TNA Bound For Glory 2015
October 4, 2015
Caburrus Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina
You might wonder why Bound For Glory happens to be TNA’s biggest PPV of the year. It seems a little arbitrary that their October PPV happens to be the one they refer to as their biggest, especially when their June event is considered their anniversary event. It’s clear why WrestleMania is WWE’s biggest – it was their first PPV. Well, for TNA it happens to be the opposite – Bound For Glory was their last. Their first monthly PPV was Victory Road in November 2004 so Bound For Glory was the last PPV in their yearly cycle. It was the big culmination of all that happened that year – all roads and stories led to Bound For Glory (Bound For Glory was also to be the name of the show where Hulk Hogan was supposed to wrestle Jeff Jarrett in 2003 before Hogan pulled out).
This year it feels less like the last year was building toward Sunday’s big show and more like the last two weeks. However, putting aside the mediocre at best build this year has an extremely solid card with nearly every match having the potential to be at the very least good. Sunday’s PPV may not be remembered for having a bevy of very well-built matches but hopefully it will be remembered for having a bevy of good matches. -Garrett Kidney
Meet our previewers:
- Garrett Kidney (@GarrettKidney): Voices of Wrestling’s TNA/Impact Wrestling lead writer. Garrett is not only the foremost expert on TNA, he’s probably watched more TNA than anyone else in the world.
- Joey O’Dohrety (@AwesomeoJoe): Joey is a columnist at Voices of Wrestling, specializing in wrestler profiles.
Bound For Gold Gauntlet Match
Abyss vs. Aiden O’ Shea vs. Chris Melendez vs. Jessie Godderz vs. Mr Anderson vs. Mahabali Shera vs. Tyrus vs. Eli Drake vs. Robbie E
Garrett Kidney: It’s the get everybody on the show match! I like a lot of people in this match more than probably most but this is unlikely to be anything more than inoffensive midcard filler. It seems an odd place to debut Jay Bradley’s new Aiden O’Shea character without any hype but it’s not like he’s going to win or anything. With the much speculated Indian tour potentially coming up for TNA it seems to make most sense that Shera will win and get his title shot there (assuming the tour does indeed happen but Dixie Carter is making a “major” announcement on Monday).
Prediction: Mahabali Shera
Joey O’Doherty: Is the match meaningless? Probably. Is it thrown together at the last-minute? Yes. Will I enjoy it? More than likely.
I personally enjoy this type of filler match and hopefully one of the younger guys gets the rub and goes over. I’m very intrigued at Jay Bradley’s new character, Aiden O’Shea, though this match isn’t an ideal way to debut him. No idea who will win to be honest, and even though Garrett makes a great point above about the India tour and Shera, I doubt TNA have thought that far ahead. So I’ll go against Garrett by throwing my money on Eli Drake, though it really could go to anyone depending on the mood of who’s booking it.
Prediction: Eli Drake
TNA X-Division Championship
Andrew Everett vs. Manik vs. DJ Zema Ion vs. Tigre Uno©
Garrett Kidney: Here’s a fun fact, with the exception of 2011 the odd-numbered year Bound For Glory’s (2005, 2007, 2009, 2013 and now 2015 with 2007 and 2009 battling for which of them has been the best) have all featured an Ultimate X match. And pretty much all of them have felt as throwaway as this one. Though that is essentially how TNA have treated Ultimate X since 2006 – a throwaway match to get lots of X-Division guys on a particular show. Not to mention they’ve become steadily tamer and less interesting as the years have gone by. In spite of some recent solid performances from Uno, he should drop the title here. He’s simply not consistent enough to carry the division. The question is of the other three, who does he lose it to? Realistically any of the three would do the job but it seems unlikely that they’d put the title on Everett in his first match with the company. That leaves two of the more underused people in the company – and I think Manik is the perfect guy to try to help reenergize the X-Division again.
Prediction: Manik
Joey O’Doherty: While Tigre Uno is a solid performer at best, his whole reign as X Division champ has been lacklustre, with no real feud for him since he captured the title back in June. While this match stinks of a last-minute match to tick the X Division box for the show, it still has potential to be highly entertaining considering who is involved. The division needs a jump-start badly and maybe a title change could be a way of breathing new life into the former cornerstone of TNA. A title change to either Manik or Ion would be more or less the same as Tigre retaining, so I’ll gamble that Everett comes up trumps on his debut.
