Andrew’s IMPACT Bound for Glory Results & Match Ratings: 10.7.2022

Impact Wrestling’s biggest PPV kicks off the preshow with a big video package dedicated to Raven’s HoF nomination. Lance Storm, Tommy Dreamer and Mickie James have some of the most connection to him; so they’re nice to see in the package. During Raven’s speech Dreamer introduced him, foreshadowed by missing getting DDT’d by him and Raven punctuated his speech by saying he was squashing the 28 year feud but hits the Evenflow DDT one more time to a wonderful chorus of boos.

Aside from the good vibes and ECW chants, there is a match card to focus on. Mickie James could be retiring tonight if she can’t beat Mia Yim, Josh Alexander has one of his bigger matches against Eddie Edwards and we get a potential banger with OGK vs MCMG. So while it feels like the show hasn’t had a ton of buzz this year, we still have enough things to sink our teeth in.

Lets see if this Bound For Glory can live up to the last couple!

Ratings:

• X Division Championship: Frankie Kazarian vs Mike Bailey (c): Kaz wins via Chicken Wing – *** 3/4 – TITLE CHANGE!!!
• Last Rodeo: Mickie James vs Mia Yim: Mickie wins via Mick DT – ***
• Impact Knockouts Tag Titles: VXT (Deonna Purrazzo & Chelsea Green) vs DeathDollz (Taya Valkyrie & JesSICKa w/Rosemary): DeathDollz win via Assisted sick-ISHI Driver – ** 1/4 – TITLE CHANGE!!!
• Impact World Tag Team Championships: OGK (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett w/Maria) (c) vs The Motor City Machine Guns: OGK retains via Dirty Pin – ***
• Call Your Shot Gauntlet: Bully Ray beats Steve Maclin – **
• Impact Knockouts World Title: Jordynne Grace (c) vs Masha Slammovich: Grace retains via Grace Driver – *** 3/4
• IMPACT World Championship: Josh Alexander (c) vs Eddie Edwards: Josh retains via C4 Spike – **** 1/2

Results:

X Division Championship: Frankie Kazarian vs Mike Bailey (c)

Frankie comes out in some classic Kaz colors of green and black, while Bailey comes out doing a quick Karate demonstration with board breaking during his entrance.

Quick counter rolls, slides, arm drags and a submission attempt; very classic Junior and old school X Division style. They trade Dropkicks and quick covers, Kaz keeps fishing for the Chicken Wing again, but Bailey says no. Bailey flips away from a swing, fakes his head out to bait Kaz into the Leg Drop on the apron like Kenny King did yesterday and then a Triangle Moonsault has everything coming up Speedball early on.

As soon as I say that, Kaz stops Bailey mid air, props him on the turnbuckle, the ref gets a slow break and then Kaz just shoves him off the turnbuckle to the outside. Kaz keeps on him with back and neck area attacks; so he’s still fishing for Chicken Wing concepts. Kaz counters Bailey’s Kick Flurry would a Twisted Neck Crank as Bailey just kicks Kaz in the head about a dozen times to get him to back off. Back to the Future gets countered into some explosive offense from Bailey, finally.

Kick Flurry finally connects, Twisting Shooting Star for 2, Back Handspring from Bailey but Kaz counters into Back to the Future (Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex). Some more trades, big locomotion cradles, Scoop Slam from Kaz, Guillotine – miss! Standing Flip Knees into the mid section, into Tornado Kicks to the corner, Ultima Weapon, 1-2-KICK OUT from Kaz! I don’t think anyone has kicked out of the Ultima Weapon yet in Impact.

Bailey tries to force Kaz up into the Flamingo Driver, Kaz slips it into the Chicken Wing, drops back, but Bailey manages to power up and throw them both out of the ring just to break the hold. Kaz tries a surprise Baseball Slide, Bailey jumps it into a Super Asai Moonsault. Baily tries to continue but gets caught in the Slingshot Cutter, for only 2 from Kaz. Dazed on the top rope, throwing a few strikes, Kaz goes for the Flux Capacitor and hits it for 2!

