NWA-TNA Bound For Glory 2005 10/23/2005

Written by: Matt Peddycord

TNA: Bound for Glory
October 23, 2005
Orlando, FL
Universal Studios

The current NWA & TNA Champs were as follows:
NWA World Champion: Jeff Jarrett (9/15/2005)
NWA World Tag Team Champions: America’s Most Wanted (10/22/2005)
TNA X-Division Champion: AJ Styles (9/11/2005)

Why are they showing the voiceover guy in the intro? They don’t do that in movie trailers. It just takes away so much of his mystique. I mean, you don’t see James Earl Jones in Star Wars.

Your hosts are Mike Tenay and Don West.

• Austin Aries vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Alex Shelley vs. Roderick Strong – Pre-Show Match

They announce that Kevin Nash has not been medically cleared to wrestle tonight and we have no idea who Jarrett’s challenger will be. That’s why you need to buy the PPV! Strong and Shelley start out with some fancy arm wrenching and dragging. That leads to a stalemate. Tag to Sonjay, Shelley grounds him with a test of strength and tries for a pinfall. Sonjay makes his way up and flips off Shelley’s shoulders. He enziguri kicks away a punch and does that water sprinkler impression before dropping Old School on him. Sonjay delivers a headscissors and leaves Shelley begging for a handshake. When he accepts, Shelley backhands him for being so stupid. Back to Strong, Sonjay levels him with a wheelbarrow armdrag and a satellite headscissors for two. Aries gets a blind tag as Sonjay dropkicks Strong into a hilo and then runs Sonjay down with a clothesline. Shelley comes in and gets caught in the corner and sandwiches Strong. IEDs for both men! Sonjay interrupts the Heat Seeking Missile to Shelley though, but makes up for it with a slingshot somersault headscissors on Strong to pop the crowd. He comes back on Sonjay with a NASTY butterfly backbreaker. Tag to Shelley, he puts the hurting on Sonjay with a toehold-full nelson combo. Aries tags back in and delivers that snap side slam to Sonjay for two. Powerdrive Elbow scores another nearfall. In comes Strong, he drops the CX 02 on Sonjay for 1-2-NO! Now everybody comes in and applies submission holds to the others. Nobody gives. Big do-see-do spot ends with Sonjay and Shelley clotheslining each other. Strong elbows Aries to the floor, but gets spat on by Shelley and nailed with a tornado DDT. Cover by Shelley, but here comes Sonjay with a running SSP on top of Strong. Final Cut by Shelley on Strong gets two. Aries hits Shelley with a rolling fireman’s carry drop, but stands up into an enziguri by Sonjay. SONJAY CUTTER to Shelley! Strong breaks up the pin and gives Sonjay DEATH BY RODERICK. Aries kicks Strong in the face to stop the pin and delivers the BRAINBUSTER. He goes up top for the 450 Splash. Shelley can’t bring down Aries, but Sonjay does. He wants the HINDU PRESS, but Strong prevents that from happening. Sonjay pushes off a superplex and hits the DRAGONRANA for the 1-2-3! (13:33) Fast paced, hard hitting, intense action. Best way to start and possibly grab some last minute buys. ***½

