TNA Bound for Glory 2012

TNA Bound for Glory 2012

Phoenix, AZ - October 2012

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, Austin Aries was the TNA World Heavyweight Champion, the X-Division Champion was Zema Ion, the World Tag Team Championships were held by Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels, Miss Tessmacher was the Knockouts Champion, Samoa Joe was the Television Champion, and Eric Young and ODB were the Knockouts Tag Team Champions.

The previous month's No Surrender 2012 show ended with Jeff Hardy, against all odds (pun not necessarily intended), defeating Bully Ray to become the number one contender for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship held by Austin Aries.

This show opens with Rob Van Dam challenging Zema Ion for the TNA X-Division Championship. This wasn't a bad match, though it was clear that RVD was "leading" and that the match wasn't as fast-paced as Ion was probably capable of. Still, compared to some of the other Zema Ion matches I've seen, having him in the ring against an opponent that the fans actually care about meant that this match actually had a fair bit of heat. They only got 8 minutes, which made the finish feel like it came out of nowhere. Average. (2.5/5)

Samoa Joe vs. Magnus was next. Magnus cut a promo before the match, which definitely had me thinking he'd win the TV Title here, but Joe got the submission victory at minute 9. The crowd was very into this, surprisingly so, considering that it was another average-to-good match and not one I'd consider deserving of a "This is Awesome" chant. Then again, we are talking about 2012, a year when the WWE was going through one of its most critically-maligned years. Good, hard-hitting match seemingly designed to re-build Joe as a killer, but, to me, in order to get Joe back on track they needed him to absolutely demolish people in surprising fashion and this was more just a solid back-and-forth that didn't play on their previous partnership at all (even on commentary). Another solid match, but nothing worth seeking out. Kinda like the last match, Joe was over enough with the live crowd to make this work, but I kinda wish he had thrown in more of his signature stuff to put this over the top. (2.5/5)

James Storm took on his former tag partner in Beer Money, Bobby Roode, in a street fight next. The special guest ring enforcer was Bellator champion, King Mo, though he barely did anything in the match. I must admit to having no idea that King Mo would end up being involved in TNA and other wrestling promotions, off and on, for the next 8+ years. Anyway...Storm bled a bucket's worth and there were some wild spots in this match, including the use of thumb tacks and an absolutely insane table spot where it looked like Roode's skull hit the floor rather than the intended table. I'm not surprised Meltzer gave this 3+ stars in The Observer as this match was intense and physical and bloody and basically everything one would want out of a grudge match between these two. Really enjoyed the escalation of violence here too. The best match of the night so far and a quiet contender for one of the top 20 matches in TNA history up to this point. (4/5)

Joey Ryan took on Al Snow in the next match. The story here was that Ryan had been part of TNA's "Gut Check" competition, had been voted out of the competition, but had 87% of the fan support and felt that he'd been unjustly eliminated. Ryan took his frustrations out on Snow and the feud developed from there. It's hard to rate a Joey Ryan match in 2026 because Ryan's reputation took such a tremendous hit during the #MeToo movement when he was outed as a sex pest. He's not Buck Zumhofe-level sicko (few are), but he apparently was "living the gimmick" of being a sleazeball and took advantage of at least a few women. Anyway...he throws a good right hand. More evidence that this Phoenix crowd was "all in" on this show? They chant "You Still Got It" for Al Snow within the first 2 minutes for no apparent reason. The ending comes when Matt Morgan shows up and attacks Snow, which was a genuine shocker to me as it feels like Morgan hadn't been featured for at least a few months (a look at Cagematch reveals he hadn't wrestled a match since June, but I'm not sure if he'd appeared on TV after that). Not bad at all, but not great and kinda cringey to watch because its a Ryan match. (2.5/5)

The TNA World Tag Team Championships were on the line in the next bout as Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) defended the titles against AJ Styles and Kurt Angle and the team of Hernandez and Chavo Guerrero. AJ and Chavo started things off before Kurt got the tag. Daniels tagged himself in but AJ then tagged himself in as well, the break in action allowing Chavo to regroup and hit him with a back suplex before bringing in Hernandez. Hernandez applied a bear hug and turned it into a release suplex. He followed it up with a body slam and then they hit a double-team move. Hernandez hit a splash for 2, but Kazarian came in before they get do anything more. Lots of quick tags in this match as Angle came in soon after and then Chavo and then Hernandez soon after that. The match picked up once Bad Influence took over, hitting some moves behind the ref's back and double-teaming AJ, and then got even crazier during its second half with AJ hitting an awesome dive to the floor, a wicked, imperfect spot involving Hernandez and Kazarian off the apron, and some of the best Kurt Angle suplexes I've seen in a long while. The finish was a bit of a surprise but believable and well-executed. I'm not sure this got to the level of "must see" but I liked this more than the past few Bad Influence/Angles & Styles match I've watched. (3.5/5)

