TNA Bound For Glory 2016

I recorded this on my Sky+ Box back in November and, because I've got to make room for the 100+ unwatched episodes of Corrie I need to catch up on, I thought it best to get it watched.

Trevor Lee vs DJZ

This is for DJZ’s X Division title and does a pretty solid job of being a hot opener without being blowaway great. Lots of nice little touches, like Lee buying time by positioning himself behind the ref, preventing DJZ springboarding into the ring and allowing Lee to hit a big kick on the apron. They start slowly, but the pace starts to quicken and they take it in turns to hit some big dives in a fun spot; DJZ winning in the spectacular stakes. I did like the little underlying story of Lee constantly avoiding DJZ’s attempt at a rolling DDT, until DJZ is able to hit him with an insane Canadian Destroyer variant, leaving Lee loopy for the DDT and the DJZ victory.

10 Man Gauntlet

Winner of this gets a TNA World title shot whenever they want it. This was better than the previous years effort, which featured too much comedy and too many old guys running riot. Here, there were a few good underlying stories – Rockstar Spud trying his best to survive, scurrying around the ring and trying to strike up partnerships until his attempt to befriend Tyrus backfires. The Bromans have a fun brief face-off with the Tribunal and even a comedy spot of Grado getting thrown out right away makes sense as the heels spend too long mocking him, giving the faces time to recover. Jessie Godderz seems to hurt his hamstring, but still hits a boss springboard punch on Tyrus. Eli Drake picks up the win. This was fine.

Moose vs Mike Bennett

Wasn’t hugely taken with this. The omens are bad when Bennett looks to be falling short on a big flip dive, requiring Moose to hurry to catch him. I did enjoy Moose catching a Bennett crossbody and flinging him into a ringpost. There’s a brief moment where Bennett works the knee, but this lasts for a minute and is never referred to again. The end sequence just sees them taking it in turns to hit moves, before a rolling elbow wins it for Moose. Not great.

Eddie Edwards vs Aron Rex

This is the final of TNA’s tournament to crown their first Grand champion. The rules of the match are that there are 3 rounds of 5 minutes, with judges scoring each round. If there isn’t a winner after the three rounds, the judges scorecards will determine the winner.

So basically, we’re getting a 15 minute Damien Sandow match here, because you know the first title match is going to go to the limit to put over the gimmick. But you know what? This wasn’t bad. I had my doubts early on when Rex does a flip bump after Edwards hits an enzuigiri to the shoulder, but there was a fun little story running through this. Edwards takes the first round quite comfortably, showing more aggression, hitting a pair of nice dives and being in solid control when the round ends. The second round sees Rex having to up his game, knowing he’s a round down. Rex shows some nice aggression of his own here, hitting some vicious blows whilst holding Edwards in a headlock. Rex also goes after the knee of Edwards, which slows him down the rest of the match. At one point there’s a lighting issue, meaning TNA have to quickly put spotlights on both guys so the match can continue. When the light comes back, Edwards actually seems staggered for a few seconds, giving Rex the opening to avoid a top rope move. Don’t know if that was an audible, but it worked really well.

The scorecard is tied going into the final round, and Edwards is shown to have more guts than brains, hitting a top rope codebreaker with the bad knee, and jarring it when landing on his feet from the top. I did also like Edwards seeing a rolling elbow coming so, as soon as Rex completes his 360, Edwards levels him with a clothesline. As predicted, this goes the full 15, and Rex wins on the scorecards. This was a lot better than I’d have guessed.