• Samoa Joe vs. Jushin Liger

Big entrance for Joe with a drum line and native Samoan dancers. Hate to say it, but him dancing kind of humanizes him a bit too much. He’s Samoa Joe, not Sivi Afi. Liger gets the streamers entrance into the ring. Inoki’s son and wife (I believe) get ringside seats for this one. He looks around the arena with an expression that says, “This is it?”. The crowd is PUMPED to see Liger back in the states. Joe stands strong after some shoulderblocks. Liger baits him into a drop toehold and a dropkick to the face. To the floor, Liger teases a dive and handsprings back to the center of the ring. He kicks Joe through the ropes and takes a dive off the top. Back in, Liger flies down into a Samoan drop. Joe hits the big knee in the corner and then the Joe Combo gets two. While Tenay brings up Liger’s past with WCW, Liger gets blasted with a powerslam. He avoids a corner charge and nails Joe with the Rolling Koppou Kick. BRAINBUSTER? Nope. Fisherman Buster works though for two. Frog Splash hits for another nearfall. Joe stops him with an enziguri, but Liger fires back with a modified Liger Bomb for 1-2-NO! Joe is just too big and Liger too small to actually pull off the move. A series of palm thrusts take Joe down for another two-count. Now Liger heads up top, but Joe kicks at Liger and brings him down with the MUSCLE BUSTER followed by the COQUINA CLUTCH. Liger’s arm drops once, twice, and three times for the TKO. (7:16) Finish felt like it came too soon, but you could say Liger REALLY put Joe over here. At least to those who knew who Liger was. Liger just hasn’t been the same in my opinion since the brain tumor. I don’t say that with a smarky attitude. I really wish this wasn’t the case. **¼

• The Diamonds in the Rough vs. Shark Boy, Apolo & Sonny Siaki

Diamond gives the boys a pep talk before they go through the curtain. Let’s see if it pays off. Diamond controls Shark Boy to start. He tries the DSD, but Diamond slams him down. Shark Boy bites Simon on the butt and he retreats to the floor. Yeah Don, nothing is MORE humiliating than selling being bitten by a guy that wears a mask that covers his mouth. Diamond sends Skipper after Shark and he runs into a headlock. Tag to Apolo, he hits a cutter for two. While Diamond distracts the ref, Skipper and Young bait Apolo into a flying back elbow. Siaki gets the fresh tag and the match breaks down a little. Skipper jumps off Young and then Apolo who are doubled-over to hit Siaki with a leg lariat of sorts in the corner. Now everybody starts diving out to the floor ending with Apolo giving a somersault plancha to the pile. Diamond then runs him into the ringpost to cool him down. Back inside, Skipper launches Siaki into the AA Spinebuster by Young for the 1-2-3. (7:07) If the DITR couldn’t beat this trio, they SHOULD have just thrown in the towel on their careers. *½

Before the PPV started, Raven tries threatening NWA championship committee rep Larry Zbyszko into giving him his title rematch since Kevin Nash is a no-go. He ends up attacking Larry when Rhino comes out to question him about some girl that got to his head.

Elsewhere, Jeff Jarrett and Gail Kim tell the top contenders to his NWA world title to go screw themselves. Everybody except Monty Brown that is. He takes offense and gets up in Jarrett’s face about it. One day, Monty vows they will meet on the Serengeti. We shall see. Jarrett tells Monty he better not to Hoyt tonight to prove to the championship committee he’s worthy of a title shot.

• Monty Brown vs. Lance Hoyt

Monty punks Hoyt around to start, but he quickly comes back with a flapjack to cause Brown to bail. On the floor, Monty sends Hoyt into the steps and then calls for the crowd on one side of the arena to move. He teases to toss Hoyt, but then throws him back into the ring instead just to be a dick. Hoyt makes him pay with a pescado. Back in, they trade chops and Hoyt does his version of the ten-HOYT corner punch. Monty does the Greg Valentine faceplant, but he just baits Hoyt to go up for the moonsault and shoves him to the floor. Back into the ring, Brown delivers a Fallaway Slam. ARE YOU NOT…ENTERTAINED? He tries the POUNCE, but Hoyt boots him down. Moonsault hits for 1-2-NO! Hoyt comes off the middle rope, but gets caught for the Alpha Bomb. Delayed cover gets 1-2-NO! Hoyt delivers the Chokeslam and scores another nearfall, but the POUNCE is coming. You could just feel it. Monty picks up the win. (6:33) Fairly convincing victory for Brown as it wasn’t long enough to make you feel like Monty was in any real danger of losing. Certainly entertaining though. *½

In the back, Kip James offers to watch the back of 3LK while they take on Team Canada. BG and Killings like that idea, but Konnan could not be more against it. Since Konnan isn’t down with that, Kip walks away mad and probably has two words for the Kru.

