2014 Awards: Worst Pay Per View of the Year
This might be the easiest all year.
2014 was actually a really good year for pay per view for the most part. I couldn’t think of a show that I didn’t like at least to a degree. I know a lot of people didn’t like Battleground but the Usos vs. Wyatt Family was a GREAT match and the four way main event really picked up by the end. Things got far worse later in the year, but most of 2014 was a solid effort on pay per view.
And then there’s Bound For Glory. Now here’s the thing: TNA tried something here. I can certainly give them credit for trying SOMETHING new, but to call this experiment a disaster is the nicest thing I can say about it. The matches ranged from forgettable to WHY AM I WATCHING THIS with the opener being the best match on the card. I don’t actually remember what the opener was, but I remember it being watchable. I can tell you the brackets for the Wrestling Classic in 1986, but I can’t tell you who was in a match I saw two months ago.
Most of the show felt like a tribute to Team 3D, who were inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame. Now Team 3D had been involved in a great three way feud with the Hardys and the Wolves, giving us more than one Match of the Year candidates. Therefore, the solution was to give them a tag match against the random pairing of Tommy Dreamer and Abyss in a run of the mill brawl. Why bother having a great match when you can have an average one?
Great Muta, who had appeared once or twice in TNA, was the star of the main event and got to pin Sanada before Team 3D made the save to end the show. Of course that ended the show. Not the World Champion (not on the show), the guy he beat for the World Title (also not on the show) or the guy he was feuding with (you get the picture by now).
On top of that, there were two title matches on this show, which cost you $50. Those would be the X-Division Title and the Knockouts Title, the latter of which was defended in a glorified squash match. Now flash back with me to the 4th of July and Global Impact Japan, a One Night Only event (which weren’t considered for this because I think I’m the only person that watched them). That show had three title defenses and two title changes for $15. When a filler show has a better card, more title matches, more significance and nearly four times the attendance than the biggest show of the year, you can tell something is off.
Bound For Glory was an attempt at something, but it was a halfhearted attempt. It became very clear that the show was for the Japanese fans instead of the American fans, but I can’t imagine how this show did them much good in Japan. It wasn’t entertaining, it didn’t mean anything, and it messed with one of the few good things TNA has going for it. Bound For Glory was, by far, the Worst Pay Per View of the year.
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