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

Since we’re 5 days from THE BIGGEST TNA SHOW EVER I figured a show was called for. This is from about a year ago and it’s AJ’s trial by fire more or less. He won the title at No Surrender but needs to beat Sting to solidify his reign. Other than that this card looks ok but it also looks like a run of the mill TNA PPV. We’re in California here which is a new thing for the company. However, they’re at about 40% full so it’s not exactly something to write home about. Let’s get to it.

This is TNA’s biggest show of the year so they have a theme song here. Also this is 9 days before Hogan and Bischoff signed. Everyone talks about how important this show is to them. They’re trying to make it seem big if nothing else so points for that. Oh and it might be Sting’s last match. Yeah right.

Some guy named Zakk Wylde plays the national anthem.

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

This is Ultimate X and the Guns got in by winning a tag match earlier. Suicide is played by Kaz here. Dinero was supposed to be in this too but had a legit family emergency. Red has Don West with him. This is Red’s first Ultimate X match. That’s rather surprising. And there’s a rather scary close up of Homicide. Red and Suicide (how did he and Homicide never team together?) go to the floor as the spots begin.

Daniels stops a huge dive by Red to kill the crowd. Daniels has won four straight of these matches apparently. Red hits a SWEET Rana off the top to Daniels to the floor, taking out about 3 other people. The Guns take over with some of their awesome team stuff. No real attempts at going for the belt until Homicide heads up there. Suicide trumps Homicide though and everyone crashes.

This turns into the Guns vs. everyone else as Daniels takes a missile dropkick Doomsday Device. Everything goes insane again and you can’t really follow much of anything. Homicide, a heel here, goes up but Daniels stops him. Daniels and Sabin play a little chicken but both crash as well. SICK tornado DDT by Sabin. Red gets a leaping Downward Spiral to take out Daniels as this has been rather fun.

There’s the required Tower of Doom spot that never gets old with the big move being Suicide hitting a moonsault on Daniels. To give you an idea, Suicide was on the top rope. Red got behind him for a German. Red was powerbombed off by Sabin. Red suplexed Suicide off and Suicide flipped into a moonsault press onto Daniels. Ok so onto is a stretch but you get the concept.

The crowd isn’t really feeling this outside of big spots, which isn’t great but it’s also not horrible. They know their chants though I suppose. Best Moonsault Ever to Sabin. Daniels, Suicide and Red go up to the top of the structure, as in 7 feet about the X, getting a please don’t die chant. They’re above the height of being on top of the Cell. Daniels almost falls as this is terrifying.

Daniels thankfully drops down as does Suicide. Red is laying on top as the Guns go for the traditional way. Suicide and Daniels go down and Daniels lands on his head. Tazz half kayfabe shouts CHECK HIM, and I couldn’t agree more. Red drops down and gets the belt. I’m legit worried about Daniels after that fall. Don West comes out to celebrate.

Rating: B. I was trying to figure out if it should be minus or plus but this is fine. I’ve never been wild on having big gimmick matches like this to open the show. I get having an X match here but not the big gimmick matches like these. Save these for the middle of the card where the crowd needs a boost. Still though this was solid and the spots were great. Daniels’ fall was scary though. Fun match and did exactly its job though.

Lauren is with the Beautiful People, who are getting the Knockouts Tag Title shot tonight. The belts are like a month old here and Velvet is ridiculously hot as the evil chick. This is Lacey, Velvet and Madison if you’re not sure.

Taylor and Sarita, the champions, say they’ll keep the belts. Sarita insults them in Spanish and it’s fun to be able to understand it.

Tenay and Taz run down the card. I never get this.

Knockout Tag Titles: Beautiful People vs. Taylor Wilde/Sarita

Velvet and Madison here. Lacey makes out with the referee and is allowed to stay at ringside. Hebner comes out and throws her out anyway. We botch an armdrag to start as Taylor just kind of falls down. Ah now things are a bit better. Typical match of the genre but Sarita hits a NICE missile dropkick to Velvet. Taylor gets a German into a bridge for the pin.

Rating: D+. Just a quickie to have the new titles on the show. This wasn’t anything bad and nothing too offensive, but dang these belts would get meaningless very fast. They need to just drop them already and get some fresh blood in the division. Allegedly Mickie is on the way so that should help a lot.

We recap the Legends Title feud which is Eric Young leading World Elite and wanting the title which Nash holds. This was just an awkwardly put together feud and it never clicked at all. Oh and there’s a World Elite vs. Mafia feud with a bounty on Young’s head or something. Like I said it just never clicked at all.

Nash and Young might have an alliance. Young talks a lot and Nash just kind of says whatever.

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

Nash has the title here if I forgot to mention that. Hernandez went from being the hottest thing in the world to this. In a year the Legends Title went from Legends to Global to TV. Hernandez, still in the khaki shorts here, beats up both guys to start us off. BIG shoulder block puts Young on the floor. This is basically Hernandez beats up two guys until we get to the conflict between the heels match.

Solid heat on Young. Match is far from that though. And there’s the issue between the heels as Young insists it was just instinct. Hernandez hits a pretty weak missile dropkick to Nash as this is just a boring match. It’s not really horrible but it’s just totally not interesting at all. Big dive by Super Mex to try to make this more interesting.

This has zero flow to it at all and it’s hurting badly. Young hits a big elbow on Hernandez and pulls Nash’s straps down. He sets for the Jackknife and Young rams Hernandez’s head into Nash’s balls for the pin. Pay no attention to Nash’s shoulder being WAY up.

Rating: D-. Not a bad match exactly but just not interesting at all. This was a weird one as they were trying but the styles just totally did not mesh. Like I said it’s not horrible but it’s just there. No flow or story being told really and while the ending was somewhat creative it just never amounted to anything and didn’t work at all.

The teams in the tag title match are arguing but Douglas Williams says worry about Team 3D. And hey there’s a Wrestlemania reference. There’s a Full Metal Mayhem match tonight which they say is the same as a TLC match.

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

Since this is TNA they can manage to screw up a TLC match. Both tag titles are on the line here and any team can win any of them. The Mafia, Steiner and Booker, are TNA tag champions and the Invasion are the IWGP champions. The thing was that TNA decided that since EVERYONE watches Japanese tag wrestling that there was nothing wrong with having two sets of tag titles because these other belts are SO famous. I really hated this idea, as in far more than most TNA ideas which should tell you a lot.

Thankfully soon after this TNA would WAKE UP and realize no one cared about the IWGP belts because THIS ISN’T JAPAN. Big brawl to start while Beer Money hides in the corner which is smart. We get into the heart of why I hate this immediately as Taz and Tenay talk about how prestigious the IWGP belts are. That’s all well and good but there’s one flaw: your belts are supposed to be the top titles. If they weren’t you wouldn’t call them WORLD tag titles. It was like TNA was saying “yeah we’re a big deal but we pale in comparison to Japan.” I hated it.

Steiner and D-Von go off to fight and it’s a big mess that’s hard to call. I wouldn’t have put two big multi-man climb up to get an object matches on one show but I get what they were thinking here. Ton of weapons go everywhere and of course there isn’t much in the way of flow but there isn’t supposed to be here. DWI for Booker. Steiner busts out the corner Frankensteiner which is nothing like the original one but is an easier way to avoid having to do the harder spot.

Booker might be legit hurt. Steiner does nothing but suplexes, showing his level of awesomeness. Steiner goes up after the TNA belts (at least he didn’t go for the others first) but the ladder is too short and he gets shoved off. Booker has a stretcher brought out for him as Steiner takes What’s Up. Eh with that many steroids in him he probably didn’t feel a thing.

The Brits bring in tables as Booker is wheeled out. Dudleys just END the English dudes with chair shots. And the guitar player from earlier gets a chair shot on Magnus. Williams goes through a table in the ring as we’re in the “everyone but three people lay down while the three guys do spots” and D-Von hits What’s Up on Williams. BIG Table chant. Double chokeslams (from the Dudleys?) put Beer Money down and through tables.

Steiner pops back up and brings in a ladder. And then he falls off a ladder thanks to 3D. The team not the move. The Dudleys go up at the same time like idiots and here’s Rhyno of all people, since you know 8 people in one match aren’t enough, and blasts them with chairs but not before D-Von gets the IWGP Titles down.

Beer Money and the Brits both go up, resulting in a bad looking suplex on Magnus from both guys. Beer Money has an open shot but has to do their taunt first. Storm gets some beer and then a front flip powerbomb to take Magnus out again. Cool looking spot. Roode is about to get the TNA belts but Rob Terry of the British Invasion comes down to throw him through a table and help Magnus get the belt to end it.

Rating: B. Another fun match much like Ultimate X earlier. There were a lot of people here and I think too many teams. That and having two sets of tag titles made this a bit too much of a mess and the lack of a huge spot kind of slowed it down from being great. That being said this was a fun match and did the job it was supposed to do: get the crowd going. It’s not up to the levels of the great TLC matches but it was good. I still wish they didn’t have two multi-man grab the title matches at one show though but what can you do?

Recap of the Knockouts Title match which more or less is just a three way feud with nothing special to it at all.

Knockouts Title: Tara vs. ODB vs. Awesome Kong

ODB has beaten both of them already so we’ll just do it one more time I guess. Should be noted that this is the 5th match on the card, the fifth title match and the fifth match that isn’t a standard one on one or tag match. Think they’re overdoing anything here? Tara’s legs are awesome if nothing else. I never got the appeal of the ODB character at all.

Kong jumps both girls immediately but Tara goes right for her. And so much for that theory as Kong just crushes them. Middle rope splash misses both of them though and we get the rather sexy shirt rip off from Tara. She’d wear these tiny shorts and a Tapout shirt which she’d rip off to more or less reveal a half shirt. The faces fight over who gets the pin as it’s pure formula stuff here but FAR better than the Legends Title match.

Tara hooks the Tarantula but Kong makes the save, which isn’t really a save as you can’t get a submission there but you get the point. Tara gets into it with some fan that might be legit but I’m not sure. Upon further review it was Randy Couture’s wife who had wanted to do an MMA fight with Tara. All planned but TNA messed up the shot and didn’t see it. Why does this not surprise me?

Back in the ring Kong hits the middle rope splash on ODB, covering the entire front row in silicone. It gets two though as Tara makes the save. Implant Buster gets two as ODB kicks out on her own. Saed comes out and throws in a chair but Kong says no. She goes for a powerbomb on ODB and Saed slides the chair in again but ODB reverses into a face plant to the chair for the pin. Nice ending.

Rating: C-. Not a great match or anything but FAR better than the other one. There was a story and flow here rather than in the Legends match where nothing had any purpose it seemed. Everything worked here and while it’s not great it’s certainly watchable. Not bad here and definitely ok.

Morgan says tonight is personal and business.

Samoa Joe vs. Bobby Lashley

Hey look it’s another non-traditional one on one match as this is a submission match. Joe is in the Mafia here and Lashley is the MMA guy so this actually makes sense for once from a gimmick match perspective. Lashley has taped up ribs for some reason. Ah ok Rhyno jumped him on Impact. And yet he’s fighting Joe here. Well of course he is.

Joe might be a bit slimmer here but it’s hard to tell as the tattoo on his face takes away from his face a bit. Naturally we get the JOE’S GONNA KILL YOU chant because he’s a heel. Lashley hits a SICK spinebuster and goes after the arm. The problem with wrestling today is that with the advent of MMA and how fast people tap to holds it’s a BIG stretch to have people survive like 30 seconds in arm bars and leg locks.

Suicide dive to take out Lashley as Joe is far more popular than he’s supposed to be. Joe works the ribs as we’re told about the work he’s done on Lashley’s ribs recently. Thanks for talking about that in his entrance rather than Rhyno there guys. Abdominal stretch goes on as Taz is actually helpful here with his submission knowledge. Quick powerslam by Joe as he’s wildly over here.

Lashley blocks part of an armbar and gets some ground and pound in to HUGE boos. A full nelson slam from Lashley takes Joe down and we’re back to even. Lashley is REALLY bad on offense with some of the worst strikes I’ve ever seen. Joe thankfully takes over and beats the tar out of him. And then Lashley gets an STO (reverse stroke for you non-WM 2000 and No Mercy fans) into a side choke for the win. Joe blacked out or something.

Rating: D. They were trying for the MMA thing here and it just didn’t work in the slightest really. Lashley was just not that good at making what he’s capable of really doing look fake if that makes sense. This just didn’t work for me at all as it came off as sloppy and Lashley trying to get one big move in which he did. I’m not an MMA guy so I’m the wrong audience I guess, but this didn’t work at all for me.

Foley talks about fighting Abyss and makes limited sense. Apparently he doesn’t want Abyss to overshadow him and Abyss is going to have to earn it. Ah ok Foley wanted to make him his protégé and them beat the heck out of him just because I guess. Foley is heel here and we actually get a reference to Abyss being world champion. It’s Monster’s Ball also and if Abyss uses tacks he’s disqualified or something.

Mick Foley vs. Abyss

Stevie Richards is referee and is the doctor again. LOUD pyro for Abyss. Foley jumps him on the ramp and is all casual about hitting him with the barbed wire bat. I like that. I’m reading his book at the moment and haven’t gotten to this part if it’s in there. Almost immediately Foley goes up the set, climbing a tower. Abyss follows and gets knocked through part of the ramp.

Foley climbs down as Stevie says Abyss is done. Foley gets a running start and drives the bat into Abyss as he’s still in that hole in the ramp/stage. Foley, the face, of course gets cheered. Stevie is the cheerleader dude here as the match just kind of stops until Abyss climbs through the stage. We have a barded wire board from somewhere and he makes a platform with it between the guard rail and the ring.

And there’s another board that’s just like the first. Double armed DDT to Abyss to the board. Richards beats up Abyss too because EVERYONE loved that angle. Foley gets a bat shot into Abyss’ arm to open it up. His head is busted too. Foley goes into the wire board now then Abyss does the same. Make that a sandwich as the other is under him. Naturally it only gets two.

Foley busts out the tacks and Abyss sets to chokeslam him onto them but he’s not allowed. Down goes Stevie and here’s Daffney to give Foley a freaking Taser. And just to make it more stupid it explodes as Foley jabs him with it. They TOTALLY botch it as Abyss misses his kickout and Foley gets three and Abyss raises his shoulder at what would have been four so the referee says he kicked out anyway.

Crowd totally boos that out of the building as Stevie pulls the referee out when Abyss goes for the pin. Daffney goes through the platform they made earlier to get a HOLY CRAP chant. Stevie tries to beat up Abyss and goes into the tacks for his trouble sans shirt. Chokeslam for Foley and we get the Over the Edge 98 finish as Abyss slams Richards’ hand down for the pin.

Rating: C-. Totally violent but overbooked. Also the botch messed things completely up as it was clearly three and everyone knew it. These matches are fine once in awhile but does it really prove anything? This was a far cry from the Edge or Orton matches and it just didn’t work that well for me. Granted I’m not a fan of hardcore so it’s not my style anyway.

Angle says he’s awesome and that he had AJ beat but the time limit ran out.

Basically Angle stung Morgan along to get his help in winning various matches then screwed him over to make Morgan a ticked off monster that was suddenly awesome. Then he got dropped down to a midcard team with Hernandez for his efforts because Hogan came in and liked Abyss more, but that’s a bit later on. Oh and Morgan more or less cost Angle the title at No Surrender. Oh and Dixie Carter has to say something for no apparent reason other than she’s Dixie Carter.

Matt Morgan vs. Kurt Angle

This is the semi-main event on the show, we have 45 minutes of TV time left, and this is the first standard one on one match on the card. Also this has a fifteen minute time limit. Dude seriously? Say it’s got an hour or something as you know it’s only going fifteen but dude that’s the time limit a TV Title match with PN News and Steve Austin in 1991 would get.

Angle is still the leader of the Main Event Mafia here and has never won at Bound For Glory. The dueling chants begin immediately as Angle, the leader of the top heel stable in the company, is over here. TNA fans even in other cities are annoying. Morgan controls with power early as he’s getting to show off here. He goes to the top and hits about as good of a cross body as you would expect from a guy that big and who doesn’t go to the top that often.

Angle goes for the legs to take down Morgan. Figure four goes on and Morgan’s leg is almost on Angle’s face. Taz actually OFFERS SOME INSIGHT by saying that since Angle’s legs are shorter and Matt’s are longer it’s easier for Angle to get extra leverage. Well gosh, Taz worked a similar style to Angle, so this is almost like…HIM BEING AN EXPERT ON THE SUBJECT!!! WHAT A CONCEPT!

One of the guys from Boys to Men is here. TNA needs to either upgrade their celebrities or not have them acknowledged. Also, PICK A BETTER TIME TO SHOW THEM! You know, like during an entrance, not when Matt breaks a hold. Fall away slam hits Angle and his leg seems fine now. Chokeslam gets two. Hellevator is blocked into Rolling Germans from Angle.

Angle Slam, say it with me, gets two. Straps go down and the cheers go up and there’s the ankle lock. It doesn’t work but Angle counters a powerbomb into the ankle lock. Hellevator gets two. Yeah these finishers are kind of not working so far. Ankle lock is the counter to a tombstone and Morgan gets out again. Big clothesline gets two for Morgan. Loud Morgan sucks chant starts up for no apparent reason.

Morgan goes up and does it slowly which you don’t do against Angle. The running suplex isn’t great but it works. Angle Slam and a Frog Splash of all things (good one too) get two. Taz says this is his evolution into a star. That’s rather amusing. And Angle gets a victory roll for the pin. There was no more build than that. The match just kind of ended. They shake hands after the match with nothing screwy about it.

Rating: B-. Good match but not a classic/career making match like they were looking for I don’t think. The idea was to stretch Angle to a degree where he could barely win and I never got that impression here. It was definitely a solid match but it just never got to the level that they wanted it to I don’t think. You can’t say it failed to make Morgan as Hogan arriving changed everything including Morgan.

TNA World Title: Sting vs. AJ Styles

You’ll see a huge difference in the main event here than you would at most other shows from this company recently. There isn’t much of a story here. AJ was going to leave the business, Sting gave him an awesome pep talk, AJ won the title but felt he owed Sting a title shot and wanted the respect. Basic booking and a match between two guys that are solid in ring wrestlers. What an idea.

Also, how much does it say that in a year AJ has gone from main event to feuding with Tommy Dreamer? This is the awesome AJ as well, as in pre Flair and when he was the best in the world. They shake hands to start us off which is nice to see. In the last three years Sting has been 3-0 at Bound For Glory with three straight world title wins. That’s rather impressive.

