Sting to prove that he’s the best. Sting has been hinting that it’s going to be his last match.

Zack Wylde of Black Label Society plays a rock version of the Star Spangled Banner. This goes about as well as you would expect it to.

X-Division Title: Suicide vs. Daniels vs. Amazing Red vs. Homicide vs. Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley

Ultimate X with Red defending. Red is a guy that was around near the beginning of TNA and did some very impressive flips, earning the adulation of Don West. Don is now managing the champ and was known to climb on the announcers’ table and cheer for him. Sabin and Shelley won a match on the preshow to get in this match. Suicide is a video game character who started appearing on TV, portrayed by Daniels or Kazarian (the latter here). Homicide is part of the World Elite stable, which is a group of international wrestlers, led by Eric Young, who feel they haven’t been treated right.

It’s a mad scramble to the corners to start but no one can get anywhere. Everyone goes after everyone with Homicide getting the biggest advantage by taking down Shelley and diving through the ropes to take out Daniels. Suicide rolls the champion over and dives onto Homicide but the Guns work together to set up a suicide dive on…uh Suicide actually. Red kicks Shelley but gets dropped by Daniels, who goes for a climb. Red isn’t done yet and hurricanranas Daniels onto everyone else in the match.

Back in and Sabin busts out a giant swing on Red but Shelley adds a dropkick to the champ’s head to make it even worse. Daniels attacks both Guns and Homicide goes for a climb, only to have Suicide springboard up to the ropes and make a save, only to get pulled down into a Gringo Cutter. Sabin holds Daniels and Homicide for a top rope double stomp from Shelley.

The Guns continue their control by working over Red but the champion escapes a Doomsday Device with a Sliced Bread #2 instead of a clothesline and takes Sabin down with a hurricanrana. Suicide comes back in but Homicide suplexes him down. Homicide drops the champ and goes up but Daniels pulls him down and nails a Death Valley Driver. Red goes for the ropes but slowly comes back down for some reason, only to go back towards the belt until Suicide pulls him back down.

Now it’s Daniels and Sabin going up and kicking at each other while hanging in the air, eventually knocking each other down for a big crash. Sabin nails a tornado DDT on Daniels and Shelley nails a Sliced Bread #2 on Suicide. We get the Parade of Secondary Finishers, followed by Shelley, Red and Suicide hitting a huge Tower of Doom out of the corner with Suicide taking the worst of it (and kicking Daniels in the face on the way down).

Suicide throws Daniels down but Red kicks him in the face and gets caught by a corkscrew dive. Sabin goes nuts until Suicide kicks him off the top rope. Suicide goes right back up and hits the Flux Capacitor on Sabin, setting up Daniels’ Best Moonsault Ever. Daniels and Suicide climb onto the top of the structure above the cables and Red follows after them.

The fans ask them not to die so Daniels and Suicide tease suplexing each other off. They slap each other until Daniels carefully climbs down onto the X but Suicide does the same and they both fall with Daniels landing on his head. Tazz rightfully shouts CHECK HIM as Red slips down through the treeses as well and grabs the title before someone dies.

Rating: C+. That Daniels bump had me terrified when I saw it live and it doesn’t get any easier here. Thankfully he was ok for the most part. I can’t emphasize how much better this was than last year’s opener with just six men involved. It gives the match a chance to breathe and you can keep track of what’s going on. This was a good opener but the Daniels fall made it hard to sit through at the end.

The Beautiful People (now without Angelina but with Madison Rayne and Lacey Von Erich) insult Lauren by calling her JB. They’re coming for the Knockouts Tag Team Titles because the belts were started for the Beautiful People. Madison talks about the lineup of the team switching but says now they’re going to accessorize with the Tag Team Titles.

The Knockouts Tag Team Champions Taylor Wilde and Sarita (a newcomer from Mexico) say they’ll take on all comers. Sarita speaks some Spanish and Wilde is confused.

We run down the card for a bit to fill in time.

Knockouts Tag Team Titles: Sarita/Taylor Wilde vs. Beautiful People

Madison and Velvet are challenging. Lacey kisses the referee before the match, convincing him to change places with Earl Hebner, who may or may not be sleeping with Madison. Earl comes out and ejects Lacey for her efforts and Taylor rolls Velvet up for two. Everything quickly breaks down and the champions clean house on Sky until the challengers finally double team Sarita to take over.

