Impact Wrestling Bound for Glory 2018
From: Melrose Ballroom in New York City (technically Astoria), New York
Date: October 14^th, 2018
Run Time: 2:51:35

*General Notes
*building looks a little better then the Slammiversary one did. Bigger, at least. We’ll see if the crowd is able to bring the same kind of noise that crowd did.
*Card looks pretty good here. Main event is Johnny Impact vs. Austin Aries for the Heavyweight title, but there are several other matches on the show which also have really high potential.
*Commentators are once again Josh Matthews and Don Callis. I’ve ragged on Josh a lot over the years, but he more or less impressed me at Slammiversary so let’s hope he keeps that up. As mentioned on the Slammiversary review, I feel that Don Callis is the best color man in wrestling currently (with all due respect to Nigel McGuinness)
*Really dig the cold open here. The background of the city plays host until we go over the card and have none other then LAX’s Santana and Ortiz giving us the soundtrack to the whole thing. It was very well put together and a sign that they have a lot of faith in a couple of young guys like Santana and Ortiz to give them this platform. The fact that they come from New York gives them a stronger connection to what they are saying, which makes us (the viewers) feel it even more with their conviction. Good start.

*Match #1: Rich Swann and Willie Mack vs. Ethan Page and Matt Sydal
The Who: Rich Swann is a former WWE Cruiserweight champion who left the company after a domestic issue with his wife (Su Yung). Swann was originally going to retire but thankfully decided against that. He was scheduled for the opening four way at Slammiversary, but was removed due to a concussion suffered the Thursday prior. Willie Mack is making his Impact debut here, but as a long time fan of PWG, I’m quite familiar with Willie. He was also ‘The Mack’ on Lucha Underground. He’s a Kevin Owens (Steen) type where despite his larger frame, he’s an incredibly impressive athlete for a guy of his size. Ethan Page is making his PPV debut here. He’s finally away from the Chandler Park gimmick that did him no favors and allowed to be more of the smug prick he was on the Indies. Matt Sydal is someone we discussed at Slammiversary. The former Evan Bourne is experiencing a bit of a career resurgence here in Impact after things didn’t even so well in Japan due to his recreational habits.
The Why: Sydal has been getting Swann to join him in his ‘Path of Enlightenment’. Swann is calling bullshit on Sydal’s part, so Sydal found a different follower/sidekick (?) in Ethan Page. That led to Rich Swann needing backup from a two on one, thus picking Willie Mack as his partner for tonight.
The Match: I pop a little for the fact that Willie’s entrance video keeps his ‘Chocolate Thunder’ nickname from PWG…Swann and Mack come out separate, Sydal and Page come out together. Makes some sense, I suppose…‘All Ego’ Ethan Page finally getting a mainstream position. He’s not much longer for the Indies in general, in my opinion. Frankly, I’m a little surprised he hasn’t been snatched up by the WWE already…Josh mentions Ethan’s successful tag runs with ACH in EVOLVE and Josh Alexander in PWG. This really makes me want to see ACH get a better opportunity here in the States. That dude is money…and we open with an enzugiri by Swann to Sydal. Of course we do…crowd is certainly hot…insane agility from Willie…five star shoulder tackle and Willie adds a ‘you can’t see me’ to it. Lovely…Swann dropkicks Page flush in the face…BBD by Page and Swann full flips, landing face first. Good lord…Callis says Swann has attitude problems. If that ain’t the pot calling the kettle a cooking appliance…Sydal gives Page advice to go for a cover after a huge Iconoclasm. It gets two after the lengthy delay…Josh goes on a rant about Swann being uncoachable and they call Josh unproduceable with Callis threatening to get him someone yelling in his ear. Josh: ‘I still have nightmares’. Alright, that was pretty funny knowing what we know about WWE commentary…definitely more of a teacher-student relationship with Sydal and Page. Whereas Swann and Mack are equals…biggest cannonball ever by Mack! He hit back first on the middle buckle…again, the agility of Mack can’t be understated. Samoan Drop, nip-up, standing moonsault combo…they do need tag teams in Impact. Could do with Mack and Swann being a thing…super body slam by Page into a Swanton bomb. Speaking of impressive agility for bigger men…Don: ‘new signings by the Impact management team. They are doing a hell of a job’. Touch on the nose there, Don…okay, that was convoluted but cool. It works in a company like Impact and the crowd popped for it…and Page just kicked the crap out of Sydal accidentally. It breaks down something serious from there. Stunner from Mack to Page, Ghanarhea by Sydal to Mack. A counter sequence sees a spinning enzugiri like kick from Swann put Sydal down and the Phoenix Splash by Swann gives us the three count at 12:33…well, that was a nice hot opener to get the crowd going. I don’t think it was as good as the four way that opened Slammiversary, but I don’t think it had to be either. This was much more personality driven than that match was. With that said, for the time given, these four guys made the most of it. A little early dissention in the ranks of Page and Sydal as well, as that inadvertent kick led to the finishing sequence. Good not great, but a fun way to kick off the show. (GOOD)