Prediction: Andrew Everett
TNA World Tag Team Championships
Trevor Lee and Brian Myers vs. The Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards)©
Garrett Kidney: If you’re wondering why there are still Global Force wrestlers on this show, this is officially considered Myers and Lee’s rematch. These two teams had a handful of really fun sprints on TV this year but have yet to have a match long enough for them to really sink their teeth into. The Wolves have been the heartbeat of Impact all year – one of the only acts capable of really springing the show to life with their presence and energy, Trevor Lee is great and Myers is a really solid hand. There is absolutely no reason why this shouldn’t be a very fun match. It seems unlikely that The Wolves are going to lose to the Global Force team, unless they are looking for an excuse to keep Lee and Myers around even after Jarrett and company are gone.
Prediction: The Wolves
Joey O’Doherty: With Richards and Edwards being one of the only consist performers this year from TNA, I expect to be at the very least entertained when Trevor Lee and the former Curt Hawkins stroll into Bound for Glory for their rematch. Lee is a fantastic talent and I’d like to see more of him and Myers, and if TNA are smart they will keep them on board. That being said, I think they will be heading for defeat here as I can’t see past The Wolves retaining.
Prediction: The Wolves
Kurt Angle vs. Eric Young
Garrett Kidney: Ever since TNA announced Angle would be wrestling at Bound For Glory, I’ve essentially been sitting with my fingers crossed muttering “Please not against Eric Young” to myself over and over. It’s not that Angle and Young have had bad matches together, and it’s not like they would have a bad match together at Bound For Glory – it’s that their three singles matches together this year (and a handful of multi person matches) have been more than enough Angle vs. Young for me. And then they went and announced Angle vs. Eric Young. Well at least it should be a good match. There’s that I suppose.
Prediction: Kurt Angle
Joey O’Doherty: When this match was announced as Kurt versus a mystery opponent, I had a nice time speculating who I’d like the mystery opponent to be. However any dreams I had came crashing down when it was revealed to be Eric Young.
Young, fresh off his painful feud with Chris Melendez, has go away heat at this stage and given that this match has no build, I’ve no reason to care. On the other hand, if TNA are going to wheel out a broken down Kurt Angle in an effort to generate some PPV buys, surely they can use him in a better way than this.
Prediction: Kurt Angle
TNA Knockouts Championship
Awesome Kong vs. Gail Kim©
Garrett Kidney: A rematch of the feud that single-handedly justified the existence of the Knockouts division. The feud that established the reputation of the Knockouts division as a home of quality women’s wrestling long past the point it actually deserved it. In many ways the Knockouts division is still living off the reputation of those Kong/Kim matches. And here we are in 2015 with both ladies going at it once again. Bar a throwaway match back in April (which in retrospect now seems even sillier to have booked) this is the first time these two have wrestled since August 2008 and the first time on PPV since their excellent Final Resolution match in January 2008. So it begs the question, can these two deliver the same magic they did back then? The chemistry will certainly be there and there is no doubt about how good Gail Kim is, but Awesome Kong has at times looked like a shadow of her former self since her return in January. However these two will feel the weight of expectation. They should want to do the legacy of their past matches justice. Their old matches were characterised by Kong’s sheer presence and Kim’s tremendous underdog performances – those qualities and their chemistry together should still exist in 2015. I’m very intrigued to see how this match goes. Kim only just won the title so it would be fairly pointless for her to lose it so quickly (though of their six prior matches, Kim has only pinned Kong once).
Prediction: Gail Kim
Joey O’Doherty: With potential to be a show stealer, I will personally look forward probably most on the show. If given time and once it’s not over booked, these two can tear the house this Sunday. With the bar raised for women’s wrestling thanks to the ladies of NXT, I expect both ladies to bring their A game this Sunday and deliver a fantastic match, and I’ll go against Garrett’s prediction of a Gail Kim victory and give the win to Awesome Kong just to be different.