They lift Sarita into the air and let her crash down for two but she comes back with a kick to the face. Hot tag brings in Taylor who destroys the People, setting up dropkick from Sarita to send Madison into a German suplex for the pin. Too short to rate but the girls looking good is about the only positive here.

We recap the Legends Title match. The Legends Title was introduced about two weeks after last year’s Bound For Glory and became the midcard title TNA had needed for years. The story here is Eric Young wants Hernandez to join World Elite, which is feuding with the Main Event Mafia. Mafia leader Kurt Angle put a hit on Eric Young for $30,000, so Young went to Mafia member and Legends Champion Kevin Nash and offered him $60,000 to take out Hernandez, who Young was scheduled to face here. I had to watch the video twice to have this make sense.

Young and Nash are in the back where Eric goes off about Hernandez and Nash doesn’t seem to care as long as he gets paid.

Legends Title: Kevin Nash vs. Eric Young vs. Hernandez

Hernandez runs them over to start and sends Young flying out to the floor. All three go to the ramp and slug it out with Hernandez getting double teamed to slow him down. SuperMex will have none of that and nails Nash before hits a backbreaker on Young. Nash finally gets back up and drives knees in to Hernandez’s ribs. Eric is willing to come in and get a few shots of his own as this is turning into a handicap match.

Hernandez fights back again but Nash breaks up a suplex on Young. The fans are all over Young as he helps Nash with the boot choke in the corner. A back elbow stops another Hernandez comeback and Young tries to steal the pin, which doesn’t seem to be in the plan. Things calm down and Nash hammers on Hernandez in the corner. Hernandez somehow pulls himself to the top and hits a missile dropkick to put Nash down. SuperMex tries to clean house but Nash knocks him face first into the middle buckle.

Another double team is broken up and Nash is down, leaving Young to get caught in midair for a sitout powerbomb and two. Back up and Nash misses a clothesline, allowing Hernandez to dive over the top to take Young down. Eric comes back in and drops a top rope elbow on Hernandez before lowering Nash’s straps for him. Young picks up Hernandez and throws him head first into Nash’s crotch, allowing Eric to dive in and get the pin for the title. Nash’s shoulder was about a foot off the mat.

Rating: C+. I liked this more than I thought I would with a good formula and a nice swerve at the end. They had to get the title on Young somehow due to how much heat he had and that was as good a way as any other. Nice little match here and Nash going after the money is perfect for him.

The Main Event Mafia, Beer Money Inc. and the British Invasion are brawling in the back. Douglas Williams calms things down and says they should be focusing on Team 3D. Wrestlemania X7 is referenced as the Full Metal Mayhem match is TNA’s TLC match.

IWGP Tag Team Titles/TNA Tag Team Titles: Beer Money Inc. vs. British Invasion vs. Team 3D vs. Main Event Mafia

This is a TLC match with two sets of titles above the ring. These teams have been feuding forever and this is the final showdown. The British Invasion (Douglas Williams and Brutus Magnus) and the Main Event Mafia (Booker T. and Scott Steiner) hold the IWGP and TNA titles respectfully coming in.

It’s a huge brawl to start with Team 3D getting beaten down in the corners. We head outside with Steiner using a ladder on D-Von. The Brits are smart enough to go in to try and climb but stop for a handshake, allowing Beer Money to make the save. The fight is getting too busy to keep track of as Beer Money destroys Williams in the ring and Steiner fights with I believe Magnus by the stage. Booker comes in to clean house but Roode stops his climb attempt.

Booker ax kicks Roode and Steiner is choking D-Von with a cable. The fans go nuts for the Spinarooni but Booker takes too long climbing, allowing Beer Money to take him down with a Last Call and DWI (powerbomb/neckbreaker combination). Steiner gets back in and destroys everyone in sight, even busting out Frankensteiners and superplexes for the Brits. Booker’s wife Sharmell comes out to check on Booker’s knee as Scott suplexes everyone he can find.

Scott goes up and we realize that the ladder needs to be about four feet higher. The Brits drop Steiner with a double neckbreaker and Booker is taken out on a stretcher. What’s Up nails Steiner and it’s Table Time. Team 3D destroys the Brits for stealing their table gimmick and Beer Money takes a beating of their own. Ray hands Zack Wylde (remember him?) a chair to blast Storm before D-Von puts Williams through a table in the ring. The real What’s Up makes Magnus writhe in pain and we get a lot more tables brought in.

