Final Preview: TNA’s 2011 Bound for Glory PPV

Falls Count Anywhere

Bully Ray vs. Mr. Anderson

If you had advertised this match to me about six months ago I would have said it could main event the show. But now that Anderson has literally changed face/hell orientation a half dozen times since then, it's really hard to invest in anything his character does. One minute he's Jeff Hardy's mortal enemy, the next he's his best friend and tag partner. One minute he's fighting the evils of Immortal, the next he's selling out to them, and a quick second after that he's facing their best heel at Bound for Glory… All creative failures aside, these guys are still two of TNA's best workers at the moment and I'm looking forward to this match. Ray used to be one of my least favorite wrestlers in the business, but he has really shocked everyone with how well his singles push into the main event has gone over. If Kurt Angle wasn't going to take Bobby Roode to the top of the mountain, I'd say that Ray should have already been World champion by this point. And Anderson is…well he's Anderson. He's not the “Stone Cold” that many heralded him as back when he first came to TNA, but he's solid enough in the ring to make me excited to see these two go at it. Add to that the likely home-town atmosphere for the former Tag Team god (even though he basically told them to go to hell…) and I think we have quite a hot match on our hands.

Prediction: Bully Ray should win this match. They're going to want to send the fans home happy with the Sting/Hogan and main event segments, so I wouldn't doubt if this right here is the big heel victory. Not only that but Ray is the consistently solid character in this match that deserves the big Bound for Glory victory. I honestly can't believe I wrote that…

I Quit Match

AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

These two are probably the most athletic men to ever go into an “I Quit” stipulation. Normally you see this brutal match given to your bigger guys to disguise the fact that they can't actual wrestle. In fact, the last time I was this excited for the stipulation it was the Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo feud after the death of Eddie Guerrero. That being said, who doesn't love a good Styles/Daniels match? It doesn't really matter who plays the heel or who is the face, because they're the two TNA originals that have a legitimate claim to the title of “best in the world”. And they have so much history that they really can just pop this match into whatever big event they choose; cue Bound for Glory. I love the slow, arrogant turn of Daniels. The jokes about beating Styles started as a fun poke at the Phenomenal One, but after weeks of torment it was great to see the two finally snap. Even without a great feud leading up to it, this match has the potential to take pro wrestling match of the year with only Cena/Punk in Chicago as legitimate competition. And that is very high praise indeed…

Prediction: AJ Styles will force Daniels to say “I Quit”. This match has to go on in the mid-card, because you don't want to kill the crowd right before the main event. People will be exhausted after this, and they're going to need something like Anderson/Bully Ray to wash it down with before the big World title match finish. You also don't want this to go before Hogan and Sting, because no matter what kind of swerve they pull, this match will overshadow it. That means there's virtually no harm to the face winning, and since Daniels has had all sorts of bragging rights it only seems natural to bring it all full-circle. 

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