A Pay-Per-View event by Impact Wrestling

I know that I’m months and months late for this one, but I started this review a while back and for some reason never finished writing it. Bound for Glory has always been seen as Impact Wrestling’s premier live event. It usually showcases the culmination of many feuds and generally has surprise returns and debuts. This year was no exception, as the mass firings from WWE almost guaranteed at least 1 or 2 new wrestlers would show up. If you are unsure how to follow Impact Wrestling, I would recommend subscribing to their YouTube account, as one dollar a month will get you each weekly episode. The Pay-Per-View itself is on Fite.TV, and you know I am not above shilling my discount code below.

The biggest match here tonight was easily Christian Cage vs Josh Alexander, who traded his X-Division belt in for a shot at a World Heavyweight Title Match. As of this writing, AEW and Impact seem to have pumped the breaks on their working relationship, but for a while it was crazy what used to happen regarding “The Forbidden Door”.

For anyone wanting to watch this, I would recommend Fite.TV. you can get some FITE credits (10 dollars I believe) with the following code: “6m6lyyn”. I’m sure there are other ways to watch it, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far.

The Card:

• 1P Jordynne Grace (with Rachael Ellering) defeated Chelsea Green, Crazzy Steve (with Black Taurus), Fallah Bahh, John Skyler, and Madison Rayne (with Kaleb with a K) by pinfall Tournament final intergender six-way match for the inaugural Impact Digital Media Championship 5:04
• 2 The IInspiration (Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay) defeated Decay (Havok and Rosemary) (c) by pinfall Tag team match for the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship 8:58
• 3 Trey Miguel defeated El Phantasmo and Steve Maclin by pinfall Tournament final three-way match for the vacant Impact X Division Championship 13:21
• 4 Heath and Rhino defeated Violent By Design (Deaner and Joe Doering) (with Eric Young) by pinfall Tag team match 4:59
• 5 Moose won by last eliminating Matt Cardona 20-wrestler Intergender Call Your Shot Gauntlet match – The winner receives a trophy and a contract they can invoke anytime within one year for a championship match of their choosing. 29:33
• 6 The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) (c) defeated FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) and Bullet Club (Chris Bey and Hikuleo) by pinfall Three-way tag team match for the Impact World Tag Team Championship 9:55
• 7 Mickie James defeated Deonna Purrazzo (c) by pinfall Singles match for the Impact Knockouts Championship – Matthew Rehwoldt was banned from ringside. 13:17
• 8 Josh Alexander defeated Christian Cage (c) by submission Singles match for the Impact World Championship – This was Alexander’s Option C World Championship match. 18:52
• 9 Moose defeated Josh Alexander (c) by pinfall Singles match for the Impact World Championship – Moose cashed in his Call Your Shot. 0:07

My Thoughts:

As I’ve stated before, my methodology for this is to avoid giving arbitrary star ratings or anything. I usually go through the show and pull a half-dozen or so things that I thought were significant or that I liked. You might think some of my choices are dumb and that’s okay – we all like different things!

(I)Inspiring!

One of the main BIG shocking moments for this show was the arrival of The IInspiration (Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay) FKA The IIconics in WWE. Ushered to the ring with a live version of their theme song, as performed by Harley Cameron, they got the VIP treatment they deserve after being tossed around in their previous workplace for so long. Winning the women’s tag belts from Decay, it will be interesting to see what crazy matches they get up to in the coming months.

X-Division Gold

After the belt was vacated by Josh Alexander, it was up to a gauntlet match to determine the next Impact X-Division Champion. After the rest of his stable, The Rascals, left for potentially “greener pastures” as MSK in NXT, he was the lone Rascal left behind. The dude has busted his ass, and put in the work, so it’s cool to see his hard work pay off.

Hall of Famer

After retiring at NWA Empowerrr, and announcing her HOF Induction at Knockouts Knockdown, it was cool to see some clips of Awesome Kong accepting her well deserved accolade. AS I stated in a previous review: “Awesome Kong is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. She was the absolute first female wrestler that I tuned in to see. In a world where dudes used women’s matches as “pee breaks” I would show folks clips of her feuds with Gail Kim and change their minds. She is amazing and her induction is well-deserved!”

The Forbidden Door:

Bound for Glory 2021 featured appearances by a who’s who of awesome wrestlers on loan from other companies and new blood alike. Guys like Hikuleo, Rocky Romero, El Phantasmo, and FinJuice came in from NJPW, Milena came in from NWA, Christian Cage crossed over from from AEW, and some free agents like the aforementioned IInspiration jumped over from WWE. We even had a crazy cameo of Dale Torborg as The Demon, one of the more infamous characters from the dying days of WCW. This show was packed with surprises. Impact Wrestling, without a doubt, is generally one of the more surprising shows out there at the moment.

Total Domination:

While I wish Moose could have cleanly beaten Kenny Omega for the belt when they had a chance, him absolutely dominating the “Choose Your Shot Battle Royale” (think Money in the Bank) was awesome. I do, however, wish Josh Alexander had a longer reign than the 2 minutes he held the belt, but a win is a win, and I’m sure he’ll get it back. Here’s hoping 2022 is The Year of Moose.

YOU STILL HAVE IT CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP

How could anyone look at either Deonna Purrazzo or Mickie James and decide they weren’t good enough to be on your show? Purrazzo has dominated the Knockouts Division all year having incredible matches left and right, and Mickie James is still as good as she was fifteen years ago, honestly better! This was a great match, and a perfect end to a heated feud!

And New……..And New…..

I hinted at this before, but the main event showed that Josh Alexander wasn’t just a solid tag team wrestler, but an amazing main event caliber superstar. Sadly, he only has the belt for a little while as Moose cashed in on him right afterwards, but here’s hoping his second reign comes sooner than later. I’m not sure if this or the women’s title match were my “match of the night”, but I’d say due to sure excitement and unpredictability, this edged out. I will say the visual of having Alexander’s family in the ring with tears of joy in there eyes, being replaced with anger as Moose rips the Championship away was a powerful image and should ignite a heated feud.

Conclusion:

This was a solid show with almost a full card with nothing but great matches. The main event is well-worth the price of admission alone, and there isn’t a real stinker that I could find. Sadly, the working relationship between AEW and Impact ended after this show, I have no idea why, but I hope it eventually comes back into play. I’ve really enjoyed these past eight months of Forbidden Door stuff going on, it really made a show that many had written off as dying come back to life. I’m sure you could argue that AEW didn’t do a lot to nurture the relationship, but giving Josh Alexander “the rub” against Christian was pretty high up there. Great show as always!