Beer Money gets chokeslammed through tables but Steiner comes in with a chair to drop Team 3D. He brings in a ladder but is still too short to bring it down, allowing Team 3D to slam him through a table. The belts seem to be lowered a bit when it’s clear that this match is never going to end.

Both members of Team 3D climb up at the same time but Rhino of all people comes in to destroy them with chairs. D-Von pulls the IWGP Title down anyway to win the titles for he and Ray but takes a beating from the chair. The Brits come in and lay out Rhino and Team 3D even more before climbing up to to go after the other belts. Beer Money makes another save by shoving one ladder over and superplexing Magnus off the other.

They take too long getting up though and Magnus nails them both with a chair. Storm comes back with beer to Magnus’ face and a huge sunset bomb off the ladder. Williams hits James with a chair but Roode knocks him off. The third British Invasion member Rob Terry pulls Roode down and slams him through a table before lifting Williams up the ladder for the TNA Tag Team Titles. That’s the same way TLC II ended at Wrestlemania X7.

Rating: B+. This was a solid brawl, even though Scott Steiner was down WAY too long towards the end of the match. They did a good job of keeping all of the teams involved for the most part, which is the hardest thing to do in a match like this. Booker being taken out of the match was the way to write him off TV as he and Sharmell were leaving TNA.

We recap the three way for the Knockouts Title. Tara (formerly Victoria in WWE) debuted and wants the title, ODB is champion and Awesome Kong is Awesome Kong.

Knockouts Title: Awesome Kong vs. ODB vs. Tara

ODB is defending. Tara has her spider Poison with her which never worked for me. Kong grabs the belt to start and runs ODB down, only to have Tara slug away at the giant. Tara and ODB’s double team goes badly but the both avoid a middle rope splash. They nip up at the same time and shoulder Kong back down. A double suplex puts her down a third time but the normal sized girls get in an argument over who should cover.

ODB takes Tara down with the fall away slam and chops in the corner but Tara comes back with the Tarantula. Kong gets back up for the save until Tara moonsault presses both of them down. It doesn’t seem to bother Kong who runs Tara over and chokes the champion in the corner.

Tara seems to get in a fight with some fan and leaves (more on this later), allowing ODB to hit a Samoan drop on Kong for two. Kong slams her back down as Tara is back to save ODB from a middle rope splash. There’s the Implant Buster to ODB for two and Kong is SHOCKED. She brings in a chair but splashes it instead of ODB, who retains the title with ease.

Rating: D+. The match was dull for the most part, but the Tara thing is interesting in how stupid it was. The fan was the wife of former UFC Champion Randy Couture, who Tara wanted to work a match against. Why this is supposed to be interesting isn’t clear and it never lead to anything. Also pay no attention to the fact that this wasn’t mentioned on TV, at least not here.

Matt Morgan says his match with Angle is business and personal.

Samoa Joe vs. Bobby Lashley

This is a submission match for what should be obvious reasons and Joe is Mafia. Lashley has bad ribs coming in but is still able to power Joe into the corner. Some slaps to the face tick Lashley off so he spinebusters Joe down and tries an armbar. Joe tries a kick to the ribs but opts for a leg bar instead. That goes nowhere as Lashley rolls out and takes Joe down again before pounding away in the corner.

Lashley gets sent outside for a breather, drawing a LOUD Lashley Sucks chant. Joe starts going after the ribs and the referee goes down, allowing Joe to hit Lashley in the ribs again. Back to the floor and Joe nails the suicide dive before driving Lashley into the barricade. They get back inside and Lashley gets caught in an abdominal stretch with an elbow in the ribs. He powers out with a hiptoss and is quickly booed out of the building.

A powerslam puts Lashley down but Joe goes for an armbreaker for some reason. Lashley blocks the hold so Joe hammers away in the corner. A full nelson slam drops Joe and the fans just rip into Lashley and cheer Joe louder. Joe just destroys him with spinning Rock Bottoms but Lashley sweeps the leg and puts on a side choke for the quick win.

Rating: D-. WOW this was bad for Lashley. He barely did anything and the fans just let him have it. He might be the guy who looked the best on paper and then never played out in the slightest. His 2014 run has been FAR better when they made him a killer, but the face runs were disasters. Joe was just so unmotivated at this point and I can’t say I blame him. He feuded with the Mafia for months then joined them because Samoa Joe has to be in heel stables for some reason. One other thing of note: this was the first non-title match as well as the first one on one match of the night.

