TNA Bound For Glory 2024

Yeah, we’re doing this show.

So, I will be confess a bit here. I had a lot of this written down back in October when this show was taking place and I was mostly enjoying it until the main event finish that left me… well… so I canned this, held it off for later, and then something magical happened. Joe Hendry won the TNA World title at Genesis 2025 and then got the biggest pop of his career at the Royal Rumble. You know what? Good for Joe. He’s got a future in WWE once his TNA run is done.

So now we’re going back to this show when TNA had just one job and they bungled it. They eventually course-corrected because… well, let’s be honest. TNA World Champion DOLPH ZIGGLER wasn’t getting that big a pop. But we’re revisiting this show and we’re going to pretend that this show is still fresh in my mind… mostly because I’ve had emotion penned in and I don’t want to ruin that emotion just yet.

Anyhoo… here we go.

X-Division Champion “Speedball” Mike Bailey defeated well-known Lucha guy El Hijo del Vikingo to retain the title. Obviously, with Vikingo coming in for a one-shot deal, the chances of the title changing hands wasn’t going to happen, but the point was to give Bailey a surprise opponent that would give him a run for his money before Speedball overcame those odds and emerged victorious. And the match itself was pretty damned good and I enjoyed it tremendously, so no complaints so far. I’m saving those for later.

Knockouts Tag Champs Spitfire (Dani Luna and Jody Threat) defeated Rosemary and NXT import Wendy Choo to retain the tag titles. The only thing I know about Choo – because I don’t want NXT regularly – is that she used to have a sleeping gimmick, which explains the pillow, but now she’s possessed by demonic forces or something. It sounds stupid, but I’ve heard of worse gimmicks. The match was alright. Obviously not as good as the opener, but all four gave their best shot and it was still a perfectly acceptable tag match. Again, never a point where the titles were in danger of changing hands.

Josh Alexander defeated Steve Maclin via submission in a very good match tainted with some foolishness, such as a low blow and binding of Maclin’s wrists via zip line that did NOT warrant a DQ… although I will admit that seeing the wrist-bound-behind-his-back Maclin pulling off his Scud move was pretty sweet. That’s a minor gripe, though. The match, as a whole, was very good with two top-tier talents plying their craft and putting on a great showing.

Josh Alexander’s contract in TNA would expire this year. Good luck to him wherever he goes.

TNA Digital Media Champion and International Wrestling Champion PCO defeated Matt Cardona (decked out in Ghostbusters gear for some reason) in a Monster’s Ball match (basically a hardcore match) to retain both titles. Weapons were used. Both guys fought outside. Thumbtacks were eventually sprayed out and Cardona ended up taking the fall on the tacks… so that’s what the outfit was for; smart man. For something that’s supposed to feel like a big rivalry, this was a bit on the weak side of things, but as a hardcore match, it was a fun bit of violence while it lasted, so… yeah, I liked it.

PCO would be gone from TNA after showing up at a GCW show to smash his Digital Media title. Oops.

Mike Santana defeated MOOSE in a very good match that I feel gave Santana that standout match he needed to solidify his singles run. Honestly, I’ve been impressed with the guy’s work and hope he continues to find success in his run. Also helps that he had a great opponent in MOOSE, who is always a superb athlete and talent. Good stuff.

Masha Slammovich defeated Knockouts champion Jordynne Grace to win the title. Grace had defeated Masha at the previous year’s BFG and this is Masha getting her win back… the title is a bonus, I suppose. Both hug out in a form of respect, making me wondering if Grace is on her way out of TNA soon. Honestly, if that’s the case, I wouldn’t be surprised if NXT comes a calling and she shows up there afterwards. She seemed like a good fit and can do great things there while Masha can continue to build her stock with the new title. Very good hard-hitting match between two brickhouses not named Kamille… who is probably yearning for the glory days of reigning as NWA Women’s Champion for two years instead of being Mercedes’ heavy and just another underutilized talent on the AEW women’s roster. At least she’s getting paid.