Feeling out process to start of course. Long one too as we’re at about 3 minutes of it now. AJ controls early and gets a knee drop for two. Sting sends him to the floor and then holds the ropes open for him. They’re doing a slow build here but there isn’t a ton of time left in the show to do that with really. Sting takes over with a backdrop as that somethow might be the biggest move done so far. It’s not bad mind you, just a different kind of match.

Ah there we go as AJ goes for a big dive off the apron but Sting moves and AJ eats steel. Stinger Splash hits steel also and the guardrail is bent a bit. Sting gets a tombstone for two in the ring. Springboard Forearm (my favorite move in TNA) gets two. A series of counters leads to the Death Drop hitting. Sting’s leg is over AJ but there’s no count. Splash sets up another Death Drop for two.

Scorpion Deathlock goes on and it’s one of the best ones I’ve ever seen Sting do. They slug it out and Sting Hulks Up. We head to the corner and AJ gets a Pele and a springboard splash….for the pin? Uh…yeah I guess he does. That ending was TOTALLY anti-climactic as Sting was making his comeback and going all superhuman and then AJ just beat him. I was really getting into this and then it just ended. Odd.

Rating: B. Solid match that would have been classified as great until the ending which just did not work. AJ should have gotten the clean pin and he did but this match was BEGGING for another 5-8 minutes. I don’t get why they just ended the show that fast as we have five minutes left in the video so it’s not like they were lacking for time. I don’t get it but the match we got was rather good.

AJ calls Sting back to the ring (after the first microphone doesn’t work) and says this is his time. The fans chant please don’t go as this was possibly his retirement match which obviously didn’t happen but the idea was nice anyway. Also they never said it was his retirement match either so it’s in no way false advertisement whatsoever.

Sting says this is about AJ but if he’s going to lose he’s glad he lost to someone like AJ, putting him over huge. The fans chant one more year and Sting says he’s not sure if he was going to retire or not and says this isn’t kayfabe but that some of the stuff fans have said to him have made him wanting to stay forever. And then his music plays as I guess we’re out of time? Odd ending where things seemed rush.

Overall Rating: B. I rather liked this show actually and thought it came off pretty well. This is another excellent example of what TNA is capable of when they just go out there and wrestle. Hogan and Bischoff coming in have really hurt this company’s product as instead of just in ring work where this show is strong we now have everything being about swerves and angles with wrestling being a far backseat.

I’d love watching Impact if it was stuff like this, but it’s changed for the worse. Hey though, we have Hogan now so everything is all well and good right? Good show this year though.

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Bound For Glory 2008
Date: October 12, 2008
Location: Sears Center, Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Attendance: 5,000
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

It’s another installment in the biggest series there is for TNA, this time from two years ago. The main event is Sting vs. Joe for the title. We’re 9 days away from the debut of the Main Event Mafia so things are kind of in flux at this point. Other than that there is some decent stuff here, including Jarrett vs. Angle. I guess some things never change. This is an ok looking card on paper. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about Chicago and the gangster theme they have tonight. The basic idea of the Mafia is there but they haven’t officially been made yet.

Steel Asylum

The winner gets a title shot later. There are ten men in this: Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Curry Man, Shark Boy, Super Eric, Petey Williams, Johnny Devine and Jimmy Rave. This is during the Prince Justice Brotherhood mini-era so I wouldn’t expect anything of quality. You have to climb to the top to escape. The winner gets an X Title shot later on at some undesignated date.

Naturally with 10 guys in there it’s almost impossible to keep track of what is going on. This turns into a mini-handicap match between the Guns and the Prince Justice Brotherhood and given that Eric is the best of the three characters, this is more or less one sided. Now we get a ton of running clotheslines, as in like 15, on various people.

The Guns get a triple suplex on the Brotherhood which at least makes sense from a friendship perspective. This is also during the Lethal/Dutt feud which means we get some shots of Val at her absolute hottest which is saying a lot. This is the living definition of a spot fest as there is no story or anything which is because there are WAY TOO MANY PEOPLE.

This match would work with like 5 people in it. That would work very well but it’s TNA so let’s just double everything because that’s not going to hurt a thing right? There’s a referee on top also which works to an extent but at the same time it makes me think “really?” Everyone busts out finishers as we crank it up a bit.

The Guns take over almost completely and I think they’re heels at this point. Sliced Bread is countered into the Destroyer from Williams. Double Stunner from Shark Boy (Stone Cold that is) on Sabin and Williams as we bust out more finishers including a botched Divine Intervention (over the shoulder Piledriver) on Rave. Curry Man shows off some surprising strength with a gorilla press on Dutt where he throws him into the corner.

He goes up but Lethal and Dutt make the save. In a cool looking spot, Lethal and Dutt hang upside down just by their ankles and slug it out. Translation: Lethal beats the heck out of him but you get the concept. Lethal climbs out on his own to end it as apparently everyone else is taking a nap.

Rating: C+. These matches are hard to grade because there’s really no form of flow or stories to them. The best you can do is grade the spots and the ending and in this match both of those were pretty good so this is an ok grade. It’s not a great match or anything really close to it due to the WAY too high amount of people in it, but what can you do about that I guess? Decent match and decent opener though.

We run down the card. Can someone explain this to me? Why do we need to waste time on this?

We go to Cornette’s office where he’s WAY too happy about it being Bound For Glory. Foley, who is brand new here comes in and Cornette tries to get him to come to Impact when they’re live in Vegas. The Beautiful People come in to complain about M&Ms. This is funny stuff with Foley vs. them.

Recap of Beautiful People vs. the three random people they’re fighting.

ODB/Rhaka Khan/Rhyno vs. Beautiful People/Cute Kip

Traci Brooks is referee here and comes out to a cover of Rag Doll by Aerosmith. Just Skye and Love at this point. This is a Bimbo Brawl apparently. You know because 6 person tag is just too hard to say I guess. Kip gets in the face of a Detroit Tiger who is in Chicago just because I guess. ODB and Velvet start us off.

West tries to convince us that Rhyno and Kip are very similar physically. And people wonder why he was replaced. Genders can intertwine here apparently. Basically the Beautiful People keep trying to get various shots in, none of which work. Everyone keeps hiding from Khan other than Kip. Both of them go for chokeslams. She grabs his balls as this is going absolutely nowhere.

Khan is really bad in the ring to put it mildly. Why does ODB think she’s hot? Makeup box to ODB’s head sends her to the floor. ODB spanks herself to get fired up for…a tag. Thankfully the guys come in as the girls just aren’t that good at this point. Fameasser is blocked as Rhyno just stands up and Gores Kip to end it.

Rating: F+. And that’s only for Velvet. This was just boring as all goodness with six minutes of the girls doing nothing, leaving Rhyno as the best person in there. Let that sink in for a bit. Just a bad match that never did anything at all of note. At least it was short I guess.

Consequences Creed says Bashir needs to leave if he hates America so much.

X–Division Title: Consequence Creed vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir

We spend like a minute introducing some army sergeant after Bashir is introduced. I get that these people are cool, but why does TNA insist on giving them lots of camera time so often? It’s cool that he’s here, but did he need a full entrance to be the ring announcers for Creed? Creed is billed as the great American challengers I guess. He looks like Apollo Creed from Rocky if that means anything.

Tenay gets way too excited for America here, especially when Bashir is from Minnesota. Brawling on the floor now which gets Sheik two in the ring. The fans do the standard xenophobic chant. Basic match here for the most part. I don’t know if it’s the online video I’m watching or what, but the ring looks huge. Sleeper goes on and Creed is in trouble. Since this is after 1987 though and not a Ziggler match, the hold doesn’t work.

Creed makes his comeback and hits a few moves for two. He hits a jaw breaker and nips up before heading to the top. It takes too long though and the crotch is bruised. A top rope rana gets two and then Bashir gets a rollup and grabs the rope for the pin. Are you kidding me???

Rating: D. Nothing that special here but the ending just completely ends any chance this had of being a good match. You build this dude up as awesome and have the whole army thing going on, and then he loses at the biggest show of the year? Eric Young would win the title two months later. For the life of me I do not get the booking idea here. Do we really need to have the evil foreigner keep the belt here? I mean dude….REALLY?

Foley is with JB, telling his some story about the Cell match. And here are Saed and Kong to see Cornette. Apparently Foley is in charge. The Rock is referenced somehow and this is kind of pointless. Foley suggests a visit from Yerple The Clown, who he calls. I love Foley.

We recap the Knockouts Title match, of which there isn’t much of a story at all. There are two challengers for Taylor Wilde and that’s it.

Knockouts Title: Taylor Wilde vs. Awesome Kong vs. Roxxi

Roxxi is in these ugly red plad pants. She would get much better looking with a bit more hair and as a blonde. She and Taylor take out Kong and then go at it themselves. A rollup on Kong gets two for Taylor but Roxxi saves. She then gets her head knocked off by Kong. This isn’t much here but they’re moving out there. These Press off the top gets two for Roxxi.

Kong gets a cross body on Roxxi and gets crushed. Implant Buster gets two as Taylor makes the save. Both small girls are down and Kong goes up top. Taylor kicks her off and after a brief scuffle a German suplex gets the pin to retain for Taylor.

Rating: D. Total Impact match here with like five minutes of stuff here and nothing of note. Taylor should have probably defended one on one with Kong here but that’s neither here nor there I guess. The Beautiful People would rise up as the new contenders soon enough but this wasn’t much at all. Weak match.

AJ comes in to talk to Foley and welcomes him. The Dudleys come in and run down AJ for no apparent reason other than they’re jerks. There are a bunch of masks on the wall for some reason. Bubba is in Foley’s flannel shirt so he gets jokes from Foley. And of course we get ECW and WWE references. Foley gets on them for constantly talking about winning 20 tag titles. Cornette gets back and says nothing of note.

Tag Titles: Matt Morgan/Abyss vs. Beer Money vs. Team 3D vs. LAX

This is Monster’s Ball and Beer Money have the belts. Steve McMichael of all people is the guest referee. He looks OLD too. The intros here are freaking ridiculous. Basically this is a four way street fight/hardcore match but I’m not sure if the pins have to be in the ring or not. WAY too many people in the ring here.

You know at this point, is Mongo the most successful singles wrestler in there? Ah that’s right Abyss is a former world champion. Not that we’re ever told that anymore or anything though. Bunch of high spots including a tope con hilo from Homicide. We break out the weapons and its really nothing special at all. Homicide has a fork for no apparent reason and stabs D-Von’s head with it.

Abyss is on his anti-weapons thing here. Cheese grater comes out as I feel like I’m on Emeril or something. That doesn’t sound bad actually as I’m a bit hungry. Bubba suplexes Hernandez from the middle rope and the fans want tables. Blockbuster by Roode which makes me smile a bit. Total weapons thing starts up here as Mongo steals the tacks from Storm.

Mongo is FAT. We get a football sequence complete with helmet and football and Beer Money goes down of course. Morgan does a big dive to the floor to take out a bunch of people. This is such a huge mess. Johnny Devine comes out and pops Abyss with a kendo stick a few times. Table and lighter fluid are brought in on the stage. Abyss goes through it off a double chokeslam from the Dudleys.

Homicide in control now. I’ve never seen this ring genius or whatever that he’s supposed to be. Sweet goodness Mongo counts slow. Sit out powerbomb by Hernandez gets two. Elevated Gringo Cutter gets two due to Jackie getting the save. Apparently the Dudleys and Morgan have like died or something. Ah there’s Morgan. Border Toss to Morgan as Bubba brings in a table.

Supermex makes the save for Homicide though as this is probably getting close to the end. Mongo helps lay out the tacks on the table and Hernandez hits a 3D on the table on the tacks but Beer Money runs in to steal the pin.

Rating: B-. It certainly was violent, but it was just a big long weapons match. This is the longest match of the night, getting over twenty minutes. Mongo hurt this a lot as he counted so slowly that it appeared that he was shortchanging everyone with the cadence of his counts. This was pretty good but at the same time it was nothing we hadn’t seen before. Also having 8 guys out there was just too much. Still fun though.

Recap of Booker vs. Christian vs. AJ. This is about respect apparently and is more or less the groundwork for the rise of the Mafia.

Booker T vs. Christian Cage vs. AJ Styles

This is a three way WAR apparently. Booker and AJ start while Christian just kind of lets them. That’s rather smart. AJ takes care of this by setting for the forearm but in a perfect movement, backflips into a moonsault instead. If he hadn’t floated over Christian and more or less crashed it would have been even better. Booker vs. Christian now after a briefcase shot from Booker. On Impact he would reveal the Legends Title inside the case.

Booker misses a clothesline and kind of falls down, allowing Christian to hit/walk into a double clothesline. AJ pops up again and hits the springboard forearm to Booker. He gets to show off here with an insane move as he leapfrogs Booker and while in the air backflips over Christian so Christian and Booker collide. All Styles here as he’s just completely awesome at this point.

Axe kick misses and AJ gets a cross armbreaker of all things. I’ve never seen him use that before. Book End gets two. And now, we break dance. Christian hits the jumping elbow from the middle rope (called a forearm by the genius known as Tenay). AJ backflips out of a suplex and in one motion hits a Pele on Booker. He’s absolutely stealing the show here.

Tower of Doom is blocked but AJ misses Spiral Tap. Everyone is down and we go to the corner now off a slingshot. We set up another Tower of Doom spot but AJ fights out of it. He gets caught in a slightly modified Unprettier off the middle rope. Top rope axe kick ends Christian though as Booker gets the pin.

Rating: B-. AJ absolutely stole the show here, blowing everyone away with his insane spots and moving out there. The problem here again became that we had to have people lay around again and the triple man spots didn’t work that well. Still though they kept this moving well enough that it came off rather well. AJ again was the best thing here though.

We recap Jarrett vs. Angle. It’s more or less the same feud but Angle doesn’t like Foley being called a huge acquisition. Foley is the enforcer here which means he stands outside and does nothing of note until the very end.

Kurt is with Lauren (good night she’s gorgeous) and says this isn’t one on one.

Jeff breaks down in tears to talk about what he’s going through at the moment. There is WAY too much emphasis on his daughters here.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle

This is Jeff’s first match in two years and we’re told about his little girls every 9 seconds of course. Angle flips Foley off almost immediately. He’s on the floor for the majority of this match as he’s just an enforcer. Who he’s enforcing against or what he’s enforcing are anyone’s guess but that’s a constant question in wrestling. Big THANK YOU JEFF chant.

Feeling out process to start as Angle tries to embarrass Jeff. I think 2005 did that about as well as possible Kurt. Angle dominates on the mat of course which is what I think everyone expected. He hits a European Uppercut in the corner which is called a German by West because he’s a stupid man. Jarrett hits a pescado to take Angle down on the floor.

Spending a lot of time on the mat here which is probably an attempt to balance out the lack of cardio that Jeff likely has. We get some dueling chants as Jeff fights out of a chinlock. Someone needs to win with one of those once just for the pure shock value of it. Angle’s shoulder hits the post and Jarrett is too spent to do anything about it.

Jarrett starts a comeback but can’t finish him. He goes for a middle rope suplex but Angle blocks and tries a belly to belly to the floor. Since that would more or less kill Jarrett, Angle gets a top rope suplex instead. A nice counter sets up the figure four and Angle is in trouble. Foley has done absolutely nothing in the nearly fifteen minutes we’ve been going so far.

Rolling Germans have Jarret in trouble. Ankle Lock is on and Jeff is about to tap. Angle Slam gets two and a moonsault misses. According to Tenay the figure four is the reason the moonsault missed. I’m pretty sure it was actually Jeff rolling out of the way but what do I know? Stroke gets two but the referee is out so Foley counts two.

Kurt goes to get a chair and Foley says no way. Yes let’s tell one of the most intense men in the history of the sport that hates your guts not to use a chair he has in his hands. Foley gets his skull caved in for the 150th time which he should get a set of steak knives for I think. Chair to Jarrett gets two as Foley stops it. Socko to Kurt and a guitar shot ends it with Foley making the count.

Rating: B. Solid for the most part here and considering that it was Jeff’s first match in so long, this was pretty good. Foley didn’t need to be there like at all but it fit in with the story so I can live with that. Tenay SHOUTS at Jeff’s kids in Nashville that they all love them and this was for you. WOW yeah that wasn’t overkill at all Mikey.

Recap of Sting vs. Joe which is about Sting being the old guard and Joe not respecting him. Announcer: Sting paved the way for men like Joe. Sting: I paved the way for you Joe! This was actually well set up for the Mafia angle.

We get a video about Sting as he’s on the way to the ring. The tale of the tape thing listed him as 6’3 and this lists him as 6’2. Little things like those are what makes us say TNA is a stupid looking company. I know it’s not a big deal, but it’s something that shouldn’t have been screwed up. It makes them look sloppy which is not good at all.

Video on Joe says nothing of note. He’s the heel by default here.

TNA World Title: Sting vs. Samoa Joe

We get their weights for the third time in four minutes in the big match intros. Also I love that JB says standing in the corner to my left when he’s pacing from corner to corner. Joe is ready to go. Joe puts him on the floor seconds into this with a backdrop. Suicide dive with the elbow and Sting is in trouble early.

We’re out into the crowd and it’s more or less even. They go up near the top of the arena as it’s nothing but punches and chops so far. Joe gets a running start from a luxury box and jumps over the guard rail with a dropkick and crashes on the stairs. That was very awesome. The fat apparently kept his back safe though as we head back to the ring. No rematches no matter what apparently either.

They’ve been in the stands for like four minutes out of the six this has been going on. They were in the ring about 5 seconds literally. Sting with a cross body off the hockey boards to take Joe out which was cool looking too. Joe is bleeding from the nose and it might be broken. Sting gets the little Stingers crotched on the boards and an Ole Kick puts him down. You don’t kick a guy when his balls are in need of repair! It’s got to be illegal in some way.

FINALLY we go back to the ring and, get ready for it, WE GO INSIDE IT! This has been going like 8 minutes and we’ve been in the ring all of 15 seconds. Not a fan of that style more often than not. The fans are behind Joe now as I guess the TNA crowd thing is like a virus. Muscle Buster is blocked by a freaking jumping tornado DDT out of the corner and a Frog Splash for Sting gets two. I haven’t seen him use that in YEARS.

Joe gets a powerbomb into an STF as they’re moving very fast out there. Off into a crossface as he channels his inner Benoit. Ok make that the Rings of Saturn. This is like something out of a video game. Sting steals the Muscle Buster which Joe no sells completely. Wait why? It’s not like it’s a move you can learn the block for. You get dropped on your head which isn’t something you pop up from.