Oh and one more thing: STOP TRYING TO TURN WRESTLING INTO MMA! IT’S CALLED WRESTLING FOR A REASON!

Mick Foley says if Abyss wants to be the biggest hardcore star ever, he has to earn it. He wanted Abyss to be his protege but now wants to hurt him to prove a point. Foley is evil here if that’s not clear.

Abyss vs. Mick Foley

Dr. Stevie (Richards) is guest referee and if Abyss uses tacks he’s disqualified, even though this is Monster’s Ball. Foley jumps Abyss from behind with a barbed wire bat and drags the monster to the stage. He climbs the tower on the set and this can’t end well. Abyss follows him up but gets knocked off and goes through the stage. Foley drops his running elbow with the barbed wire bat into the hole and both guys are down.

Stevie congratulates Foley as they walk to the ring. Abyss climbs through a new hole in the ramp and runs Foley over before heading to ringside to get some weapons. The monster bridges a barbed wire board between the ring and barricade before just smashing Foley with a trashcan. Another barbed wire board is brought in but Foley grabs a double arm DDT to plant Abyss on top of it. The barbed wire bat is raked across Abyss’ head as the violence really gets going.

Foley goes after the arm with the barbed wire and we see a lot of blood on Abyss’ forehead. He’s still able to send Foley into the third barbed wire board in the corner but misses a charge, catching himself in the board. Foley shoves him onto the board on the mat and drops an elbow to crush him between the boards for two.

Now Mick busts out the tacks but gets grabbed by the throat. Stevie won’t let Abyss chokeslam Mick onto them, so Abyss Shock Treatments the referee. Creepy chick Daffney comes out and slides Foley a taser of all things, which explodes as he shocks Abyss. This brings out a regular referee to count three….but he starts a four count because Abyss doesn’t kick out in time.

An attempt at a barbed wire Socko results in Foley being sent into the board, but Stevie gets up and nails the replacement referee. Daffney goes up top but gets chokeslammed through the barbed wire board at ringside (off camera of course). A Black Hole Slam puts Stevie into the tacks and a chokeslam onto the barbed wire is enough for the pin, with Abyss grabbing Stevie’s hand to make him count the three.

Rating: D+. This is what happens when TNA just tries too hard and it stops working. The tacks thing was stupid but at least Abyss got the win and gets put over as a result. The problem here is this was basically all barbed wire, which is a good visual if you use it once or twice, but then it’s just numbing. Also the fall through the stage was way out of place with the rest of the match.

Angle says he had AJ beat and the time ran out. This has nothing to do with his match tonight.

We recap Angle vs. Morgan. Angle had been stringing Morgan along and promising him a place in the Mafia but then screwing him over. Morgan became a killer and cost Angle the title at No Surrender, setting up this showdown.

Kurt Angle vs. Matt Morgan

Kurt has his borderline homeless man beard going here. Angle runs to the floor to start and cuts off the fans’ dueling chants in the process. They do the same sequence again before Morgan just grabs Kurt by the head and throws him over the top. Back in and Morgan busts out the rapid fire elbows in the corner before hitting a kind of reverse chokeslam to send him face first into the buckle. Kurt goes to the eyes and sends Matt outside, only to get caught diving off the apron. Morgan sends him back first into the post and stands very tall.

Back in and Matt hits a high cross body for two, only to have the Carbon Footprint hit the buckle. Angle chop blocks the big man down and gets his first advantage. There’s a Figure Four and Morgan is suddenly in big trouble. Morgan finally turns it over, sending Angle to the ropes for the break. Some clotheslines have Angle in trouble and a side slam gets two as Matt’s knee seems fine.

Kurt goes back for it to stagger the big man but Morgan counters a cross body with a fall away slam. Chokeslam gets two but Angle counters the Hellevator into the rolling Germans. That must be punishment for not selling the knee. The Angle Slam is countered and a big boot (dude come on) gets two. A second attempt at the Slam gets two and the ankle lock goes on. Morgan kicks him away and avoids a charge into the corner, setting up the Hellevator for two.

We get the required tombstone attempt from a big man but Kurt counters into the ankle lock. Matt kicks away and nails a clothesline for two but the fans think he sucks. Morgan goes up top so Angle can run the buckles for the superplex. A frog splash gets two for Kurt and he goes back up, only to get caught on Morgan’s shoulders. Possibly playing off the knee from earlier, Angle grabs a victory roll for the pin.

