*Match #5: Six Man Tag with ‘oVe Rules’: oVe (Sami Callihan, Dave Crist and Jake Crist) vs. Brian Cage, Fenix and Pentagon Jr.
The Who: oVe (Ohio Versus Everything) has been probably the most dominant stable in Impact in recent memory, despite their less than stellar record. Sami will one day be back in the WWE, I have no doubt. As for the Crist’s. I don’t think they will but I could see them remaining a force on the Indies as long as they choose to be. Brian Cage is the X Division champion. I just mentioned that above. Fenix is possibly the best high flyer in wrestling right now. Pentagon Jr. may be the most over act on the Indies.
The Why: Pentagon Jr. beat Sami in a match at Slammiversary where both Penta’s mask and Sami’s hair were on the line. Fenix then assisted in the head shave. Sami tried to take out his frustrations over this on the Lucha Brothers, but in their attempt, they bum rushed past Cage. Cage made the save for the brothers and put us on the road to this six man tag match.
The Match: Good to see six legitimately talented dudes getting this chance to showcase themselves here…I must say, I hope this Anthem-Tron set up sticks around. It looks very professional…the crowd reaction is definitely the loudest for Pentagon of the three. Almost feels like he’s being kind of wasted in this six man rather than being higher up on the card like where he was at Slammiversary…looks like the Machine has a gear loose. His left thigh is taped up pretty heavy. This may be the disadvantage of taping things so far in advance. Injuries in the interim can happen…this may come off as hot take-ish: when he is on, Fenix reminds me so much of a young Rey Mysterio Jr. The way he’s able to control his body in mid-air is unlike anything we’ve seen in a long time. The only other person that I would make that comparison to is PAC (the former Neville in WWE)…opening bell here and we’re underway…very contrived kick sequence to open. It looks cool and all, but it comes off very organized…Slingblade’s for everyone…yeah, top-rope cross body attempt by Jake to Cage was a bad idea…handspring head butt by Fenix. That’s new…double springboard head butt attack by Fenix. Jesus, man…Fenix tried the handspring variation and Callihan drops him with a suplex variation that I’m not sure how to describe…powerbomb on the apron by Cage to Sami. Would have been more effective if Moose hadn’t just done the same thing to Edwards about ten minutes ago…tope con hilo by Fenix with a rope assist from Pentagon. Nice…fall away slam by Cage to send Jake over the top and into the pile. It’s just one ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ after another here…double team monkey flip cannonball by the Lucha Brothers. So innovative, man…kicked him square in the hamstring. What a dick…corner trap double stomp by Pentagon to one of the Crist’s. I hate that move. It never looks natural…Fenix just came running down the ramp with a twisting diamond cutter to Sami. Holy shit…discus lariat by Cage to Sami. Not as impressive as the one to Sydal at Slammiversary…HO-LY SHIT. Fenix and Pentagon just freaking spike Sami with the double stomp Fear Factor combo. That looked super unsafe. Square on the top of his damn head…fall away slam and Samoan Drop combo to the Crist’s by Cage. That’s incredible strength…I don’t think there’s been a single tag in the last five minutes of this match…they try a springboard cutter, but it gets messed all kinds of up…Fenix tries to go up top and gets pushed off hard into the ramp…piledriver on the damn apron. C’mon guys…Cage going to take on oVe by himself now apparently…and does so successfully to start…All Seeing Eye combo by oVe and Cage kicks out at one! Not sure I care for that. All Seeing Eye is a rare example of an excellent trios finish and having Cage kick out at one does it absolutely no favors…series of kicks leads to the Foley Piledriver by Callihan on Cage and that’s the pinfall at 13:29…spotfest to be sure, but an entertaining one. There are two very noticeable screw-ups, but when you are trying to put as much into a contest as these six man did, I think I can be a little more forgiving of that when more or less everything else landed clean. The big surprise here comes with Sami Callihan putting down Brian Cage’s shoulders for a three count. One would have to think that sets Sami up for a future shot at the X Division title and showing a bit of a chink in the armor of ‘the Machine’. Going with Good here, with the two blown spots keeping it from going any higher. (GOOD)

*Post match, the entire oVe collective celebrate the win as Josh and Don put over that Sami Callihan has just become the first man to pin Brian Cage in Impact Wrestling. Clearly, he has to be the number one contender.