Sting matches the idiocy by popping up after a Scorpion Death Drop. See, it’s not like they even got covers. Both guys were up before the other one. If either of those moves end the match then the grade is dropping BIG time. You don’t no sell getting dropped on your freaking head! Joe getting booed a bit now as this really is a split crowd.

Joe has a thing going on at this point where he would win by TKO or knockout since he would beat the people and the referee would count them out which is how he beat Booker at Victory Road. He gets to 8 here on Sting but keeps pounding on him. And here’s Kevin Nash. Well of course he’s here. It’s a major match so we have to have more old people in it.

Sting goes for the bat but Nash steals it from him. He had been the mentor to Joe for like ever so it fits to have him out there. Again though, just because it fits doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea. Referee jumps out of the way of Sting so Nash pops him with the bat. Scorpion Death Drop ends this.

Rating: C. Not bad here but it didn’t really feel like a mega match. It was barely discussed all night which kind of made it feel less important. There was far more emphasis on the Jarrett/Angle match which I think is something I complained about when I watched this live. Sting winning set up the Mafia angle even more so for once this was a good idea. TNA tends to like setting up groups after their big PPV and this is no exception. Decent match.

Overall Rating: B-. This show was ok. It’s nothing great but there was nothing too terribly bad. It’s not a classic and it didn’t really feel like the biggest show of the year, but there’s enough stuff here to make it better than average. The Angle/Jarrett match was built up too highly I think and it overshadowed the main event, but then again it’s a better match. This worked and it set the stage for the Mafia’s dominance so yeah I’d think this was good for a major show.

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Bound For Glory 2007
Date: October 14, 2007
Location: Gwinnett Center, Duluth, Georgia
Attendance: 4,000
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

Well doing more BFG isn’t intentional but it’s better than no show. TNA shows are rather hard to find so this is all I’ve got at the moment. Again it’s the biggest show of the year and in this case the main event is Sting vs. Angle. Anyone else noticing a pattern of these shows? There’s a weak Monster’s Ball match and the rest looks completely unspectacular if there has ever been an unspectacular major show. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is just a generic thing about being the next immortal icon and they use Hogan’s name. I give up. Angle is defending tonight if I forgot to mention that. I know I did but it sounds a bit better than I didn’t feel like typing it. I’m filling in space here if you didn’t get that.

Triple X vs. LAX

Senshi (Low Ki/Kaval) and Elix Skipper representing Triple X here. This is Ultimate X and for the #1 contender spot. Think that’s enough Xs in this match? XXX goes for the X almost immediately but LAX (see what I mean?) makes the save and it’s a big brawl to start. These matches are hard to call for the most part as they’re pretty all over the place. With just four guys though it’s far easier to do.

It’s so weird seeing Kaval out there over three years ago like this. Homicide gets a chance to make a run but Senshi makes the save. Both teams are pretty much just beating each other up here to wear them down (wouldn’t that cancel the beating up part?) so they can go up (I guess that gives up the advantage again) and pull the X down (are you getting my boredom here?)

Homicide gets his signature tope con hilo to take out Senshi. Hernandez goes up and JUMPS halfway across the cables and almost gets there that way. That guy is freaking scary. A lot of near grabs for both teams here but LAX is clearly the more dominant team here. Skipper goes all the way up to the top of the structure and hits a MASSIVE cross body to Homicide in the ring.

In a cool looking spot, Skipper and Homicide both do the look up at the ceiling crawl and hit a double neckbreaker to bring the other guy down. That was a new one. I’m not a fan of that overhead shot. Granted that might be the constant camera cuts that TNA is obsessed with. In a painful and STUPID looking spot, Homicide is put in the Tree of Woe as Senshi does the Warrior’s Way onto him.

If you’re Homicide, WHY WOULD YOU SIT UP? You know his finisher is the double stomp so why would you give him the right positioning for it? Mike Tenay says we’re in the ATL. My head hurts again. Skipper stops Hernandez from diving over the ropes which would have been cool to see. Border Toss by Hernandez to send Skipper flying to the other two guys on the floor. Hernandez gets the X with ease just afterwards.

Rating: B-. Bunch of big spots in there which were nice and the match worked pretty well. Hernandez is shown off as the mega star of the team which makes sense as he’s by far the bigger deal. This was a pretty good match but as usual with these matches it would help to have them be for the titles rather than a shot at a later date at said titles. But Pacman Jones is a tag champion at this point so we can’t have that match. Such is TNA.

We see Angle and Karen getting here earlier separately and at different times. Nash gets here too.

Running down of the card wastes some time.

Christian cuts off Tomko and AJ to talk about not being in the Fight for the Right Tournament. He should be in it and due to Joe he isn’t. AJ is happy to be home. He’s an idiot here. Tomko is actually serious.

Fight For the Right Tournament Stage One: Reverse Battle Royal

Dang it. Ok so this one might just hold the record for most ridiculous TNA concept. This is the beginning of a HUGE #1 contenders tournament. The winner of this match is the #1 seed in said tournament, which he would wind up losing anyway, making this COMPLETELY POINTLESS.

Anyway there are 16 people in this and you start on the floor. The first eight to get into the ring make it to part two. When those eight are in there’s a battle royal. When there are two left in the ring, they have a one on one match and the winner is the #1 seed. The other seeds are determined in the order you were eliminated.

Somehow this is slightly less complicated than the previous year’s tournament where the winner of the battle royal advanced to the finals and 6 other guys had qualifying matches to set up a triple threat where the winner met the battle royal winner to get a title shot. And people wonder why this company is loathed by so many people.

ANYWAY, the 16 people are Jimmy Rave, Lance Hoyt (Vance Archer), Havok (Johnny Devine), Shark Boy, Petey Williams, Kaz, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, Kip James, BG James, James Storm, Eric Young, Robert Roode, Chris Harris and Junior Fatu (Rikishi, who was there like a week).

Fatu gets in first. This is so stupid. I know there are issues with getting ring time in this company but this is ridiculous. Kaz and Roode are in. Shelley is in fourth. Hoyt accidentally drops Young in and there’s Sabin. Hoyt goes in seventh and Storm just beats Harris in to give us the 8th guy. Let’s get this over with. Young puts Storm out seconds in, making him the #8 seed in the tournament. Naturally he would win his first round match as he had to do the least wrestling, making it easier on him. See what I mean by flaws in the system?

Young goes after Rikishi who was supposed to be a huge deal I guess. He chokeslams Roode and stacks up four people in the corner for the splash. Stinkface to Hoyt as this is boring. The Andre treatment takes care of him though. He would make the semi-finals of the tournament and then leave the company.

The Guns go nuts with an insane double submission on Roode and Young. They move Young’s legs so he has an Indian Deathlock on Roode before putting a crossface on Roode and an abdominal stretch on Young. It doesn’t accomplish anything but it looks awesome. Think of it as a Divas match.

Shelley is gone. Kaz hits his slingshot DDT on Sabin and then dumps him too. We’re down to Hoyt, Kaz, Roode and Young. Kaz is out as well. Hoyt like an idiot goes for a moonsault and gets thrown out because he’s a freaking idiot. The final two….ok make that three as Sabin is still in there I guess, are Sabin, Roode and Young. And scratch Sabin….who apparently is Sabin as they apparently misspoke earlier. I give up. Roode vs. Young is the final.

Roode is a power guy still here and isn’t in a tag team. The tournament sets up Sabin vs. Shelley which is of course good but means nothing compared to them in the X Title final years later. These two had been feuding and were stablemates years ago. And then Young rolls up Roode in a small package to end it. Young would lose to Storm in the first round and Kaz would beat Christian to win the tournament.

Rating: F+. This was perhaps the most overdone match in history. Seriously, is it that hard to have a battle royal to determine who the #1 contender is? Couldn’t they just have a tournament with a random draw? Apparently not as they decided to just combine them and throw in a one on one match too. This is what we mean by overbooking. You don’t have to do a big complicated thing when a simple thing would work fine and in this case much better. Stupid match and VERY stupid concept.

We recap AJ/Tomko vs. Team Pacman. In other words, a man that was banned from the NFL for being involved in a shooting that paralyzed a man is a tag team champion in TNA. To his credit he bought 1500 tickets to the show and gave them away as prizes to kids in Atlanta schools who got good grades and had good conduct.

Ron Killings, as in R-Truth, says that the NFL has stopped Pacman from wrestling so they have a replacement named Consequences Creed. Pacman talks like an idiot about going for a ride or something.

Karen and Kurt argue even more.

Tag Titles: Team Pacman vs. AJ Styles/Tomko

Keep in mind Team Pacman doesn’t actually have Pacman in this. Creed is the guy that dressed like Apollo Creed and is named for Truth and Consequences. AJ and Creed start us off here. Creed hits a forearm in the corner and that’s about all he’s got as far as interesting stuff goes. He’s cool to watch to a degree but at the end of the day he’s a guy dressed up like a fictional character with a stupid name.

Truth vs. Tomko now. Tomko is an IWGP tag champion at this point. Thanks for again informing us about things that have zero to do with TNA. Truth is doing the exact same stuff he does today in WWE. This is a rather boring match as it’s pretty clear that Pacman is losing here as he can’t wrestle so the appeal is gone. Granted that would imply it was there in the first place so take that for what it’s worth.

Everything breaks down and we get a big melee. AJ gets thrown into the corner and is down. Truth vs. Tomko at the moment. Pacman tries to get involved and is just annoying. Creed takes Tomko out but AJ hits a BIG shooting star to the floor and wipes out all the non whites in this thing. Pacman pulls out a bunch of money and throws it in the air so what when Truth gets a rollup Hebner picks up the money instead of counting. AJ and Tomko hit their double team finisher for the titles on Truth.

Rating: D. Just boring as all belief here with zero drama. Thankfully Pacman was gone after this as no one liked him and he made TNA look freaking stupid. This was just idiotic and such a waste of talent like AJ and even Truth just wasting him like this. Pacman was a waste of money and a total eye rolling moment who didn’t ever get to wrestle due to the NFL. At least this was the end of him for the most part.

Karen whines even more and says Angle keeps the title tonight because it’s the money. She goes up to Kevin who is hitting on some blonde. She tries to get Nash to talk to Kurt which doesn’t work. Oh and there’s the required Scott Hall reference.

We recap Daniels vs. Lethal where Lethal is defending. He’s Black Machismo here too.

X-Division Title: Jay Lethal vs. Christopher Daniels

Lethal won the title beating Angle who had all three titles including both tag belts and had three title matches at one PPV. You know, because he wanted to help the young guys. And now we talk about the Angles and Sting for later tonight. Nice slingshot rana by Lethal and a WEAK suicide dive hits Daniels on the floor. Their hands touched and that’s about it.

They’re having some weird issues with making contact with each other. They’re doing this very odd style here and not much is going on here. Lethal gets a crucifix for two. They’re just kind of doing moves out there with nothing special going on at all. Daniels can’t beat him and starts to snap which is an old standard for wrestling but it usually works and is here kind of.

Top rope rana by Daniels is shoved off. The big elbow misses too though and Daniels gets two off of the miss. They’re clearly almost at the end here and the fans think it’s awesome. No, it really isn’t. Lethal gets the Lethal Combination (backbreaker and Downward Spiral) off the top for the pin to retain. Cool ending to a weak match.

Rating: C-. This just didn’t do it for me at all. It was ok at best but it just came off as uneventful. I have never gotten the appeal of Daniels or his style whatsoever. They had this weird non chemistry going and it wasn’t working for me. Not a horrible match but at the same time it didn’t do much.

The Steiners talk about Team 3D. They’re actually doing this. Rick looks AWFUL.

The recap talks about how Scott got very sick and was literally on his deathbed in Puerto Rico but came back as a face. He can’t have a wrestling match so we get a 2/3 tables match.

Steiner Brothers vs. Team 3D

They point out that the Steiners now reside in Atlanta to HAMMER in the face push. Big brawl to start as you have to get two table put throughs out of three to win this. Well it’s better than a regular table match. I’m not sure how but it prevents winning on a fluke I guess. Rick thankfully is in a shirt as we get the Steiner pose. The Dudleys try to leave and that goes nowhere.

Beer to the face of D-Von as they’re in the crowd. Granted this isn’t so much a waste of time as you can go through a table anywhere. Big brawl in the stands where not a lot is going on as there are no tables in sight. Scott and Bubba are brawling as are the other pair. There’s the first table brought in but it’s not set up yet. We’re back around the ring now.

In the ring now and Rick goes through one on a 3D. Scott is on the floor and there aren’t any eliminations it seems which I like better. Scott fights out of a super bomb and hits a Frankensteiner where he does nothing and Bubba has to jump for the flip, hitting the back of his head on the edge, more or less breaking through the table with his neck. FREAKING OW MAN.

It’s tied up at one here as D-Von misses a splash. How was Steiner a world champion in WCW? I think you can count him as another example of a guy making money and getting as far as he did because WCW was in the place it was rather than his talent. Bubba whips Scott with a big leather belt as Rick has apparently disappeared.

Scott is put on a table and it just kind of collapses which doesn’t count as it’s not a guy being put through it which makes sense. Scott has his beard braided which looks very stupid. The Dudleys put him on another table and go for his injured throat. The Guns run down for the save. D-Von misses a chair shot and the Steiner Bulldog ends it.

Rating: D+. Well they were trying out there but it didn’t work that well. The two old teams going at it were supposed to comprise a dream match but it didn’t work. Why should I want to see either of these teams rather than the Guns who had a run in here? It’s more old guys that aren’t worth much doing their thing. That’s rarely a good thing and this was no exception. Having the 2/3 thing was a nice little twist though and it helped it a good deal.

We talk to the new Knockouts who were brought in for the first Knockouts Title match. There were five total: ODB, Talia Madison, Shelly Martinez and Angel Williams. Angel later added ina to her first name and Talia changed her name to Velvet Skye. The girls run away as Kong is behind JB and makes a scary face.

We get a weak recap which more or less is just a slideshow of the girls in the match.

Knockouts Title: Gauntlet Match

This is a ten girl match where you have a regular gauntlet but it’s over the top until we get to the final two. Yep we’re having two battle royals. Kong debuted at Impact so she’s brand new here. We start with Ms. Brooks and Jackie. Good night WHY DOES SHE ALWAYS STAY AROUND? No one cares about her at all and she was always there. Quit shaking your chest because NO ONE WANTS TO SEE THEM.

Brooks gets a big boot to the side of the head of the annoying one but gets caught in a German suplex. Shelly Martinez is in third. Oh…these girls can’t do much. Kong comes in fourth and it’s on. Kong takes like 40 seconds to get to the ring out of a minute.

ODB comes in fifth as Jackie puts out Brooks but Kong just goes off, getting rid of Jackie (GO KONG!) and Martinez. Angelina Love (Angel Williams at this point) has the music, the looks and the stage pose already as she’s 6th. Christy comes in and is still amazing looking Kong beats the tar out of her with a rack where Christy’s feet almost hit her head. A Batista Bomb hits as Gail Kim is eighth.

Everyone gangs up on Kong as the medics take out Christy to eliminate her for the most part. The three in the ring get rid of Kong whose shirt flies up as Talia Madison (Velvet Skye) is ninth. Roxxi who is a voodoo chick with hair at this point is last. Love apparently went out off camera so we have four left: Roxxi, ODB, Gail and Velvet.

Gail puts out Velvet as we get a GREAT shot of her. ODB is out also and we have our one on one match. Gail gets an insane looking submission hold on Roxxi which was like a sideways Octopus Hold. Gail looks sexy in those shorts to put it mildly. They really make her look good. Roxxi botches a jackknife pin for two. Gail hits Finlay’s Celtic Cross to end it and win the title.

Rating: C-. Again, is there a reason to mix things up like they did here that I’m just not getting? Why not have an actual tournament rather than this weird hybrid thing? It wasn’t bad I guess but at the same time this just didn’t work like they wanted it to. This could have been a lot better as a simple one on one match but this just didn’t do it for me like they wanted it to. Not horrible though.

Nash tries to talk to Angle who is just getting ready with about 45 minutes before the match starts. Great to see him preparing like that. Nash can’t get him to drop the match and he won’t have his back tonight. Again more old guys talking about stuff that doesn’t make sense.

We recap Joe vs. Christian which is about respect apparently. And naturally we have something thrown in there as Matt Morgan is the guest referee.

Christian Cage vs. Samoa Joe

Morgan is the bodyguard of Cornette so that’s why he’s here. Not sure if that makes sense but whatever. Christian is a heel here if you’re wondering and has never been pinned or tapped in the company. Joe gets the big Samoan entrance with the fire dancing as he had on occasion. Long feeling out process to start us off as Christian plays the cowardly heel perfectly.

Finally Joe gets his in the corner and gets a lot of Face Washes but misses the running boot. He hits what we would call the Rough Ryder off the middle rope for two. All Joe so far. Joe chops him on the back which is something you don’t often see. Christian appears to be out cold on the apron. Joe is like screw it and hits a big old suicide dive to almost end Christian. ALL Joe for the first five minutes.

Morgan of course has had nothing to say so far. Joe kicks Christian into the barrier which more or less explodes as Christian FINALLY gets a counter to hit a DDT onto the floor and Joe is in trouble. He fights out of everything but still winds up on his back. Christian misses the splash and they slug it out. I think they’re going for the epic encounter here but it’s really not clicking like they want it to.

Morgan won’t let Christian leave so Joe again is like forget this and hits the flying fat man spinning corkscrew plancha to crush Christian. THIS is the Joe that was the hottest thing in the world when Kurt showed up to challenge him. Clutch and Unprettier are both reversed and Joe gets a Buckle Bomb. Christian gets a powerbomb out of the corner with feet on the ropes for two. This is rapidly getting awesome.

Clutch is countered again and we head up to the corner. A headbutt sends Christian to the floor and Joe is down in the ring. And here’s Tomko because we have to overbook this. Tomko goes at it with Morgan so AJ can sneak down. He goes for the forearm but Morgan makes the save. Morgan chases both of them off with a chair but Christian gets a low blow and the Unprettier for two.

Christian hooks on the Clutch but it only gets two arm drops and here comes the fat man. Muscle Buster hits and there’s the Clutch from the master of it and Christian taps for his first clean loss in the company.

Rating: B+. I really liked this as it was a rather competitive match. Both guys were out there working hard and this looked like a match that belonged on the biggest show of the year. I really liked the lack of actual interference as it tends to taint a match like this. This came off very well and it came off like a major match should. Good match.