• Team Canada (w/Coach Scott D’Amore) vs. 3Live Kru

Kip takes a seat by the tunnel so as not to bother Konnan. Speaking of Konnan, he starts off against EY. He hits the Rolling Lariat and the spinebuster out of the corner. Next, 3LK holds Young in place as Killings hits a flying leg drop on his nuts. This really just looks like a glorified squash. Killings plays face-in-peril for a few moments. Hot tag to BG, he gives Young the Shake Rattle and Roll followed by the Shaky Knee Drop. Once everybody clears out, BG tries the PUMPHANDLE SLAM only for Roode to break that up with a hockey stick to the face. EY covers for the 1-2-3. (6:01) Team Canada continues the beatdown afterwards, but Kip James pulls BG out. He brings a chair in the ring as Team Canada holds Konnan in place, but Kip takes out A-1 and scares the rest of them away to show his true allegiance to 3LK. *

Shane Douglas checks in with Larry Zbyszko to see if Jeff Jarrett has a challenger yet. Still nothing. Larry Z tells Shane he will be the first to know when that time comes.

• Matt Bentley (w/Traci) vs. Chris Sabin vs. Petey Williams (w/Coach Scott D’Amore) – Ultimate X Match

The winner of this one gets an X-Division title shot at the next PPV. Bentley and Sabin double-team Petey to start. Once he lands on the floor, they go after each other. Sabin connects with a nice headscissors, but here comes Petey again. Petey knees Sabin in the head to stop a suplex and continues with his own series of suplexes. While Bentley handles Petey, Sabin goes for the X. Bentley sees that and tackles Sabin down to give him an inverted atomic drop, which hurts his own knee in the process. With both men on the mat, Petey has a chance. Instead, he gets his face buried in Traci’s boobies. Meanwhile, Bentley heads for the X. Sabin enziguri kicks Petey and then yanks Bentley down to crash on top of him. Sabin then pounds on Bentley in the corner and then launches Petey into Bentley with a crucifix bomb. With both men staggered, Sabin lands the enziguri kick-tornado DDT combination. I LOVE IT. Bentley stops another climb for the X. While Petey is on the apron, Sabin gets whipped and leaps over the top rope to try for a sunset flip powerbomb. Williams puts on the brakes and legdrops Sabin on the apron. Bentley looks for a baseball slide on Petey, but he jumps back into the ring and back out onto Bentley for a slingshot headscissors. Back inside, Bentley gives Sabin a reverse neckbreaker while dropping Petey with a cutter. Now Sabin and Bentley start the climb and Sabin brings Bentley down with a powerbomb. Pretty phony looking. I mean why would Bentley even put his legs onto Sabin’s shoulders like that. Petey gives Sabin the O CANADA Nut Stomp. Meanwhile, here comes Bentley to shove him off. Bentley heads up too, but Sabin shoves him to the floor as well. Now that the others are on the floor, Sabin wipes them out with a moonsault press. Back in, Bentley stops Sabin from reaching the X. However, the ropes are left shaking so violently, that the X falls to the mat. So here comes the ring crew to set up the X back up. They continue brawling on the floor while that’s being done. Now Sabin and Bentley meet at the middle and kick each other down. As the ropes shake just as they did before, the X falls down right into Petey’s waiting arms to give him the win. (13:39) Tenay cries that you can’t win the match that way, but so much for THAT. Some good wrestling in the first five minutes, but all the spots involving the entire concept of the match were mildly ridiculous. Since this was so botched, they would give us a superior rematch on the big 2-hour Spike TV special on November 3. **½

Extended video recap of the Controversy in Canada, Planet Jarrett bloodying up Team 3D, and AMW regaining the NWA world tag titles from the Naturals.