*Quick video to put over the GWN App. It’s only $7.99 a month, so I’d recommend it myself.

*Austin Aries promo for the main event a little later in the show. Aries says that when he came back to Impact, the company was on life support. I mean, he’s not far from wrong…there is a passion from Aries in this promo that we just didn’t get to see from him in the WWE. Longtime fans of his knew it was there, but rather it was Aries holding back or someone holding Aries back, the ‘A Double’ that most of us know and love was on full display here. Really looking forward to the match later in the show.

*King and the OGz promo for the ‘Concrete Jungle’ match to come up next. Not sure if this is for the tag titles or not. I don’t believe it is, though…King is another one of those guys who can cut the money promo. The ‘bring them into the building’ promo as it was. Due to King’s body type, I didn’t think he’d ever get a high end opportunity in a major company. I am happy to see that Impact management took the chance on him and he’s been delivering every since he got away from the go nowhere stable he was in with James Storm a while back.

*Match #6: ‘Concrete Jungle Death Match’: LAX (Santana and Ortiz) vs. The OGz (Hernandez and Homicide) and King (Eddie Kingston)
The Who: LAX is Santana and Ortiz. They were known as EYFBO on the Indies (Entertain Your Fucking Balls Off). They are still the tag champs, but as I said above, I don’t think the belts are on the line here. The OGz are the former LAX (Latin American Xchange) and are former multi time TNA/Impact Tag team champions. Five times, I think. King is Eddie Kingston, a former CHIKARA (a promotion I eventually plan to cover) Grand Champion. In my opinion, King is one of the top ten promo guys in the business right now. As I said above, he has the ability to talk them into a building and that’s something that every company could use.
The Why: The two teams met for the tag belts at Slammiversary where LAX retained. Post match, the OGz beat down LAX (with an assist from King) and spray painted the tag belts. In the build to this match, the OGz ran a child (Richie) over with a car (because wrestling, of course) which led to the leader of the gang (I think?) calling for a cease fire between the teams, so that they could settle it here in this ‘Concrete Jungle’ death match.
The Match: Man, the old school Konnan picture in the hype video for this match reminds me why promoters used to be all about this guy. He had a look about him that you could print money with. He’s still a pretty decent promo, but clearly way past his physical prime, hence why he was pulled from this match…again, weapons surround the ring much the same way they did back at Slammiversary for the ‘51-50 Street Fight’. Really, it’s basically the same match…I take that back. They just showed a close up on the ring and the fact that the mat and padding that are usually on top of the ring boards have been removed. Well, that’s gonna suck to land on…no turnbuckle covers either. Everything in this match can mess you up. I’ve got a very bad feeling going into this…would this be a match for Diamante to come back to LAX in? A part of me is intrigued if they could pull that off. Another part of me is super nervous about how Diamante would fare in that match…LAX gets a big match entrance, coming out with a live performance of their theme song. I can’t it is my type of music, but you have to think that getting such an entrance would get you super hyped up for a match…looks like Ortiz has the afro back. Should make it a lot easier to figure out what’s happening…Callis: ‘Josh, are you a fan of the rap music?’. Don’t ever change, Don…oh, this is going to be a clusterfuck and a half here…opening bell here…urinage in the ring on the board for a one count. Ugh, why?…this match is hard to watch and even harder to discuss. I’m genuinely afraid for these guys…I don’t really dislike much, but I’m not sure how to feel about this…King with a dive and I’m pretty sure he ate guardrail. You are too big to be doing that shit, Eddie…I think Hernandez is busted open too…release Northern Lights by Ortiz on the boards…and Hernandez with a POUNCE to put Ortiz through a table…it is incredibly dangerous to be doing the stuff these guys are doing with the ring in the shape it’s in for this. This is just messed up…f bomb by Santana. Eye poke by King. Whip to exposed buckle by King…Hernandez up top and fights off both LAX members. LAX recovers and it’s a GOD DAMN SUPERPLEX ON THE EXPOSED BOARDS. Why????…King tries to take out Santana, but the LAX theme hits and Konnan makes the save after all…he takes out Homicide with what appears to be a loaded sock after kicking him low…eventually it breaks down to just King in the ring with LAX and Konnan. Ortiz loads King up into the powerbomb position and Santana comes diving off with a blockbuster. They call it the ‘Street Sweeper’ and that’s a three count at 9:28…this is really hard for me to rate. They busted their asses in the ring but I couldn’t really enjoy the match because I was too concerned for their well being. Everything they did looked clean and the crowd was super into it, so it worked as a concept. But this is not something that should be done often in pro wrestling because I feel the risks will eventually outweigh the rewards. Very good match and a nice moment with Konnan making the saves for his boys. But let’s try to keep these types of matches to a minimum, please. (VERY GOOD)

