Hey everyone – what did you think about tonight’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view?
For my part, I was extremely pleased with the show. One of my buddies and I bought tickets to watch the show live at the local theater and it was very entertaining. And, to the surprise of both of us, there were about 40 people who bought tickets to watch the show live in the theater. Tickets cost us $15 each so if you multiply $15 x 40 people in attendance you get $600 in additional income that iMPACT Wrestling can claim for this show. Plus, when you consider that most of the people that were in the theater probably wouldn’t have spent more than 3 times the amount of the theater ticket to purchase the show on pay-per-view – that’s a good deal for iMPACT Wrestling. Oh – and we all get free Bound for Glory t-shirts. 🙂
As for the show itself, as a guy who never spends any money to watch a pay-per-view I was very entertained. The Hulk Hogan vs. Sting fight was as good as it was going to be. By no means was it a wrestling (or “fighting”) classic, but it was the very best that a man with the physical limitations that Hogan has could give the crowd and the live crowd absolutely ate it up. While I wasn’t in attendance, it appeared to me that Hogan got the biggest pop of the night (next to Ric Flair’s presence at ringside and Sting doing his shout calls). The Knockouts title match was very well done, but the crowd didn’t seem that into it, which is a shame. Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn were botching spots all over the place (which, by the way, our own Scott correctly predicted in this month’s staff predictions). Even with the botched spots, though, those two men put on a hell of a good show and the fans in the arena were into the match as were the fans in the theater.
Same goes for the Bully Ray vs. Mr. Anderson street fight – everyone was into the match including a loud “Oooo!” and “You fucked up!” chant in the theater when Mr. Anderson blew the ending the match. However, you gotta respect the way that Bully Ray immediately took control of the situation (especially when it seemed like Mr. Anderson was laughing or smirking or something) and quietly instructed Mr. Anderson to give him his finishing move through the table to end the match. That’s what you get when you’re working with an old pro like Bully Ray and I say this as a guy who really didn’t care for him when he was a member of the Team 3D tag team.
The ending of the Kurt Angle vs. Bobby Roode match didn’t really come off that well in the theater and, in fact, it was the only part of the show where the fans in the theater openly booed. And both my buddy and I agreed that we expected something more from both of those guys in the main event – the match wasn’t a showstopping type of match nor was it a match of the year candidate. Don’t get me wrong – it was a good match, but it was missing something. When you build up Roode the way that iMPACT Wrestling has built this guy up, you either need to give the fans the payoff by having him win the championship or have a better, more compelling story told in the ring leading up to the “ref didn’t see” ending.
I’m particularly interested in the opinions of anyone who actually saw the show either live in a theater, on TNAonDEMAND.com, on pay-per-view in your home or at a friend’s house, or live in person. How did you watch the show? What made you want to watch this month’s pay-per-view? What should the people who didn’t see the show know more than anything else? What was the feel of the crowd? How did the show come off to you as a fan?
Use the comments section below and remember to put your best foot forward and be respectful. The team at TNAStars.com and I can’t wait to hear from you about tonight’s show. Enjoy!
The show was great until the ending of the hogan and sting match. I don’t get it. So they build this storyline up just so hogan can turn his back on immortal in a split second. what was the point? Dixie won her company back from hogan. A second later, hogans a face? Where do we go from here? The angel & Roode match was terrible. You build up roode to loose on the biggest stage of the year. I thought there was going to be a change(new direction/season) after B4G. I cant believe i spent $40 on it. why cant joe when a freakin match for once. he was the only one in that match that was over. I dont know how TNA is going to recover from this and im a fan thats why its so frustrating to me.
Thanks for the comment, James! I totally agree that the ending of the Angle vs. Roode match was terrible. It seemed to just stop out of nowhere. And you’re right on the mark when you say that you can’t build up Bobby Roode the way that the promotion did and then end the main event of the biggest show of the year that way. In my view, that’s a cheap way out and the wrong way to end this promotion’s “WrestleMania” like annual pay-per-view.
Those items aside, I hope that most fans don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater on this show. In other words, let’s not suggest that the entire show was a wreck because of an admittedly poor ending to the main event and a seemingly shifty ending to the Hulk Hogan vs. Sting encounter (though, in truth, a Hogan face turn has been teased for months).