The Broken Hardys (Matt, Jeff & Reby) vs Decay (Abyss, Crazzy Steve & Rosemary)

Aw man, I really feel like I’m going to get exposed as a grumpy old cynic, but this really was a load of old shit. Decay hitting a triple mist on Reby to take her out of the match both made sense (because she’s not a very good wrestler) and didn’t make sense (why wouldn’t they eliminate one of the actual threats to start?). This basically felt like a meaningless hardcore spotfest which everyone would shit over if it didn’t feature the Hardy Boys putting a terrible art-school level movie in the middle of it. I mean, Rosemary hits a coast-to-coast dropkick to send a dustbin into Matt’s face 3 minutes in, and it’s barely mentioned. There’s a long backstage film, where Abyss and Matt have a badly-lit, badly-shot brawl where Abyss’ punches still look like shit, whilst Jeff turns into some unbearable character after getting dowsed in water from the lake of rejuvenation. Things improve slightly back at the ring – liked Steve hitting a big cannonball into the steps on Jeff and Abyss chokeslamming his partner onto Matt looked good – but this was basically an average XPW match with some big stars pratting about, and it goes on and on for twenty minutes. By the time Jeff hits a swanton from a ladder to put Steve through a table to win, I was barely hanging on. This was rubbish.

Gail Kim vs Maria

This was only 5 minutes, but also felt like it went on too long. The story is that Maria is trying to get out of the match due to an injured arm, but her assistant Allie outs her by revealing the doctor had cleared her to compete. Maria instead blindsides Gail to start, but this feels like it should have been Gail making a comeback right away and pinning Maria for the belt. “Cowardly boss wins title and tries to avoid defending it” storylines should be paid off by the boss getting squashed, but here we get a few minutes of crap Maria offence (cracking spinebuster though, it has to be said), and then a messy finish involving Mike Bennett and Maria’s arm brace. Gail earns the win with Eat Defeat, but this wasn’t much fun.

Lashley vs EC3

In maybe the best moment of the show, Lashley spears EC3 out of the ring during his ring introduction, then stands in the middle of the ring posing whilst Jeremy Borash does HIS introduction. What a man. The story here is that EC3 has injured ribs already going into the match, but I actually wish they’d not mentioned that, as it makes his inconsistent selling feel more problematic. Liked EC3 getting the advantage outside the ring following a suicide dive, but Lashley hits a huge spinebuster on the ramp, then justs hurls EC3 up it towards the entrance. Both moves looked great. I like EC3, but he wasn’t great here – a few moves just came across as sloppy, especially a TKO on the stairs, and his rib selling becomes quite annoying when he does things like hit a frog splash – that would really hurt – and doesn’t acknowledge it. Lashley though, he’s a beast and looks like it, whilst at the same time being convincing enough in his selling to put EC3 over as a viable threat. That’s not always easy, but Lashley did that here. The end was pretty good, as EC3 tries to hit the 1%er off the top, but gets shoved down and bulldozed by a second rope spear to keep the TNA title on Lashley. 

TNA Bound For Glory 2015

Those of you who were reading this blog in it's formative days might have noticed I used to review a lot of TNA. In the days when I had minimal internet access and way before I had a load of streaming channels available, I had to basically rely on what I had available which, due to Lovefilm and Challenge TV, was mainly TNA. But until today, I'd not watched any recent TNA in a couple of years. I'd recorded this back in October, but never gotten round to watching it. However, having the house to myself for the weekend meant I worked through some of the stuff on my Skybox, and I decided to give TNA another go...

Tigre Uno vs Andrew Everett vs Manik vs DJZ

This is an Ultimate X match for Uno’s X Division title. Uno actually looks really sloppy at the start, with an attempted tornado DDT on Manik barely connecting. The crack TNA camera crew manage to miss a DJZ dive, before Everett hits all four men with a springboard shooting star to the floor. I like that it Everett who was the first up from that and going for the title, made it look like a wise tactical move. I like that as all four guys have taken some offence, they start going for the title believing the others might be suitably worn down, though Uno deciding against going for the X to hit a 450 to the floor on DJZ seems a bit dumb. The end sees Uno and Everett both at the title and Everett taking a huge bump to the mat to let Uno retain. Nothing spectacular, but a fun opener

