TNA Bound For Glory 2006

With the Bound for Glory PPV from TNA Impact Wrestling around the corner, I'd figure it would be a good opportunity to shoot out a few TNA PPV musings for old times sake. Some of these, such as today's subject matter, I have on DVD while others I was able to watch through the Global Wrestling Network thing. We're getting a headstart by covering the 2006 iteration of the Bound For Glory PPV today, but for the month of October, it'll be all TNA, all the time, and whether that amounts to good shows or not... is an entirely different story.

So let's go with Bound for Glory 2006... since it's the only BFG show I have on DVD. We might look at one more along the way, but for now...


Austin Aries (going by Austin Starr for some reason that completely escapes me) wins the Kevin Nash Open Invitational X-Division Gauntlet Battle Royal, which is essentially a Royal Rumble type match where X-Division guys (most of whom I either don't recognize or completely forgot about) would show up at regular intervals and it's essentially the usual Rumble rules until two guys are left, at which point it becomes a regular match. While the match is going on, Nash is on commentary making jokes.

I actually remember some of the backstage stuff he did with Alex Shelly or whatever his name was and the idea was that Nash wanted to reshape the X-Division in his own image or something to that extent. It's been a while, but those were some funny bits that I got a genuine kick out of. This KNOIXDGBR thing is silly shit, but it's entertaining silly shit that put a bit of a smile on my face. Okay, it's not a technical master nor is it a particularly good story, but it was genuinely fun to watch and I enjoyed it tremendously. Imagine that; fun at a wrestling show. Who knew?

Team 3D defeated America's Most Wanted (future TNA champ James Storm and future TNA/NXT/WWE US champ Bobby Roode), the James Gang (a.k.a. the Old Age Outlaws) and the Naturals. This was a thing that happened. Nothing good, nothing bad, just there. And that's all there is to say about that.

Samoa Joe defeated Raven, Runt (the former Spike Dudley), and Abyss in a monster ball match; basically anything goes and one fall to a finish. For some reason, they have Jake The Snake as a special referee who does nothing of note. Watching this match had me question the booking of this show.

On the previous week's episode of Impact, Kurt Angle made his TNA debut and got into a brawl with Samoa Joe. And in what seems like a rarity these days, this felt like a big deal because Kurt Angle, even with all his drug issues and stuff, was still that big of a deal and him going at it with Samoa Joe felt like hot shit. So why the fuck is Samoa Joe in a nothing match when he should be in a program with Kurt Angle or maybe even something more substantial like maybe a World title match or something big? 

Eric Young defeated Larry Zybysko with the help of an international object to keep his job or something. Hard to believe this is the same guy who would show up on NXT as one of those xxx because the two are literally night and day... as for this match, it was short. Let's leave it at that.

X-Division Champion Chris Sabin defeated Low-Ki, who's going by Senshi in this show for some reason. This was a good little match with some fast-paced action and a healthy dose of near-falls to keep the excitement up. Because once upon a time, I actually didn't mind a dozen near-falls. Good match.

Christian Cage defeated Rhino with a shitload of chairshots on a bunch of rubble with Rhino underneath in a street fight. Now that's how you "bury" someone, har har. There were a couple silly moments here and there that very nearly took me out of the match, but otherwise I enjoy this one. It was a nice, fierce little brawl.

LAX defeated NWA World Tag-Team champions future WWE Champion AJ Styles and future ROH World champion Christopher Daniels to win the titles. LAX in this show comprises Homicide and Hernandez, both of whom I barely remember, but there's always been an LAX in some form, so yay? All that aside, this was awesome stuff.

Sting defeated NWA World champion Jeff Jarrett to win the title, with new TNA signee Kurt Angle serving as special enforcer and eventual referee. Sting debuted a "new look" where he had his Crow paint with red highlights and wearing a shiny coat, pants, and no top. He looked okay, I suppose. I'd want to say that this was better than their Halloween Havoc match in 2000, but then at this point, anything would be a considerable improvement over that match. This was more of an old-school wrestling match than anything and in that regard, it was fine. Kurt Angle taking out the referee for doing his job and then becoming the ref for the match himself was a funny little bit.

For people who like to bitch about how I hate TNA, here's proof to the contrary because I actually liked this show. Sure, Kurt Angle's involvement was a selling point that ultimately proved to be minimal and there's some slow spots here and there, but the middle part of the show more than made it a good showing. Sometimes, TNA will surprise me by putting on a genuinely good show and for the time, it would've been a nice jumping point for new fans to follow the promotion on. So, that's something.

Good stuff.