Bailey goes for a quick Mouse Trap Cover and almost gets it, kick, a few swings and counters, Back to the Future is countered into a Posion Rana. Bailey goes for a Moonsault Knees to the back of the head, but Kaz counters it into a Cutter for 2, and Kaz hops on Bailey and lcoks in the Chicken Wing, FRANKIE WINS! THE COOLNESS!

Last Rodeo: Mickie James vs Mia Yim

The respecting the veteran babyface duel is interesting with these two, since neither is above shortcuts. 

Very even early trade, quick counters, the mirror arm drag stop spot. They’re having them tell the story of similar starts and being fairly even to begin with. After more back and forth that’s even, Mickie has Mia in a headlock, goes for a Tornado, but Mia pushes her off and there’s a small pause since it appears Mickie tweaked her leg on the landing. The fact that Mia goes after it at least lends me to believe it’s not a real injury. Mia I guess is playing more heel since Mia really leans on working over the injured knee (and Mickie is hurt, so she’s got all the sympathy).

After a little striking Mickie tries to guess at where the kick is coming from, but Mia kicks her right in the bad knee. Mickie is limping through her office, needs a second try to do her Kip Up, and she’s really selling the Sympathetic Veteran who might be done. Its classic storytelling, but Mickie has done a good job at wrestling old school lately.

Mia has a handle on Mickie in the corner, Mickie goes back to her favorite nostalgia spot, lands a big kiss on Mia, dazing her and following it up with a Thesz Press. A few big shots from Mia, and she goes for the HBK to Flair moment where she tells Mickie “Sorry” before hitting Eat Defeat, but Mickie barely kicks out at 2.

Mickie stays determined and she’s visibly upset and in pain, baits Mia into a bad corner attack which allows Mickie to land the Mick DT for the win!

Impact Knockouts Tag Titles: VXT (Deonna Purrazzo & Chelsea Green) vs DeathDollz (Taya Valkyrie & JesSICKa w/Rosemary)

DeathDollz get a new name, their own song and actually come out looking like a good group. 

Deathdollz work over Chelsea in the corner with some of the quick teamwork they showed yesterday. Chelsea eventually gets Deonna in and the crowd serenades their Virtuousa, it is New York after all. Taya and Deonna play coy a little, but Taya rocks Deonna early, hits Pandemonium and Taya is handling Deonna. It’s not until Chelsea distracts Taya that we see VXT take a short cut to an advantage.

So VXT is working over the Dollz with teamwork, but the arrogant heel tactics cause them to get caught. I’m Prettier attempt gets countered into JesSICKa’s arms, Penalty Kick, Sick-ISHI Driver combo and we have new champions!

Impact World Tag Team Championships: OGK (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett w/Maria) (c) vs The Motor City Machine Guns

Matt Taven has won me over in this IMPACT run, so I’m more conflicted than I should be. The Guns are my bias in nearly every match, but I’m just hoping we get a quality match here instead of a gimmick’d finish.

Taven comes out of the gates hot and works over Shelley with the opening salvo. The Guns try some early tandem offense but Taven quickly puts the brakes on that and gets Mike in. A fun exchange with Sabin where Mike does more athletic spots in these 12 seconds than I’ve seen him do in the last 3 years of his career. But we do see some fun blitz moments of quick tandem advantages. The ref got wrapped up with Mike so the Guns can finally take advantage of a spot and a Wheelbarrow Penalty Kick on the arm of Taven finally starts swinging the match.

Sabin and Shelley are focusing Taven’s left arm, and rocking Maestro Purple as he’s been eating offense for a while and getting that arm ripped off. Bennett finally decides to get through the ref and just get involved to start swinging things back to OGK. Taven still being a big workhorse in the match. Interestingly, Mike comes out, Shelley tries to catch him and Mike pulls of a Kimura Lock, but Shelley barely blocks and works out of the sudden technical wizard.