As a side note, Andrew Balaz and I were discussing this while I watched the match. I don’t know his name, but whoever the referee was for that match deserves the world’s largest bonus paycheck after busting his ass to try to keep that ring as safe as possible for the guys to bump in. Kudos to you, Mr. Referee. Well done, sir. Well done.

*No real post match to speak of here other then the celebration by LAX

*Allie vs. Su Yung is up next. Apparently it’s not actually a match, but rather a battle in the Undead Realm. Well, okay then. Not really sure how to banner this…

*THE UNDEAD REALM
It’s basically a vignette in place of a match, so away we go…always good to see James Mitchell. Thought he was severely underrated in terms of TV talents goes…Allie enters through a funeral home with a dirge playing in the background…how does Allie fight the undead, you ask? In a leather jacket, white t-shirt and jeans. How else would you fight them?…they really like blue fog in the undead realm…so Su abducted Kiera Hogan on Impact apparently. Probably should have watched the go-home before doing this review. Sadly, these reviews take me so long that it wasn’t really an option…deal with the devil, you get burned. No more soul for Allie. Maybe she could have Braxton Sutter’s. It’s not like he ever used it on the show…one of the undead bridesmaids attacks and Allie cracks her in the face with the axe handle. I think she learned that from the Shield on Raw…that she definitely did not learn from the Shield. MURDER COUNT: 1…MURDER COUNT: 2. That was sudden. Though technically, if you are in the Undead Realm, do you die again?…looks like the same funeral area they used for the Madison Rayne scene. Swear to god, if Katie Vick shows up, I’m done with this company…well, that’s a Kiera, not a Katie. Technically, they are still safe…least effective ax ever, Su…and now Su uses the handle as a weapon…Mandible Claw by Su. That move doesn’t get enough love. It works…and when Su goes to finish Allie off, Allie stabs her in the neck! That’s not a very babyface move, Allie. For shame…hey, Kiera’s alive now. Good for her…they try to make a run for it, but the way out is locked. Thus bringing back James Mitchell…and sure enough, make a deal with the devil and you get burned as Mitchell has locked the exit…and just as the Undead Bridesmaids surround Allie and Kiera, Rosemary makes her return to make the save. Sigh. I miss Rosemary…Rosemary encourages Allie and Kiera to make a hasty exit as we find out that Su isn’t dead. Just noticeably staggered. As far as axe’s to the neck go, it’s quite the sell…okay, what the god fuck was that…and Allie and Kiera escape as Rosemary gets attacked by Bridesmaids…we come back to the arena and the first words out of Don Callis’ mouth are ‘What the hell was that?’. I’m wondering the same thing myself, Don. We’re not in Tokyo anymore…I actually kinda dug the Broken Hardyz stuff. This right here was a little too over the top even for me. I’m not much of a horror fan. If I’m being honest, I actually find this a bit hokey. I know that professional wrestling can cover a very broad spectrum, but the theatrics here didn’t do much for me. I do enjoy me some Father James Mitchell though. For that, he was appreciated. But overall, not anything I’d be interested in seeing again.

