Friday night Impact Wrestling presented its biggest show of the year Bound For Glory. All the fans in attendance and watching on PPV were once again treated to a stellar Impact Wrestling event.
Josh Alexander went to war with Eddie Edwards in an incredible main event as Alexander retained his Impact World Title. Jordynne Grace walked out with the Impact Knockouts Title still in her possession as she defeated Masha Slamovich in an outstanding battle. The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) successfully defended their Impact Wrestling Tag Team titles in a thrilling encounter against The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley).
While there were many great moments at Bound For Glory, there were two booking decisions that I felt may have been mistakes.
The first one was Frankie Kazarian defeating Mike Bailey for the X Division Title. This one really surprised me as Mike Bailey was in the midst of hugely successful X Division title run. Mike Bailey is the just about the perfect X Division champion. His style embodies exactly what an X Division champion should be. He was defeating all challengers for the title and seemed poised for a very long run a champion.
As much history as Frankie Kazarian has with Impact Wrestling the fact is he’s an AEW talent. He works for Tony Khan not Scott D’Amore. This was an opportunity to put a top Impact talent over an AEW talent. This was an opportunity to show that Mike Bailey is in fact one of the best in ring performers in the world. This was an opportunity for Impact to show that their present and future is just as good, if not better, than their past.
To be clear, I have no complaints about the match itself, I thought it was terrific. I thought Kazarian and Bailey put on a clinic and left it all in the ring. It’s just the result of the match that I feel was a mistake.
You have to wonder what the plans are for Kazarian, does he bring the X Division Title to AEW and defend it there? Does he drop the title back to Bailey rather quickly? Does he invoke Option C? I think dropping it back to Mike Bailey and getting him back on track as an incredible X Division Champion would be the best option of the three. No disrespect but Bailey represents the future of Impact while Kazarian represents the past. Kazarian had said in a recent interview that he wanted to help Impact Wrestling however he can. Maybe putting over it’s new stars would have been the best way he could have done that?
The second mistake of the night I felt occurred in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet match. This was an entertaining match as we got a big debut and a few surprises. Bobby Fish made his Impact in ring debut in the match. Taylor Wilde, Matt Cardona, and Rhino all made their returns to Impact Wrestling. The biggest surprise of the night was the return of former TNA World Champion Bully Ray.
It was great to see Bully Ray back as he got a nice pop from the crowd. Bully Ray has terrific history with the company. I thought he was a fantastic addition to the Call Your Shot Gauntlet match as I am certain most Impact fans, myself included, wanted to see him return to an Impact Wrestling ring.
As the match progressed, I figured Bully Ray would get a few key eliminations before eventually getting eliminated himself. When it came down to Bully Ray and Steve Maclin as the final two, my mindset was that the Steve Maclin’s main event push will continue as he will defeat Bully Ray and pursue the World Title. When Bully Ray hit the Bully Bomb on Steve Maclin to win the Call Your Shot Gauntlet, I was very confused for a number of reasons.
First thing that confused me was why was Impact Wrestling putting their past over their future once again? How can you develop new, top talent in the company if you are going to allow past stars walk in and defeat them? Any momentum Maclin had gained over the last few weeks was crushed due to the loss to Bully Ray.
Second thing that confused me was the use of Bobby Fish. He was my pick to win the Gauntlet match setting up a showdown between him and Josh Alexander in which Josh would have gotten another huge win. If Fish and Steve Maclin were the final two instead, we could have had a very special finish to this match. If Fish wasn’t booked to win the Gauntlet, maybe he shouldn’t have been in it? With his time most likely limited in Impact, I would have booked him in a one on one match against Trey Miguel, Chris Bey or Ace Austin.
After Bully Ray won the Gauntlet match, he made it clear he will be challenging Josh Alexander for the Impact Wrestling World title as he confronted him following Alexander’s win over Eddie Edwards. I, for one, am not excited about Josh Alexander vs. Bully Ray for the Impact Wrestling World Title. Josh Alexander vs. Steve Maclin or Bobby Fish is a more intriguing matchup for Impact Wrestling and Impact Wrestling fans.
In closing, I will say Impact Wrestling has an amazing roster of very talented individuals. They keep knocking out of the park week after week and month after month with outstanding shows and TV programming. To repeat a line from above, this was an opportunity for Impact to show that their present and future is just as good, if not better, than their past, Unfortunately, they didn’t accomplish that at Bound For Glory.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
You can follow Lewis Carlan on Twitter @ShootingUpNorth and subscribe to his YouTube channel at Alliance Pro Wrestling Podcast Network.
