World Tag Team Championship
Hernandez & Havoc Guerrero: New Champions!
This is one of those matches that got better the longer it went on, but predictably it never rose to the expectations set by the last two encounters between the former Champions, and AJ Styles and Kurt Angle. It was far too chaotic for far too long. Chaos can be a great tool for a wrestling match, if it’s administered correctly. Unfortunately, with six men in and around the ring, constantly tagging in and out and flying over things with little warning, it was hard to actually invest in any of the action.
Kurt Angle was the shining star of the match for a brief moment, busting down the door off a hot tag and leveling everyone in the match save for AJ Styles, with a flurry of German suplexes. As per usual, Angle’s performance was just a cut above the rest. The tag champions were consistently “on”, as they almost always are, and AJ Styles had some nice spots later on. But as it became clear that this 3-way tag spot fest was not about technical wrestling, I would have steered more towards the story behind the match. Maybe play up the dissension between AJ and Angle more as the match progressed. Used that as a distraction for Hernandez and Chavo to get the win. It wasn’t bad, but I also certainly wouldn’t watch it again if given the chance to instead view either recent match between the two teams that didn’t win.
We have never Champions, which is nice. But the question has to be asked as soon as possible: where does TNA go with the division now? They can’t break up Kazarian and Daniels; with how good they’ve been, neither will go anywhere better in singles competition. Even if they both went back to the X-Division to help it along, that’s just leaving one dying brand for another. Kurt Angle and AJ Styles can’t be a long term deal, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the last tag match we see from the two. So with Chavo and Hernandez as the new Champions, somebody has got to step up to challenge them. They’ll work a month or two out of the former Champions – maybe even get a return of this exact match on Impact – but eventually there has to be somebody, or the division will die out entirely.
Rating: 3/5
Knockouts Championship
Tara def. Miss Tessmacher (New Champion)
Not a bad match between the two, but I wasn’t expecting a clean win for Tara. You’d think after losing the last few encounters, she would have had to try harder to win this one at their biggest event of the year. Tessmacher barely looked like a contender in this match, let alone the defending Champion. I didn’t hate their ring work, and I enjoyed the story going in, but the match was far too short, and far too in the favor of Tara to get behind the action.
Following the match we got the “big reveal” for Tara’s Hollywood boyfriend. The biggest “reveal” I got from this segment is that Big Brother is still a thing, out there somewhere on television, and that this guy Jesse was apparently on it. WWE got lucky with the Miz when the took a reality star into their midst; Miz was willing to work his ass off to at least attempt to become a passable wrestler. I dare say he succeeded. I guess there is perceived money in having this reality douche on the roster, but as I didn’t even know the show was still on air, he can’t be helping the product out all that much.
Rating: 2/5
No DQ Match
Aces & Eights def. Sting & Bully Ray
We have to actually talk about the match for a few sentences before we get to the discussion I know everybody really wants to be having. I enjoyed the dynamic, especially after Bully came out rocking the Stinger’s face paint. I loved the spot with Joseph Parks. I enjoyed that there was some sort of reveal. The match was indeed No DQ, but only in a way that made it obviously gimmick; existing only so Aces & Eights could make their run-ins. I also liked the finish of the match, even though it was completely dead and the crowd couldn’t have cared less. My biggest problem is quite simply that there should have been MORE.
Bound for Glory is the biggest event of the year for TNA. The Aces & Eights represent the biggest story for the last several months. So you would think that you would have wanted to make your big reveals where there is the biggest gate. Reward the fans for buying the show, and for patiently lasting through the last 3 months of television. But in my opinion TNA just didn’t deliver to near what their potential could have been.
Devon was a good reveal. It was a crazy swerve; nobody saw it coming. But he should have been a small piece of the puzzle, not the end-all be-all for the biggest show of the year. Devon should have shocked Hogan, Sting and Bully long enough for somebody like Jeff Jarrett to come out of nowhere with the troops. Or perhaps Bully should have turned and re-united with his long lost tag team partner. The Joseph Parks spot was fun, and actually necessary, but it could have been bigger. So many things they COULD HAVE DONE. You make that match ten minutes longer and let Joseph Parks fully transform into Abyss, would have sold the whole damn segment. Let D’Angelo Dinero come back and get a bit of his revenge for the injury angle ran last month. TNA could have done some, if not all of these small things to make the end product better. But as it was, they ended with a very obvious “this is awkward” chant, and the live crowd didn’t care at all. The entire reveal was dead silent. Pathetic, considering how big this was supposed to be.
Rating: 3/5