Rating: C+. It’s an entertaining match as they tried the main event style, but it has a few problems. To begin with, Morgan wouldn’t sell the knee for more than about five seconds, so the point of the match kind of died halfway through. This brings us to the big problem: Angle did not need to win this match. He’s by far the bigger star and has been established for years while Morgan hasn’t proven he can win the big one yet. Here’s what makes it even worse though.

On Impact, Angle basically disbanded the Mafia because Morgan proved that Angle was wrong about the younger generation. The story is EXACTLY the same if Morgan wins and in some ways is even better. On top of that you get a new star (because TNA just had SO many of them running around) who had potential, but instead it’s Angle because this company is all about paying homage to old names.

We don’t get much of a recap for the main event. AJ was about to leave wrestling due to all of his failures, but Sting gave him a great pep talk and AJ won the World Title at No Surrender. Styles wanted to give Sting a title shot and Sting has implied it might be his last match. The problem here, again, is that the main event is all about Sting instead of making a new star.

TNA World Title: Sting vs. AJ Styles

Both guys are good here. Style takes over with a quick hiptoss but Sting comes back with one of his own. Another hiptoss sends Styles to the apron but he springboards back in for no contact. A shoulder puts Styles down but he avoids the Sharpshooter and we get a standoff. AJ scores with a slam and drops a knee for two before Sting whips him upside down into the corner.

Back up and a clothesline puts AJ on the floor. This is still in the grounded stage as neither is wanting to do anything big. Sting lets AJ get back in clean and they reset. An enziguri drops Sting and a nice suplex gets two. Sting comes back with bulldogs and a big backdrop but doesn’t follow up. AJ gets back up so Sting bails to the floor, only to sidestep a diving AJ, sending him into the barricade.

Sting misses a Stinger Splash against the same barricade though and both guys are down. Back in and Sting misses another splash but stops a charging AJ with a boot in the corner. They exchange tombstone attempts until AJ gets planted for two. Back up and the champ’s springboard forearm gets the same before he loads up the moonsault into the reverse DDT. Sting counters into the Death Drop but can’t cover (ignore his leg being on top of AJ).

A Stinger Splash and another Death Drop gets two so it’s Scorpion time. AJ screams a lot and grabs the ropes but Sting Hulks Up. He puts AJ on the top but gets knocked down with a headbutt. AJ falls off the top but manages to Pele Sting from the apron. The springboard splash is enough to retain AJ’s title.

Rating: C+. The match was decent enough but there was almost no emotion here. They were trying to make this feel like a big deal for Sting, because if there’s one thing we’ve learned so far, it’s that BOUND FOR GLORY IS ALL ABOUT HIM. There were some nice sequences in here but it felt like the buildup for something bigger which never came.

AJ calls Sting back to the ring and Sting tells him it’s his (AJ’s) time. Sting says if he just lost his last match, he’s glad it was to someone like AJ. The fans say please don’t go but Sting says he isn’t sure what he’s doing (“and that’s not kayfabe.”) but the fans have made him want to stick around forever. His music hits and we’re quickly done.

Overall Rating: B-. Most of the show is good but nothing on here feels special. The main event is really lacking and felt far more about Sting than Styles, which defeats the purpose of giving someone a rub. It’s a show that is entertaining enough if you watch it but there’s nothing worth going out of your way to see. Once Sting got out of the way for a bit, AJ was able to take off as champion and just own every main event he was in for a few months.

Ratings Comparison

Amazing Red vs. Suicide vs. Daniels vs. Homicide vs. Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley

Original: B

Redo: C+

Beautiful People vs. Taylor Wilde/Sarita

Original: D+

Redo: N/A

Eric Young vs. Kevin Nash vs. Hernandez

Original: D-

Redo: C+

Main Event Mafia vs. British Invasion vs. Team 3D vs. Beer Money Inc.

Original: B

Redo: B+

Awesome Kong vs. Tara vs. ODB

Original: C-

Redo: D+

Bobby Lashley vs. Samoa Joe

Original: D

Redo: D-

Mick Foley vs. Abyss

Original: C-

Redo: D+

Kurt Angle vs. Matt Morgan

Original: B-

Redo: C+

Sting vs. AJ Styles

Original: B

Redo: C+

Overall Rating

Original: B

Redo: B-

It’s about the same for the most part but the Legends Title match was WAY better than on another viewing.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

https://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2013/10/16/bound-for-glory-count-up-2009/