BRM Reviews TNA Bound For Glory

[Big Red Machine]

TNA Bound For Glory (10/16/2011)- Philadelphia, PA

TNA X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH: Austin Aries(c) vs. Brian Kendrick- 7/10. GREAT opener. Nice of Taz to acknowledge Aries’ time in ROH.

KAREN & TRACI BACKSTAGE- the stuff with the kids was dumb but at least it was short. The rest of this segment was good, though.

FULL METAL MAYHEM: Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn- 7.25/10. Great build up to everything in this match, with the violence slowly escalating. I was really only thinking 7.5 until the finish. It just came off so well, to the point where it looked like Jerry was legit knocked out, so I gave it a 7.75... then Jerry got up and he and RVD were all buddy-buddy again… despite the fact that NOTHING WAS SOLVED. Lynn lost! He didn’t get to prove that he was better than RVD like he said he would. As a result of this (and the way this took away from Jerry’s awesome selling of the finish), I bumped it back down. Another factor that contributed to me lowering the rating was the way that the match meshed with the angle they are doing (or, rather, the fact that it didn’t). This feud was about Jerry Lynn being angry that RVD has always overshadowed him, and that promoters only hire him to put him in the ring with RVD so that RVD can have a good match. Jerry is angry that the focus is all on Rob. The problem is that this match, too was all about Rob. It was mostly Jerry countering RVD’s signature spots or RVD hitting his signature spots. I don’t think that Jerry got any of his signature spots in (or even teases for them) other than the Tornado DDT and the Sunset Flip Powerbomb. Where were the Cradle Pildedrivers? Where were the Senton Body Blocks off of the apron? Where were the TKOs? They didn’t really even do any of the signature sequences that make you think of RVD vs. Jerry Lynn... they only did the RVD spots.

MATT MORGAN vs. SAMOA JOE vs. CRIMSON- 5.25/10.

BULLY RAY PROMO- very good

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH: Bully Ray vs. Mr. Anderson- 8.25/10. Great stuff here. Very brutal. Taz was also extremely good here, using his changes in tone and volume to help signify importance, and covering up the botch at the end.

BISCHOFF AND HIS SON BACKSTAGE- GREAT! Props to them for doing this segment, as it retroactively makes Jackson James a heel, rather than an incompetent, and eliminates a major logical hole over the past year.
I do, however, have a problem with this “secret camera” style. Why are we cutting back to this guy in the first place? He’s not getting an interview or anything… so why are we cutting to this camera?

TNA KNOCKOUTS’ TITLE MATCH WITH KAREN JARRETT AS THE SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE: Winter(c) (w/Angelina Love) vs. Mickie James vs. Velvet Sky vs. Madison Rayne- 4.25/10. Not too good. The finish was good, the angle wasn’t well developed at all, and thus, the finish didn’t have the feel that TNA wanted it to (something like Frightmare vs. Lince Dorado from CHIKARA’s Young Lions Cup VIII: Night 3).

I QUIT MATCH: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels- 7.5/10. I really enjoyed this as a No-DQ’s match, but the finish felt very flat (although it does leave you with the impression that maybe this isn’t over)… well… that was quick. Good aftermath!

JEFF JARRETT & JEFF HARDY SEGMENT- belonged on Impact. Nice to hear D’Lo get cheers, though.

NO DQ’S CAREER VS. CONTROL OF TNA MATCH: Sting vs. Hulk Hogan (w/Ric Flair)- DUD! (initially… for my final rating, see below)
Before I give you my reasoning for the rating, I am going to go out and say this: With the way this whole angle has been written, this match should have been the main event. They spent months and months talking about how important the World Title is because of the power it gives you within the company. Sting and Kurt Angle both wanted the World Title because of the power it gave them. It has been portrayed as just one piece in the larger struggle for control of the company. For that reason, the match for the World Title should have gone on before the match for control of the company.

To start off with, this match wasn’t well worked (which we knew it wouldn’t be) and it wasn’t exciting at all (which all held out some hope it might me). If you can’t work well, you should put all of your focus on the storytelling/crowd-working aspect of the match. Can we get a false finish in here, please? If this is Hogan’s last match, there is absolutely no reason why we can’t have Sting kick out after a leg drop! It’s a No DQ’s match with a biased referee… have the referee try to fast-count the babyface and slow-count when the heel is getting pinned. Then, once the babyface has had enough, have him punch the referee out! Guaranteed to get a pop. I’m sure everyone would have liked to see Bischoff eat a Scorpion Death Drop, or Sting use his baseball bat or just… SOMETHING! There was very little drama here, and nothing to pop for.
Then we get to the things that either didn’t make sense or didn’t work. First of all, Hogan and Flair kept trying to hide their cheating… why? It’s a No DQ’s match! Sting didn’t hide it when he used the weapon. And if this match is No DQ’s and is so important… why not have the rest of Immortal interfere?

