TNA
Bound For Glory 2013
In
recent months TNA/Impact Wrestling has been the subject of much
debate. Talent have left, storylines have altered and the company's
future has been in doubt. The latest mystery was would Hulk Hogan
re-sign or not. However coem what may Dixie Carter and co. had to
deliver a hard-hitting Bound For Glory no matter what. So this past
Sunday (last night here in the UK on Challenge) we saw the fruits of
their labour.
First
up four tag teams battled it out for a shot at the doubles gold in a
'Gauntlet match'. The teams did their job here and we got to see how
well Chavo and Hernandez gel as a unit. The main points were Robbie E
and Jessie Godderz picking up the win and perhaps the moment when we
will finally see Joseph Park and Abyss reunite as a character.
Next
up the usually impressive Ultimate X match did what it is designed to
do and took early match of the night rights. Here we had Jeff Hardy
(in his first Ultimate X encounter) facing off against Samoa Joe,
Chris Sabin, Austin Aries and Manik. Now first up lets address the
fact that there were four former World Champs involved here and as
expected they delivered sterling efforts. The bumps, spots and high
impact moves were crisp, nicely paced and well planned. The finishing
sequence saw Sabin's girlfriend Velvet Sky get involved in
proceedings and allow him to steal the win and the belt.
The
TNA tag titles were then on the line as 'Gauntlet match' winners
Jesse and Robbie E tackled the formidable duo of James Storm and
Gunner. This was a decnt enough back and forth match that showed the
champs (Storm/Gunner) to their best and also let us see their
opponents positives too. The shock here was the duo of Mr E and
Godderz being able to unseat the popular Storm and Gunner as champs.
Kurt
Angle's Hall of Fame induction and return to TNA were highly
anticipated. However his induction was short lived as the man himself
declined the honour until he felt he is worthy of it.
The
Knockouts Division in TNA was once the section of the show that
grabbed ratings due to its talent. This has dwindled of late, but
here we had three of the company's best ODB, Gail Kim and Brooke
Tessmacher in a cat fight for the strap. Brooke has come on leaps and
bounds recently, Gail Kim is a real pro and ODB can brawl with the
best of them. This was a nicely worked battle and Kim's win via an
assist by Lei'd Tapa really opens up the division once again.
Kurt
Angle's return to the ring against Bobby Roode was and
intense affair. It may not have lived up to expectations, but it did
give us fans a chance to see what both me have to offer and that
Angle is not invincible. His loss will surely mean he has a program
with Roode upcoming and that will be worth the wait.
I'll
quickly gloss over the Ethan Carter/Norv Pernum match as it really
was meaningless.
Main
Event Mafia men Sting and Magnus (the UK's biggest wrestling star in
2013) then battled out their differences in a pretty reasonable bout.
The action was back and forth and each man attempted to lock in their
finisher. The end saw Sting tap out and two eventually embrace.
The
World Title 'No DQ' encounter between Bully Ray and AJ Styles rounded
things off nicely. Both men pulled out all of the stops to give fans
what they wanted. We got high-risk moves, career shortening spots and
of course the inevitable run-ins from the remaining members of Aces &
Eights. There was also an appearance by 'heel' Dixie Carter, who
brought a steel chair into the fray. Styles however overcame it all
to net himself his second world championship.
The
show went off the air with AJ celebrating with the elated fans.
Bound
For Glory was a perfectly reasonable affair. Some matches were
predictable, a few disappointed, but we did see many title changes
and storylines altering for the better. The big thing is how will TNA
tackle the AJ contract situation, do they really need Hulk Hogan back
on the roster and can they rebuild the damage the recent lay-offs
have created to the company. The next few months will be very
important for TNA and its fans .
By Phil Allely
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment