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Impact Wrestling’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view (PPV) was last night (Nov. 5) and emanated from the Aberdeen Pavilion in Ottawa Ontario. You can find the results here.
Overall Thoughts
This was an OK show.
Not a bad show. Not a good show. An OK show.
And that’s not terrible, but when Impact only has two pay-per-views a year, you expect them to feel huge. Outside filming somewhere else, this didn’t feel bigger than what we see on Impact weekly. And even when filming somewhere else the stage and set up looked exactly the same. Moose had someone sing him to the ring, but it lacked the pomp and circumstance that big PPVs provide.
Bound for Glory was already behind the 8-ball due to the marathon set of tapings that made up the last 3 months of Impact TV. With those three months taped in a week, they were forced to really pad the last month building to their biggest PPV with a ton of filler.
Because of that, many of the stories lost momentum coming into last night. The heat behind these feuds had dwindled. That left the matches to pick up the slack. There were definitely some good matches, all of the title matches were at least pretty good, but nothing popped off the page like a big time PPV classic. And with the storylines dipping the last month, they really needed that for this to be a great show.
This show is going to really only be remembered for the Alberto El Patron events, and it may not be remembered in a positive light for those. (More about all of that soon.) For the talent that has been there while Alberto was suspended, that sucks. All the talent should have the chance to be part of something memorable on such a big show. But in the end, the only thing that sticks out on this show is really Alberto El Patron.
Now onto the matches:
Eli Drake def. Johnny Impact to retain his Impact championship
This was all about Alberto El Patron.
Alberto returned earlier in the night to cut a promo railing against management for suspending him and stripping him of his title despite all investigations clearing him of any wrong doing. There was an uncomfortable moment where he forced Jeremy Borash to apologize for not reaching out to him when he was suspended.
He also ruined the main event. Literally.
After Johnny hit his Starship Pain, seemingly winning the match, Alberto came through the crowd and cleaned house. The referee went down when Johnny Impact missed a dive to Alberto and knocked the ref out. Patron then laid out both men, including breaking a chair over Johnny’s head. (Seriously, Impact? Still doing unprotected headshots in 2017? Get outta here with that.)
The disgruntled Patron then draped Drake over Johnny, handing him the win. This was not because he has any love for the champion. He made that point earlier. It’s more likely that he feels no one should get to face Drake until he does.
Bringing back Alberto as a heel seems like the way to go. (Though bringing him back at all is questionable.) His initial promo was a bit awkward and uncomfortable, as was his bit with Jeremy Borash. But if it transitions past his suspension and just into Alberto as a vicious, angry heel, it could work.
What I definitely didn’t care for is making the Impact title match all about Patron. While the story with Drake and Johnny had been spinning its wheels prior to the PPV, they should have had the right to finish it off themselves. Alberto wrecking house could have been a post match angle to set up what’s next. Using it as the direct finish of the championship match gives the message that despite earning a suspension for the company, he takes precedence over those who held it down in his absence.
That’s a crappy message to send.
Lashley & King Mo def. Stephan Bonnar and Moose
It’s likely not surprising to hear, but this match was really overbooked. With four guys (at least) in the cage at once, it was tough to get any focused action. Everything was a bit sloppy and chaotic. They gave King Mo and Stephan Bonnar some one on one time with the other two down, but without Impact ever explaining their issues, that just felt like spectacle by two guys those who don’t pay attention to MMA don’t really know.
After the men in the match got their time, Dan Lambert and American Top Team got involved, which fits with what’s always happened in this feud. When his guys seemed in trouble, Lambert opened the cage door, flooded the ring with American Top Team, and ended up locking Moose on the outside, leaving Stephan Bonnar to the wolves.
Bonnar fought valiantly as Moose climbed to the top of the cage and delivered a crossbody to get back into the cage. However, the numbers were still too much and he ended up getting a spear from Lashley.
A heel victory was an odd choice here as Moose and Lambert rarely ever had the upper hand in this feud. And given how Dan Lambert said a win by his guys would ruin professional wrestling, it really called for the good guys to triumph. Oh well. I guess pro wrestling is ruined.
Gail Kim def. Allie & Sienna to win the Knockouts championship
They announced tonight this this would be Gail’s last match in Impact. That wasn’t known coming into it. We knew that 2017 was her last year in the company, but there are two months left so it wasn’t assumed this would be it. (And we don’t know if this is going to turn into an angle on Thursday that leads to a real final match.)