And now let’s make sure to forget about the two guys that just had the match of the night to talk about Nash and Sting more. Why is Nash getting like four segments here when he’s not even wrestling tonight? He talks to Sting whose son Angle pushed or something. Nash says Angle is all he has and that’s all he can do to get back to the spotlight as he’s too banged up. This is idiotic.

We have to have the Monster’s Ball recap now because it’s a tradition here. I’m REALLY not a fan of having this here now as it’s such a letdown after seeing a very good match like we just did. Don’t believe me that it’ll be weak? Look at the lineup.

Raven vs. Rhyno vs. Black Reign vs. Abyss

Yeah it’s just a bit hardcore match in between the two big wrestling matches. Don’t you love the way this company books things? It just sounds like a stupid match. We get going before Abyss is here and scratch that as he’s here now. Raven takes down Abyss and here come more of the weapons. Rhyno puts a trash can between Reign’s legs and hits it with a golf club.

This match really is taking me out of the show as all of a sudden the match comes off as uninteresting and totally unimportant. Granted it might feel like that because that’s the situation. Rhyno misses a Gore and goes through some kind of wall and Rhyno is in trouble. Raven is busted open and drops a big elbow off the balcony onto Abyss to put him through a table.

Basically it’s down to Reign and Abyss who is more or less dead. Ok scratch that as Raven is back. Shattered Dreams to Raven and they cut away from the impact. Abyss brings in the tacks/glass but Goldie blocks him. Rhyno is back in now as almost everyone is busted open. Gore to Reign but Raven knocks out everyone with weapon shots.

Raven busts out the bag of stuff and here’s James Mitchell to yell at Raven. There are the glass and the tacks and of course since Raven laid them out he winds up going into them, this time through the means of the Black Hole Slam. And now the match is over. I still don’t care at all.

Rating: D. It came, it happened, you know what to expect here, Abyss gains nothing and the other three still mean nothing. Take us to the main event to get me back into this show now.

We talk about how both have history in Atlanta. Sting it’s more from a company based in Atlanta but whatever. This is nothing special but it gives a theme to stuff though. No mention of the son though.

TNA World Title: Sting vs. Kurt Angle

I guess Nash couldn’t make it to the match. What do you mean he was never in this? He’s gotten more camera time than anyone else tonight so how can he not be in the match? Angle is defending remember. Not that it means anything for the most part but figured it needed to be pointed out. Bit match intros are still fun no matter how many times we’ve heard them.

Big heat on Angle so he’s got that going for him at least. They feel each other out to start. One time they need to feel each other up to start just for a change of pace. They trade arm work and Sting keeps offering clean breaks. Sting outwrestles him a bit and Angle hits the floor to clear his head. His hip might be a bit hurt. Lot of feeling out process here so far with no one really getting an advantage at all.

They hit the floor and Angle’s bald head hits the table. Angle’s shoulder hits the post but he manages to get a German to get out of the Death Drop. Another belly to belly puts Sting down. Double clothesline puts both guys down though and we wait for Nash. Sting wins a striking contest as they crank it up again. Sting hits a spinebuster (???) for two.

A pair of splashes hit and a bulldog puts Angle down. Sting, ever the idiot, doesn’t go for a finisher but rather goes up top against Kurt Angle. After he comes crashing down Angle gets the Slam countered and we hit the Rolling Germans for two. Ankle lock goes on but Sting gets a Bret Hart caliber counter to hook the Scorpion. That was AWESOME looking.

And here’s Karen to screw things up because we have to have more people in the main event than usual. Nash comes in and lays out Sting as Karen is taken out. Angle Slam hits for two as the Nash/Karen thing proves to be relatively pointless. A top rope Sting splash misses as Angle gets the knees up for two.

Kurt goes up and busts out a 450! He completely misses Sting as in his toes didn’t even hit Sting but who cares about that as it looked COOL! Ankle Lock goes on but Sting rolls him into Nash. And down goes the referee as Sting hits the Death Drop. Why do they have to overbook it???

Another referee comes out and Nash breaks it up again. Dang it go away! He comes in and beats up Sting so Sting beats up both of those two. Angle gets the bat but Sting hits him with it instead and crotches Nash. Death Drop FINALLY ends this. And then he lost the title back to Angle TWO DAYS later and Angle held it until April when Joe won it. Yep that’s TNA for you.

Rating: C+. This was good but definitely not great. The Nash and Karen stuff was just a waste of time. What did Nash add to this match at all? The overbooking hurt what was otherwise a good match. Sting winning to end Angle’s very long reign was the right choice, although having him lose it the Impact after the followup show was stupid. Although then again this is TNA. Decent match though but not great at all.

Overall Rating: D+. Well it’s not horrible. That’s about as high as I can give it though as there were parts on here that were just bad. The biggest issue I have here: there were FIVE gimmick matches out of nine total and you could argue that Joe vs. Christian was one as well given the enforcer. That’s just WAY too high and is bordering on a WWE gimmick PPV. There were good moments here but they’re outweighed by the bad which drags this down. Not the worst show ever but not a great one at all.

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Bound For Glory 2006
Date: October 22, 2006
Location: Compuware Sports Arena, Plymouth Township, Michigan
Attendance: 3,600
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

This is the biggest show of the year for TNA and they’re not in Orlando for once. The main event here is Sting vs. Jarrett because that’s what they decided it should be, despite the fans screaming for Joe for months. Joe is in a pointless Monster’s Ball match instead of anything important. I watched this show and remember thinking there was a chance that Joe could run in somehow but it didn’t happen. Also tonight Angle is the guest referee is in the main event because who needs to have the biggest acquisition the company has ever had wrestling on the biggest show of the year? Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about Henry Ford and how Detroit rose up because of people like him. It’s about following your dreams or something. The voiceover guy talks about how this is all about overcoming obstacles and achieving your dreams or whatever. As usual it goes way too long.

The set looks more like the old weekly PPV sets.

Battle Royal

This is officially the Kevin Nash Open Invitational X-Division Gauntlet Battle Royal. In other words, it’s a sixteen man Royal Rumble for only X-Division guys. Nash comes out in a suit with a bowling trophy. The first entrant is the debuting Austin Starr to face #2 Sonjay Dutt. Every sixty seconds someone else comes in. As usual it’s a regular match once we get down to two. The fans are split so Nash talks about being a legendary high flier.

Maverick Matt is in at #3. His minute has absolutely nothing happening so here’s Lethal in at #4. He speeds things up a bit and gets a chant in his name. Lethal and Dutt are semi-regular partners so they take over the match. Austin knocks Lethal down and does his strut. Nash: “I like this Starr guy. I hope he does better than Glacier.” A-1, not a small guy for the most part, is #5.

Spinebuster takes Lethal down and A-1 is told he can’t wrestle. Everyone is still in and here’s Zach Gowen at #6. He’s the one legged guy from WWE in 2004. He spends thirty seconds getting to the ring and we get a Johnny Ace reference for some reason. Nash: “You two dudes are dynamic.” Kaz is #7 as we still haven’t had an elimination. Matt and Kaz, former tag partners, throw out Dutt.

Sirelda, a REALLY weird looking chick that is another attempt to recreate Chyna, is #8 and she beats up various men. Starr kicks her low and A-1 hits a BIG clothesline to put her out. Kaz and Matt knock him out immediately as Shark Boy is #9. The fans love Sharky and nothing happens until Shelley, getting the pop of the night so far, comes in at #10. He spits water in Kaz’s face and the fans cheer for him even more.

D-Ray 3000 is #11. He’s a blaxploitation character who hung out with Shark Boy. They team up for a Bushwackers battering ram and throw out Matt. By my math we’ve had eleven entrants and four eliminations so far. #12 is Johnny Devine and he throws out Gowen in seconds. Elix Skipper is #13 and he takes down Shelley and Lethal on his entrance with a double clothesline. Kaz tries a springboard move like an idiot and Starr puts him out.

Short Sleeve Sampson, as in one of Hulk Hogan’s Micro Championship Wrestling guys, is #14. D-Ray and Shark Boy go out at the same time. Starr holds up the midget time after time over the ropes but won’t toss him. #15 is SCREAMIN NORMAN SMILEY!!! Smiley and Samson hit stereo Big Wiggles before Shelley throws Samson onto Shark Boy. Samson chases Slick Johnson around the ring until Petey Williams is the final entrant at #16.

Johnson comes into the ring and shoves Smiley and Skipper out despite not being in the match. Ok so we have Shelley, Devine, Williams, Lethal and Starr. Williams throws out Johnston to get rid of that stupidity. Williams charges at Petey and gets sent to the apron, only to hit his slingshot Codebreaker. There’s the Canadian Destroyer but Shelley throws Williams out. Starr dumps Devine and Shelley to get us down to a one on one match with Starr vs. Lethal for the win.

Lethal hits a quick release Dragon Suplex for two. He goes up but Austin knocks him down and hits the brainbuster for the win. The one on one part lasted maybe a minute.

Rating: C. This was what it was. Having the one minute intervals was a good idea because most of these people aren’t important enough to warrant two minutes without anyone new being put in there. The match itself probably ran longer than it should have to open the biggest show of the year, but it was fast paced enough to work I guess.

Post match Shelley yells at Nash while Starr gets his trophy.

We get a clip of LAX beating down AMW and Gail Kim taking the Border Toss.

AMW yells about LAX but tonight they’re in a fourway match which has nothing to do with LAX. Sure why not.

The Naturals vs. Team 3D vs. James Gang vs. America’s Most Wanted

The Naturals are the #1 contenders and managed by Shane Douglas. Why they’re not challenging for the titles tonight is beyond me but whatever. The James Gang is the New Age Outlaws. All of the teams other than AMW has something to say but nothing really gets said if you get what I mean. Harris vs. Stevens starts us off with Stevens speeding things up quickly. Harris dropkicks him into the corner so Ray can tag himself in.

One fall to a finish here. Ray beats up both members of AMW but BG tags himself in, resulting in a mirror image of the Flip Flop and Fly elbow. D-Von and Kip come in and slam each other into the mat. I’m barely able to keep up with this match as they’re coming in and out at will. Storm and Douglas go to the corner and Storm falls into the Tree of Woe. Harris climbs up and Stevens comes in for a four man Tower of Doom to take them all down, even with Storm still caught in the Tree.

Catatonic to BG is countered and he hits the Pumphandle Slam for two. Eye of the Storm takes down Stevens but D-Von takes him down, only to walk into a standing tornado DDT from Douglas. We’re in the parade of finishers here. Stevens sets for a superplex on D-Von but Bubba comes in to hit a Doomsday Device. What’s Up to Douglas and they set for the tables but Stevens makes the save. Natural Disaster (elevated Stunner) takes out D-Von for two. Stevens runs into Douglas and walks into the 3D for the pin.

Rating: D. What a mess! The James Gang and AMW fell into a black hole for the last two minutes of that and there’s no way to keep track of most of what was going on here. This would have been much better as an elimination match, but for all intents and purposes that’s what happened at the end anyway. Bad match with WAY too much stuff going on. Also does this make 3D the #1 contenders? They beat the Naturals who already were, but I doubt that’s what’s going on.

Shane Douglas comes back again post match and yells at the Naturals.

JB is outside Joe’s locker room but finds Jake Roberts instead. Roberts is refereeing the Monster’s Ball match for some reason. He doesn’t say much but I think he’s drunk. No real indication for why, but I figured I’d play the odds.

We recap the Monster’s Ball match. Joe stole the world title belt (See? It was right there) and Abyss agreed to go get it in exchange for the first title shot. Abyss got the belt but Raven and Brother Runt (Spike Dudley) beat Abyss up before he could deliver it to Cornette. This is what the hottest guy arguably in wrestling at this point was doing for the biggest show of the year. Not being in the world title match, but fighting Spike Dudley. This company deserved to be stuck in mediocrity like it always was.

Samoa Joe vs. Brother Runt vs. Raven vs. Abyss

This is Monster’s Ball which basically means hardcore. Jake Roberts is guest referee. This is also the third match in a row that isn’t a simple one on one or tag match. Everyone jumps Joe to start and knock him to the floor. Raven and Runt team up on Abyss with Runt being knocked to the outside. Runt brings in a chair and Raven hits his drop toehold on Abyss into the chair but Joe comes back in to make people care. Joe hits the Facewash on Raven but walks into a chokeslam.

Abyss runs over the ECW guys and throws Runt into the crowd from the ring to emulate Bigelow’s famous spot. Raven clotheslines Abyss to the floor and dives on him, which Abyss shrugs off without even leaving his feet. Joe hits a BIG corkscrew dive onto all three to put them all down while landing on his feet. Raven pops up and hits Joe with a Silence of the Lambs style mask of his.

They go up the ramp and Joe is knocked through a table off the ramp. Runt and Abyss climb up part of the set and Runt is chokeslammed onto a platform which doesn’t have much give at all. Something happens which results in Abyss landing on Runt but the camera is zoomed in on Roberts. The replay shows that it was kind of an elbow drop. Nice production work there guys.

Raven throws Joe through another table in a vain attempt to make us believe he won’t win. Is there a point to Roberts being referee at all here? He hasn’t done anything. Abyss gets two on Runt but Raven saves. Abyss drops an Earthquake splash down for two on Raven. Joe comes in to break up Shock Treatment by pounding on Abyss. He misses the backsplash but kicks Abyss low instead.

Powerslam onto a chair gets two. Raven drop toeholds Joe to the floor but Abyss knocks him down and loads up the tacks. Jake pulls out his bag but Raven jumps him and loads up a DDT on Jake. Abyss pours out the tacks but Joe pulls down the ropes to prevent Raven from going into the tacks via the Black Hole Slam. Joe knocks Abyss to his knees and hits the senton backsplash to put Abyss’ face into the tacks. Raven breaks up the choke but Jake DDTs him so that the MuscleBuster can give Joe the pin.

Rating: D. I know this is a sweeping statement, but this might be the most questionable choice in TNA history. Why in the world was Joe in this match? Jake added NOTHING here. He counted slow and I guess he didn’t hurt anything, but what difference did it make to have a guest referee? The match was your usual garbage but no one bought anyone but Joe having a chance here. Also did Runt fall into the same hole the James Gang and AMW fell into in the previous match?

Jake puts the snake on Raven post match.

Eric Young is panicking over possibly losing in the loser gets fired match. His opponent, Larry freaking Zbyszko, comes up and says he’s already got Young beaten.

We recap Larry vs. Young. Larry was a boss in the company but got corrupt and cost Eric a match for his job. Cornette reinstated him in a loser gets fired match. This is your first one on one match of the night and we’re over an hour into the show. Let that sink in for a minute.

Larry Zbyszko vs. Eric Young

The fans are totally behind Eric here. They want Larry fired so he stalls as usual. Eric points at Larry and the fans boo, then he point at himself and the fans cheer. No contact about a minute and a half in. They lock up and Larry hits the spinning back kick and the abdominal stretch. Eric reverses and the referee takes a shot. Eric Young vs. Larry Zbyszko is getting a referee bump. Larry pulls out a foreign object but gets hit low. Eric gets the object and hits Larry for the pin.

Rating: F. If you don’t get why this is an F, you’re on your own.

Video on Senshi accompanied by Mortal Kombat, which is sponsoring the show.

Here’s Jim Cornette to fill in some time. He can barely talk (I don’t know how to handle this) due to being sick so he sounds like he has a stable of horses in his voice. Cornette says he should be in intensive care but there was no way he was missing this. If Joe interferes in the main event tonight, he’s removed from the roster. That draws out Angle who wants to fight someone right now.

Kurt says he doesn’t need a buffer between himself and Joe…and here’s the fat Samoan himself. They start brawling on the floor but security makes the save. WHY IS THIS MATCH NOT ON THIS SHOW??? They both break through security and Joe shouts at Cornette to let him fight tonight. This company seriously made my head hurt at times.

We recap Senshi vs. Sabin. There’s no real story here, other than Sabin is the challenger. If there’s another story to it, the recap doesn’t mention it. I think it’s a rematch.

X-Division Title: Senshi vs. Chris Sabin

Joe has been ejected from the arena. Every time this story gets stupider the harder my head shakes. They fight over a lockup to start and both guys hit various forms of kicks which results in Senshi taking over. A big kick gets two. They slug it out and Sabin fires off some forearms but walks into a double boot in the corner for two. Senshi hooks a body scissors on the mat to slow things down.

That doesn’t last long so Senshi slams him for two. They chop it out and Senshi comes back with the kicks. They go into the corner and Sabin pounds on his back but Senshi stops him cold with a standing Liger Kick. Senshi tries to get a running start but Sabin takes him down with a springboard missile dropkick. Sabin kicks him to the floor and hits a great suicide dive to the outside. Back in Sabin hits a running enziguri and puts Senshi in the Tree of Woe (popular position tonight) and hits the hesitation dropkick for two.

Sabin loads up Cradle Shock but Senshi counters into a dragon sleeper, but it’s quickly broken. Another Liger Kick misses and Sabin hits a springboard DDT for two. These near falls are getting really close. They go to the corner with Senshi trying a rolling sunset flip but instead of covering he jumps to his feet and hits a standing double stomp for two. A springboard back kick gets the same.

Senshi misses a charge in the corner and Sabin hits a HUGE running boot to the face which might have knocked out a tooth. Cradle Shock gets two with the referee messing up his count and stopping a half second before the kickout happened. They go to the corner again with Senshi looking to superplex him, but instead he walks backwards on the middle rope to fire off some HARD kicks. Warrior’s Way gets a delayed two as Sabin gets his foot on the ropes. There’s a modified dragon sleeper but Sabin won’t tap. Senshi pulls back to fire off elbows to the head, but he stops for a second and Sabin rolls him up for the pin and the title.

Rating: A-. Good stuff here again as the X Division was on fire at this point. The idea here was them hitting each other with everything they had and getting bigger and bigger and then Sabin using a basic hold to get the pin and it worked very well. Sabin played off the fact that Senshi was going to be very intense and therefore he’d miss something easy like that. That’s psychology at work and it’s a rare thing to see in a match like this, but it worked here.

Christian cuts off JB and rants about Rhyno talking about growing up on the streets of Detroit, but no one cares about him. Christian gave Rhyno a concussion but that’s nothing compared to what’s coming to him tonight. He won’t get invited to Rhyno’s house for dinner this year, but it doesn’t matter because his aunt’s food sucked.