*Post match, Mack gets the mic and after a bit of issues (which the announcers rather comically blame on Sydal), Mack brings a couple fans from the back up to front row seats while plugging the sponsor for the show. They then kick it to Josh and Don up in the balcony of the building, who do more of the same. They aren’t sponsoring me, so they get no love here. I think it’s a betting site anyway…(the bit with Swann and Mack is a cool idea that happens at a lot of shows, but I really don’t think it needed to be aired. This time could have been used for a video package or a promo for someone backstage. I get that the sponsors want to get their shit in, but that should have been for the live crowd)

*Impact gets more mainstream TMZ publicity (curious how much of this was legit and how much was bought) for the beef between Johnny Impact and Austin Aries. They are the main event for the title later on, so good from a promotional aspect. And in this alleged ‘reality era’, I guess blurring the lines isn’t necessarily a bad thing either. Shit goes down even further at the Abyss HoF induction as well with a brawl breaking out and f bombs aplenty being dropped.

*Backstage, Konnan has been attacked. Guess that’s one way to have him not have to wrestle later. Konnan lays the blame on King and tells Santana and Ortiz to go out there and take care of business later.

*Match #2: The Eli Drake Open Challenge
The Who: Eli Drake is a man who has been helping carry Impact Wrestling in the wake of the losses of guys such as Lashley, Bobby (Robert) Roode, Eric Young and EC3. Eli is not the greatest wrestler, but there are few in the business currently that can talk people into a building the way that Eli can.
The Why: Drake was left off the Slammiversary card, a decision I strongly disagreed with back then. In order to assure himself a spot on the Bound for Glory card, we get the ‘Eli Drake’ open challenge. As to the who…let’s find out together, shall we?
The Match: Needs way more ‘DUMMY, YEAH!’…Josh lets us know that the challenge is open to any New Yorker. And the crowd almost immediately starts chanting for Chris Jericho. Yeah, that one I don’t see. And I may be the world’s biggest Jericho mark…let him talk to ya…you can definitely tell that Eli is closer associated with The Rock. He gives off a very similar vibe…Eli is going after the Giants players. Eli’s have a bad history with the Giants recently…oh, are you freaking kidding me?…

*Match #2: Eli Drake vs. James Ellsworth
The Match: Son of a no chin having bitch…Callis proceeds to bury him on commentary, while Josh outs Ellsworth as being from Maryland…crowd chants ‘delete’, to which Eli points out that he’s the wrong guy…and Drake calls out Ellsworth on not being from New York, Ellsworth quips back that ‘I was dating a girl from Staten Island’. Alright, that got a chuckle…I don’t think the fans love you back, James…‘fuck you, Ellsworth’. Tell ’em how you really feel, New York…Eli hits a lack of chin joke, to which James responds with ‘I may not have a chin, but you don’t have any balls’. Loud crowd reaction and it plays into Drake’s gimmick. (bad choice of word there)…sucker punch by Ellsworth and we’re off…I don’t see this going very long…fans are firmly behind Eli here. It’s the charisma, man…Ellsworth going for No Chin Music, but Eli counters into a pop-up spinebuster. Fans chant for the ‘Gravy Train’, but Eli gets caught with a superkick for a close two…Ellsworth goes for the Styles Clash. That gets nearly unanimously booed before Eli turns that into the Gravy Train, which looked a little snug. Crowd chants one more time and sure enough, the second lands for the pinfall at 2:11…it’s James Ellsworth, what do you expect here? You couldn’t have made this match competitive because months of global TV portrayed Ellsworth to be a joke. This was just an opportunity to get Eli Drake out there to interact with the fans a bit, get a win to move forward on and have a couple cute jokes and moments before we move on. I won’t give it a rating, since it was under three minutes. (N/A (TOO SHORT))

*Post match, Eli Drake says he didn’t want a joke. He wanted actual competition. Hall of Fame competition. And cue Abyss…Drake jumps him as he gets the ring but Abyss quickly turns the tide and brings down Drake with a Black Hole Slam…Abyss goes for a table, but the attempt at a Chokeslam is countered by Eli with a low blow…instead of getting while the getting was good, Eli tries to use the table himself. I feel like that’s going to end poorly for him…and sure enough. Dummy, no! Chokeslam does put Drake through the table. Tried to warn you Eli. Just three days late, I guess…

*Promo time for Tessa Blanchard. See, this is the exact kind of thing that could have aired during that Willie Mack fan interaction bit earlier…Tessa comes off so smooth. She’s a good addition to the roster, if her head is on right. As I said in the Slammiversary, her attitude would be the only thing that holds her back in wrestling.

