TNA Has Given Up On Bound For Glory

Thoughts on TNA Bound For Glory, which is supposedly the biggest show of the year for TNA.

(Also at 411Mania.com)

TNA Bound For Glory tonight. If you don’t know, now you know. Because until Friday, I didn’t know. 

I don’t watch TNA like I used to. Nowadays I just read the recap and keep up with all the news, but I don’t actually watch the show. I used to watch every Impact and PPV. Then I watched most weeks of Impact and some PPV. Then I just read recaps but still watched most PPVs because the wrestling was usually pretty good. No matter what, I always went out of my way to watch Bound For Glory because TNA treated it like a big deal. From its inception they treated it as their version of WrestleMania. And while it was never going to be the phenomenon that WrestleMania has become, they always put that extra effort into the show to try and make it special. 

This is the year that they finally gave up.

TNA is partnering with Wrestle-One to co-produce Bound For Glory, which is fine by me. WCW did this with Starrcade in 1995, but they actually put a little bit of thought into it. Sonny Onoo brought in guys from New Japan Pro Wrestling to invade WCW, setting up a seven match series at Starrcade to determine which organize was better. No one from Wrestle-One has shown up on Impact in any significant role, save for The Great Muta’s announcement and Sanada’s turn. The execution of the “NJPW invades WCW” storyline was a bit of a cluster, but at least it built to something and made sense leading into and throughout Starrcade. 

WCW was also smart enough to make sure that the World Title was on the line at Starrcade 95, even if that meant guys had to wrestle twice. It’s the biggest show of the year, why wouldn’t the biggest title be on the line? 

The TNA World Title is not on the line at Bound For Glory. I guess World Champion Bobby Lashley didn’t feel like flying to Japan to defend his title due to his elevated enzyme condition or something.

The sad part is they set it up perfectly. Bobby Roode kind of won a #1 contender’s match on Impact this past week, giving him one more crack at Lashley and the title. But instead of having that match at the biggest show of the year, it’ll take place on an upcoming episode of Impact because TV is more important than PPV.

To further prove that point, Team 3D, The Hardyz, and The Wolves wrapped up an awesome triple threat tag team series for the TNA Tag Team Titles. On Impact. This past week. Instead of holding off the final match for the biggest show of the year, they gave it away from free on Impact. And the team that won, the Wolves, aren’t even on the PPV. Instead Team 3D will compete on the PPV against Abyss and Tommy Dreamer. That’s right. After working an epic tag team title series with longtime rival The Hardyz and one of the best teams in wrestling today The Wolves, Team 3-D will now face Abyss and Tommy Dreamer for no real reason. 

Furthermore, Madison Rayne won a #1 contender’s match for the Knockouts title on Impact this past week. Who is Havok defending the belt against at the PPV? Why Velvet Sky, of course. If you want to see Madison Rayne, the #1 contender for the TNA Knockouts title, get her shot at the belt…TUNE IN TO IMPACT! 

I understand that TNA smartly cut back on PPVs within the last year or so, but that doesn’t mean they have to stop trying all together. In fact, they should try harder with the few PPVs that they do have, especially the PPV that they’ve built up as “The Big One” since 2005. 

When the WWF only ran a handful of PPVs a year in 1993 and 1994, they made sure that they were special. Now, I understand that wrestling television today isn’t what wrestling television was in 93/94 and WWF certainly made plenty of mistakes in building towards their PPVs back then, but they didn’t treat the events last afterthoughts like TNA is doing (and like WWE has a tendency to do today as well). 

TNA should’ve gone all out this year for Bound For Glory, knowing that it might be the last time that the PPV will take place. They should’ve stacked the card with every title on the line and big gimmick matches to blow off long stand feuds. When you’ve had until June to build to this event, you’ve had plenty of time to lay out a plan and execute it. They should’ve never taped past Bound For Glory, thus giving internet fans (and let’s be honest, those are the only TNA fans that exist) even less incentive to buy the PPV. 

There has been no build to this PPV, and if you have read the spoilers, there is going to be no follow-up either. Guys who are facing each other at the PPV will suddenly start teaming, the Wrestle-One guys won’t be seen again, and titles will change hands on TV. Every match you watch at Bound For Glory is meaningless. The wrestling might be very good. Hell, there might even be a five star match on this PPV, but it won’t matter. It won’t lead to anything and it’ll be the least memorable five star match in history because we’ve been given no reason to care about these matches. The only match with any sort of backstory is James Storm and The Great Sanada vs. The Great Muta and Tajiri. Unfortunately, that match was set-up way back in June and they’ve done little to nothing to build it up since then outside of some promo work from Storm. 

TNA has made a lot of mistakes this year. The list is so long that I probably don’t have the space to list them all. But they had a TNA Bound For Glory tonight. If you don’t know, now you know. Because until Friday, I didn’t know. 

I don’t watch TNA like I used to. Nowadays I just read the recap and keep up with all the news, but I don’t actually watch the show. I used to watch every Impact and PPV. Then I watched most weeks of Impact and some PPV. Then I just read recaps, but still watched most PPVs because the wrestling was usually pretty good. No matter what, I always went out of my way to watch Bound For Glory because TNA treated it like a big deal. From its inception they treated it as their version of WrestleMania. And while it was never going to be the phenomenon that WrestleMania has become, they always put that extra effort into the show to try and make it special. 

This is the year that they finally gave up.

TNA Bound For Glory is tonight.
If you didn’t know, it doesn’t really matter.