We recap Christian vs. Rhyno. They’re old friends but Christian lost the world title and snapped over it. Christian gave him a Conchairto which gave him a concussion, then he hit him in the head again with another chair. Tonight is Rhyno’s chance to get even.

Christian Cage vs. Rhyno

This is an 8 Mile Street Fight which should be good. Rhyno comes through the crowd and goes straight through the entrance to meet Christian in the parking lot. Christian gets slammed onto a car and thrown into whatever Rhyno can find to throw him into. They climb onto a zamboni machine and Rhyno gets in the driver’s seat. He drives the machine with Christian on top into the arena. Rhyno climbs up to pound on Christian who falls off the machine.

Christian gets away down by the ramp and picks up a fake street lamp, only to get it ripped out of his hands and rammed into his chest. This is total domination so far. Rhyno throws in four chairs and hits Christian with a street lamp before Christian can get to one of the chairs. He loads up the Gore but Christian takes his head off with a chair shot. Rhyno shrugs that off and they go into the crowd with Christian running away even more.

After ramming Christian into some hockey glass they go back to the ring and Rhyno sets up a table at ringside. Back inside and Rhyno suplexes him down and puts up another table in the corner. Christian picks up an 8 Mile Road street sign and CRACKS Rhyno in the head with it. This is the first breather Christian has had. He goes to the floor and pulls out a ladder as Rhyno is busted open and might have another concussion. Christian charges with the ladder but Rhyno drop toeholds him into the ladder.

DDT gets two for Christian and they’re both spent. Rhyno is gone from the concussion and a ladder shot to the head makes it even worse. Christian goes under the ring again and comes up with a straightjacket and another chair. Rhyno gets tied up in the jacket and Christian grabs a pair of chairs to set up the Conchairto but Rhyno moves. Using just his legs and his head he tries a comeback and manages to get Christian down. The referee unhooks the jacket and they fight to the apron in front of the table.

Rhyno PILEDRIVES HIM THROUGH THE TABLE to put both guys down again. THAT gets two so Rhyno loads up the Gore, but Christian moves to send him through the table. It gets two, as does an Unprettier onto the metal part of the broken table. With no idea what else to do, Christian piles up everything on top of Rhyno and hits about eight chair shots onto the pile to crush Rhyno, which FINALLY gets the pin.

Rating: B+. I don’t say this that often, but that was AWESOME. I’m not a fan of the street fights, but this one was really intense with a feeling that someone had to do something big to get the win. The piledriver was awesome, as were the kickouts from Rhyno. Christian finally just pounding the tar out of Rhyno with everything he had until Rhyno couldn’t move an inch was a great finish. Loved this.

Konnan rants about raising the violence tonight and how they’re not sorry for what they did to Gail. They fight Styles/Daniels for the titles in a cage tonight.

We recap the tag title match and the idea is that Konnan says that putting a cage up doesn’t matter because they’re used to borders. Daniels got kidnapped in a way and beaten down three on one. The idea is that LAX is this rapidly growing powerful team that has to be stopped before they become unstoppable. They’ve traded the titles a few times as well so this is the final blowoff match.

Tag Titles: LAX vs. Christopher Daniels/AJ Styles

Styles and Daniels are the champions. The champs run in and the brawl is on. Unfortunately they have to tag in this which really takes away the violence aspect of it. I wouldn’t bet on it lasting long though. AJ and Homicide start with the dropkick spot putting the murder inspired one down. Off to Daniels as the champions hit a combination clothesline/belly to back suplex for two.

Styles comes back in for a backbreaker for two. AJ gets sent into the cage and it’s off to Hernandez. Styles moves around quickly and manages a tag but gets sent into the cage anyway. Homicide’s torndado DDT is countered but SuperMex takes his head off with a clothesline. The challengers look like they’re setting for a Doomsday Device but Hernandez drops him backwards and Homicide hits a top rope elbow for two. Nice change of pace. AJ is busted but we didn’t get a shot of him until now.

Konnan slides in an object to Homicide which goes into Daniels’ head. It appears to be a fork but Hebner doesn’t see it. Off to Hernandez to give Daniels a neck rub. Homicide gets a bottle of tequila from somewhere and spits some into Daniels’ face. They go up top and Daniels hits a sitout hiptoss for two to break the momentum. There’s the tag to AJ who hits the backflip into the reverse DDT for two. Everything breaks down as you would expect it to and Daniels clotheslines Homicide over and over.

The champions go high low on Homicide and are firmly in control. Hernandez has his face rammed into the cage and AJ hits the Pele on Homicide for two. Now Homicide gets the fork put in his head. AJ has no problem with the referee seeing that but Homicide hid it earlier. Hernandez starts going on another rampage but walks into a Pele to put everyone down.

AJ goes to the top of the cage (I think you can only win by pin/submission), drawing a please don’t die chant. The others catch him and try a Tower of Doom but AJ can’t get into position so he stays on top. That’s good as I was legit scared of him taking that bump from there. Instead he hits a HUGE cross body to Hernandez off the cage for two. Homicide hits a cutter on AJ but walks into an STO from Daniels.

Hernandez runs over Christopher and goes to the top of the cage also. He misses his splash and if he’s still alive I’ll be stunned. Daniels tries the Angel’s Wings on Hernandez but Homicide got a coat hanger from Konnan to choke him out. Konnan gets it back and chokes him from outside the ring. Hernandez breaks up the Clash and the Gringo Killa gives LAX the titles back.

Rating: A-. Another great match here with them finally saying screw this tagging stuff and letting it all hang out there, which is what you’re supposed to do in a big match. That dive by AJ was incredible but for some reason, probably fear, Hernandez’s didn’t get much of a reaction at all. Still though, great match but somehow it isn’t as good as the Ultimate X match they had the month before.

We recap Sting vs. Jarrett which is like a year long feud with a ton of twists and turns in it. In short: IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN JOE. Joe beat Jarrett the previous month but that was just about revenge or honor or something. There’s no need for this to be Jarrett vs. Sting and the only people that wanted it to be are likely named Jarrett. Oh and Angle is guest referee. Sting hasn’t even been on TV for two months to make sure the match has even less build for it. Oh and it’s title vs. career.

NWA World Title: Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett

Oh wait Angle is guest enforcer. Sting’s big transformation after missing for two months: he has red tights. Tenay thinks the bat is a tribute to the Detroit Tigers. Someone smack him for me. I’m already annoyed enough that Joe isn’t in there but now I have to listen to Tenay’s stupid theories? After big match intros we’re finally ready to go. Feeling out process to start for some reason, after they’ve fought each other about a thousand times.

Jeff controls to start for no apparent reason, arm dragging and hip tossing Sting around with ease. Sting starts to Hulk Up…and Jeff throws him around again. Now Jeff drops him with one punch. Jeff dropkicks him to the floor and OH MY GOODNESS ARE YOU THIS FREAKING STUPID??? Why in the world would you have THE MOST BORING WORLD CHAMPION IN YEARS dominate one of the most charismatic wrestlers in history like this?

Back in Jarrett spits on him and Sting FINALLY takes over on him like he should have from the opening bell. Powerbomb of all things puts Jeff down and a clothesline puts him on the floor. Jeff shoves Angle who shoves right back and Sting starts hammering Jarrett outside. Sting gets whipped into the barricade but Jeff gets his chair taken away by Angle. They fight up the ramp with Sting hitting a suplex to keep Jeff down. Angle takes the chair from Sting too and Jeff’s chair shot takes Kurt out.

DDT on the ramp puts Sting down and Jeff hooks a sleeper back inside. Sting fights out of that and they screw up some spot involving Sting getting behind Jeff. Cross body puts both guys down. Angle comes in and hits the Slam on the referee so that it’s not a double countout. They slug it out and the Splash sets up the Death Drop for two. Stroke hits for two. Jeff tries a tombstone which Sting reverses into a dangerous looking one of his own.

Sting goes up so that Jeff can hit him low, but he can’t hit a Stroke off the top. Sting’s splash off the top hits knees and there’s the Figure Four. Sting turns it over so Jeff lets it go and hooks an ankle lock to taunt Kurt. It gets reversed and Jeff is sent to the floor so Sting gets the bat. Angle tries to stop him and Jeff gets the guitar. Jeff breaks it over Sting’s head…and Sting yells at him. Scorpion quickly ends this.

Rating: C-. Not much here as it seemed like they didn’t know if they wanted to do an old school Sting match or an Attitude Era style brawl. Either one would have been ok but mixing them really didn’t work. At the end of the day, no one wanted to see Sting get the title again because we had seen it before and the fans were all behind Joe. Naturally since this is the NWA, they don’t care what the fans want and go with the old guys instead. The match wasn’t anything that good either.

Sting celebrates to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. As it is, this is a good show. With an ending the the fans wanted to see, it would be one of the best TNA shows ever. Sting’s title reign wound up meaning jack as he lost the title four weeks later to Abyss, a guy Joe beat in the Monster’s Ball earlier tonight. Joe wouldn’t the title for another 18 months because we needed to go through FOUR Angle reigns and a long Christian reign that no one wanted to see. This is also around the time that TNA’s hot streak started to die off. What a coincidence no? Anyway, very good show that could have been excellent if TNA would actually pay attention.

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Monday Nitro #162
Date: October 12, 1998
Location: United Center, Chicago, Illinois
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko

This isn’t being done in like with the usual Nitro series so I don’t have full context for this one. We’re closing in on Halloween Havoc with the double main event of Diamond Dallas Page vs. Goldberg for the title and Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior in a battle for our sanity. Looking at the card we don’t have nearly as many matches as usual, which means this might be a talking heavy show. Oh joy. Let’s get to it.

We open with Bischoff yelling at a guard, telling him to not let Ric Flair into the building at any cost. Bischoff goes outside to tell Doug Dillinger the same, giving him some cops for extra security.

We look at a clip from last week with what looked like Bret Hart refusing to be put on a stretcher. Sting however is carted off.

Nitro Girls.

Halloween Havoc ad.

The announcers intro the show.

We see even more of Bret vs. Sting brawling last week. Also Bret wants to fight Sting again at Halloween Havoc.

Video on Bret Hart, who apparently has recently turned heel. Again.

Video on the unveiling of the WCW MasterCard, set to the Hardy Boys’ theme song.

Intro, after ten minutes of promos and videos.

Here’s another video on Meng destroying Chris Adams on Thunder. Wrath came out to stop Meng in a clash of the titans.

Lodi vs. Wrath

Wrath is on a huge winning streak at this point. The fans are all over Lodi as Wrath runs him over with a clothesline. We get a mudhole stomping in the corner followed by a big shoulder tackle. The Meltdown (pumphandle powerslam) destroys Lodi in about 90 seconds.

Meng comes out to brawl with Wrath in the aisle but we immediately cut to another video.

This time it’s Reid Flair taking down Bischoff last week with Arn standing guard. The NWO came down but got taken out by the Horsemen.

Video on DDP vs. Goldberg.

Kendall Windham vs. Dale Torborg

This is when Dale is a member of the pit crew for WCW racing before he became the Demon. Windham takes him to the floor and sends him into the barricade a few times. Back in and Kendall keeps pounding away as this is a huge waste of time so far. Kendall stomps on Dale’s head as the fans want Goldberg. We hit the chinlock for a bit before Kendall misses a few elbows. Dale comes back with a dropkick but gets caught in a swinging neckbreaker. A bulldog is blocked and Torborg hits a bicycle kick out of nowhere for the pin. Dale appears to have hurt his knee.

Rating: D-. This got four and a half minutes. Let that sink in for a minute when we don’t have time for something later on tonight. Windham was a good example of how talent doesn’t always run in the family as he was nothing compared to Barry. Torborg was nothing special at all but he kept getting sent out there with various gimmicks.

More Nitro Girls.

Nitro Party winner.

Video from last week of Goldberg saving Page from Kanyon, Raven and Lodi.

Here’s Sting with something to say. Last week he and Bret Hart had a war in the back, but he’s been counting down the days until tonight so he could call Bret out right now. That’s not all though because he also wants Hogan right here tonight. Instead he gets the Warrior who talks about how far a little dab of paint can take you. WCW is Sting’s battleground but Warrior wants to make a one time request. The fans are really not in the mood for Warrior tonight as he rambles about having the will to win one battle at a time. The short version of this three minute rambling is Warrior wants in on the fight with Hogan and Hart.

We get the third video on Goldberg vs. Page of the first hour.

Hour #2 begins so here’s the Black and White with something to say. They talk about all the business they have to take care of tonight before Hogan reminds us that he’s the god of wrestling. Tonight it’s Giant vs. Goldberg in a No DQ match for the title because Hogan is tired of Goldberg being a thorn in his side. The challenge for the tag match is accepted for later tonight but Hogan has to awkwardly pause after saying ultimate, only to save himself by saying it’ll be the ultimate encounter. Nice catch.

As the NWO leaves a security guard tells Bischoff that the Horsemen are inside the building. Tony: “How did they get in?” Larry: “Through one of the 25 doors?” Bischoff goes outside and sees a limo pulling up with Flair inside. So much for being in the building. Flair is with the owner of the United Center who says the Horsemen will be in a corporate box with him tonight. Benoit tells Bischoff to talk to the hand.

Video on Hogan vs. Warrior. This includes the stupid idea of only Hogan being able to see Warrior in a mirror.

Fit Finlay vs. Alex Wright

This is during a mini angle over who is the best European wrestler in the company. Wright runs down the American audience and lists off some European wrestlers he’s beaten. Alex talks about ending Finlay’s dad’s career, earning him a forearm to the face. The brawl starts on the floor and Wright is sent back first into the apron. Back in and Wright gets two off a sunset flip but Finlay comes back with a short arm clothesline and the rolling senton. Fit misses a charge into the post but pops right up to the top, only to jump into a boot. Wright grabs a hot shot and puts his feet on the ropes for a fast pin.

Post match British Bulldog comes out to pound on Wright and send him running off.

La Parka/Ciclope/Villano V vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr/Psychosis/Super Calo

Chavo is loony by this point, meaning he has his stick horse Pepe with him. Calo and La Parka get us going and it’s an early dance off. They hit the ropes with Villano hitting Calo in the back of the head, allowing La Parka to take his head off with a clothesline. La Parka accidentally hits Villano twice in a row, sending him out to the floor for a running flip dive off the apron from Calo. Everyone unleashes the dives with everybody being taken out at least once.

Back inside and Calo misses a moonsault press on Villano and walks into a powerslam for two. Psychosis breaks it up with a guillotine legdrop and it’s time for Psychosis vs. La Parka. This is going way too fast to keep up with. La Parka gets two off a powerslam but here’s Chavo to suplex La Parka down for the same. Ciclope comes in for a modified Boston crab on Chavo but Psychosis makes a quick save.

Everything breaks down again with Chavo and Calo dropkicking Villano and La Parka to the floor for stereo dives. Psychosis avoids a charge from Ciclope to send him outside where Psychosis can hit a senton backsplash from the top. Cue Eddie and the LWO as Chavo hits the tornado DDT on Ciclope for the pin.

Rating: B. This was almost impossible to keep up with but it was incredibly entertaining. There’s little more fun than taking six fast guys and throwing them out there in a meaningless match where they can fly all around the ring and that’s what WCW let them do. Really fun match here and a nice breath of fresh air after all the lame talking.

Eddie, along with LWO members Damien, El Dandy and Hector Garza, get in the ring and recruit all six guys to join up. They can’t get any respect on their own but united they can’t be stopped. Eddie challenges any NWO member to come out here and wrestle like these guys just did. The only guys from the match in the ring are Chavo and Psychosis but the other four are listening on the floor. Chavo walks away but Psychosis puts on the LWO shirt.

Nitro Girls.

Here’s Scott Steiner for yet another promo. Apparently he’s not getting along with Buff because of…..wait for it…..Judy Bagwell. Heenan jumps in on commentary before Scott gets to the ring. Scott talks about carrying the Steiners like Sammy Sosa is carrying the Chicago Cubs. After bragging about how awesome he is with women, he talks about having problems with Buff and his mom. Judy needs to stay in the kitchen doing the dishes, because he and Buff are just fine.

This brings out Judy and Buff with the later saying they do have a problem. Scott says Buff’s problem is he has a bad neck and Scott could snap it at any time. Buff says he’s been listening to his mom and thinks Scott is the problem. Steiner threatens to take Buff’s NWO shirt off of him right now so Buff challenges him to a fight. Judy plays peacekeeper but Scott calls her an old bag. Scott threatens to slap her and you know it’s on now. Buff goes after him but Scott hits him low and drops the bad neck across the top rope.

The Horsemen and the owner of the building are having a party in the box.

Juventud Guerrera vs. Prince Iaukea

Before the match here’s Disco Inferno who says the people are here to see him dance. Iaukea knocks him off the apron and we’re ready to go. Juvy snaps off a great headscissors as Kidman (Cruiserweight Champion and no longer in the Flock) comes out to chase Disco off. The Prince gets two off a rollup and we hit the chinlock. Back up and Juvy hits a Fameasser for two but misses a dropkick. Here’s Disco again as Prince stops Juvy with a kick to the face. Guerrera comes back with a springboard missile dropkick but Disco breaks up the 450. Prince goes after Disco though, allowing Juvy to hit the Juvy Driver for the pin.

Rating: C-. This wasn’t a very good match but it had its moments. The Disco vs. Kidman stuff was annoying but at least it sets up a title feud down the line. Juvy continues to be entertaining for the most part while the Prince is still the same guy that has bored me for years now.

Here’s Kevin Nash with something to say. He talks about how Hall isn’t around as usual and how Scott is on his last nerve. Before Nash was a wrestler he was a bouncer, so he knows a thing or two about being up drunks, so get out here Scott because it’s last call. Here’s a staggering Hall with a cup in his hand. He says he’ll fight Nash down here while doing the crotch chop, drawing Nash up the aisle. They head into the back with Hall getting into a limo. Nash chases after him in his own car.

TV Title: Chris Jericho vs. Raven

Jericho is defending. Raven takes him into the corner but doesn’t go after him. They head to the floor and again Raven isn’t aggressive at all, allowing the champion to send him into the barricade for early control. Jericho brings in a chair but Raven dropkicks it back into his face before wedging it into the corner. Naturally Raven is the one being sent into the steel, knocking him out to the floor again. Raven avoids a charge into the post and they head back inside for the drop toehold into the chair. Not that it matters as Raven’s Even Flow is countered into the Liontamer for an immediate submission. Short but action packed.

Hour #3 begins.

