TNA held their Bound for Glory PPV in Chicago last night with the following results and notes courtesy of John Adams:

- Jay Lethal won a Steel Cage Asylum match which also involved Alex Shelley, Jay Lethal, Curry Man, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, Jimmy Rave, Petey Williams, Shark Boy, Super Eric and Johnny Devine to become the new #1 contender to the X Division title.

This went over huge with the live crowd who were into all the big spots. A real good finish involving Lethal and Dutt.

- They plugged the move to HD on Spike TV later this week before we got a promo backstage in the “office” involving Jim Cornette, Mick Foley and The Beautiful People, built around M&Ms. An ok promo.

- Rhino, ODB and Rhaka Khan beat Cute Kip and The Beautiful People in a Bimbo Brawl. Traci Brooks was guest referee. This was pretty poor. In fact, very poor. I guess we’re meant to think its funny that Kip is teaming with a couple of girls or something? ODB was over in the Sears Center and stood out here. Rhino hit the GORE on Kip for the win.

- Sheik Abdul Bashir beat Consequences Creed to retain the X Division Title. A sloppy match in parts but nothing really bad. The crowd were into Creed towards the end after not really buying into him before the match and during the early parts of it. A war veteran who received the Purple Heart introduced Creed at the start of the match.

- Backstage, we see Mick Foley in the office. Raisha Saeed and Awesome Kong interrupt him. Saeed does The Rock’s “It doesn’t matter” line which Foley calls gimmick infringement. He then says Saeed needs a visit from Yurpel the Clown. Remember the clown in the Foley/Vince/Austin hospital skit like TEN years ago? That Yurpel. TNA, TNA, TNA…

- Taylor Wilde retained her TNA Knockouts title in a three way match with Roxxi and Awesome Kong. A short match which ended when Kong was sent to the outside and Wilde hit a German suplex with a bridge on Roxxi for the win.

- Backstage again for more with Mick Foley. AJ Styles says he’s happy for Foley to be in TNA, unlike some people who have come from the “other company.” I don’t know if the idea here is for TNA to be cool with their whole insider stuff, but as I watched this live, I just thought it came off as really poor. Its almost like a combination of the dying days of WCW and a random indy promotion aimed at Internet fans and doing double-digit gates.

- Beer Money Inc. beat Abyss and Matt Morgan, LAX and Team 3D in a Monster’s Ball match to retain the TNA Tag Team Titles. This was really good in places. They gave it a stack of time (over 20 minutes) and it was a lot of fun to watch live. Steve ‘Mongo’ McMichael as special guest referee added nothing, but hey, he spent years in WCW doing that.

All the weapons spots got over huge and nobody had a bad outing here. The crazy spot of the match saw Team 3D set fire to a table and put Abyss through it. He was on fire for way too long before he was put out. The amount of crazy stuff Abyss has done to himself in TNA - and elsewhere - for what can’t be a massive reward, is quite insane.

- Booker T beat AJ Styles and Christian Cage in a triple threat match after pinning Christian following an axe kick. Let the speculation that Cage is WWE bound again commence after he did the job here. It was a real good match. Styles stood out as the MVP here.

- Backstage, Jeff Jarrett cut a promo ahead of match, saying he’d beat Kurt Angle for his daughters.

- Jeff Jarrett beat Kurt Angle with assistance from special enforcer Mick Foley. Its funny actually. Here’s a quote written by Phil Lowe prior to the PPV in his preview: “I really hope TNA steer clear of having an Angle vs. Foley match for some time. Unfortunately I can see the match ending with Jarrett getting a win here and Foley bringing out the sock to set up Angle-Foley and rush into it before the year is out. I hope that’s not the case.

“The build to this has been pretty good, but Jarrett returning from a lengthy hiatus to return and beat Angle makes very little, if any sense. Have Angle win and keep him and Foley apart for a good few months!”

Perhaps predictably, that’s pretty much what happened! It was a decent match, but the booking is just ridiculous! Jarrett, out of the ring for two years, can beat a world-class athlete like Angle on his return? I don’t buy it at all. Anyway, the finish came when Angle brought a chair into the ring. Foley tried to stop him, which led to Kurt hitting him with it. Foley then brought out Mr. Socko. Jarrett waffled Angle with a guitar shot and Foley made the pin.

- Sting beat Samoa Joe to win the TNA World Heavyweight Title. Actually an ok match but yet another freakin’ main event with a run in, plus more dumbass booking from TNA. Sting with the title? Come on! This came about when Kevin Nash interfered. Sting was getting ready to use his bat on Joe. Nash took it off him and SWERVE, instead of hitting Sting with it, laid Joe out with it instead. Sting then hit the Scorpion Death Drop and got the pin and the title.

- Overall, this was a fairly good show in terms of in-ring quality. But, as we’re used to with TNA and just like in the last few years in WCW, the booking, especially in the main event matches, are a big part of why TNA’s ratings on TV and PPV continue to be stuck at the low end of the scale.

This company has so much potential but it appears that Dixie Carter and co. are happy to be turning a small profit than giving WWE a serious run for their money. The vast majority of those on the show made this well worth watching. But the booking and creative decisions in the company are just lame. Sting with the title. Nash seemingly back on what I assume is a big-money deal and involved with one of the best young guys in North America. References to a WWE skit from a DECADE ago. Whether its Russo or not isn’t the point. Creative as a whole are a total joke.

John Adams
iFight365.com reader
Chicago, IL