Number One Contender’s Gauntlet

This seemed to be basically a “get everyone else on the card” match, and really wasn’t up to much. Too many generic looking wrestlers in black trunks not really doing much. It gets to the point where the arrival of Aiden O’Shea and Robbie E boost things a whole lot, with unique looks and, in Robbie’s case, a sudden burst of energy to the match. You also get the likes of Tommy Dreamer and Al Snow turning up and getting better reactions than the rest of the roster. It’s most glaring during a mid-match comedy spot where everyone does the Sheera Shuffle and the audience simply doesn’t care. Pope entering the match, realising that the only wrestlers not down were Abyss and Tyrus, who were both looking at him, and immediately exiting did raise a smile. The final two are Mr Anderson and Tyrus, which sees Tyrus basically no-sell Anderson’s offence and hit a thumb to the throat to win. Totally skippable.

The Wolves vs Trevor Lee & Brian Myers

This started off pretty evenly, until Lee hits a swank looking moonsault slam on Richards to take control. A large part of this match was fought in classic tag team formula, and when Lee and Myers worked heat on the Wolves, it was really good. Myers isn’t a particularly flashy wrestler, but he’s good at working tag formula, be it grounding his opponent to reduce the chance of them tagging out, or luring Richards into the ring to allow a beatdown on Edwards, grinning over the refs shoulder at Davey. This also led to the second hot tag of the night, as the sight of a recovering Edwards led both Myers and Lee tried to attack Richards on the apron, who dropped down, causing the heels to turn round to a shit looking two person rana by Edwards. I also liked the build of Myers stopping Richards diving on Lee, before Edwards sends Myers outside and the Wolves hit a double dive. Nice pay off. Sadly things do break down a bit in the final minutes, with just a load of moves leading to Richards pinning Lee with a brainbuster, but the meat of this bout was really fun.

Bobby Lashley vs Bobby Roode

Bit of a disappointment this one. I actually thought Lashley looked better than I remembered him, had good movement and some of his offence looked really good. I also liked his game plan of ramming Roode’s shoulder into the ringpost  and concentrating on it with a repeated keylock. However, it was the layout of the match that didn’t work. After Lashley dominated (included impressively plucking Roode out of midair and hitting a powerslam), he then hit a spear for two. Right away, Roode gets up and hits a Roode Bomb for 2. No build, just hoists a massive guy onto his injured shoulder and hits his finisher. From there, we get some awkward submission trading, both guys hitting the other’s finisher then Roode hitting another Roode Bomb for the win. Real anti-climax.

Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong

Match of the night to this point. Kong just plays brickwall to start, with Kim bouncing off her. I liked Kim instead going to the knee of Kong, slowing her down to give Kim time to hit a moonsault. I loved Kim locking a leglock on Kong then, realising Kong might make the ropes, switching to a front facelock. Really great looking nearfall as Kong blocks a top rope rana and instead hits a 2^nd rope splash. On the outside, Kim takes a nutty bump as Kong hits the Implant Buster on some chairs. Getting her back inside means Kong only gets a two from it, so tries for a top rope Implant Buster, which Kim reverses to a top rope Eat Defeat for the win. Really liked this, all logical work.

Eric Young vs Kurt Angle

This is a no DQ match, and the first few minutes of this were really good, some nasty looking brawling on the floor. Then Young hits a piledriver on Angle and it all goes to shit. They work an injury angle, with one doctor telling the ref to call off the match. Instead of doing that, the ref watches Angle get walked to the back, before Young assaults all the medical staff and drags Angle back to the ring. For some reason, the ref decides not to call off this match and allows Young to keep working over Angle’s severely injured neck. Some of Young’s offence looks suitably dickish. Loved him hitting a top rope elbow, then flipping Angle over and hitting an elbow right to the neck. Angle’s offence seems to rely mainly on German suplexes. I did think the end was good, with Angle managing to lock on the Ankle Lock. Young managed to grab the bottom rope, but was told there was no DQ for Kurt holding onto the move, and Angle dragged him back into the middle for the tapout.