Here’s Rick Steiner to talk about his upcoming showdown with Scott when he’s interrupted by….oh dear goodness it’s this show……he’s interrupted by Chucky from the Child’s Play movies. The doll pops up on the screen and makes fun of Rick for barking while Chucky is getting to film love scenes with Jennifer Tilly.

Rick Steiner calls Chucky down to the ring while Chucky makes mom jokes about Steiner. Chucky plugs his new movie and praises Scott Steiner as this just keeps going. This is one of those things that is too stupid for words and belongs on every stupidest moments ever list. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Rick Steiner deserves better than this.

So the announcers have spent all night talking about a six man tag match between the NWO factions with Hall and Nash on either side. However, since Hall and Nash are gone, the match is off because the other four guys can’t wrestle for some reason. My guess is the match was cut for time due to a slasher movie villain and a Dale Torborg match.

Or it could be because of ALL THE FREAKING PROMOS, including this one from Bischoff. Tonight this isn’t the United Center because it’s the Bischoff Center. He demands JJ Dillon and Doug Dillinger come to the ring and demands they take him to the private suite. This turns into a four minute walk up to the suite and a two minute argument over whether or not Eric has authority here tonight. Security finally takes him down and cuffs him. Flair comes out and pours champagne on Bischoff. The announcers talk about how awesome this is as Bischoff is taken outside. This somehow took ten minutes in total.

Wait it’s still not done as Flair dances a bit in front of the box and Flair is shown being taken out in a car, ranting and raving about how awesome he is. This just went on WAY too long and really didn’t accomplish anything. This stretched out to nearly fifteen minutes in total.

WCW World Title: Goldberg vs. The Giant

Goldberg is defending and Giant is a tag champion but I’ll only refer to Goldberg as champion here for the sake of simplicity. This is also No DQ. Giant shoves him around to start and actually dropkicks Goldberg down. Goldberg no sells some shots to the back and sends Giant face first into the buckle a few times. A very impressive slam puts Giant down but here’s Stevie Ray with a chair to the back. That’s no sold but Goldberg walks into the chokeslam, only to have DDP make the save. The chokeslam to Page is broken up by a spear and Giant walks out for the countout, making Goldberg 150-0. This was nothing.

The Horsemen are still partying. Benoit is smiling, Flair is dancing, Malenko just calmly raises a beer and nods at the camera.

Nitro Girls again.

Hollywood Hogan/Bret Hart vs. Warrior/Sting

After some LONG intros we’re ready to go. Hogan wants Sting to start and that’s what he gets after Warrior I think blesses the Stinger. As is always the case, Hogan dominates Sting early with right hands but gets taken down by a clothesline and an atomic drop. Hogan tags off to Bret and the stalling commences. Sting pounds him in the corner, drawing in Hogan to allow Bret to low blow Sting to the mat.

Bret goes into his usual offense while Warrior is still in his coat and what looks like jeans on the apron. Hart draws in Warrior to allow a low blow from Hogan followed by some choking. Back to Hart for a DDT for two in one of the only wrestling moves so far. A small package gets Sting a breather but he gets caught in the backbreaker. The middle rope elbow misses though and it’s hot tag Warrior. Three straight clotheslines put Hart down so here’s Hogan to hit him from behind. There’s no effect of course so here’s the NWO for the save and the DQ.

Rating: D-. What else did you really expect here? I like the idea of putting two feuds into one match but it doesn’t mean the match is any good. Warrior was clearly just a vanity project for Hogan and I don’t think anyone believed the match was going to be good. Horrible “wrestling” here.

Post match the NWO throws Warrior to the floor as the smoke fills the ring. Tony: “That way he can’t disappear.” Warrior whips Hogan with the weightlifting belt as the show ends.

Overall Rating: D. And that’s being generous. This show was horrible with WAY too much talking and so much time being wasted on nonsense like the Chucky segment and matches that did nothing of note at all. Goldberg vs. Page disappeared after the first hour until they got another three minutes near the end of the show. You could see the wheels on the verge of falling off, but 1999 was only going to get worse.

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Impact Wrestling
Date: October 10, 2013
Location: Cox Business Area, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’re at the finl TV taping before Bound For Glory, meaning we have tonight and next week to go. The main stories coming into tonight are Hogan being gone and AJ Styles challenging Bully Ray for the title in whichever order you pick. Last week saw a lot of the midcard being filled in for the show so perhaps we’ll get even more this week. Let’s get to it.

Here’s Dixie to open things up. She talks about someone leaving last week and how we’re never to mention that person’s name again. Dixie doesn’t need anyone to tell her what to do, not even Stephanie LeVesque or Eric Bischoff. As for AJ Styles, last week he snuck back into the arena after she threw him out, so tonight Bully Ray can put him in any match he wants.

Before Dixie can go anywhere else, here’s Sting with something to say. Dixie sucks up to him a bit before saying that even he is under review at this point. Sting suggested Hogan for the GM spot in the first place and now he’s making matches for Bound For Glory on his own. Therefore, tonight it’s Magnus/Sting vs. Bad Influence and if the good guys lose, neither are on the pay per view. Good luck!

Austin Aries says he’s a professional wrestler and doesn’t need to hide behind a crowd like Jeff does.

Austin Aries vs. Jeff Hardy

Feeling out process to start with Jeff taking Aries down but not being able to do anything more than that. Aries comes back with an armdrag to take Jeff to the mat, only to have to fight out of a headscissors. A dropkick to the back of Jeff’s head gets two and a bulldog out of the corner gets the same. Jeff comes back with the sitout jawbreaker and a headscissors to send Aries to the outside. A clothesline off the apron drops Aries as we take a break.

Back with Jeff missing a charge in the corner to give Aries his first real advantage. Jeff is sent to the outside for a BIG top rope ax handle to the head to send him sprawling across the floor. Another ax handle sends Jeff into the barricade and we head back inside. Jeff avoids a missile dropkick and starts his comeback, only to get caught in a neckbreaker.

Aries goes up top again and connects with the missile dropkick but its running cousin is countered by Jeff’s raised boots. Jeff clips Aries over but can’t get the Twist. Whisper in the Wind drops Aries but he crotches Jeff to break up the Swanton. A super brainbuster is enough for the pin at 14:18.

Rating: B. Really solid main event style match here with both guys using their big moves throughout because that’s all they could do to hurt the other guy. Hardy losing clean is still a pretty big deal as he’s still the biggest start TNA has, so points to Aries for such a big win. Good stuff here and one of TNA’s best matches in awhile.

Post match here’s Samoa Joe to congratulate Aries on his win. However, there’s some bad news for Aries as well: he’s entering the Ultimate X match at Bound For Glory as well.

The Bro Mans make fun of each other for their bad losses but Jesse says he’s getting rid of their biggest problem next. They TOTALLY get chicks too bro.

Joseph Park and Eric Young are going on a road trip to Bound For Glory. They immediately stop because ODB has a match tonight.

Jesse Godderz vs. ODB

We’re immediately in the comedy match formula as Jesse, Robbie and Eric are shoved face first into ODB’s chest. A rollup gets two on Jesse but Robbie trips up ODB to give Jesse control. Eric and Robbie fight up the ramp and into the back and here’s Lei’D Tapa to run over ODB for the DQ at 2:00.

Tapa lays out ODB with a fireman’s carry into a Stunner.

Knux and Bischoff yell at Bully for ruining the club. Ray blames Anderson for the troubles because Anderson stopped protecting the title. Knux says Anderson didn’t have to piledrive Anderson the stage which Ray seems to agree with. Ray says the two of them can prove how great they are tonight by beating AJ Styles. The lackeys seem pleased.

Magnus thanks Sting for their confrontation last week. Sting says Bound For Glory is the biggest show of the year and it’s been very good to him over the years. This year it’s going to be good to Magnus.

Bad Influence doesn’t like being interrupted (Kaz: “You cannot see the Wizard!”) and insist Roode’s induction into the EGO Hall of Fame will be amazing.

Here are Daniels and Kazarian in powder blue and neon orange tuxedos and top hats respectively. They’re dressed in the colors of the Mafia to show what frauds they are. Speaking of frauds, other Halls of Fame have their own frauds, but EGO isn’t one of them. Therefore, here is the man that once got busy in Tim Horton’s bathroom: Bobby Roode. There’s a big wooden throne for Roode to sit on and a nice portrait of him standing next to it.

Kazarian has slaved over a hot computer all week to produce a video for him. It’s a completely over the top video with various people praising Roode with absolutely no audio editing whatsoever. Not a bit. Daniels says that unlike Sting, Roode deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Roode is indeed the prime minister of suave and debonaire, so please stand for him right now.

Roode thanks Kaz and Daniels but gets all choked up halfway through. There’s one person that needs to be honored above everyone else though: Bobby Roode himself. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame unlike Kurt Angle, who hasn’t done anything at all lately. Where is Angle now? Before Roode can answer that, here’s Angle live in person, looking more chiseled than he has in years. Bad Influence both get suplexes and Roode loses a shoe bailing from the ankle lock. Obviously it’s Angle vs. Roode at BFG.

Roode is furious post break.

Velvet Sky vs. Brooke Tessmacher

Velvet has taped up ribs but still does the bouncing entrance. Sabin blocks the pigeons though. This is for the title shot at BFG, which apparently will involve Gail Kim as well. Brooke goes for the bad ribs but gets taken down by a shoulder block. Velvet stomps her down in the corner but misses a charge, allowing Brooke to fire off a kick to the bad ribs. A Russian legsweep stops Brooke’s comeback but hurts the ribs again. Velvet is sent to the floor for more work on the ribs but comes back with a clothesline and bulldog for two. Sabin offers Velvet some tips, only to cause her to get rolled up for the pin at 3:52.

Rating: C-. Believe it or not this wasn’t too bad. Brooke does her job well enough but she’s out there for her looks and that’s about it. The interesting thing out there was Velvet’s selling, as she did a better job with the rib injury than almost anyone I’ve seen in months. Not a bad match at all.

Ethan promo. He’s still coming.

We run down the BFG card.

Bad Influence vs. Sting/Magnus

If the Mafia loses, they’re off Bound For Glory and lose their contracts. Daniels peppers Magnus with forearms to start but gets caught in a qucik suplex. Off to Sting for a double back elbow to Daniels and a hiptoss to Kaz. We get some miscommunication between Sting and Magnus to give Bad Influence control as we take a break. Back with Bad Influence in control on Magnus and Kaz getting two off a dropkick.

The fans still want Sting but get Daniels driving Magnus down with a knee to the chest for two instead. We hit the chinlock for a bit before Kaz gets two off a slingshot legdrop. He spits at Sting to allow a non-tag change off to Daniels. Off to another chinlock but Magnus fights back with right hands and a running clothesline. Hot tag brings in Sting to clean house before Magnus hits the top rope elbow on Kaz to set up the Cloverleaf, only to have Daniels make the save. Everything breaks down and Sting hits the Death Drop for the pin on Daniels at 11:00.

Rating: C. This was fine but was more about the angle than the match. Magnus being upset by Sting getting the fall due to his own mistake is a fine idea and sets up the PPV match well enough. I’m hoping they put Magnus over at BFG as Sting doesn’t need the win, but there’s a good chance that’s where they’re going.

Dixie offers AJ a big check to walk away but Styles says he can’t be bought and rips up the check.

AJ Styles vs. Knux/Garret Bischoff

Ray takes Tenay’s commentary spot. AJ starts off fast and beats up Bischoff like he’s the son of an executive that has no business being in the ring with a multiple time world champion. AJ drops a knee and pounds away in the corner but Garrett makes a blind tag off to Knux. Styles is dropped throat first over the top rope and catapulted throat first into the middle rope for two. Back to Garrett for a lot of posing and a butterfly suplex for no cover.

Knux comes back in but misses a middle rope legdrop. Everything breaks down and AJ hits the springboard forearm on Knux. After miscommunication from the bikers, AJ gets a very awkward looking rollup (looked like a powerslam minus the power or the slam) for the pin on Garret at 4:43.

Rating: D+. This is a match where the result was never in doubt but that’s the way things should have gone. AJ gets to look good while taking out the champion’s lackeys, setting up BFG a little bit better. That’s what this story should have been the entire time, but if we have to sacrifice a good build for the sake of getting rid of Aces and 8’s then so be it.

Post match Ray comes in and whips AJ with the chain before backdropping him onto the ramp. Lots of trash talk ends the show.

Overall Rating: C+. This was one of their better shows in a good while with a nice mix of action, storylines and comedy. As usual, it’s remarkable how much better things get when there’s no Hogan around for his way over the top drama. It’s also nice to see the PPV main event getting some direct focus which has been lacking for such a long time. Good show this week which is a good sign.

Results

Austin Aries b. Jeff Hardy – Super brainbuster

ODB b. Jesse Godderz via DQ when Lei’D Tapa interfered

Brooke Adams b. velvet Sky – Rollup

AJ Styles b. Knux/Garrett Bischoff – Rollup to Bischoff

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Monday Nitro #137
Date: May 18, 1998
Location: Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko

It’s the night after Slamboree and naturally we’ve got more NWO drama and not much else. The main story is that Sting and Giant won the tag titles due to Hall turning on Nash, apparently aligning himself with Hollywood Hogan and the Black and White, despite them keeping him off TV for months and Nash standing up for him. This would be the third (fifth if you include Konnan and Hennig) yet to be explained turn in less than a month if you’re keeping track. Let’s get to it.

This is a one hour show tonight due to the NBA Playoffs. On Thunder it was announced that we would get an hour before the basketball game and a second hour after, but the second hour was just a repeat of the first. I’m not sure if it was a last second change or WCW just making stuff up to get ratings, but at least it’s less nonsense for me this week.

We open with the stills from last night’s main event. I think that was Nash’s official face turn after being a face for at least a month now.

Here’s Eric in the ring wearing a red velvet crown and siting on a motorcycle. He says it’s good to be king and as he ponders his future in this sport, he has to look back at the past. His television record is 98-2 and now his in ring record is 2-0, having defeated Larry Zbyszko and Vince McMahon. He wanted to beat Vince in the ring, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen. Now he has to look to the future which holds a record better than Bill Goldberg’s. He’s going to chase a dream which started last night. What that is isn’t specified but the music plays and he’s done.

Nitro Girls.

We get the video from Thunder with Saturn saying he hasn’t stolen the Cryonic Kick because it’s a basic side kick that has been used for thousands of years.

Saturn vs. Psychosis

Saturn pounds him into the corner to start but Psychosis slams him down for two. A dropkick knocks Saturn out of the air and a second one knocks him out to the floor. Psychosis hits a nice plancha to the floor but gets caught in a release dragon suplex back inside. The superkick and Death Valley Driver set up the Rings of Saturn for the quick submmission.

We get some stills from Bret vs. Savage last night, focusing on Hogan interfering, leading to Savage giving up to the Sharpshooter.

Here’s Piper with something to say. This isn’t likely to go well. He’s ticked off because of how much interference there was and he’d never do that job again. Apparently Liz was swearing a lot and it allowed someone Savage hit him in the back of the head (it was Hart). Piper wants Savage out here right now and here’s Macho himself. For once, Tony is logical here by saying Piper could watch the tape and see that it was Hart attacking him.

Piper says he isn’t a guy to apologize but if he was he’d apologize right now, but since he isn’t a guy to apologize he isn’t apologizing. He’s watched the tape and saw Hart hit him in the back of the head, so as Commissioner he’s naming Savage as the winner of the match via a disqualification. This is treated as the biggest news in the history of WCW but here’s Bret Hart to complain. He wants to fight but doesn’t want to do it two on one. Actually scratch that as he’s ready to go but Hogan and pals come out to stop him. The end result is a tag match at Great American Bash.

Buy the Randy Savage shirt!

Heenan replaces Zbyszko on commentary for the second half of the show.

The announcers talk about the Cruiserweight Title situation for a bit. We get a post match interview with Dean Malenko with Gene saying he can no longer call Malenko a loser. Dean says it’s water under the bridge because tonight was the beginning of his new quest. He isn’t done with Jericho because Jericho insulted his family. This title is for his dad. If Malenko has ever cut a better promo, I haven’t seen it.

Jericho freaked out after losing the belt last night.

Damian vs. Juventud Guerrera

There’s no opening bell but Juvy takes over with a quick spinwheel kick but charges into a boot in the corner for two. A dropkick sends Damian to the floor but he whips Juvy into the steps to take over. Damian dropkicks him from the apron but gets caught in a top rope hurricanrana back inside. Juvy gets crotched on top and Damian gets two off a kneeling Muscle Buster of all things. Juvy almost no sells it and gets two of his own off the Juvy Driver. The 450 totally misses but Juvy gets up and drops a quick elbow for the pin.

Rating: C-. Botched ending aside this was pretty fun. I prefer the elbow drop over pretending the splash worked because it was more or less two feet to Damian’s chest and certainly wouldn’t have kept him down. Also it’s nice that they’re mixing up the matches a bit with new names like Damian, even though he isn’t the biggest star in the world. It’s better than doing the same pairings over and over.

More Nitro Girls.

There seems to be some confusion as to what’s next. Tony says we’re going to Gene but here’s Goldberg for his match.

US Title: Goldberg vs. Glacier

Goldberg blocks a bunch of kicks to start and clotheslines Glacier down. Glacier misses an enziguri and it’s the spear and Jackhammer to make it 89-0.

Here’s DDP for his weekly interview. Gene lauds him for his win last night but Page doesn’t want to think about how he beat Raven. He did it for the fans who always jack him up, but now he has a new target. Page wants to be world champion and hopes he gets to take it off of Hogan because he hasn’t forgotten what Hogan has put him through for the last six months. Not much from DDP this week but it’s a new plot development.

Here’s the Black and White to close the show. Bret is with them but still in street clothes. Dusty is there too, despite ripping into Hogan last week on Nitro. Hogan talks about how great he is and laughs at the idea of anyone following Nash. Everyone is here tonight because of Hogan because he controls the money and the talent.

If there was any doubt to Hogan being great, here’s Scott Hall as the ultimate proof. Hall rubs his fingers together to symbolize money on the way to the ring, which is probably as good of an explanation as we’re going to get. Bischoff calls out Sting for his explanation. Giant comes up to Sting in the aisle and gets spat on, causing Giant to choke Sting down. Nash comes out with a pipe to scare

Overall Rating: C. This show continues to prove that three hours simply aren’t needed at all. This show covered almost every major story and gave us some watchable wrestling at the same time. The ending is all you would come to expect from WCW as we get about two minutes of storyline development which will lead to three hours of talking next week. Bischoff mentioning Goldberg is interesting though as it’s the first mention of him from the NWO. Page going after Hogan might be worth something too.

