Csonka’s Impact Bound for Glory 2017 Preview

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview the Impact Bound for Glory PPV. Have fun, and always, thanks for reading. I feel like we say this a lot, but it’s honestly the truth. It’s been a crazy year for TNA/Impact/GFW/Impact Wrestling. Between ownership changes, re-branding to GFW, the Jeff Jarrett situation, re-re-branding to Impact Wrestling, tons of talents coming and going, the El Patron situation, and now the rumored relocation to Canada, which I speculated on last year. It hasn’t been an easy year for the company, but they put on a good Slammiversary PPV and Impact has been largely solid and consistent on 2017. Solid and consistent is ok, but I feel that the company needs to be so much more with so many other options out there. The Bound for Glory card has a ton of potential, and if the talent delivers and creative doesn’t hold them back, it could be the homerun they need to really get rolling as we head into 2018. You have no idea how much I want the company hot kill it with this show. I hope that you enjoy today’s preview, and feel free to share your thoughts. It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful of other’s opinions and don’t be a dick.”

Team Impact (Ethan Carter III, Eddie Edwards and James Storm) vs. Team AAA (El Hijo del Fantasma, Pagano and Texano): Impact has taken advantage of their relationship with AAA to add some new faces to the card and add some international flare to things for Bound for Glory. I felt that the feud started well, and team Impact (Storm & EC3 specifically) having trust issues and not working well together made complete sense due to their history. But as the feud progressed, I felt that the feud started to fall apart. Edwards was mostly MIA for the build and then Fantasma & Texano started being portrayed as enemies instead of the allies they starred the feud as. The booking has had the opposite of the desired affect, the more it goes on the more the teammates seem to hate each other and the more they seem to not care about the feud, which in turn has made me not care about it. I think this will break down into a plunderriffic tag, with Pagano doing stupid shit, getting hit in the head and bleeding a lot; because that that’s his skill set. WINNERS: Team Impact

Red Wedding (First Blood) Match: Rosemary vs. Taya Valkyrie: In one of Impact’s biggest mistakes of 2017, Rosemary lost the Knockouts title at Slammiversary and has been severely downgraded ever since. Taya Valkyrie is the new toy, but a signing I fully support. She’s a good performer, works hard and tends to deliver in big time matches. Valkyrie has dominated the feud thus far in TV, repeatedly getting the better of Rosemary. I am really looking forward to this, as i am a big fan ofboth and think thast this has a ton of potential. A first blood match is one of those matches that the babyface can get their heat back, because the heel gets busted open and while they lose, they don’t “lose” in the traditional sense. Valkyrie is really good in these kinds of matches, they will have the advantages of the smoke and mirrors, and Valkyrie has shown in past matches that he’s not afraid of getting color. I think that this will be Rosemary’s big rebound win, which she desperately needs, but this will not be the end for these two as they will be clashing over the knockouts title eventually. WINNER: Rosemary

EDIT: And none of what I wrote means anything now, due to Impact’s announcement…

Due to circumstances beyond our control @TheTayaValkyrie will not be at #BFG2017 or the tapings. We look forward to seeing Taya in 2018.

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 4, 2017

I was really looking forward to this match, so this comes across as a big disappointment. I hope all is well with Taya; I would guess that Rosemary gets added to the knockouts title match.

X-Division Title Match: Champion Trevor Lee vs. Dezmond Xavier vs. Matt Sydal vs. Petey Williams vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Garza Jr.: The returns of Low Ki, Sonjay Dutt, Matt Sydal, & The Super X Cup filled me with hope that we would get an X-Division with a real direction, defined feuds and that the days of the largely thrown together major show X-Division cluster fuck were long gone. But with months to lay things out and get things set in motion, that’s where we are. Matt Sydal has been largely MIA, Low Ki left, Trevor Lee’s title win was flat, Petey has been fun, Garza has been as well but hasn’t been in the mix with the X-Division guys, and Dezmond Xavier’s Super X-Cup win feels wasted as they did absolutely jack and shit with it. I think that I get so upset about this because there is so much potential in the division that feels absolutely wasted. Now don’t get me wrong, this match has every chance in the world to steal the show, but the road to get here has been extremely lazy, and no matter who wins, I am not sure it will lead to better things unless the booking drastically changes. Sydal would be a good choice, but I feel that building new stars is really important, that having Dezmond Xavier win is the right call. I would then transition to a feud with Sydal, as working a series of matches with the veteran will provide good matches and only help Xavier grow as a performer. WINNER: Dezmond Xavier

NOTE: FiteTV is listing it as an Ultimate X, so who the hell knows…

Six Sides of Steel Match: Moose & Stephan Bonnar vs. Lashley & King Mo: The Lashley “leaving Impact” angle started coldly, with the initial involvement of ATT and then Moose falling flat. To their credit, things have picked up as we grew closer to Bound for Glory, largely in part to Dan Lambert, who has been great and would be a candidate for one of the top non-wrestling personalities if he had a bigger résumé. Stephan Bonnar is a former MMA fighter that has been training for a pro wrestling career. King Mo was going to break into wrestling with TNA, but Bellator put a stop to that, plus he basically gave up on training when he found it too difficult. But he’s a big fan, and as a friend of Lashley, will likely work very hard. I’m not expecting a “D’Angelo Williams” like performance from either, and don’t know if the cage stipulation will help things or not. With Impact reportedly taking the majority of their TV tapings to Canada, leading to the ATT guys likely not being flown into Canada (cost cutting measures) for tapings and the rumors that Lashley will be heading into camp for a return fight with Bellator, I see Moose & Stephan Bonnar picking up the win here. WINNERS: Moose & Stephan Bonnar

Monster’s Ball Match: Abyss vs. Grado: In the spirit of full disclosure, I haven’t been a big fan of this feud at all. I am not a big fan of Grado, but can respect that he’s popular over seas and to a degree, a draw there. But I don’t feel that he’s connected all that well or been used that well by he company. I will say that there have been some clever twists in the feud, the reveal that Van Ness was Canadian (which fans had called for), making the possible marriage useless for Grado to stay in the US, Joe Park abusing Grado to make money off of him and then making Grado to sign his contract for this show without reading it. I don’t see this going well if they play this as a straight up “Monster’s Ball Match.” I honestly think that the best-case scenario here is to work this like “The Great War” or like Borash & Park vs. Mathews & Steiner; start it off in the ring, brawl to the back and then switch to some pre-taped material. During that, you can introduce Laurel Van Ness, Father James Mitchell (a possible Crazzy Steve return?) and control the action through editing, likely improving the over all product like in “The Great War” & Borash & Park vs. Mathews & Steiner, which both came off better by using this approach. From there, they can return to the ring, Abyss can fall onto some barbed wire and into some thumbtacks, and the eventual Grado win. The company loves the guy. So I don’t see him losing and being banished. WINNER: Grado

Knockouts Title Match: Champion Sienna vs. Gail Kim vs. Allie: Due to Taryn Terrell reportedly not being able to get into Canada, her comeback was cut short and she was removed from the match. The rumors are that she was in on a handshake deal, and as a favor to Gail Kim to help wrap up Kim’s career. But if I am being completely honest, I think that this is a case of addition by subtraction. That’s not a knock on Taryn, but I find that four-ways become to cluttered and clunky, and that the match will have a higher ceiling with only three ladies involved. They’re in Canada and it’s Gail Kim’s retirement tour so I’d be shocked if she didn’t win the title here. The win of course should lead to her relinquishing the title, and I would assume a tournament, which will allow them to show off their large Knockouts Roster and fill TV time post Bound for Glory. Impact had an awesome story to tell with a retiring Gail Kim challenging for the KO title ten years after becoming the first champion. Instead, it became just a match with very little actual story being told. This feels like a big missed opportunity from a storytelling perspective. WINNER: Gail Kim

Tag Team Title 5150 Street Fight Match: Champions oVe vs. LAX: Another mistake the company made this year, along with the demotion of Rosemary, was the booking of LAX. The “feud” with Patron destroyed all of their momentum and the feud with oVe was cold and the title change felt very flat. The match has a ton of potential, due to the fact that any thing will go and they will have all of the smoke and mirrors to work with along with fresh bodies. I had speculated that Sami Callihan would be coming in to help his boys, and on the 10.25.17 edition of Impact, he was teased but not fully shown. With Callihan in the fold to help even the odds, I can see oVe retaining, leading to the overall feud continuing along with the tag title feud continuing and a series of six mans with oVe & Callihan vs. LAX (Santana, Ortiz, & Homicide). In actuality, the titles never should have changed hands and the feud should have continued with LAX dominating with the numbers game, culminating with this match and the introduction of Callihan to even the odds. Hopefully the addition of Callihan will give oVe some new life, because so far, I just haven’t been impressed. WINNERS: Champions oVe

World Title Match: Champion Eli Drake vs. Johnny Impact: I think that Eli drake has been poorly managed as the champion, his run has been lackluster and they immediately diminished him to a cliché heel champion, needing help and having his minion do the dirty work. It’s the exact opposite of what I had hoped for when they took the chance with him. His lack of featured time has also been disappointing. I though Drake had a lot of potential as the champion, he’s worked hard but the booking hasn’t been good. Johnny Impact has been a breath of fresh air on the roster, and is a welcomed addition. While Drake’s run has been less than stellar, I fully expect him to work harder than ever before to prove himself in the main event spot, to prove he deserved the shot and to prove he belongs. Johnny Impact is a very good big match performer, which has been proven in AAA & Lucha Underground, and with his big match experience, will be a great dance partner for Drake. For better or worse, I see the company trying to shake things up, and when they want to do that, changing the world champion usually follows… WINNER: Johnny Impact

BUT WAIT… WE FORGOT ABOUT SOMONE: Yes, yes I see Jonathan Impact winning the title, but we forgot about our old pal, Alberto El Patron. Patron is advertised to be returning at the show, and with Cornette & Jarrett out, I could see Patron being brought back as part of an authority angle (not Don Callis, he’s still scheduled to call Power Struggle) as the chosen one. And since Patron never lost the title, he will make the challenge and Jonathan Impact, being the good babyface fighting champion, will accept the challenge and thusly be fucked out of the title. I think the company may be desperate to “create buzz” and that this is a real possibility. WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: Alberto El Patron

IN CONCLUSION: In all honesty I don’t feel that the build to the PPV has been particularly good. I really feel that the creative team has let the talent down, no mater the company’s name, it seems that every regime has the same thing in common, which is leaving the talent out to dry. While I feel the build has been poor, I also feel that there is a ton of potential here. But make no mistake about it, if Bound for Glory 2017 is a successful/great show, it will be all because of the talent overcoming the odds to make it so. I wish them nothing but the best of luck.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

Make sure to join me tonight at 8PM ET for 411’s LIVE Impact Wrestling Bound for Glory Coverage!