*Match #3: Impact Wrestling Knockouts Championship- Tessa Blanchard © vs. Taya Valkyrie
The Who: Tessa Blanchard is a third generation wrestling star. (Father is Tully, grandfather is Joe), who seemingly has every tool necessary to succeed in this business. She’s becoming a better worker, she’s a good promo and she has the ‘it factor’ that you can’t teach. Taya Valkyrie is a relative newcomer to Impact due to the cross promotion deal they have with Lucha Underground. She was a part of the World Wide Underground in LU and while I know she’s married to Johnny insert last name of choice here, I’ve not seen a whole lot of her in singles competition.
The Why: Tessa won the belt from Su Yung in a three way that also involved Allie. Taya made her way to Impact and laid down the challenge, since Su and Allie were going to be busy facing each other. This match is for the Knockouts title.
The Match: Taya does have a pretty cool entrance video. And her gear seems to be from the Hart collection. She’s looking an awful lot like Natalya. That’s not a bad thing. Nattie is super under-rated both in-ring and in the looks departments…so Josh actually brings up a good point. Taya was supposed to debut for Impact a while back. If memory serves, she had Visa issues and it cost her a PPV shot at the Impact Knockouts title. Let’s see if she can’t ascend to that throne tonight…Callis puts over that Taya is trained by Lance Storm…Tessa comes out as Josh puts over the women’s evolution in sports. Not here too, Matthews…something about the fuzzy boot chicks that does it for Johnny. First Melina and now Taya…Tessa with a nice looking neckbreaker on the apron…more of a chest blower then a Codebreaker, Josh. But it looked good out of the corner…single foot right to the short ribs…they finally gave Tessa’s hammerlock DDT a name. It’s not an especially good one, but it’s a name at least…running hip attack by Taya. That was an ass to the face. And that’s a pair of knees to the face…superplex into a guillotine choke by Taya. Good chain wrestling. Blanchard powers Taya into the buckle and then launches her across the ring…fans with a rather vulgar chant in support of Blanchard (Tessa B ain’t nothing to fuck with), but Taya has her fans as well…Taya counters the Buzzsaw into a loose looking version of a TKO. It looked a bit sloppy but effective…BANG! Close corridor cutter by Tessa…that was an ugly looking choke slam by Taya. The moonsault was a lot prettier though…Taya has shown off a variety of submissions. You can see the training from Storm and the time in Mexico…curb stomp? I think that was a curb stomp…Taya hits Road to Valhalla, but the ref is fixing the ring apron. Really? That’s the best excuse?…Taya eats post and Tessa hits the hammerlock DDT. But it only gets two! I definitely bit on that one…Tessa counters out of a powerbomb with a ’rana into the buckles. Leaping Codebreaker off the top rope (it has a name, but I couldn’t make it out) gives Tessa the three count to retain at 10:36…I think better then the Allie match for Tessa, but I don’t think it fully lived up to each of their potential. The problem for me is that they went with the back and forth spotfest with only a little psychology thrown in towards the end. Everything more or less landed clean, so I can’t knock that. But I tend not to rate spotfests as high as I do matches that tell a story all the way through. Above average for these ladies, but I think with a little more time and a story that they are capable of even more. (ABOVE AVERAGE)
NOTE: A quick look online tells me that the name of the move is Magnum, which is a nice little shout out to Tessa’s stepfather, Magnum T.A.

*Moose promo. Still not buying what this guy is selling on the microphone, but he did have a damn good match at Slammiversary with Aries. Let’s see if he can repeat it against Eddie Edwards here tonight…as a side note, what the fuck is up with the glasses he’s wearing here…McKenzie looks as uncomfortable around Moose as Christy Hemme did around Austin Aries. That’s a reference like four people will get, but they’ll find it funny. That’s what counts.