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Slamboree 1998
Date: May 17, 1998
Location: The Centrum, Worcester, Massachusetts
Attendance: 11,592
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone

Tonight is pretty much a filler show as Hogan is nowhere to be seen and we have a double main event. We have Hart vs. Savage in a grudge match and Sting/Giant vs. the Outsiders for the tag titles, with Sting in WCW and Giant in the NWO Black and White. There is however one moment on this show that ranks right up there with the biggest surprises and best received moments in WCW history. Let’s get to it.

The opening video has some words like controversy and power over shots of the people in the two main events.

The announcers talk about the main events tonight to convince us that buying this show was a good idea.

We get Bischoff’s challenge to Vince from Thunder, complete with him reading the letter from Vince’s attorney.

We go outside to see Doug Dillinger (head of WCW security) waiting for Vince to arrive with WCW fans (certainly not plants of any sort) shouting about how much they hate Vince. Tony tells us not to worry because the matches will indeed go on despite Vince not being here.

TV Title: Chris Benoit vs. Fit Finlay

Finlay is defending. The set here is simpler than most from 1998 with a big SLAMBOREE logo and a door in the middle. You don’t often see doors in sets so it’s a change of pace if nothing else. They shove each other around a lot and the crowd is really into this already. Benoit counters a headlock into a top wristlock as Tony confirms that the name Fit is due to Finlay being fit for any sport.

They fight into a test of strength and wrestle into a string of near falls either way until Finlay takes over with an armbar on the mat. Back up and they run the ropes with Benoit getting two off a hiptoss and we have a standoff. Benoit hits a chop so hard that it knocks Finlay’s strap down. A backbreaker has Finlay in trouble so Benoit pulls him from the ropes to the mat, slamming Finlay’s back onto the canvas again.

Finlay comes right back with a hard clothesline and Chris rolls to the floor. This has been very physical so far with both guys beating the tar out of each other. A hard slam on the floor has Benoit in even more trouble but Finlay actually goes inside to give Benoit a change to get up. Back in and Finlay stomps away before putting on a reverse chinlock. Benoit stands up with Finlay on his shoulders into an electric chair drop, hurting his own head in the process.

Some hard chops stagger the champion but he goes right to the eyes to stop Benoit’s comeback. We hit a chinlock for a good while before Finlay elbows and kicks at Benoit’s back. Back to the chinlock for a bit before he drives Benoit chest first into the apron. They head to the floor with Benoit cracking Finlay with a chair for a pop but not a DQ. Benoit goes in for a suicide dive but goes head first into the chair to give Finlay control again.

Back in again and Finlay slams him down for two before staying on the back with more elbow drops. A clothesline drops Benoit again and we’re into chinlock #3. Benoit fights up again and avoids a charge into the corner, followed by the rolling Germans. Finlay elbows him in the face to block a fourth but has to quickly get to a rope to break a Crossface attempt. The snap suplex sets up the Swan Dive but here’s Booker T before Benoit can jump. Finlay uses the distraction to kick Benoit in the back of the head to knock Chris out cold. Back in and the tombstone retains Finlay’s title.

Rating: C+. Nice opener here but again, is there any point to not giving Benoit a title yet? He’s over, he’s having solid matches, there’s a feud with Booker already written, but he can get two days total as champion without ever being on TV with the belt? Nothing against Finlay, but I don’t see the point in having him as champion here.

Brian Adams vs. Lex Luger

This is fallout from Scott Steiner and Adams injuring Rick Steiner’s shoulder. One punch sends Adams out to the floor and Luger follows him out so he can ram Adams’ and Vincent’s heads together. Luger rams Brian’s shoulder into the post twice in a row for some payback. The arm gets snapped across the top rope and there’s a powerslam to set up the Rack less than two and a half minutes in.

Vincent finally does something by distraction Luger so Adams can hit a quick piledriver to take over. They head outside again with Adams kicking away to protect his bad shoulder. Back in and Adams gets two off a backbreaker and a pair of legdrops gets the same. A double clothesline puts both guys down but Adams is quickly up. In a surprise ending, Luger ducks a clothesline and grabs the Rack for the submission.

Rating: D. As shocking as it was for Luger to win a match with anything other than his usual sequence, there wasn’t much to see here. This could have been on any given episode of Nitro and probably should have been. Luger was just so lost at this point, having nothing of note to do and just floating from one NWO match to another.

Saturn cancels the gauntlet match against Goldberg and says he’ll be going one on one with him. Why this was changed is beyond me but it’s probably better this way. If anyone in the Flock doesn’t like it, they know where to find him.

Cruiserweight Battle Royal

You can be eliminated by going to the floor or pinfall here and the winner gets a title shot at Jericho later in the night. The more entertaining part though is Jericho doing the introductions in Dave Penzer’s place.

Super Calo: This guy’s hat never comes off!

Chavo Guerrero Jr.: He used to be a great bartender but he’s the scourge of the Guerrero family.

Ciclope: From selling chimichangas to WCW!

Damien: He can’t afford a mask so he’s using paint!

El Dandy: The winner of the Lou Ferrigno look-a-like contest.

El Grio: The world light featherweight champion!

Juventud Guerrera: Pulled up in a rusted out 67 El Camino Chevy, the ugliest man in our business, Quasimodo Guerrera!

Marty Jannetty: He’ll rock rock until he drops drops.

Kidman: A lost and lonely soul and Jericho has calamine lotion with him.

Evan Karagias: 0/10.

Lenny Lane: I want my Loverboy tape back!

Psychosis: He has a lot of hubcaps in his collection and can get you one if you need it.

Silver King: If he wins 12 more matches he gets to be Gold King.

Johnny Swinger: Johnny Cinger!

Villano IV: Representing Villano I-LXII!

Everyone goes at it to start and if you go through the ropes to the floor it’s an elimination as well. Evan is out first but there are still too many people to be able to do much. Chavo backdrops Swinger out and hits a tornado DDT on someone I couldn’t see. Psychosis hits a springboard hurricanrana on Damien but doesn’t throw him out. Super Calo is dropkicked out by Juvy and King is out at someone’s hands. Lane and Dandy have a mini match in the middle of the ring as Juvy hits a gorgeous top rope hurricanrana to take Psychosis down.

Grio gets dumped and Lane misses a dive off the top. Jannetty and Villano both go out as we’re down to eight. Lane goes up but Kidman throws Juvy into him to knock Lane out. Juvy dropkicks Damien out and we’re down to six. Dandy is dropkicked off the apron and it’s five: Ciclope, Chavo, Kidman, Psychosis and Juvy. Kidman low bridges Chavo out as Heenan does his schtick of picking everyone in the match. Psychosis misses a charge and goes out as Juvy pulls Kidman out. Juvy sees he’s alone with Ciclope….and eliminates himself to give Ciclope the title shot?

Rating: C. It’s a battle royal so how good can it really be? The high spots were nice but at the same time they made a lot of the guys in the match look stupid for trying something like that. The ending was confusing but all will be explained in just a few seconds. Nothing outside of the ordinary here other than some high spots.

Jericho hits the ring immediately but Ciclope unmasks to reveal…..DEAN MALENKO! The place goes NUTS in one of the loudest pops WCW ever had.

Cruiserweight Title: Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho

Dean shows more emotion in a fifteen second burst than he did in his entire career, stomping Jericho down in the corner and a suplex puts him down again. A dropkick sends Jericho out to the floor and Dean follows him out with right hands to the head. Back in and Dean opts to fire off more punches instead of rolling Jericho up when he has the chance. A quick hot shot gives Jericho a breather and a backsplash gets two.

Jericho suplexes his down and gets another two off the arrogant cover. The Lionsault gets the same and we hit the chinlock. Dean fights up and tries the Liontamer on Jericho but Chris quickly makes the rope. A top rope back elbow to the jaw gets two on Malenko but the top rope hurricanrana is countered into the top rope gutbuster. The Cloverleaf gives Dean the title back.

Rating: A. The match was decent though nothing great, but the story here is the emotion. This whole story was built up on the emotion the fans felt for Malenko and wanting to see him make Jericho eat his words. It’s a classic story: hero falls, villain reigns and runs his mouth, hero returns to vanquish the villain. No unexplained turns, no politics, no swerves (ok maybe one with the disguise) and possibly the loudest reaction ever in WCW. Clearly there’s nothing to this storytelling idea though right?

We have a Vinnie Mac cam and a white limousine arrives. Tony: “If Jim Ross comes out and carries his bags you know it’s Vince.” They cut away before anyone gets out.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Raven

This is a Bowery Death Match, meaning last man standing inside a cage. There’s a roof on the cage too. Page pounds away to start but Raven sends him face first into a trashcan in the corner. An elbow to the face drops Raven but he sends Page into another can. Page is whipped face first into the cage several times and Raven empties the weapons from the cans. The breather lets Page get the bullrope around Raven’s neck to whip him into the cage a few times.

Page wraps the rope around the top of the cage to hang Raven but Bird Boy gets his legs on DDT to block the pressure. Raven falls to the mat for an eight count but a VCR shot to the head draws an ECW chant and a seven. Page gets kicked into another can in the corner and a shot to the back with said can gets another seven. Some cookie sheet shots have Page in trouble and Raven puts on a sleeper, only to have Page ram him into the corner, crushing the referee in the process.

Page hits a quick jawbreaker and sends Raven face first into the chair. Reese and the Flock easily overpower Raven’s riot squad and cut open the lock on the cage. Van Hammer comes out from under the ring with a stop sign to lay out the rest of the Flock and handcuff Reese to the guardrail. Page stomps Raven down in the corner but two members of the Riot Squad comes in to stomp DDP down.

They unmask as Kidman and Horace but Page fights them off with Diamond Cutters. Raven comes back with a fire extinguisher to the ribs and the Even Flow but Page is up at eight. They slug it out in fast motion before Raven Diamond Cuts Page. Page is up again, ducks a chair shot and Diamond Cuts Raven for the ten count.

Rating: C-. This was WAY overbooked but it’s not a horrible match. Hopefully it ends the feud though as there’s just nothing left for these guys to do to each other. Ending it inside of a cage is as good as they’re going to get, especially after Page had to fight off the Flock almost on his own. Decent match here but it needed more violence.

Post match the last riot squad guy starts handcuffing all the Flock members to the cage. He cuffs Raven as well, reveals himself to be Mortis, unmasks as Kanyon (yet to be named) and does the Tommy Dreamer chair shot heard round the world.

More from the Vinnie Mac Cam.

The announcers talk about the tag title match, which sounds like the main event.

Ultimo Dragon vs. Eddie Guerrero

If Dragon wins, Chavo is free from Eddie. Eddie takes him down by the arm to start but Dragon armdrags him down. There are A LOT of empty seats across from the cameras here which I believe were full earlier. Dragon takes him down with a snapmare but Eddie complains about a hair pull, going so far as to demonstrate on the referee. Off to a test of strength with Dragon bridging off the mat. Eddie drops down onto him but can’t break said bridge which is always impressive.

Dragon fires off his kicks but a simple dropkick from Eddie puts him down. A headscissors out of the corner takes Guerrero down again and here are more kicks from the masked man. Back in and Dragon kicks away even more before putting on a half crab into a bridging Indian Deathlock. Eddie gets back up and pokes Dragon in the eye to take over before getting two off a suplex.

Off to a quick front facelock from Guerrero before they head outside for some fun. Guerrero sends him into the barricade and chokes with a camera cord. Instead of following up though, he slaps Chavo around for a bit. Back inside and Eddie loads up a hurricanrana off the top, only to get crotched and enziguried to the floor.

The Asai Moonsault takes Eddie down again but Dragon hits his head on the way down. Back in and Dragon gets two off a backbreaker and a moonsault gets the same. The super hurricanrana is countered into a tornado DDT from Eddie but the Frog Splash misses. They trade Dragon Sleepers but Chavo takes Eddie’s feet off the ropes. Dragon accidentally kicks Chavo, allowing Eddie to hit the brainbuster and Frog Splash for the pin.

Rating: C+. Usual high quality match from these two as the Guerrero Saga continues. Dragon looked good out there as it’s nice to see him finally have a story of some sort. The Guerreros’ story is solid stuff as well with actual character development, which compliments the matches very nicely.

Post match Chavo yells at Eddie before stomping Dragon out of frustration. Eddie offers him a free shot but Chavo can’t do it. He kisses Eddie on the cheek instead as the insanity is about to begin.

Vince “The Reason For The Ratings” McMahon has a dressing room. Just go with it.

US Title: Saturn vs. Goldberg

Just one on one instead of the advertised gauntlet match. Goldberg easily shoves him into the corner to start before clotheslining the challenger down with ease. A gorilla press into a powerslam puts Saturn down and a shoulder knocks him to the floor. Back in and Saturn fires off kicks in the corner but charges into a spin kick from the champion. Goldberg LAUNCHES him into the corner before they head outside.

Saturn ducks a clothesline and Goldie’s arm goes into the post. Back in and a top rope spinwheel kick gets one and we hit the chinlock. Goldberg fights up but walks into a swinging neckbreaker to set up the chinlock again. Back up and Saturn grabs a chair before superkicking Goldberg into the corner. Using the chair as a springboard, Saturn kicks Goldberg in the back but a second attempt is countered with the spear. The Jackhammer retains the title.

Rating: D+. This didn’t do much for me. The arm went nowhere and it never felt like Saturn had a chance. Goldberg is in an awkward place as he’s too big to squash people and midcarders are no real challenge anymore but he’s not quite ready to face main event guys. That’s a very tricky jump to make but it would come soon enough.

We actually get full entrances for Bischoff vs. Vince with Eric winning by countout. Well done on wasting PPV time and looking silly while the WWF was starting to crush you, but at least Bischoff gets to laugh. In all sincerity though, at least they didn’t use the WWF method of using an impersonator or a midget.

Bret Hart vs. Randy Savage

Roddy Piper is guest referee for no apparent reason. We get the long stall session to open things up until Bret gets in the first shots, pounding Savage into the corner. Savage goes to the eyes and maybe a low blow for two. He pounds Bret down in the corner and chokes away, only to have Bret go after Randy’s bad knee. A suplex puts Randy down and a headbutt to the hamstring puts Savage on the floor.

Bret throws the steps at Savage but Randy moves to avoid breaking bones. Savage sends him into the barricade and they head into the crowd for the big walk around the arena which is called brawling. Back to ringside with Savage slamming him on the floor. This has been a brawl the entire way so far. They get back in with Bret wisely going after the knee and starts his usual wear down sequence.

He cannonballs down onto the knee, wraps it around the ropes and stretches the hamstring a bit. A Russian legsweep and a piledriver get two for the Canadian before he just stomps Savage down in the corner. Randy gets in some shots of his own and actually gets two off a one legged suplex. The top rope elbow connects but Randy bangs up his knee on the landing, allowing Bret to kick out at two.

Bret sweeps the legs and puts on the Sharpshooter as Liz comes running out. Savage counters into a Sharpshooter of his own (camera was on Liz so we didn’t see it) but Bret gets a rope. Bret kicks Savage low and hits Piper with a foreign object, only to have Savage take it away. Here’s Hogan to wrap Savage’s leg around the post, allowing Bret to put on the Sharpshooter for the win.

Rating: C. This took awhile to get going but the overbooking drags it down again. Hogan showing up makes you wonder why he couldn’t defend the title here or why he needed to be champion in the first place. Have Savage defend against Bret here and keep the title by DQ etc, but Hogan just NEEDED to be champion again I guess. Also it’s looking like we’re never getting an explanation from Bret on why he helped Hogan.

Piper takes the object off Bret’s hand but doesn’t do anything.

Tag Titles: Outsiders vs. Sting/The Giant

Hall is back and does the survey for the first time in months. Sting starts with Scott and there are the driving shoulders to get us going. A quick chokeslam puts Sting down and there’s the Giant imitation. Sting comes back with a pair of atomic drops and a Stinger Splash but he has to fight off Nash as well. Giant comes in and headbutts Nash to the floor and Hall joins him for a meeting.

Back in and it’s time for the battle of the monsters with Nash now all aggressive to go after Giant. Nash can’t Jackknife him so he chokes in the corner instead. Giant comes back with a big boot and an elbow drop before driving his hips into Nash’s ribs in the corner. The fans cheer for the Wolfpack as Sting comes in. Sting takes Hall down but gets kicked in the face by Nash, allowing for the tag off to Scott. A quick fallaway slam gets two on Sting as the fans are WAY into Hall.

Back to Nash for Snake Eyes before it’s back to Hall for some stomping. Nash drops the crotch on Sting’s back before firing off knees in the corner. Hall comes back in again for the abdominal stretch with a hand from Nash. Sting hiptosses out but misses an elbow drop, allowing another tag to Kevin. We hit the bearhug but Sting claps the ears a few times, allowing for the hot tag off to Giant, even though Giant is a heel.

Giant kicks Nash down and drops a Hogan leg for two before going….to the top? He misses a splash from up there so Nash can stay alive and Dusty gets on the apron for some reason. Nash loads up the Jackknife but, of course, Hall turns on Nash with a belt shot to the back, giving Sting and Giant the titles.

Rating: C-. Match was just ok but the illogical heel turns are getting annoying really fast. There’s no reason for all these turns and the lack of ANY explanation so far is making them even worse. So now we have a WCW guy and an NWO Black and White guy holding the tag belts, meaning it’s now all on Sting to make a decision and presumably setting up Hall vs. Nash. Anyone want to bet on that match not happening?

Giant and Hall welcome Sting to the NWO but Sting doesn’t move to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. I watched this show about a year and a half ago and other than the Malenko stuff, I don’t remember a thing from it. The show isn’t that bad but NOTHING on it stands out at all. It’s a totally watchable show with some good matches sprinkled in and nothing horrible, but it comes off like one of the least important shows I can remember, doing little more than setting up Nitro. Find the Malenko/Jericho stuff though as it’s well worth seeing.

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Thunder
Date: May 14, 1998
Location: Whittemore Center Arena, Durham, New Hampshire
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Lee Marshall, Bobby Heenan, Mike Tenay

It’s the final show before Slamboree and we have even more drama in the NWO. This time it’s the Giant joining NWO Hollywood to help protect Hogan and get his hands on Kevin Nash at the same time. The latter makes little sense as Giant already has a match with Nash on Sunday but if you try to think too much about this stuff your head will explode. Let’s get to it.