Now Shelley starts feeling like Taven as OGK just eats his lunch. Its not until a slight OGK dysfunctional moment that Sabin gets the hot tag and OGK is getting the 2v1 advantage and failing against Sabin. The Machine Guns flurry is punctuated nicely with a Double Stack Missile Dropkick Assisted Flatliner (they need a name for that). OGK kicks out and manage some tandem rush of their own with a Just the Tip, but MCMG kicks out. A high point toward the end is the call back of the OGK’s IndyTaker “Hail Maria”. But Shelley breaks it up, The Guns fire up and manage a rush to hit Dirt Bomb but only for 2. Double Yakuza, leads to a Skull and Bones attack but it’s broken up by Maria. Taven tries to take advantage, but Shelley fights him down and he falls into the Tree of Woe. Taven is seemingly stuck so its a big moment for The Guns, Maria tries to buy them time, Taven hits a Roll-Up, puts hit feet on the ropes and the ref doesn’t see it, so OGK retains!

Call Your Shot Gauntlet:

The first two are Eric Young and JOE HENDRY! Young lets him get through SO MUCH of his intro, it’s a great levity moment. EY mauls Hendry early, but some thudding uppercuts rock EY a little. Hendry manages to catch, clean and toss EY, a delayed Jackhammer also helps to get across this new power frame from Hendry. Since he looked much different in 2019.

Maclin comes in and beats the hell out of Hendry, catches him in the Crosshairs and Hendry is down while EY and Maclin stare down a little before they both look at Hendry like Hyenas. Rich Swann is the babyface backup for Hendry. So the two heels were beating Hendry to hell but now Swann garnered their attention, and he’s burning through them both. Double 450s for the heels, then the Babyface break down and we see an effortless Sitout Blue Thunder Bomb from Hendry to Rich. Then we see PCO, and the crowd gets pretty damn loud.

Savannah Evans is next out and we see Savannah stare down the French Canadian Frankenstein. Maclin busts up the meeting of the two Monster gimmicks. JOHNNY SWINGER is next! The crowd plays into the Swinger delusion, he gets his goofy moment when he takes on Savannah and has a little Hogan flavored fever dream. Tasha Steelz shows up and gives Savannah some help, so now we get Killer Kelly next! Kelly hits the ring and starts laying everyone out with Throat Chops. She faces off with Savannah and we finally get some eliminations! Kelly wraps the Rear Naked Choke on Savannah and won’t let go, so Savannah throws herself over to eliminate them both. Moose is next and Hendry then PCO get elimianted. Sami Callihan, then Taylor Wilde! So she’s a little bit of a nostalgia treat. Gisele Shaw is next up! Eric Young’s Designed come out to help eliminate Sami Callihan. Deaner self inserts during the pandemonium and then we get Bully Ray’s music hitting.

Tasha chirps off at Bully Ray, so she shoves him like 4 times and then he threw her out of the ring. Tommy Dreamer comes out next. Dreamer and Bully Ray do the Flip Flop and Fly together for a cute moment. More ECW as Rhino is back from injury! Bully, Tommy and Rhino just have a funny nostalgia spot that Swinger tries to get involved in, before they pretend to amuse him and then dump him right before Bhupinder Gujjar comes out. Dreamer got eliminated off screen, but we’re hopefully about to get a big guy to clear house a little. Heath…is not who I had in mind, but he should be happy to see Rhino back.

Bobby Fish and then Matt Cardona are next. There’s a funny moment with all 3, Bully Ray compromises Matt Cardona and sees Taylor Wilde in headbutt position, they do the WASSUP, get the tables chant and then some eliminations to start speeding things up. The hits keep coming, Rich Swann gets a big elimiation on EY, then Macline takes out Swann so the last three are Maclin, Bobby Fish and Bully Ray…oh wait there goes Bobby Fish. So it’s Bully Ray vs Steve Maclin.

Both are throwing haymakers and looking to land big brawler style moves. Maclin gets a little cocky, eats an Uranage from Bully for 2, and Bully is selling and injury. Maclin charges into the corner, Bully sidesteps, Maclin stumbles back into a Bully Bomb – and a … fuck – what? Bully Ray won the Gauntlet?