• NWA World Tag Team Champions America’s Most Wanted (w/Gail Kim) vs. The Naturals

Understandably so since AMW put a BLOODY HURTING on the Naturals “last night on iMPACT” to secure the tag team titles, this starts off as a real big brawl. Storm takes a powerbomb onto the guardrail to leave him laying for a while. Harris is double-teamed until Gail Kim distracts. Storm gets up off the floor and runs poor Andy Douglas into the Ultimate X structure. AMW busts Douglas back open. EYE OF THE STORM gets two. Douglas breaks away for a hot tag to Stevens. He lands a facebuster off the shoulders on Harris into a reverse neckbreaker by Douglas. That gets two. Storm can’t land the LAST CALL and takes one from Stevens. Harris tries to throw powder at Stevens, but that gets kicked back in his face. Storm walks over to Harris and gets blindly picked up for the CATATONIC. With Harris still blinded, the Naturals give him a taste of his own medicine with the DEATH SENTENCE for 1-2-NO! Gail Kim prevents the NATURAL DISASTER to Storm, which causes Douglas to give chase after her. Unfortunately for Douglas, it was all a trap as Harris walks over and handcuffs Douglas to the guardrail! Now Stevens is clearly all alone. While Gail discusses the US government’s handling of Hurricane Katrina with the ref, Storm bashes Stevens over the head with a beer bottle. Not as cool a visual as it typically is, but it gets the job done. DEATH SENTENCE is the exclamation point to rid the Naturals of the NWA tag titles and any lasting effect they would have on TNA in the future. (10:38) Good back-and-forth match. Although you had to know the direction was headed clearly in AMW’s favor, I think they gave the Naturals plenty here. ***

• Abyss (w/James Mitchell) vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Rhino vs. Sabu – Monsters Ball II

Abyss pairs off with Hardy while Rhino and Sabu go at it. They fight through the crowd, they bleed on the floor, they throw chairs at each other, they jump off chairs onto each other. It’s a wild one. Hardy tries to go for the win early as he hits Abyss with the Whisper in the Wind and tries for the Twist of Fate, but Abyss counters into Shock Treatment. However, Jeff kicks Rhino away as he starts swinging a chair at everybody. With Sabu on all fours, Hardy delivers Poetry in Motion on Abyss. Jeff invites Sabu to do the same thing, but Sabu doesn’t give a FFFUUU and kicks Hardy in the gut and legdrops a chair on him. Rhino finds a kendo stick and starts taking people out. He tries for the GORE on Abyss, but gets caught for a Chokeslam onto a chair. Sabu sets up a table while Hardy finds a ladder. Abyss and Jeff head over to the tunnel where MORE tables are set up. Meanwhile at ringside, Sabu double-jumps off a chair and the ropes to put Rhino through a table. Back over to Hardy, he has Abyss on tables set side-by-side and then SWANTON BOMBS off the top of the stage. Insanity. Unless you are Don West (and I have the utmost pity for you), this stunt was “freaking insane”. In the ring, Rhino cuts off Sabu with a kendo stick, but Sabu still gets the Triple Jump Moonsault for 1-2-NO! Abyss and Hardy start crawling back to the ring. Sabu tries a crossbody on Abyss, but he’s caught and dropped straight down through a table. Mitchell hands Abyss the bag of tacks, but he turns back around into a GORE from Rhino that puts him through a table in the corner. Hardy makes a last ditch effort to come back, but the RHINO DRIVER kills him dead to win the match. (11:46) If that brawl didn’t have you flipping out, I don’t know what will. Much crazier than the first Monsters Ball and just a better match all around. ***½

To the back with Shane Douglas. Championship committee member Larry Zbyszko tells us that Jeff Jarrett will defend the NWA world title tonight against the winner of a 10-man gauntlet match. Jarrett comes over and cries foul over the whole thing saying that he has no time to prepare, but Larry Z argues that neither does anybody in the gauntlet, so suck it.