Finally, we come to the giant pink and black elephant in the room. We have a heel who desperately wants to not only get out of this match without taking punishment, but who also needs to win it… and we have a biased referee: You would think that the answer would be obvious here to heels as devious as Hogan, Bischoff, and Flair. The first thing that happened in the match was that Hogan locked Sting in a submission… why not just have the ref ring the bell and screw Sting?

And now, the stuff that didn’t work: Most importantly, the atmosphere was not there. TNA was hoping for Rock vs. Hogan or Rock vs. Cena. They wanted the kind of atmosphere where you have two LEGENDS facing off, and each person cheers for their favorite… which was, in part, the atmosphere we got. The problem is that doesn’t make sense given the angle! This needed to be Hogan vs. Sting from Starrcade 97. That Evil Dastardly Jackass Heel Hulk Hogan vs. Sting The Super Babyface Who Is Going To Save The Company On Behalf Of All Of The Great Fans Who Love And Support It. This wasn’t a clash of the titans: This was Good vs. Evil… and the atmosphere didn’t reflect that at all.
Another major thing that was missing was Eric Bischoff. Sting’s thought process all summer seems to have been “If I can get Hulk back in the ring, I can get him to remember how awesome it feels to be cheered, and I can get him to remember how much the fans love him and how much he loves them, and then I can get him away from Bischoff who takes the good nice man that is Hulk Hogan and is an enabler for Hulk to do mean things and turn into the evil Hollywood Hogan.” Because of this, Bischoff should have been out here for this match.

Then, of course, there is how crappy this whole angle has been in the first place. A court of law determined that there was no wrongdoing on Hogan’s part, and the fault for losing control of TNA rests solely on the shoulders of Dixie Carter for being an idiot. If a court of law (as well as most viewers sitting and watching at home) have determined that Dixie doesn’t deserve the company back and has no right to it… then I’m not going to care about Sting’s crusade to give her control of the company back!

Ohh… COME ON! I thought it was over! But now it just gets WORSE!
AFTERMATH- ONCE THE SUPER-IMPORTANT NO-DQ’S MATCH IS OVER, only then does the rest of Immortal decide to come out with steel chairs, and they and Flair beat Sting down. Then, the heel referee whom we didn’t care about until about an hour ago randomly decides to turn babyface AFTER THE MATCH (rather than, you know, during it, when he was helping the heels cheat).

Then Hogan predictably turns face, and the 58-year-old man who has just been through a slightly violent match which ended when he was put into a submission that does a lot of damage to his back, which he has had numerous surgeries on over the past few years... beats up a bunch of younger, stronger, healthier, larger men who have had a lot more experience fighting in the past few years that Hogan has! And to make this even stupider from a booking and production POV… this all happens AFTER we get a camera shot of one of the babyfaces most-likely to want to fight Immortal (Abyss) just standing there doing nothing!

So, all of these things considered, then adding in the fact that this was the semi-main event at TNA’s biggest PPV of the year… Stupidity, bad working, bad storytelling, a bad atmosphere, bad booking, and all of the predictable things in this match were just plain disappointing, combined with equally bad aftermath all add up to give this match a rating of -10! Utter sh*t. Throw-garbage-in-the-ring quality bad!

TNA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Kurt Angle(c) vs. Bobby Roode- 8.75/10. I would have given it a 9, but the finish pissed me off SO MUCH. During this match, I was actually thinking to myself “wow, we have only had one dirty finish all night, and that was done in such a way that it was obviously going to be very important to multiple angles in Knockouts’ Division. Maybe TNA is turning over a new leaf.” Then we got THIS.

Overall, the show was actually very good, but Sting-Hogan disaster combined with the finish to the main event leaving a bad taste in my mouth hurt it. It was definitely worth seeing though, and probably worth buying. Also, this show is rare in that Taz was definitely on tonight. His few jokes were almost all actually funny, and he was extremely insightful.

Stupid Announcer Quotes:
1. Tenay couldn’t identify the weapon Hogan used on Sting (neither could I. I’m not faulting Tenay for this). What I am faulting him for is the following: Hogan then went over to the referee (for some reason) and said quite audibly and clearly “you tell him the next time he messes with me, I’ll knock his damn teeth out.” Then Tenay says “He said he used a spike to the head of Sting.” Never mind the fact that this was quite clearly NOT what Hogan said… but he and Flair were trying to HIDE the foreign object from the referee (although I’m really not sure why, since this is a NO DQ’s match). Why the hell would Hogan go over and TELL THE REFEREE THAT HE USED A WEAPON?!