*Josh ponders if Allie has sold her soul. Clearly, she has. But she did rescue her friend though, so all’s well that ends well? I’m trying to figure out what Don’s drinking. It looks like a beer bottle, but I’m guessing it’s a sponsor bottle.

*They officially announce that the next pay-per-view will be back in the Asylum Arena in Nashville, TN. If you are interested in learning more about the older days of Impact, we have a series of reviews for the TNA Weekly PPVs here on the Chairshot in the Classics section that I’d recommend you guys check out.

*Johnny Impact promo to get everyone ready for the main event. He’s still not a great interview, but based on this, it does appear like he’s finally getting better at it. Under whatever name you want to use for him, John’s bread and butter has always been between the ropes. It was when he had a microphone that he tended to struggle. If he becomes the face of the company, the question for me will be simple: can he change that perception?

*Match #7: Impact Wrestling Heavyweight Championship- Austin Aries © vs. Johnny Impact
The Who: Austin Aries is your current champion, having held the title since regaining it from Pentagon Jr. on the May 31^st episode of Impact. Aries claimed to have rescued a company on life support. While I don’t entirely agree with that, he has added a much needed established presence to the main event scene. Johnny Impact is someone who while he constantly delivers in the ring, has never been someone that you would trust to be the face of the company. I mentioned earlier that guys like Eli Drake and King can talk people into buildings (or to buy PPVs/watch TV shows). Impact has never had that ability to me on the microphone. People will pay to see him wrestle, I have no doubt of that. But his promos can drive people to the concession stands in the area and to change the channel at home.
The Why: Aries retained the title against Moose at Slammiversary, whereas Johnny Impact returned to the company after taking time off to film the currently airing season of Survivor to win a four way to start the show. The why is because it’s for the Heavyweight title. With Aries taking shots at Taya (Impact’s wife), the why has also added a much more personal aspect to it as well.
The Match: Once again, kudos on the hype video to the match. Not much in the way of a storyline shown in it. However, it goes over the characters and one could argue that is just as important if not more so then the storyline at times…Taya still wearing her ring gear out to the ring. I wonder if that’s foreshadowing anything…if Aries and Impact Wrestling really wanted to be a dick here, it would have been a nice coupe to bring in Melina Perez for this show as Aries’ second. Not sure what the professional relationship is like between her and Impact, but you can’t argue that it would have gotten people talking…Moose is wearing the same thing he was in the vignette again. It’s quite the attire…there’s a fan in the crowd with a sign that says “Rosita Disapproves”. Man, I thought I was hitting the low hanging fruit here. Jesus, man…looks like a different ring announcer from Slammiversary. He also screws up the hometown of Johnny Impact. Slamtown not Slam City…dueling chants from the crowd and we are underway…Aries goes for a no sizzle approach. Which I think may be entire on purpose…Josh runs over the title history…man, they start fast and furious. Aries catches Impact in a very snug looking guillotine choke but Impact gets the ropes…I can’t tell if this is a worked shoot or a legit shoot thus far. They are definitely not on the same page and I’m not entirely sure that it’s not on purpose…head butt and a bitch slap by Aries…okay, they may have gotten me a bit. I think it’s purposefully being contested the way it has been so far…they take it to the floor. The plus side is there’s not a ton of room at ringside, so one would think they can’t stay out there long…alright, that moonsault looked really cool…Impact goes for a springboard, but Aries knocks him back to the floor. That sets up the ode to Savage with the double sledge (rip’em) to the floor…I think Aries just rubbed his stomach in reference to the shots he took at Taya on Twitter. Impact springs up and they start trading again…Callis: ‘I have never met anyone who is as talented and insecure as Austin Aries’. That’s a bit snug, Don…Aries just acting (?) like a total dick in this match. Impact went for the Flying Chuck and Aries cut him off with a double back chop. A real asshole move…smooth counter into the Last Chancery but Aries can’t hold it…there have been a lot of knee strikes in this match…this time the Flying Chuck lands. Looked good too…despite all the people at ringside here, thus far it’s simply been Aries and Impact involved…big right hand by Impact. His strikes have gotten a lot better…Impact looking for Starship Pain, but Aries rolls in and out of the way and then catches Impact with a neckbreaker across the ropes…one man Spanish Fly but it only gets two. For as rough as they started (maybe on purpose), it has picked up quite nicely…Callis bring up Michaels-Hart to put over the personal nature of this interaction. Wouldn’t go quite that far, but it does help set the narrative…DVD on the apron and Impact eats shit into the guardrail as well. Damn…picture perfect 450 by Aries and it only gets two. Got to think brainbuster coming…Aries went for the IED and got caught by Impact. This time, Starship Pain lands after but the ropes save Aries. You can even see Aries slide towards the ropes to get the break as well…rolling elbow, IED and brainbuster combo. Impact gets the ropes at two though…jesus, the shots are stiff as fuck…and Aries fucking drills Taya with the Heat Seeking Missile! Good lord, he murdered her with that…Impact drops Aries with a huge brainbuster of his own. Starship Pain lands a second time and this time, it’s a three count at 20:59…you know, I think I got worked a bit at the start of this match. I bought into the hatred and thought that maybe there was a lack of cooperation going on that led to the opening of this match coming off very clunky. With the way the rest of the match played out: I think in retrospective, that’s what they wanted people to think. They went for a hard hitting and much more violent style of match then the traditional flash we see out of Impact. Aries and Impact both brought it. Rather or not they like each other is irrelevant, they put the differences aside and had a hell of a contest here. Can’t quite go excellent here, but very good for sure. (VERY GOOD)