While normally wrestlers go out on their back (and it’s possible this is the start of an angle that ends this way) this makes sense. She won the first ever KOs title a decade ago so winning it tonight is pretty poetic.
oVe def. LAX to retain their tag team championships
Sami Callihan debuted to assist his Ohio boys oVe in retaining their tag championships against LAX. This was definitely the most exciting match, going balls to the wall from the moment it started. Within the first five minutes, Santana of LAX did a 20 foot splash from the scaffolding onto Dave Crist.
They didn’t let up with the chaos until the end, when Sami Callihan made his presence known.
Callihan actually evened the odds earlier as prior to the match, he took out Homicide backstage. Then he came in at the end to piledrive Ortiz through a table for the win.
The way they brought out Callihan was odd in the sense that oVe didn’t need him at the time. The story was that oVe were going to be against the odds and would need to even them. But the entire match was a fair two on two street fight, with no one interfering on behalf of LAX. So when Sami came out, things were already even. (Konnan was on the outside, but he didn’t get involved.)
But turnabout is fair play. LAX has leaned on that numbers advantage for a long time. oVe may as well play that game too.
Eddie Edwards, EC3, & James Storm def. El Hijo de Fantasma, Texano, & Pagano
I think if any match was hurt by the last month of limited build, it was this one. While the story was about the two brands feuding, it was really about the Impact guys trying to get along. The last month, they had to try to advance that story with the randomness of Triple A matches. So coming into this show, the most interesting part of the build was underrepresented. Given the fact there weren’t really any stakes to the match and limited heat to the feud, the match could only do so much.
Abyss def. Grado in a Monster’s Ball Match to win the rights to Grado’s visa
The Monster’s Ball was exactly what you’d expect: A complete cluster.
Despite losing, Grado held his own against Abyss more than he ever should have. He seemed to go 50/50 with Abyss. Which is whatever, but they can’t use this version of Abyss as a threat ever again. If comedic act Grado doesn’t have much trouble with him, no one should. Luckily, he has two more entertaining alter egos such as Decay Abyss and Joseph Park they can still use.
The end of this match was where the cluster really went full blast. It looked like Grado had the match won when Laurel Van Ness ran through the crowd and nailed him with a low blow before unloading on him. This part was actually pretty great given the fact Grado was a complete dick to her. He tried to marry her just to stay in the country and then coldly kicked her to the curb when he learned she was Canadian. So he deserved it.
But then it really started getting sloppy when the lights went out and Rosemary appeared to mist Laurel. I love seeing Rosemary, but this was random as can be. She has no real history with Van Ness and if anything, Laurel was helping Rosemary’s old friend Abyss so why stop her?
Rosemary tried to calm a flustered Abyss and he seemed to respond. But when he held Grado for the Demon Assassin to mist him, Grado moved and Rosemary misted the Monster. Grado sloppily tried for a roll up but only got a two count. Abyss then hit a sloppy Black Hole Slam to the Scot onto barbed wire for the win.
The thing this match had going for it was low expectations so when it didn’t deliver, it didn’t really disappoint. What did disappoint was this was the only thing they could find for Rosemary after they had to cancel her match with Taya Valkyrie.
Trevor Lee def. Dezmond Xavier, Sonjay Dutt, Petey Williams, Garza Jr. & Matt Sydal to retain his X Division title
Impact opened with their X Division to warm up the crowd. And the crowd was hot... for their boy Petey Williams.
It wasn’t an Ultimate X match but it wasn’t the exact same match they ran on Thursday as it was a lucha libre style where there were two legal men but if someone went out of the ring, anyone else could replace them as the legal man.
It was certainly a fun match that really played to the Canadian crowd by teasing Petey Williams’ Canadian Destroyer a few times. They erupted when he finally hit it on Dezmond Xavier but soon found dejection as Trevor Lee tossed Petey out of the ring to reap the rewards from Williams’ hard work.
All in all, this was an average show which lacked the excitement that the biggest PPV of the year should contain. The Alberto El Patron angle is sure to be divisive. If they are going to use him at all, using him as a heel isn’t a bad way to go, but completely killing the main event for it was a letdown.
Grade: C
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