[Rabid619]

Maybe Taz is benefiting from the writing change. Its a long shot but long shots aren't unheard of....

[NWK]

Okay, a few things I disagreed with here:

1. I was incredibly angered by the KOs match, and that was for one reason, Karen Jarrett. Now, I know that there's always gonna be a "biased special guest official" angle when there's a heel authority figure in a feud. But, at least the heel authorities of the past have looked like competent official. Nevermind she only seemed to care about one of four people in the match, but I feel like the few duties the bookers gave her as a referee, she managed to look sloppy and unconvincing doing. This made me 10x more annoyed than I should have been.
2. I agree with everything you said about RVD/Lynn, but why hate on the finish? You can obviously infer that Jerry shook RVD's hand because he finally came to respect him as an athlete after years of pent up aggression and pretending to tolerate him.

3. Personally, I loved Hogan/Sting. First of all, I feel like the match was put in place moreso to sell the final battle between Immortal and Impact Wrestling. Since it was merely put in place to finish off an angle, I feel like the quality of the match itself was irrelevant. As for the stip, No DQs, I thought that was more to validate Flair's continued presence and interference at ringside, thus taking some of the workload off of Hogan. Subsequently, I thought the finish was BRILLIANT. As soon as I realized Jackson James was to be a crooked ref, I thought, "Oh God, Jackson James is gonna get knocked out at some point, new referee will run down, and finish." But, TNA did a good job of putting the referee in a kayfabe situation where the best possible alternative for him would be to ring the bell, as not to further hurt his father's long time friend. This then gave Bischoff and Immortal a legitimate reason to threaten an innocent referee, thus coming across as heels. So, as much as Hogan disliked Sting, watching a man order his own son be beaten to a pulp was not part of the plan, thus giving him a reason to turn babyface.

4. I feel like the IWC in general is getting entirely too negative about the finish to Roode vs. Angle. Sure it wasn't the finish we all would've liked, sure there were some politics involved, but at the very least, it soldified Roode as a very legitimate main eventer. This is a better alternative than him being buried in front of a national TV audience, so it could've been a lot worse.

[Rabid619]

4. I feel like the IWC in general is getting entirely too negative about the finish to Roode vs. Angle. Sure it wasn't the finish we all would've liked, sure there were some politics involved, but at the very least, it soldified Roode as a very legitimate main eventer. This is a better alternative than him being buried in front of a national TV audience, so it could've been a lot worse.

Roode was already a main event type guy, regardless of the finish he would have cemented himself as such. They should have had it as the second to last match of the night because of that finish, it's their biggest show of the year and it ends by putting a bad taste in peoples mouths. They made the dumb mistake of having Angle retain because Kurts hamstring was f*cked up before the match and the match didn't justify Roode winning the BFG series then falling just a bit short. It was a good match BUT it just fell flat at the end. Why would Roode have been buried on TV?

[NWK]

Why would Roode have been buried on TV?

I'm saying that he COULD have been. Thus, it could've been a lot worse.

Edit: I didn't really see Roode as a main eventer until after BFG, so in my mind that match served its purpose.

[Rabid619]

I'm saying that he COULD have been. Thus, it could've been a lot worse.

But i'm wondering how. He isn't some guy who came from the WWE or a guy whos been there for a while but they havent pushed fully like EY. Roode has won the tag titles and is a proven singles guy between his time with Team Canada & with Beer Money.

[Big Red Machine]

Okay, a few things I disagreed with here:

1. I was incredibly angered by the KOs match, and that was for one reason, Karen Jarrett. Now, I know that there's always gonna be a "biased special guest official" angle when there's a heel authority figure in a feud. But, at least the heel authorities of the past have looked like competent official. Nevermind she only seemed to care about one of four people in the match, but I feel like the few duties the bookers gave her as a referee, she managed to look sloppy and unconvincing doing. This made me 10x more annoyed than I should have been.
2. I agree with everything you said about RVD/Lynn, but why hate on the finish? You can obviously infer that Jerry shook RVD's hand because he finally came to respect him as an athlete after years of pent up aggression and pretending to tolerate him.