The announcers talk for a bit about the end of Nitro and give us a quick preview of tonight’s show, including Savage vs. Sting.

We get a new version of Bischoff’s challenge, this one themed like an NWO announcement. Basically Bischoff is a martial arts expert and invites Vince to come break Eric’s limbs and choke him to death, so come to Slamboree. Expect to see this about a dozen times tonight.

Mando Guerrero, Eddie’s older brother, is disappointed by Eddie’s recent actions. Chavo has it tough enough due to being a second generation wrestler without having to be Eddie’s nephew.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Reese

Reese is Eddie’s handpicked opponent, selected for how similar he is to Chavo. Reese lumbers at Chavo but the smaller guy speeds around and fires off chops for no effect. Reese throws Chavo around with ease but Guerrero comes back with a springboard kick to the chest to stagger the giant. Chavo goes up but an Eddie distraction allows Reese to catch Chavo in the chokebomb for the fast pin.

Post match Ultimo Dragon, Eddie’s opponent on Sunday, comes out to stop Eddie from berating Chavo. Chavo walks away while Eddie is caught in the Dragon Sleeper.

We recap the “fan” attacks (Kanyon) on Raven over the last few weeks.

The announcers talk about Raven’s challenge for a Bowery Death Match on Sunday.

We also get a clip of Raven beating Page for the US Title at Spring Stampede and the ensuing brawls over the next few weeks. They also air Page’s promos on Raven from Thunder two weeks ago, the fight with the bullrope, JJ giving Raven a riot squad and the challenge for the Bowery Death Match. Are they running REALLY short on time tonight? They aired about seven minutes straight of videos of the feud.

Since that’s not enough on these two, here are Raven and the riot squad. He’s tired of hearing about DDP. What about Raven? This isn’t Dodge City and Page can’t string him up like Josey Wales. If Page wants him, come get him right now. Here’s Page through the crowd because he was just waiting at the top of the arena. Page dives over the squad to get at Raven but the beatdown is on almost immediately. That looks a lot like Austin diving over the cops to get at Vince a few months after this aired. Page gets hung by the bullrope.

Goldberg has to defend the US Title by running a Flock gauntlet on Sunday.

The Outsiders will actually be here tonight.

TV Title: Kenny Kaos vs. Fit Finlay

In case you didn’t think the other High Voltage member getting a title shot was stupid enough. Finlay grabs a nerve hold to start but Kaos comes back with a hiptoss before pulling Finlay away from the ropes. Finlay drags him to the floor by the hair for a quick pounding before taking Kaos back inside, getting two off a splash. Kaos gets the knees up to block a Vader Bomb and gets two off an atomic drop. The champion pounds away but misses a charge into the post, only to take it to the floor where Rage helps out his partner. Back in and Finlay hits the rolling senton and the tombstone to retain.

Rating: D. Nothing match as Finlay didn’t sell anything Kaos did and easily beat him after getting double teamed. This wasn’t really even a squash with Kaos getting in some offense but to no effect. I still don’t get why Finlay was champion anyway as he hadn’t really done anything significant prior to winning the title.

We see Savage calling out Bret from a few weeks ago.

Here’s a live action person dressed as a character from the animated movie Quest For Camelot to hand out t-shirts. This doesn’t seem to be announced to anyone in the arena, but why would they need to know who this big viking looking guy is?

US Title: Sick Boy vs. Goldberg

Sick Boy goes right for the champ and actually takes him down with a snapmare. We get a nerve hold but Goldberg easily fights up. A pair of dropkicks stagger him but Goldberg comes back with a gorilla press, setting up a bad looking spear and the Jackhammer to retain the title.

The Flock swarms Goldberg but he takes down Riggs, scaring everyone else off.

Saturn says he uses a basic side kick like people have been using for thousands of years. He didn’t steal it from Glacier or any other reject from a video game.

Chris Adams vs. Saturn

Before the match Kidman asks Adams if he wants to lose to the Rings of Saturn or the Death Valley Driver. Adams doesn’t say anything so Kidman picks the Death Valley Driver, which will be set up by the Cryonic Kick and there’s nothing Glacier can do about it. Security holds Van Hammer back from getting in the ring. They trade hammerlocks to start as Tony rips apart the Flock for being a bunch of spoiled brats as children.

Saturn catches an incoming boot to the ribs but Adams takes him down with an enziguri for two. Adams misses a top rope knee drop and Kidman hands Saturn a chair. Saturn gets a springboard into the corner for a clothesline before sending Chris out to the floor. Adams comes back with some right hands but gets sent into the ropes, setting up the superkick and Death Valley Driver for Saturn’s pin.

Rating: C. Better match than expected here with Adams at least being game out there. I like the idea of Saturn calling his finish but it would be better if it was in a feud with ANYONE but Glacier. Was there no one else out there you could have use a superkick to set up a feud with Saturn at all? Not a bad match at all though.

This week in WCW Motorsports because all WCW fans care about car racing.

Robbie Rage vs. Chris Benoit

Apparently Nitro will be split in two on Monday with one hour from 7-8 and one hour from 11:30-12:30. Rage no sells some chops to start and gorilla presses Benoit down with ease. An overhead belly to belly has Benoit in even more trouble and it’s off to a half crab from Rage. Kaos is nowhere to be seen for some reason tonight. Rage loads up a powerslam but rams Benoit back first into the corner instead of slamming him down. Benoit avoids a top rope splash and there’s the Swan Dive followed by the Crossface for the submission.

Rating: D+. Nothing special to see here but Rage got in far more offense than he should have. This was out of the 1995 Randy Savage playbook: get destroyed for most of the match and then hit a big move for the win. It doesn’t do much for Benoit but at least he got the win going into his title match on Sunday.

Here’s Eric Bischoff with his fists up and something to say. The announcers talk about the challenge but aren’t sure if they should support Bischoff or not. Bischoff talks about Vince sending guys where Vince knows Eric won’t be, but he’s received a letter from Vince’s lawyers, saying that Vince will NOT be at the PPV and stop promoting him as such. Bischoff says ok but Doug Dillinger will still be there to guard the door and make sure Vince gets to the ring safely. The announcers still aren’t sure what to say.

Buy the Outsiders shirt!

Tag Titles: Outsiders vs. Public Enemy

And there’s no Hall. Nash complains about politics in the back with Bischoff and Hogan keeping Hall off live TV. However, they can’t stop him from being at the PPV for some reason so Hall WILL be at Slamboree. He stops to talk about how sexy he looks tonight and brings out his replacement partner for the night: Dusty Rhodes. Rocco starts for the challengers as Dusty chills on the floor.

Nash throws Rock into the corner and chokes him with the boot before firing in some elbows for two. More corner choking ensues before Public Enemy double suplexes Nash down. Rhodes pulls Grunge to the floor and the Jackknife to Rocco followed by the Bionic Elbow retains the titles. Heenan: “DUSTY IS 1-0!”

Rating: D. This was barely long enough to rate but it was basically a joke match. The fans popped for Dusty so I guess the Wolfpack is officially a face group. They’re definitely faces in the NWO but it wasn’t entirely clear if they were faces overall. It’s nice to see the belts defended at all though as I don’t think they’ve been on the line since February.

Sting vs. Randy Savage

We get a lot of pyro before the entrances. Savage jumps Sting in the aisle and I don’t think there was a bell. They head inside with Sting taking over and backdropping Savage down. Savage rakes the eyes and takes it back to the floor with Sting sending Randy into the barricade and actually hitting the Splash against the steel. That might be the only time I’ve ever seen that connect in WCW. Back in and the Stinger Splash misses but Sting comes back with an elbow to the jaw. Not that it matters as here’s Bret Hart with a chair for the fast DQ. Match was just over two minutes long.

Giant comes in to save Bret from Savage, only to have Nash come in to save Savage with a chair shot. Sting hits Nash with the chair, leaving just Sting and Giant standing. Giant gets a mic and says that once they win the tag titles, Sting has a decision to make. He throws Sting a black and white t-shirt and Sting doesn’t immediately say no. Giant leaves so Luger comes out to try to talk reason into Sting.

The Bischoff challenge to McMahon ends the show.

Overall Rating: D+. Well let’s see: we get no explanation from Giant, the only major story development is for what happens after the tag title match, we saw two High Voltage matches for some reason, and nothing new was added to the PPV. This show just didn’t need to happen, which is the case with almost all of the Thunder shows anymore.

Here’s Slamboree if you’re interested:

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Impact Wrestling
Date: October 3, 2013
Location: Verizon Arena, Little Rock, Arkansas
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’re still in Arkansas and the main story is still Dixie Carter vs. Hulk Hogan, despite us only having three more Impacts until the biggest show of the year. Tonight is about Hogan’s decision on whether or not to join Dixie’s side in whatever she thinks she’s doing. If we’re lucky we might even get Bully and AJ in the same ring for the first time for the build to their match. Let’s get to it.

We open with the customary recap of last week’s events.

Here’s AJ to address the crowd. He can appreciate Hogan trying to come out here last week and smooth things over, but then Dixie Carter came out and showed her true colors. AJ isn’t here to talk about Dixie or Hogan though. Instead he wants to talk about his opponent at Bound For Glory. What a refreshing idea. He knows exactly who Bully Ray is: the man that he’ll beat at Bound For Glory for the world title. Styles doesn’t have a contract right now and hasn’t even looked at the world title in over a year. He’s coming to get what’s his at Bound For Glory, but here’s Bully Ray to object.

Bully says Dixie is in AJ’s head because AJ is just hoping to win. If AJ was really in the game, he would know that he’s going to win rather than just hoping. AJ doesn’t have to worry about Dixie in San Diego though, because Bully will give him all he can handle. Look at what Ray has done to people like Hogan, Hardy or D-Von. What do you think he’ll do to a guy like Styles? AJ knows who he is: the man that beat AJ in a last man standing match two years ago. AJ has one thing Ray wants: he wants to take Styles away from the fans. Bully is sick of hearing the fans chant AJ, and there’s the chant again.

Styles says that Bully is just like Dixie Carter, but Ray takes that as a compliment. Dixie is a millionaire and a somebody while Bully is a millionaire and the World Heavyweight Champion. Ray goes OFF on AJ, ranting about how he’s going to beat AJ into the ground and send him back home to his trailer, wife and three kids. AJ thinks Ray is going to get killed in his match tonight against Samoa Joe, which is a surprise to Ray.

Magnus is going to run the EGO gauntlet tonight.

Dixie has AJ escorted out by security but he leaves on his own so he doesn’t have to breathe the same air Dixie is breathing.

Kenny King/Chris Sabin vs. Manik/Jeff Hardy

Austin Aries is on commentary. Manik and King get us going with Kenny taking him into the corner for some choking by Sabin. Chris comes in legally but the double team doesn’t work as King is caught in a springboard hurricanrana to send him into the corner. Off to Jeff to speed things up and hit a middle rope splash on King for two. Back to Manik for something resembling an octopus hold on King before rolling him up for two. King’s cut from last week has busted open again.

King snaps Manik throat first across the top rope before bringing Sabin back in for a basement dropkick. Manik is tied up in the Tree of Woe so Sabin can stand on his crotch for some torture and a two count. Back to King for some right hands before Sabin comes back in for some choking in the corner.

Chris runs into a boot in the corner and a middle rope dropkick (Aries: “Right in the brain stem!”) puts Sabin down. Hardy comes in off the hot tag and cleans house with the sitout gordbuster on King for two. Sabin breaks up the Twist attempt on King as everything breaks down. Manik sends Sabin to the floor and hits his double chicken wing gutbuster on King, setting up the Swanton for the pin at 7:07.

Rating: C+. This was fine and set up whatever match we’re going to see for the title at Bound For Glory. Kenny King doesn’t really fit into the three former world champions against the X-Division Champion but it’s not the worst idea in the world. It could bring some blood into the division which has been anemic for years now.

Post match Sabin goes after Manik but Aries makes the save. Austin asks for a four way match with Manik, Sabin, Hardy and himself for the title at Bound For Glory.

Sting and Hogan have a legends powwow about what Hogan should do. Hulk declares Dixie worse than Bischoff before a girl delivers a gift from Dixie. It’s a watch, the same one that Dixie gave Sting as a retirement gift. Hogan: “She is worse than Bischoff. He never gave me anything.”

We look at EGO jumping Magnus last week. Later in the night Sting asked Magnus what happened. Magnus says they’re in his head and he wants all three of them on his own next week (tonight). He’s icing his knee but says it’s just tweeked.

EGO vs. Magnus

It’s a gauntlet match with Daniels up first. Magnus jumps Daniels in the corner but Chris comes back with elbows to the neck. Daniels gets shouldered down and asks for a breather, only to get kicked in the ribs for his efforts. Chris goes to the throat to slow the Brit down before bulldogging him throat first on the top rope. We hit the chinlock for a bit before Daniels can’t hit Angel’s Wings. Magnus comes back with a clothesline but jumps into the Koji Clutch. He’s right next to the ropes though so Daniels goes up for the BME, only to land on Magnus’ bad leg. The Falcon’s Arrow eliminates Daniels at 3:55.

Kazarian is up next and Magnus doesn’t wait for him to get to the ring. We take a break and come back with Kazarian raking the eyes to escape a press slam. A dropkick puts Magnus down again for two but he comes back with right hands out of the corner. Magnus punches him down and drops the top rope elbow for two. He goes up but gets kicked in the chest, only to roll through Fade to Black into the Cloverleaf for the submission at 12:37 total.

Last up is Bobby Roode but Kaz clips Magnus’ knee and crunches it in between his own legs. Roode goes after the leg as we take a break. Back with Roode still working on the knee like a smart heel would. Roode can’t get a figure four, allowing Magnus to fight up and hit another Falcon’s Arrow for a quick two. He tries the Cloverleaf again but can’t sit down on it like he should.

Bobby punches at the bad leg to escape but gets shoved off during a superplex attempt. Magnus misses the top rope elbow and gets caught in the Crossface. Just as he’s about to make the rope, Roode pulls him back and puts on an ankle lock with a grapevine for the submission at 23:08.

Rating: B-. This match was more long than good but the idea was right. You can’t have Magnus beat all three guys in a row on a bad leg so the ending was the right call. This came off a bit like Benoit vs. Angle at the 2003 Rumble where Benoit didn’t so much get beat as much as he got caught. Very good showing by Magnus here which is what he needed at this point.

Magnus is mad post match but here’s Sting with something to say. The Brit won’t listen to reason so Sting says let’s go to the back and talk about this. Magnus says no with all due respect because he’s had enough. He says everyone in the Mafia sees something in him but it’s not really there. Sting, Joe and Kurt all passed the challenges given to him but Magnus has failed every time.

Sting tries to calm him down but Magnus says he doesn’t need another pep talk. Magnus says this is a results driven business but he’s not getting the results. Sting talks about needing the one big match and he got it with Ric Flair but Magnus cuts him off. He saw the Flair match with his own eyes and has been watching Sting his whole career. Magnus was one step away from Bound For Glory but now who puts him on the map? Sting says he’ll do it at BFG and they shake hands.

Aries has a present for Hogan too: vegan vitamins. Maybe even a prayer or two would help Hogan make the right decision. Aries talks about Hogan doing the right thing over his entire career and says tonight is all black and white.

Video on Hogan’s history in TNA.

Sabin won’t be at ringside for Velvet’s match tonight because he has to focus on his match at Bound For Glory.

We recap the gauntlet match.

EGO celebrates their win by singing their version of Roode’s theme song. They’re happy because Magnus is off somewhere crying. Also Roode is going to be the first inductee into the EGO Hall of Fame with the ceremony next week. It’s going to be a black tie affair with everyone dressed to the nines. Kaz: “Let’s make it to the tens!”

Brooke Tessmacher vs. Velvet Sky

Winner gets a title shot at BFG. Before the match here’s Lei’D Tapa to destroy Velvet so no match.

We get our first clip of Ethan who appears to be at a Hollywood store shopping but doesn’t seem impressed. We can’t see his face.

We recap Gunner and Storm’s run as tag champions.

Bound for Glory card.

Video on Angle’s career.

Samoa Joe vs. Bully Ray

Joe is apparently one of AJ’s Band of Brothers, because if there’s one thing TNA needs it’s another group. They shove each other around to start with Ray running his mouth too much and getting shoved out of the corner. Joe pounds away in the corner but misses a knee drop, only to put on the standing choke. Ray escapes and grabs the chain, only to have Hebner take it away so Ray can hit the Samoan low.

Back with Ray clotheslining Joe down but missing an elbow drop to give Joe a breather. Joe comes back with a kick to the face and a middle rope kick to the chest for two. The referee gets crushed in the corner as Joe hooks up the Clutch. Ray taps but there’s no referee, so naturally he lets go of the hold. Ray gets the chain around his hand and hits a middle rope ax handle, only to get caught for the DQ at 10:20.

Rating: D+. This didn’t have time to go anywhere and I have no idea what it was supposed to accomplish. Ray taps out and then loses on a DQ, so what in the world does this do for Bound For Glory? Nothing match here which is the last thing they needed to do for the world title match.

Post match Ray shoves the referee and sends Joe into the announce table. He pulls back the mats for a piledriver on the floor but AJ makes the save and celebrates with the fans.

Here’s Dixie to tell us we don’t know anything about business. Hulk Hogan however does know a little bit about it so please come out here and let’s take care of this. Hogan looks annoyed as Dixie says she can take him to the next level. He thanks her for the watch and talks about always wanting to be part of a power couple in this business. While it’s an amazing offer, he’s quitting. Hogan throws down the mic and walks away, leaving Dixie on her knees begging, because you can’t have Hogan on a wrestling show without worshiping him right?

Overall Rating: C-. This show did a good job of filling out the Bound For Glory card, but as usual there’s WAY too much of a focus on Hogan. Ray vs. Styles got its first bit of development and it lasted about five minutes before we got back to Dixie vs. Hogan for the REAL story. Hogan left but I’ll believe it’s for real when he’s not at Bound For Glory or the Impact taping after. Just like lat year the world title isn’t the focus of the show at all but in this case there isn’t another match to focus on which is making these final shows really dull to sit through. The lack of Aces and 8’s helped a bit though.

Results

Manik/Jeff Hardy b. Chris Sabin/Kenny King – Swanton Bomb to King

EGO b. Magnus – Ankle lock

Samoa Joe b. Bully Ray via DQ when Ray hit Joe with a chain

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of Complete Monday Nitro Reviews Volume I at Amazon for just $4 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for just $4 at: