In 2017, TNA was acquired by Anthem Sports and one of the things they did was ditch the TNA name in favor of IMPACT Wrestling, which would be the company name until 2023 when the decision was made to revert back to the TNA name. Despite this change, some people continued to call the company by its older, more recognizable name. As much as I tried to call it IMPACT, TNA popped in and out it went. Therefore, for the sake of simplicity, I will continue to refer to the company as TNA for the rest of these musings.
And then there was Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling endeavor… which may or may not still be a thing depending on what time of day you ask Jeff Jarrett these days. And while you’re at it, ask him if Global Force Gold is still a thing.
Shortly after the TNA name was ditched, there was allegedly some sort of deal that would see both Impact and Global Force merge into one major promotion and for a time, the company would be known as GFW. The banner that is gracing this post was done years ago when I had some consideration in giving the Bound For Glory show a watch. It ended up not happening and the banner was left unused. But eventually, things fell apart, all mention of Global Force was scrubbed, and the company was back to being Impact Wrestling, which would stick for the next few years until going back to TNA in 2024.
In any event, we’ve got another Bound For Glory show; the first one in the proper Anthem era that is surprisingly still going to this very day, though for how long is another story that won’t be told here because this is not about today. It’s about yesterday. And also, Jeff Jarrett and Global Force Gold is no longer with the company, but the banner stays the same because who really gives a shit at this point?
Worth noting that this Bound For Glory show is taking place in Canada and so the ropes are red and white. You’d think that Anthem – a Canadian company – would provide their homeland audience a strong showing of their new acquisition, but alas…
X-Division Champion Trevor Lee defeated Sonjay Dutt, Garza Jr., Petey Williams, Matt Sydal, and Dezmond Xavier in a six-way clusterfuck to retain the title.
Japanese talent Taiji Ishimori defeated some guy named Tyson in a quick match that just sort of exists to fill time. And that’s it.
Abyss defeated Grado in a Monster Ball hardcore match, which we’ve seen plenty of over the years, so it’s nothing new. Grado, for those who don’t know, is a comedy guy with a round build who’s mostly known for being comedy fodder and people like him for some reason. I never got the appeal, but then again, I don’t watch enough indy wrestling to get the appeal of a lot of these odd acts. See also; Hausen, Dan.
Team Impact (Ethan Carter III/Eddie Edwards/James Storm) defeated Team AAA (Pagano/Texano/El Hijo De Fantasma) in a six-man battle of brand supremacy, with the loser having to be purchased by WWE at some point in the next decade. I jest, of course… or do I? As for the match… well, it exists. It’s not what I would call bad, but my brain turns off with these brand supremacy things because as a rule of thumb, they never lead anywhere and honestly, I just didn’t care… which is a bit of a recurring problem.
Tag Champions OVE (Jake Something and Dave Something) defeated LAX (Mike Santana and Ortiz) to retain the titles in what may very well be the first genuinely good match that I actually cared about to some degree. Obviously, Santana and Ortiz would eventually make their way over to AEW for a special and Santana would return to TNA years later as a prominent singles run, so there’s a curiosity of seeing these guys in their prime TNA days.
Gail Kim defeated Knockouts Champion Sienna and Allie to win the title for the 281,861,753th time… which is about 38,889 titles more than what Baby Flair presently holds, so that’s something, I guess. Can we have someone else win the KO title at Bound For Glory? This stream of Gail Kim title wins at BFG is putting fucking STIIIINNNNGGGG to shame at this point.
Bobby Lashley/King Mo defeated Stephan Bonnar/Moose in a cage match that somehow has a bunch of run-ins from a bunch of MMA guys, which defeats the whole purpose of having a steel cage match, which is to keep guys outside from interfering. They pushed this thing as a big deal and it was just… I don’t know. I didn’t care. Whatever. Moving on.
TNA World Champion Eli Drake (that’s LA Knight for you WWE kids out there) defeated Johnny “Man Of 1,004 Names” Impact to retain the title with an assist from Alberto Del Patron and a chairshot to Johnny. You know, this match was just going by just fine until that stupid finish, which is apropo considering the rest of this stupid show.
Some of you might not remember this, but I tuned in to the first episode of the new Anthem-era of Impact. I wrote about my feelings on that show, which was largely fucking horrible. And you know what? I figured that seven months or so after that initial program, Anthem would figure the whole wrestling thing out and give us a much improved show… or at the very least, something I can enjoy as a standalone PPV event, which I can safely say about a great many PPVs including a couple BFGs. But I get neither impression with this BFG show.
This might actually be worse than the Wrestle-1 show in 2014.
Dreadful effort. Better luck next year… which we’ll be touching on next week.
Later.