3. Personally, I loved Hogan/Sting. First of all, I feel like the match was put in place moreso to sell the final battle between Immortal and Impact Wrestling. Since it was merely put in place to finish off an angle, I feel like the quality of the match itself was irrelevant. As for the stip, No DQs, I thought that was more to validate Flair's continued presence and interference at ringside, thus taking some of the workload off of Hogan. Subsequently, I thought the finish was BRILLIANT. As soon as I realized Jackson James was to be a crooked ref, I thought, "Oh God, Jackson James is gonna get knocked out at some point, new referee will run down, and finish." But, TNA did a good job of putting the referee in a kayfabe situation where the best possible alternative for him would be to ring the bell, as not to further hurt his father's long time friend. This then gave Bischoff and Immortal a legitimate reason to threaten an innocent referee, thus coming across as heels. So, as much as Hogan disliked Sting, watching a man order his own son be beaten to a pulp was not part of the plan, thus giving him a reason to turn babyface.

4. I feel like the IWC in general is getting entirely too negative about the finish to Roode vs. Angle. Sure it wasn't the finish we all would've liked, sure there were some politics involved, but at the very least, it soldified Roode as a very legitimate main eventer. This is a better alternative than him being buried in front of a national TV audience, so it could've been a lot worse.

1. I guess I was just more into the Karen character, so I was willing to overlook that a bit.

2. It just didn't seem to me like the type of thing that should happen after just one match in a feud based on a decade of pent up aggression that Lynn really hasn't had the chance to physically unleash yet.

3. I never thought about the Hogan-Bischoff-Bischoff Jr. interaction that way, and that makes some sense, but, IMO, that makes Jackson James the inadvertent hero and savior of Hulk Hogan rather than Sting, which is not a satisfying conclusion to an angle about Sting trying to save Hogan.

I also disagree with you about the quality of the blowoff match being irrelevant. What we have here is a story leading up to its big climax. If the climax is poor, then it makes the story less satisfying.

Also, a lot of my objections to this match as a match with a bad story or having huge plot-holes revolve around the importance of this match. Why didn't Immortal interfere? Especially with a biased ref? Or why not do a screwjob?

4. The IWC seems to have the belief that clean finishes are better than screwy ones, which, while I don't necessarily believe from a wrestling/storytelling POV, I do feel an emotional connection to (as I said, it "left a bad taste in my mouth).

I will say that, at times, the IWC definitely seems to have become too smarky, and has lost it's ability to be pissed off for the right reasons (the "Piggie James" angle is a great example of this). They are angry because Kurt used the ropes and angry because Roode didn't win. Good. That was the point of the finish.

That being said, I think a lot of it has to do with the way the finish was done. First of all, it was too many different things at once. Kurt was using illegal leverage AND Bobby's arm was under the ropes. It is just overkill. It would have gone off a lot better with just one of them (especially if it was just Kurt using illegal leverage, as that is Kurt cheating, whereas the ref not seeing Bobby's arm under the ropes is just back luck for Bobby). The way Kurt was on the ropes also looked very unconvincing, like it wouldn't actually add any leverage, and it actually looked to me like it was unhelpful- like it would be pulling Kurt up, and that reaching for the ropes pulled Kurt up off of Bobby, rather than helping him press down. Another part of it was that it was right after an Angle Slam, and the two things together just don't work. It didn't make Bobby look tougher for Kurt needing to use both a finisher and leverage because Bobby's arm being under the ropes was dumb luck on Bobby's part. He didn't put it there, or try to kick out. He just got lucky. I was also so concentrated on the "KURT JUST HIT HIS FINISHER!" part of the finish/false-finish dynamic that Kurt's cheating didn't event register in my head until after the bell rung. I didn't get to feel that rush of "NO! NO! THAT CHEATING MOTHERF*CKER! HE HAD BETTER NOT WIN LIKE THIS!" because of the legitimate Angle Slam.

Personally, I also found it to be a very anti-climactic type of cheating. It just didn't feel like it carried the weight that it should. If there had been a ref bump and Kurt had hit Roode with a chair-shot and gotten the pin, I would have gone nucking futs, like I did when Truth Martini interfered during the Strong-Edwards match at Death Before Dishonor (hell, probably even more so). I probably would have thrown my remote at the TV.

As for the possibility of Roode getting "buried"- Bobby had an amazing showing here. A clean loss in an ultra-exciting match to World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle is not a burial. It proves that Bobby can hang with the big boys (something that the finals of the Bound For Glory Series was sorely missing).

[Big Red Machine]

Why would Roode have been buried on TV?

I'm saying that he COULD have been. Thus, it could've been a lot worse.

Of course it "could" have been worse... they could have had him job to Eric Young while wearing a gorilla costume. You can't use "could haves" to evaluate the story being told in the ring. And simply because this "could have been worse" does not make the finish that they did a good finish.