• TNA X-Division Champion AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels – 30-Minute Ironman Match

Daniels gets the jump on AJ to start. A PRESS SLAM from Daniels! What. AJ fires back with a crazy looking leverage armdrag and a backbreaker. Styles wants to take this to the floor, but Daniels does not and stuns AJ with jabs. Best Dropkick in the Biz happens whether Daniels wants it to or not. Now they go to the floor. Daniels ends up over the guardrail so AJ can show off how much of a gymnast he is by flying onto Daniels in the crowd. Back in, AJ slows the pace down with a headlock. Styles stays one step ahead of any counters and then drills Daniels with the jumping knee drop. Turnbuckle smashes in four corners gets two. AJ uses a page out of Hardcore Holly’s playbook and kicks Daniels in the gut while he’s holding onto the ropes. MUTA LOCK~! Daniels bites his way out. After some fancy movements on the apron, AJ flies down into an exploder suplex. Daniels twists the neck (completely off according to West) and follows up with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two. More neck wrenching. AJ fights out, but falls victim to the Koji Clutch. Styles POWERS UP and reaches the ropes. Split-legged moonsault gets two. We are at the fifteen minute mark now without a fall. Styles comes back with the Quebrada DDT. After a series of clotheslines, Daniels falls flat on his face. Not quite Valentine-style, and not quite Flair-style either. Just plops down. Hammerlock back suplex gets two. I like that move. Pumphandle into a gutbuster scores another nearfall. AJ wants a springboard, but Daniels sees it coming and catches AJ for a Death Valley Driver. Cover, 1-2-NO! Fall From Grace gets two. Styles avoids a swinging neckbreaker and levels Daniels with the suplex into a reverse neckbreaker.

Styles looks for the Quebrada DDT again, but Daniels snapmares him off and catches him with the Blue Thunder Driver for 1-2-NO! BME! Cover, 1-2-NO! Only ten minutes remain and still not a single fall. Styles grabs a Torture Rack and cranks on that for a while until he powerbombs Daniels down off his shoulders for 1-2-NO! Daniels comes back and knees AJ to the floor onto the steps. Once AJ gets up, Daniels levels him with the tope suicida. Back on the apron, AJ catches Daniels with the Pele Kick. Of course, Don West flips out. As Daniels gets to his feet, Styles wipes him out with a somersault plancha. Back to the apron again, this time Daniels brings AJ to the floor with a back suplex to the floor! Back inside, they trade forearm shots. Quick nearfalls from both guys, but still no fall. AJ tries to handspring off the ropes onto Daniels, but he gets caught with a release German suplex! BUT AJ CHANNELS THE FIGHTING SPIRIT and stands right back up to run Daniels down with a discus clothesline! If this were WCW/nWo Revenge, he would have a special right now. Oh, but then he just collapses. Maybe he didn’t have a special then. Two minutes left! AJ hits a springboard body press, but Daniels rolls through for 1-2-NO! Styles can’t suplex Daniels, but an enziguri will do. Daniels fires back with an enziguri of his own. ANGEL’S WINGS? No! AJ backdrops Daniels just like at Unbreakable when he regained the X-Division title, but Daniels manages to bridge up to his feet! Why couldn’t he have just done that last month? From there, AJ maneuvers Daniels around and catches him with the STYLES CLASH! Only five seconds left, but AJ gets the three-count just in time. (30:00 | Styles – 1 | Daniels – 0) This was a very different match from the one they did back at Against All Odds and it needed to be. Great psychology and storytelling as neither guy wanted to give an inch. Plus, I’m glad they avoided going into overtime because it’s overdone. Don West forces his judgment on us by saying that if anybody did not enjoy this match, then that person is a heartless and soulless person. So if 30-minute matches aren’t your cup of tea, then he’s basically calling you a brain-eating zombie who considers Adolf Hitler to be a “positive thinker”. Since I am neither of those things, by that logic, I really enjoyed this match. ****