And then we get the main event… the thing that soured me on the whole show.

TNA World Champion Nic Nemeth defeated Joe Hendry to retain the title with an assist from JBL. Frankie Kazarian was the special referee for this thing, but he also won the Call Your Shot gauntlet which gave him a MiTB-style title shot that he could cash in at any time. Naturally, Kaz got greedy, decided to cash in when both men were down at one point, only to be met with a Clothesline from Hell courtesy of JBL, who then promptly CFH’ed Joe… all the while Nemeth was down, so he didn’t know any of this was happening. In the mind of the smart storyteller, this was one more hurdle for Hendry to overcome and there’d be a bit more action before Hendry hit his move and scored the pin to win the title, sending everyone home happy…

Except that’s not what happened.

Instead, Hendry tried for his finisher, but Nemeth escaped and hit his own finish for the pinfall win, retaining the title and pissing off the Detroit crowd who were firmly behind Joe Hendry and wanted to see him get his big moment. And as that happened, that’s when I stopped the show, assuming it was the main event and then decided to hold off on this musings until today, I suppose. Seeing Hendry fail to win also tainted TNA for me, as I gave up on the show almost immediately. All I thought was… those motherfuckers did it to me again. They got my hopes up for a good thing going and then they went ahead and messed it up. LOLTNA, indeed.

Fortunately, TNA eventually got around to doing the right thing and started 2025 good by giving Joe Hendry the World title he should have gotten much earlier… which, in turn, opened the door to his appearing at the Royal Rumble as the TNA World Champion, getting a few licks in, entertaining Sheamus enough, before getting stonewalled by Jacob Fatu and tossed by Roman Reigns. On the flip side, Joe Hendry probably got the biggest pop of the night for someone who isn’t a big name talent and people were actually into his act.

Now if that had been the main event, then it’d be a real shitty way to end the show… Alas, it’s not the main event, because we have one more match on the card to write off.

Instead, the main-event saw long-tenured tag-team Matt and Jeff Hardy defeat reigning TNA Tag-Team Champions Brian Myers and Eddie Edwards and ABC (Ace Austin and Chris Bey – who would suffer an injury in a follow-up match. All the best to him) in a Full Metal Mayhem ladder match thing by retrieving the titles to win their umpteenth tag team championships. Yes, THE HARDYS won tag team gold in 2024… and they looked old and haggard. The match was about 27 minutes, but felt like it ran for 27 years. It was a slow, plodding match where there was a lot of gimmicks painted in colors that made me think Jeff Hardy was taking some substances (I truly hope that isn’t the case and this is just a quip made in poor taste) and the action wasn’t very good, either. Remove the Hardys from the picture and you could’ve had a more than fine tag match between ABC and the System, but then it wouldn’t have been a Bound for Glory main event. Meanwhile, a day earlier, TNA alumni tag team Motor City Machine Guns, on their second night on Smackdown, not only won a tournament to earn tag title shots against the Bloodline, but also WON said titles. Mind you, it was due to an assist from Jey Uso, who was mostly costing the Bloodline the titles as revenge their involvement in his match with Bron Breakker that saw Bron win the IC title from Jey, but the Guns winning the WWE Tag Titles on their second night as WWE Superstars is a big deal regardless and only serves to prove that WWE does a better job of handling former TNA talent than TNA does their current roster… which isn’t much of a surprise since…LOLTNA.

Bound For Glory 2024 was a good but unremarkable show that had a feelgood moment in Masha winning the KO title… but the people wanted to see Joe Hendry get his moment and that didn’t happen. And that tainted the whole show for me… not only that, but to follow it up with a rather bad TLC match that saw THE HARDYS WIN TAG TEAM GOLD IN 2024 and have that be the main event is the utmost lesson in stupidity. I want to say that if you’re going to watch this show, stop after the Masha/Grace match and you’ll get a superb PPV showing. Go beyond that and you’re topping that show with an unhealthy dose of penicillin.