Tara challenged Ms. Tessmacher for the TNA Knockouts Championship next. The story here was that Tara had been Tessmacher's mentor but had turned on her after losing her initial challenge at the previous month's No Surrender show. Tara is better as a dominant heel but this match didn't grab me. Why is Taryn Terrell the guest referee for all of these matches? It cheapens the title and the division to have her in there. Fine for what it was and probably better than what the WWE had going in the Diva division at the time, but my rewatch of all of these TNA shows has corrected my belief in the myth that the Knockouts division was "ahead of its time." (2/5)

After Tara unveils her "Hollywood mega-star boyfriend" to be some dude from some reality show, we get a video from the TNA Hall of Fame ceremony featuring Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan, and Dixie Carter all talking about Sting. 

This leads to the next contest - Bully Ray and Sting taking on two members of the Aces and 8s in a No Disqualification match. Watching the pre-match video, I had no idea that Shaq was involved. It was later revealed that the two masked members of the Aces were Mike Knox and Luke "Doc" Gallows. They brawl on the outside for a minute or so before the crowd starts chanting for tables. Sting hits a splash onto the guardrail to a big pop. The action finally settles and we get a standard tag match, which doesn't make a ton of sense to me as it undercuts the Aces' law-breaking gimmick and because this is No DQ (meaning there is no reason to make tags at all). Sting takes some punishment but manages to lock in the Scorpion Deathlock (only for it to be immediately broken up). Sting hits the Scorpion Death Drop soon after but can't make the cover (but can make the tag to Bully?). Bully comes in and hits a neckbreaker and then a shoulder block off the second rope. The heels double-team and Sting stays in his corner for no reason. Bully gets 2 on a splash but the cover gets broken up again. Sting finally comes in to even things out. One of the Aces brings a chair into the ring but gets booted in the face before he can use it. Bully grabs it but in comes a 3rd member of the Aces and he hits him with a low blow. Joseph Parks, who had been beaten down and handcuffed to the guard rail, uses his immense power to rip the cuffs off the rail! He comes in and takes out the 3rd member of the Aces, fighting him all the way up the ramp. Back in the ring, Ray and Sting are in trouble taking shots in the corner. Bully breaks free and they hit a Doomsday Device to a big pop. Bully hits a splash in the corner and then Sting hits one of his own on the other member of the Aces. Sting tells Bully to get the table, building up for a Dudley Death Drop as the crowd goes wild. Before they can pull it off, Sting gets pulled to the outside and yet another masked man enters the match. Bully gets put through a table and then eats a pin, ending the match on a rather flat note. The heels stomp on Sting in the corner and more members of the gang make their way into the ring. Hogan's music hits and most of the Aces scatter - which makes no sense because they have a clear numbers advantage and Hogan was close to 60 - leaving one member in the ring to get punched out. Hogan and Sting double-team him and pull off his mask revealing that it is Devon! This shocks everyone in the ring to the point that Devon is able to walk out of the ring with the rest of the Aces escorting him through the crowd. The reaction is undeniably huge, which means as much as I can shit on the execution of this match and post-match segment, this was over with the TNA fanbase. (2/5)

Main event time - Austin Aries defending the TNA World Championship against Jeff Hardy. I'm not a huge Aries fan, especially as he's outed himself as something of a jerk/creep/asshole (even before the #MeToo Allegations, though after the Christy Hemme incident, he came off as particularly pompous and arrogant in an out-of-character interview on an episode of Talk Is Jericho), and Jeff Hardy is highly consistent, so I wasn't expecting to be as impressed with this match as I was. Hardy was the clear favorite, but Aries "takes" this match with the incredible bumps he takes, his character work, and his sharp offense. Hardy is no slouch in this, but this is the "A Double" Show and he's clearly working to cement his status as a legitimate main eventer after a rather brief World Championship run. The crowd's enthusiasm for Aries also gave this a different and special atmosphere, though Hardy has his fair share of fans in attendance as well. This is a genuine contender for one of the best TNA matches I've ever seen and I'm not surprised Meltzer gave it 4 stars in The Observer. Fantastic match and a career highlight for both men. (4/5)

With a pretty decent Kwang Score of 2.88-out-of-5 (thanks in large part to an excellent main event and a very strong Roode/Storm match), Bound for Glory 2012 is one of the better TNA PPVs I can remember. Even the "lows" on this match are watchable, which is not always the case for a company that, at the time, was featuring guys like Devon, Abyss, Joey Ryan, and Doc Gallows in major roles. In fact, this show earned the highest score since the last Bound for Glory, which also got a 2.88. 

FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote in Hand