Nigel A. Rhodes sent the following report to PWInsider.com:
I attended TNA Bound For Glory in the front row tonight and I was impressed. The arena looked pretty full with only the last few rows on the floor having space. The stage and big screens also looked good.
Bobby Roode vs. Lance Hoyt
The pre-show match with Roode and Hoyt was a decent pre-show match. The crowd kind of got bored of Roode’s speech as it was long and there was definite disappointment at first when Tracy Brooks was announced as his manager but the crowd soon cheered since she’s hot. I was expecting lots of “Hoyt! Hoyt” chants but when he came out there weren’t really any at all which showed me that the TNA fan base that was there is newer rather than older. Roode also got alot of cheers during the match. The fans cheered Killings when he came out and seemed to enjoy his rap as a time filler
Kevin Nash Invitational
Kevin Nash came out and got some cheers, before the match the announcer tried to explain the match but it was hard to understand him. Austin Starr came out to some cheers, there was definitely some confusion with the crowd over his look and how he was acting (whether he was supposed to be gay) Dutt also seemed to get his regular cheers. Bentley and Lethal got normal cheers, Gowen got a huge pop for some reason. When A-1 came out people boo’d and were really confused as to why he was in this match, but w/e. Kazarian got a relatively good cheer, people were confused when Sirelda came out, when she came out Slick came over to us and said “that’s a big “itch” (you fill in the word) which was pretty funny. Shark Boy got his usual pop, Shelley was hugely over with the crowd, D-Ray, the midget, and Smiley didnt really get much, Devine was decently over, Williams got a big pop and a big pop when he hit the destroyer. The fans cheered Starr when he won, pretty decent match, they did a good job doing big spot after big spot with different workers. Kazarian took a nasty bump when was eliminated smacking his head off the secondary padding, Skipper did a nice job acting injured when he botched his move as well.
4 Way Tag Bout
All the tag teams were pretty over with the live crowd and seemed to like the over all match. Franchise got a decent pop when he first came out. Decent tag team match, Chase Stevens got a nasty slap on the thigh from Bubba which after the match was purple and starting to bleed and you could see him favoring that leg, it was a wicked slap. People seemed disappointed the Naturals lost but cheered the Dudleys. Kinda disappointed no tables but cant do it every time I guess.
Monster’s Ball
Monster’s Ball was a good brawl match with some good spots. Brother Runt died or something after falling off the scaffolding never returning to the ring. We all wanted to see Abyss put Roberts in the tacks but eh, maybe next time. I didn’t really see the point of Roberts in this match and he looked out of it most of the time. Raven was pretty over with the fans and of course Samoa Joe was. After the match Roberts joked throwing the snake into the crowd, I’m sure animal rights would love that.
Eric Young vs. Larry Zbyszko
Young was over with the crowd, he kept pointing at Zbyszko to which the fans would be, then Young would point to himself to which they would cheer. Good fun filler, people seemed to enjoy Young a lot.
Samoa Joe-Kurt Angle
Joe vs. Angle was over pretty well with the crowd as they were hoping for a fight. Angle’s pop was pretty huge
Chris Sabin vs. Senshi
The crowd wasn’t into Senshi/Sabin at first, a lot of people I talked to around me booed Sabin because of the Jackass stuff. I don’t know how it came off on PPV but this was a stiff hard hitting match, if it wasn’t for Senshi’s big chops I don’t think the crowd would have gotten into it. There were some big spots that the crowd got into and people cheered Sabin when he got the win, when Dutt and Lethal came out I was worried about Jackass skits but I’m glad nothing dumb happened.
Rhino vs. Christian Cage
The Rhino/Cage match was an awesome, awesome, brawl and the crowd was into it. We were kind of confused where Christian was at first but it made sense in time. Crowd popped huge for Rhino coming out through the fans. Crowd was pretty dead when the match was outside, but the cheered big time when Rhino drove in on the Zamboni, the light pole was a cool weapon. Rhino came over to us and asked for chairs so me and the people next to me gave him ours so we had to stand for the match (not that we wouldn’t be anyway as it was sweet!) crowd cheered big time as the brawled into the hockey benches and Rhino drank a fans beer. Crowd popped HUGE for the piledriver through the table, that was really awesome. The crowd was disappointed with the ending as Christian just kinda put stuff on Rhino the hit it with a chair and it was enough to pin him, but w/e, the rest of the match was good. The straight jacket was alright, would have been nice to see Rhino get more offense in while in it, I was thinking maybe he was going to gore Cage through the table while wearing the jacket.
LAX vs. Styles & Daniels
They set up the cage in a decent amount of time we thought, we didn’t get our chairs back until after they set up the cage and we could get some one’s attention. LAX was pretty over with the crowd (both cheers and boo’s) Homicide was pumped up and it really pumped up the crowd after the dead time. Styles and Daniels got a HUGE pop, I would say almost as big as Angle’s.
This was a good fun match inside the cage, Homicide and Hernandez are great team as Homicide can pull off some cool moves then Hernandez just powerhouses his big spots getting the crowd into it (his powerbomb off the cage, his shoulder block) LAX’s cheating moves were also over (the tequila to Daniels wounds, the fork, the hanger) It looked like they botched the Suplex as Styles looked stuck but him flying off the top got a HUGE pop from the crowd. Crowd was disappointed LAX won but they still got cheered as I think the fans like the LAX gimmick a lot.
Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett
They got the cage down pretty quick I thought then it was time for the main event. Angle got a big pop of course but Sting’s pop was even bigger as the crowd popped HUGE for him. I also liked his look as it was a “special” look for a “special” match. Sting was also in GREAT shape. Jarret got boo’d of course. We asked So Cal if she would get Sting’s bat for us and she said “He’d Kill me” we said we would protect her she said “From Him?” and we yeah we’d have a bat, she got a good laugh out of that.
The match was a good old school wrestling match, they did a good job with Angle keeping him in the middle with him yelling at Sting to get back in the ring and yelling and Jarrett to get back in the ring then he didn’t let either man use the chair. Crowd popped HUGE for when Sting no-sold Jarrett’s guitar shot as we all thought that was going to be the end of the match, crowd cheered huge waiting for Jarrett to tap. Angle was respectful while handing Sting the belt, I liked how they kept him neutral in the whole matter. Rudy Charles looked to be seriously knocked out when Angle tossed out of the ring. We just thought he selling it for the 10 minutes he was down but when the other refs came out and poured water on him he didn’t even flinch, then when they tried picking him up he didn’t even flinch, so either he didn’t a really good selling it or he was shaken up, his head looked to have taken a bad hit off the padding so who knows.
Overall it was a great show and the crowd seemed to love it. They popped for everyone and the workers worked really hard to keep the crowd into it when they were down, Sting is great at this by the way.