EC3 vs Matt Hardy vs Drew Galloway

Main event and match of the night. Really well worked triple threat, and thankfully contained the bare minimum of “one man lies of the floor whilst the other two fight” spots. What it did have was a succession of great looking bumps and big spots that paid off. EC3 started the trend by driving himself and Hardy through the ropes to the floor to reverse a Twist of Fate, before Galloway follows them out with a massive tope. Galloway then reversed an attempted powerbomb through a table by EC3 to a Celtic Cross on the ring steps. Absolutely mental spot. I didn’t like Hardy deciding to try a backslide on Galloway, as it seemed to only happen to allow Drew to reverse to the Futureshock DDT. Another nutty spot as EC3 suplexed Hardy from the apron to the floor, through a table that Galloway was laying on. However, the failure of his big spots to earn him the win would cost EC3. After a double 1%er failed to earn him the win, he snapped, trying to provoke ref Jeff Hardy into assaulting him with a chair. It worked, as Jeff nailed him with the chair, causing Galloway to boot him out of the ring, only for Matt to hit the Twist of Fate to win the title. Really fun three way, and crucially all the big spots hit.

TNA Hardcore Justice 2014

I've reviewed a couple of these TNA One Night Only PPV's in the past, and I've always been glad we don't have to pay for them in the UK. The few I've seen have been too bitty and filled with short matches to be any good. This, however, had a card that looked pretty promising and it lived up to my expectations. Though it's not too grand a claim, this was easily the best of the PPV's I've seen so far.

Ethan Carter III vs Tommy Dreamer
I loved Carter stating hardcore is synonymous with the letters E...C...III. This is a tables match. Crowd loves some Dreamer, and he dominates proceedings until ECIII drops him crotch first on a guardrail. Carter tries a pinfall, but Earl Hebner has to remind him this is a tables match. ECIII is only in control briefly before a missed elbow lets Dreamer take over. Dreamer looks pretty good here on offence. Dreamer sets up a table outside the ring, but his attempt to suplex Carter through it gets blocked. Carter gets hung in a tree of woe inside the ring, before Dreamer dropkicks the table into his face, followed by a DDT. However, Dreamer takes a little too long to set up the table and ECIII reverses an Irish whip into the 1%er. Dreamer gets up but makes the mistake of charging Carter near the table, leading to a spinebuster through the table for the win. Pretty by the numbers, but both guys looked good here.

Chris Sabin vs Austin Aries
This should be good. They're billing this as an X-Division Escape match, which just means it's a cage match. I love Sabin trying to quickly escape following minor moves like a hiptoss or armdrag. Aries looks to be trying a similar tactic, only to leap off the top rope onto Sabin when he sees him coming. Aries really milks the build up of the Pendulum elbow, but still manages to hit it. Sabin takes control after blocking an escape attempt and powerbombs Aries into the cage in a nice spot. Sabin continues to use the cage as a weapon, dropkicking Aries into the walls. The thing I find with cage matches is that it's easy to transition from one guy to the other on offence, as the aggressor often stops attacking their opponent to try and escape, which gives the opponent a chance to take over. It happens here as Aries catches Sabin on the top rope and tries to climb out over him, before instead hitting a top rope standing Frankensteiner in a swank spot. Aries locks on the Last Chancery to wear Sabin out, but Sabin grabs his leg in desperation to try and stop him escaping the cage. This leads to Aries trying a brainbuster, but Sabin breaks and again uses the cage, which he rams Aries into head-first. Aries manages to get the brainbuster and NEARLY escapes before Sabin is able to stop him. Sabin uses his belt to tie Aries to the rope, but Aries escapes just before Sabin can win, and Sabin ends up crotched on the top rope, leading to an Aries victory. Really fun match here.

Bobby Roode vs Samoa Joe
This is to determine who gets the advantage in the Lethal Lockdown match later in the night. I love Roode goofily stooging to start as he gets outstriked by Joe. Joe dominates with his usual offence befoe Roode starts working over Joe's neck, hitting a blockbuster, a seated necksnap and working over a headlock. Joe isn't looking as motivated as he does nowadays, and there is no real change from his usual offence. We get a ref bump from Roode breaking the Kokina Clutch, and Roode fakes getting hit with a bin to draw the DQ win. I especially loved Roode waving at Joe from the mat from behind the referee. This was ok.