Impact Knockouts World Title: Jordynne Grace (c) vs Masha Slammovich

Masha gets new more – Helloween – style metal vibe and comes out with a cool big fight look. Jordynne comes out looking really jacked and tan, baby. I do appreciate Masha’s Bull Nakano look. 

Okay they come out throwin bombs, definitely giving old school 90s slobberknockers. Masha starting taking control when she lands a Reverse Piledriver on the apron, and all of Jordynne’s early steam is gone. This is really just an old school Hossette fight. Old school Chop off spot, where both women try an Aja Kong Spinning Backfist and they take until about an eight to get up, and they they explode into one another. More trades of blows before Jordynne takes the momentum into a Michinoku Driver for 2.

They both keep firing up and Masha actually counters Jordynne and hits a Russian Destroyer to continue the feeling of the power battle. Jordynne hits a hell of a movie with a Superplex into a Jackhammer and again just doing tough girl shit. Jordynne tries a Muscle Buster Masha slips it, Hook Kick into Rear Naked Choke, with she flips into a takedown and then Jordynne keeps trying to fight off the choke. Rope break turns into Masha pulling off a Shutdown Suplex Hold, but Jordynne kicks out.

Back and forth, back and forth, Jordynne even pops me (and the crowd) with countering a lariat into a Kudo Driver for a two count. The slugfest isn’t over yet. Savat Kick, Russian Death Device try, nope, Jordynne counters pulls off the Grace Driver and Masha kicks out! Again so many little burst of offense is keeping the crowd decently into things. Jordynne kicks out of the Russian Death Device. Masha tries to take her up for some higher impact move and Jordynne turns it on her, grabs her and Avalanche Grace Driver has Jordynne retain!

IMPACT World Championship: Josh Alexander (c) vs Eddie Edwards

The early-going is extremely even, the crowd starts dueling chants to try and motivate some actual action. It’s still very grounded and technical, and just mind games for both. A lot of slow plodding offense from both, they are really slow boiling the hell out of this match. Josh must’ve heard me because he runs the ropes and hits that Low Crossbody to seem to be picking up the pace a little.

After a lot of traded spots, that don’t really need me to say anything; we get a big spot of Eddie hitting a Fisherman’s Buster. Eddie is going in for the kill and just working over Josh. Back Packer Stunner from Eddie, pinfall floats over to a Single Legged Boston crab, but Josh gets to the ropes. Josh fires and hits Rolling German Suplexes, first apron, then floor, then ramp. Josh looks to have turned things around, sizes up Eddie, rocks him, hits a Powerbreakter and similarly to the Knockouts, they’re both trading big moves building to a potential finish. Josh catches Eddie, hits a Styles Clash right into the Ankle Lock; as Eddie manages to roll forward and break the hold that way.

Josh counters Eddie’s offense into a big C4 Spike, which is the point when a lot of Honor No More comes down to try and help Eddie. Heel stuff ensues, second ref comes out, Eddie hits a Boston Knee Party, but Josh kicks out.

All I can really say is this is a back and forth of great proportions. It’s hard hitting, Josh bleeds the hardway, big haymaker moves just a good brawl. Me writing names of moves wouldn’t to this justice. As you can see Josh retained, so go watch it.

Bully Ray comes out after the Honor No More beatdown, acts like he’s cashing in the gauntlet trophy, but fights off HNM with Josh. Then they have kind of a weird head to head with Bully writing a novel in some kind of attempt at trash talk. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Admittedly, I didn’t feel the buzz, didn’t feel like it was a bigger show…it really just felt like a longer IMPACT episode. Now Raven being Raven was great, some of the nostalgia pops lasted too long or weren’t nearly as charming as they were hoping. Booking sits a little funny, and I think that’s part of what leads into the general down feeling that I have. Though the main event was great, I really think its the Bully Ray choices that confuse me so much and leave me not loving the show.

Whereas the show was by no means bad, with above average matches – it just felt all – inconsequential. Prolly doesn’t help that Bully Ray winning the gauntlet makes zero sense and feels like it’s a few years late of him returning actually be exciting. I hope some of the future stories that come out of this can make some things make sense.