*Match #4: Moose vs. Eddie Edwards
The Who: Moose as I just said was the challenger for Aries at Slammiversary. He comes from a pro football background and while he’s well built, I’m still not sold on his mic skills. He has gotten much better in the ring though, as the match with Aries showed. Eddie Edwards is a former TNA Heavyweight champion who got the first opportunity post Slammiversary against Aries. It didn’t go so well for him and now he’s trying to work his way back up towards title contention.
The Why: The reason that match didn’t go so well for Eddie was that Moose got involved and cost him the match. This match here is Eddie looking for a little revenge against his former friend. Eddie wins, you have to think he’s right back in line for another shot at the belt.
The Match: Nice to see Eddie and Alisha finally getting along again. Only took six months…Moose gets the Ric Flair escort treatment (okay, to be fair, they are probably strippers not escorts)…Edwards has taken to the t-shirt and jeans school of wrestling attire…they named the kendo stick. Because of course they freaking did.. Kenny, if you must know…Josh runs down Edwards’ accomplishments. It’s all quite impressive. Just unfortunate that only now is he starting to show something resembling a personality…Eddie’s music is quite catchy. Reminder to look that up…“I Am The Fire” by Forever the Fallen for those interested…and there goes the bell…they are trading blows. I like that this started hot. I had that complaint about these matches at Slammiversary…and after Eddie gets the Boston Knee Party in, he goes outside for Kenny. Killer Kross cuts him off with a choke from the crowd and the referee calls for the DQ at 0:48…you can’t seriously expect me to write anything here, right? No rating due to length, obviously. (N/A (TOO SHORT))

*Post match, Callis names it the ‘Kross Jacket’ choke. A two on one beat down ensues until Tommy Dreamer makes the save. Well, that’s one way to get the crowd back into it. Pretty sure Astoria was a town that the original ECW did visit quite a few times. Possibly in this very building…Dreamer lets us know that technically, we are in Queens. I knew it was one of the boroughs. Just wasn’t sure which… ‘You are in Queens, NY with some of the sickest hardcore freaks in the world. And we ain’t gonna stand for some B.S. count-out crap’. It was a DQ, Tommy. But way to pay attention to the product, bud… ‘you want a fight? You got a fight. Ring the goddamn bell’. Well, okay then. Never knew Tommy was part of Impact creative.

*Match #4b: Killer Kross/Moose vs. Eddie Edwards/Tommy Dreamer
The Who (new): Killer Kross is the man known as White Rabbit in Lucha Underground. I can’t say I am caught up there. Therefore, I don’t have a whole lot to go on for him. Tommy Dreamer is arguably the most resilient member of the original ECW outside of Paul Heyman. No matter what, he always manages to land somewhere. Back in Impact Wrestling once again in this particular instance.
The Why: See the above description and it’s pretty straight forward from there…
The Match: And what do you know; the goddamn bell rings and we have ourselves a Teddy Long special. Tag match, playa…Dreamer and Eddie actually had a pretty fun hardcore match at Slammiversary. I don’t think Dreamer should be a feature player in 2018, but in spots like this, I find him acceptable…that poor camera guy just got soaked…‘Moose with a significant athletic advantage on Tommy’. Understatement of the year, Don…fans chanting ‘you’re not LowKi’ at Kross makes me chuckle…Too Cool elbow drop spot and now Team Eddie and Tommy in control…huge standing dropkick by Moose sends Eddie to the floor. Nice agility for a big dude there…Kross reminds me of Baron Corbin. Not sure in which way though…overhead belly to belly on the floor by Edwards on Moose…Edwards back to help with Kross now…top-rope ’rana by Eddie on Kross looks really nice…Dreamer went for the Spicolli Driver but eats a discus lariat. Not the best one on the show, but still pretty big…just chopping the shit out of each other here. I hate chops, but crowd is into it…double head butt and both look staggered. Nobody wins on a head butt, man…BANG!!!. Sorry, course of habit…pop-up powerbomb by Moose to Edwards. Moose is a big enough dude that it looks really good too…Moose grabs Kenny. Swing and a miss and a roll-up by Edwards gets the three count at 8:39…well, the action was solid but unspectacular. Similar to the ‘House of Hardcore’ match, a little bit of the bells and whistles to hide the flaws of the participants. In the end, Moose looked to play Eddie’s game with the kendo stick and got caught doing it which was a nice touch to push this slightly above average. Given what I think Moose and Eddie could have done in a singles, that’s a little disappointing though. (ABOVE AVERAGE)

*Post match, a two on one beat down on Eddie ensues again with Dreamer laid out. A spear in the ring by Moose and then drag Eddie outside where Moose powerbombs him on the ring apron. Man, Moose is just taking everything from the Kevin Owens (Steen) playback, isn’t he?

*oVe promo as we get ready for the six man tag match up next. A promo video hyping the match follows. As much fun as I think this match will be, I think I would have been okay if Sami would have gotten a single partner to take on the Lucha Brothers and Impact let Cage defend the X Division belt. I don’t dislike this six man, but I think at the biggest show of the year, all the titles in the company should be on the line.

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