By the way, James, I don’t include you in the potential group of people who would toss away the entire show because of two bizarre occurrences later on in the event. I mean, you clearly say that “The show was great until the ending of the hogan and sting match,” and I completely agree, but I accept the end of the Hogan and Sting encounter because I’ve seen it teased (poorly) for months. Thanks again for the comment!
what was the attendance for bound for glory
Wrestling unfortunately doesn’t always use the clearest of logic. Example the WWE recently ran an angle where the entire roster walked out because wrestling was too violent(50% of them heels doing the violence). I’m not defending TNA by using a major WWE angle, only pointing out the industry as a whole has a long way to go as far as logic.
The problem I think had more to do with lack of explanation. In my mind Hogan respected Sting taking the fight to him and upon seeing Sting beaten and hearing the crowds chants decided that was the side he wanted to be on all along. Maybe they will clarify this on Impact, maybe they will just gloss over the logic and never explain it.
Good question, bryan. We’ll try to find out and post the attendance figures as soon as verifiable figures are available. Personally, I’m more interested in how many folks watched in theaters around the nation. I really was shocked at the 40 or so people who were in my local theater last night.
I was also very pleased with the show, watched it on PPV.
I think it was a worthy conclusion to year of the Immortal takeover storyline, and I actually found no trouble at all believing the Hulk Hogan turn, and I think I’d feel the same way even if Hulk didn’t spoil the turn months ago. In my opinion, if it doesn’t make sense, you weren’t paying close enough attention. sting has been saying all along that the real Hulk Hogan, that red and yellow spirit, was inside the man somewhere. He was saying all along that it was Bischoff who poisoned his mind. Then Hulk witnesses Eric take out his own son, and he sees a beaten and bloodied Sting begging for help, and the crowd is going crazy, and there he was again, the old Hullkster of Hulkamania fame. I think it was perfectly done, and I was laughing as it happened in a delighted sort of way.
The main event I felt was good, but not great, and the finish was to me shocking and disappointing. I really wanted Roode to win, but I guess somebody felt it wasn’t his time yet. I can’t think of a better build up for the guy though … I wonder if he does win the championship atsome point if it will pale in comparison to what it would have been like winning at Bound for Glory.
I felt the Knockouts match was the weakest on the card, and I’m a huge fan of the Knockouts. I think the storyline with Karen Jarrett hurt the match, though I don’t blame her or the wrestlers. Not enough focus was placed on wrestling a good match because the drama of the heel ref took away that focus.
I was surprised that AJ and Daniels didn’t turn out to be the show stealer I thought it would. Even Taz sounded about as baffled by the ending as the audience did. I have high hopes though that this feud will only go up, as Daniels becomes a bigger and bigger heel.
Bully Ray and Anderson was indeed awesome, and I also have to give props for the saved finish. That was a brutal match, as was RVD and Lynn. That was truly one of those matches where nothing went as planned, but it was amazing anyway. Ink Inc and Mexican America put on a good show too, and I think if you had to make one of those matches a freebie, that was the right one to do it–an important and quality match, but quite the caliber of some of the others.
I hated that Crimson won the Triple Threat, and hated it even more that he pinned Samoa Joe to do it. Can someone explain to me why Samoa Joe is losing so much? He looks bad, but the fans love his badassery so much they don’t seem to care how much he’s being buried. Joe deserves main event status.
Austin Aries and Kendrick did a great job as I knew they would. I actually really like Kendrick and his character, but Austin Aries definitely deserves the championship and serves the division better as champion. He’s the total package in terms of character, style, mic skills and in ring ability.
All in all it was a great show, and it lived up to my expectations. It really makes me want to tune in Thursday and see if Immortal will completely dissolve, and who Angle will face next. And I’m very happy for Velvet Sky too.
hogan did a great job. Flair still the man. Sting has more high skills then many younger guys. Angle is the current man to beat.
Roode is still young. Styles gave his all. But listen up styles so the fans respect. I told you you would someday you face flair. Mr Anderson is a great star. RvD vs Jerry lynn a good match. TnA good job. Also you beat the WWE to the theaters.
As one who went to the theater as you did, there was one thing missing….a t-shirt. There was an address given for those who did attend to send in a photocopy of the ticket, but I didn’t bring a pen and paper to jot it down as I didn’t think I’d need to. I run a medium traffic TNA blog and need to get my hands on the address…..can you guys help?
Thanks for the comment, Jerry. At the theater I attended, we received a little slip of paper with the address on it. I’m pretty sure that the address is just the corporate address of TNA Wrestling, but when I get home from the office I’ll be glad to send it to you via e-mail.
just finished watching BFG and… well… ummm… it’s a mixed bag for me.
I got a column coming up tomorrow to fully explain where I’m coming from.