Prediction: Awesome Kong
TNA King of the Mountain Championship
Bobby Lashley vs. Bobby Roode©
Garrett Kidney: While on the surface it would appear to be the case, it would be a little unfair to Roode and Lashley to say their matches together have suffered from diminishing returns. Yes, each successive match has been worse than the last but it hasn’t really been their fault. The first of their four matches together (excluding a solid but inessential TV match from Lashley’s first TNA run in 2009) was excellent and a highlight of TNA television last year. From there their matches have been steadily more overbooked and steadily less interesting (resulting in a small bit of a rant from myself after their match on the first Impact on Destination America descended into farce) with the exception of a really solid One Night Only match that suffered from a poor finish. However the common denominator has always been strong chemistry between the two prior to the nonsense kicking in. So for that reason (and the fact that this match doesn’t really tie into any story at the moment so interference and the like would be utterly silly) I have high hopes for this match. These two in front of a good crowd should deliver every day of the week. Roode only won the title recently and is the right man to carry it for a while to help give it credibility so Roode should win here.
Prediction: Bobby Roode
Joey O’Doherty: With no real story going into the PPV, again it’s hard to invest myself into this match to a certain extent. But thanks to that lack of story, it’s more than possible that Roode and Lashley will be free of TNA over-booking shenanigans, thus allowed putting on a strong, interference free match. Both guys gel well together and have the tools to pull off a fantastic bout.
However, it is TNA in its current form, and I fear that some kind of unforeseen, unnecessary tomfoolery will blight this match in some shape or form and I’ll die a little inside.
Prediction: Bobby Lashley
TNA World Heavyweight Championship – Special Referee: Jeff Hardy
Drew Galloway vs. Matt Hardy vs. Ethan Carter III©
Garrett Kidney: For the last couple of months or so TNA has been building toward a Jeff Hardy vs. EC3 match so it seems rather fitting that the focal point of the match is still Jeff Hardy. Drew Galloway feels like a background player in his own PPV World title match. Even further so with the late addition of Matt Hardy. This is still largely the EC3/Jeff Hardy show. They’ve kind of built up Galloway but his feuds with the Beatdown Clan and Eli Drake didn’t exactly set the world alight and only recently has he been the focal point of Impact as the defacto leader of Team TNA in the war vs. GFW. You could argue that they’ve been building up Matt for this longer but adding him to the match at the very last-minute just makes him feel tacked onto the match rather than an essential element of it.
The special referee addition also doesn’t fill me with confidence that poor booking won’t ruin what could be a very good match (a bit of a long-standing Bound For Glory main event tradition – I’m looking at you Bound For Glory 2007 (Angle vs. Sting), 2008 (Joe vs. Sting), 2010 (Angle vs. Anderson vs. Hardy) and 2013 (Styles vs. Bully)) but you know all three will want to deliver a great match. In terms of who should win, EC3 hasn’t exactly had a glowing report card as champion (much of which isn’t his fault) but it still feels too early to take the title off of him. Plus when it comes to challengers TNA have a lot more on the face side (Galloway, Anderson, Lashley, Roode, both Hardys and Spud) than they are on the heel side (with Eric Young and EC3 being the only people who could even be considered main event heels right now). You can perhaps make a case for Matt for the nostalgia and novelty in his home state but Matt shouldn’t be beating EC3.
Prediction: EC3
Joey O’Doherty: Since TNA have focused on Jeff Hardy’s troubles with EC3 in recent weeks rather than anything meaningful with number 1 contender, Drew Galloway, it seems only fitting that Jeff’s brother Matt gets added to the mix at the last Impact. Galloway comes off as a third wheel in this match, and his involvement with the main event scene should have been held off until after the PPV.
With Jeff inserted as special referee for the match, we are more likely to see an over-booked match, with an uninspiring finish when it’s all said and done.
But who will win? Drew isn’t quite there yet in my eyes, but he definitely has the tools to reach the summit eventually, while Matt Hardy does have home state advantage and his brother wearing the stripes, I don’t see EC3 losing this match. Carter will pin Matt Hardy with Jeff counting the reluctant pin.
Prediction: Ethan Carter III