*Post match is the controversy for a lot of people here. While Impact is still down selling the aftereffects of the move, Aries makes his way back to his feet first, which is considered to be something of a disrespectful thing to do. To compound that, Aries turns towards Don Callis and they get into an off-microphone screaming match. Aries flips the bird and walks off as Impact looks incredibly pissed off in the ring. Impact checks on Taya and they get into the ring to celebrate as we sign off for Bound for Glory 2018…I’m curious as to how much of that was planned and how much of that was Aries going into business for himself. Given Austin’s history, either is entirely viable and that may be what they wanted people to think. To my knowledge though, Aries was not used on the Impact TV tapings and his contract with the company has expired, as far as I know. Going to have to wait and see how all this plays out. I was taught a long time ago in this business that almost everything you see on camera is a work, but there’s enough of a blurred line here to get people talking. And I think that is the biggest point of the way things were handled.

RESULTS
Match #1: Rich Swann and Willie Mack defeat Ethan Page and Matt Sydal when Swann pins Sydal with the Phoenix Splash @ 12:33 (GOOD)
Match #2: Eli Drake pins James Ellsworth with a second consecutive Gravy Train @ 2:11 (N/A (TOO SHORT))
Match #3: Impact Wrestling Knockouts Title- Tessa Blanchard © pins Taya Valkyrie with a leaping Codebreaker (‘The Magnum’) @ 10:36 to retain (ABOVE AVERAGE)
Match #4: Eddie Edwards defeats Moose by DQ @ 0:48 (N/A (TOO SHORT))
Match #4b: Eddie Edwards/Tommy Dreamer defeat Killer Kross/Moose when Edwards pins Moose with a roll-up @ 8:39 (ABOVE AVERAGE)
Match #5: Dave Crist/Jake Crist/Sami Callihan defeat Brian Cage/Fenix/Pentagon Jr. when Callihan pins Cage with a pulling piledriver @ 13:29 in an ‘oVe Rules’ match (GOOD)
Match #6: Konnan/Ortiz/Santana defeat Hernandez/Homicide/King when Santana pins King after the ‘Street Sweeper’ @ 9:28 in a ‘Concrete Jungle’ death match (VERY GOOD)
Match #7: Impact Wrestling Heavyweight Championship- Johnny Impact pins Austin Aries © with Starship Pain @ 20:59 to win the title (VERY GOOD)