Velvet Sky vs Lei'D Tapa
I have low expectations here. This is a streetfight, and Sky tries a hit-and-run tactic on the larger Tapa, peppering her with some milky kicks. Tapa pretty much dominates the early going, using basic power offence to ram Sky into the ring steps and the apron. Tapa disappears to the back and gets a chair, before pulling some terrible scary faces. Tapa sets up a chair in the corner, but stupidly decides to charge at Velvet despite knowing this chair is behind her. Sky batters her with some timid chair shots, but Tapa shrugs them off, kicks a chair into Velvet's face and hits the TKO for a win. I liked the booking more than the wrestling, they made Tapa look like a monster here.

Eric Young & Joseph Park vs Bad Influence
This is a Full Metal Mayhem match. EY tells Park pre-match that he knows that he's Abyss and is going to make him bleed to psyche him up for the match. Bad Influence rush to the ring to stop this, pretty wisely, and give us one of the running themes of the match: EY wanting his partner to bleed and Bad Influence wanting to prevent that, This is tornado rules, but the heel team isolate one member of the opposition to keep an face-in-peril structure to the match. There are a few really nice moments in the match, with a Young dive to the outside onto both Daniels and Kazarian looking particularly choice. I also liked Daniels baseball sliding a ladder into EY on the outside, leading to a spot later where Young again tries to bring a ladder into the ring, but this time avoids both heels trying a baseball slide and instead nailing them both with it. The end sees Kaz threaten a Flux Capacitor from the top of a tall ladder on Young, only to get pushed off and EY nail a picture perfect elbow from the top of the ladder to win. After the match, Park starts to bleed. Uh-oh...

Bully Ray vs Mr Anderson
This is originally due to be a stretcher match, but Anderson rejects that, as being on a stretcher means Ray will get medical attention, and he doesn't want that. Instead, this is a last man standing match. Despite these words, this never really feels that heated, even with Bully making Anderson bleed and smearing the blood all over his own face. Some of Anderson's selling is also way too goofy, though he does look good making comebacks with litle spurts of offence. The spot where Ray and Earl Hebner get into a blazing row is also pretty incongruous for a heated brawl. There is some nice usage of weaponry, with Anderson nailing a rolling firemans carry, then a senton onto a guard rail for a count of 8. Hebner gets bumped, which predictably leads to Anderson downing Ray for more than a ten count (with a Mic Check onto the guard rail), but Bully hits a low blow and kicks Anderson into the ring steps in time for Hebner to recover and count Anderson out for ten. Both had good moments here, but this didn't really work.

Team Angle (James Storm, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle & Abyss) vs Team Roode (Jessie Godderz, Robbie E, Bobby Roode & Magnus)
I've listed the team members above in the order that they entered the match. I was pleased to see Godderz start with Storm, as he's ever improving and got the chance to look good in the opening section. He wrestles like his character, a preening jerk who will get angry if things aren't going their way, which I love to see. Joe looks far more motivated here than in his earlier match, and his section killing both Broman's is pretty fun. The middle section sort of dragged, as we got some unispired brawling, but the last two guys bringing in weapons is a nice touch and helps make the final part of the match even more interesting. Team Angle has a mystery man as their last member, which turns out to be Abyss, paying off the earlier angle nicely, and I loved Robbie E timidly brandishing a cheese grater as Abyss got in the ring. Joe had some fun with the weapons here, joining up with Storm and using a kendo stick to send a dustbin into the groin of the Bromans, before just punting a bin into Roode's face. A little run of finishers culminated in a great ending: Robbie E decided to run in fear from Abyss, only to walk directly into a Last Call superkick from Storm and get nailed by a Black Hole Slam by Abyss directly onto barbed wire. This got the win, as well as some magnificent selling of the spot by E. This ended up being really fun by the end.