• 10-Man Gauntlet Match – Winner faces the NWA World Champion

First two guys out are Samoa Joe and Ron Killings. After two minutes, another wrestler joins them. After that, the remaining seven guys enter the match in one minute increments. Truth mocks Joe for whatever reason. He pays dearly with a big knee in the corner followed by the face wash. Truth NO-SELLS though and comes off the top with a Buff Blockbuster. Out comes Sabu with a chair. He hits the Triple Jump Moonsault on Killings and then jumps off the chair onto Joe in the corner a couple times. Lance Hoyt enters at #4. He shuts down Joe with a running boot. Abyss is next. He and Joe have a staredown. They end up GOOZLING each other, which Truth breaks up much to the dismay of the crowd. Jeff Hardy is #6. He sells the back well and pretty much the whole time out there. Here comes Monty Brown. POUNCE to Sabu! Hardy charges Brown and gets taken over the top to the floor. Looks like Monty was supposed to go with him, but instead flubs the spot and clearly makes himself tumble over the top to the floor as well for our first eliminations. Why all the build of mistrust between Monty and Jarrett with no payoff? Anyways, Rhino is #8. He eliminates Hoyt right from the start. For some reason, Kip James is #9 even though we were told by Larry Z that everyone in this match had already wrestled tonight. Since he’s the most fresh, he rules the ring for about a minute. Don West thinks the last guy will be Raven, but nope. It’s AJ Styles who just finished wrestling for 30 minutes about ten minutes ago. Styles is easily owned by whoever he goes after. Sabu gets eliminated off-camera. When AJ tries tossing out Killings, Kip James sacrifices himself so that Truth can stay in the match. Killings about gets tossed again, but Kip still standing at ringside tries to push him back into the ring. As referees get rid of Kip, Joe stomps Killings to the floor. And then there were four. Joe grabs a rear naked choke on AJ near the ropes and Abyss dumps them both out. Now Abyss turns back around into a GORE from Rhino. That makes for an easy toss out to give Rhino the win and the NWA world title shot. (14:18) Standard battle royal with the added psychology of (most) everyone already having wrestled. *½

• NWA World Champion Jeff Jarrett vs. Rhino – Special Ref: Tito Ortiz

I completely forgot about Tito. Security guys wheel a casket down to ringside. There’s something SO less cool about just some dudes bringing it down as opposed to druids or something. Anyways, Jarrett destroys Rhino even further by beating him up all around ringside. Back inside, he goes for one flying clothesline too many as Rhino catches him by the throat and lifts him into the air so he can kick him in the balls. GORE misses though. Gail Kim comes down and tries to give Tito a flying body press. She gets caught and taken back towards the tunnel kicking and screaming. Meanwhile, Jarrett KABONGS Rhino. We get the delayed three count from Tito, but it was only meant to be a nearfall. Whoops. AMW head out as well. While Harris talks politics with Tito, Storm hands Jarrett another guitar. Tito finally has enough and punches down AMW. As Jarrett swings the guitar, Rhino pops up and hits the GORE for the REAL three-count and the NWA world title. (5:44) Dang. Rhino going over THREE times tonight. Seems a bit much. Although if you were going to put over somebody that much on one show, I would have personally went with Monty Brown. But whatever. Does this mean Kevin Nash would be NWA world champion if he hadn’t been admitted to the hospital? I think that’s an even scarier scenario. ¾*

After the bell, Rhino doesn’t even get to celebrate because AMW and Gail Kim join Jarrett in a beatdown. 3LK try to save, but Team Canada run out to stop them. Jarrett KABONGS Rhino and sticks him in the casket. Once the lid shuts, Jarrett stands on the lid holding the NWA world title over his head. This looks bad for Planet Jarrett and Team Canada, but Team 3D return for the MEGA HUGE SAVE. 3LK is revived and help them clean house on the heels. Young gets caught in the midst and eats a 3D before getting put in the casket in place of Rhino. Quite the hot ending to the show!

Final Thoughts: Not a bad show, but I think there have been better TNA PPVs in 2005. No Surrender and Sacrifice come to mind. I honestly think they could have scrapped the gauntlet match and just gave the title shot to the winner of the Monsters Ball match since it consisted of four of the top contenders and put them through quite a grueling test. The effect could have been twofold as well: close to 20 more minutes could have been given to other matches that were slighted like Joe/Liger and certainly would have left Monty Brown with a viable reason to say that Jarrett was ducking him. The effort was certainly there to make something special of this PPV though with throwing their best stuff at you to formulate what they market as their WrestleMania show. Mild thumbs up for Bound for Glory 2005.