FINAL SHOW THOUGHTS
NEGATIVES
The obvious negative here is in the booking, compared to Slammiversary. Every single match at Slammiversary was at least given the opportunity to live up to its full potential. Here, there were three instances (Eli Drake, the Eddie tag match and the ‘Concrete Jungle’ match) where the way the match went down or the stipulation for it caused it to not have the chance to be as good as it could have been.

The other issue I had here is the length of some of the stuff on the show. I appreciate the idea behind the Allie and Su Yung thing, but having that much down time that late in the show (I know it was to repair the ring) hurts the flow for both audience and the viewer at home. Also, while I do like the fact that they do video packages for the matches now, I don’t know that every match needs one. These are minor complaints, though.

POSITIVES
The biggest positive for the show for me is the roster involved. Gone are the days of TNA/GFW/Impact being the home of all the WWE castoffs and old-timers that nobody else wanted anymore. This is a very young, very motivated roster and they are making the best of the situation they find themselves in.

Another positive goes out to the ladies here at Bound for Glory. Tessa and Taya was better than both matches at Slammiversary for the Knockouts combined. While I may take issue with the length of the segment,: Allie, Su Yung, Kiera Hogan and Rosemary got to be a big focus of tonight’s show as well. One of the things that made TNA stand out back when the Knockouts division first started was the quality of the workers involved. We’re getting back to that point once again and I couldn’t be happier as a women’s wrestling fan.

OVERALL
Honestly, it’s a mixed bag here. I will start by saying that overall, I don’t think this show is as good as Slammiversary or even Redemption were. That’s not necessarily a knock to the performers here. As strong as those shows were, it raised expectations for me for BFG and this show did not live up to them. There is still plenty of good here. The problem is there is plenty of bad as well. I think the good outweighs the bad but I’ll be the first to say it’s a bit of a disappointment from my prospective.

THE FINAL REACTION
Best Match/Moment: The main event, for sure. They got you invested in the story that they told in the run up to the match and then paid it off with a stiffly worked match between the two that exceeded my expectations.
Worst match/moment: The Eddie/Moose match that turned into the tag match. That whole debacle, really. If you were going to turn it into a tag match, just make it a tag match to start with. Save us the theatrics and get to the match at hand.
MVP: Give it to Austin Aries for me, for both the match he had as well as the promo that he cut earlier in the night. Hopefully, the ending of the show was part of a future storyline and not Austin going into business for himself. If it was, then color me disappointed but not surprised given Aries’ track record.
FINAL SCORE: 6.5/10

As I mentioned in the Slammiversary review, my usual gig here at Chairshot will be as the guy who covers PROGRESS Wrestling. There will be a full detailed reason as to how we came to this conclusion in the first PROGRESS review. That being said, don’t be surprised to see me stick my nose into a bunch of other various promotions as well. I mentioned CHIKARA earlier. I’d also like to hit places such as EVOLVE, SHIMMER, SHINE, PWG, AAW, AIW and many more. Consider me the Indie guy around here, at least as far as reviews go.

Until next time: That was Impact Wrestling’s Bound for Glory 2018 and that’s “What I Watched”. See you all for the debut of my regular version of this article: PROGRESS Chapter 1- “In The Beginning”.

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