IMPACT Wrestling presents its signature event of the year, Bound for Glory, tonight on pay-per-view on a night packed with professional wrestling competition.
Airing against the season-premiere of Friday Night SmackDown and two hours of live AEW programming on TNT, IMPACT will attempt to wedge its brand into the fan’s attention span for three hours as it culminates several stories on its fourth and final pay-per-view on the calendar.
While IMPACT Plus specials have been designated for this night of the week, it’s the first traditional pay-per-view running on Friday night. The IMPACT schedule pairs up a subsequent television taping following the event and from a ticket-selling standpoint, a Friday and Saturday option does seem more viable than Saturday/Sunday or Sunday/Monday. However, it’s a tough night to draw a national audience given the professional wrestling options on television and not helped by the start of the Major League Baseball playoffs.
In the lead-up to the show, IMPACT has averaged 83,000 viewers on AXS TV and was hurt for several weeks coinciding with the return of the NFL and the Thursday night game. It’s a familiar trend in the industry where the non-WWE, non-AEW products are struggling to find their slice of the pie when it comes to excessive hours of professional wrestling for the average consumer to digest and work into their schedule. The promise of a quality wrestling show is no longer an enticement but a bare minimum expected due to the volume of options and match-of-the-year candidates coming at you on a routine basis from across the world with a few clicks making them accessible.
IMPACT thrives with weekly episodic stories that are generally easy to follow and have a beginning, middle, and end that drive you to the next major show. The wrestling quality is there, although they don’t play to venues that come across as major league given the comparisons of a WWE or AEW such as the recent shows at Skyway Studios where a few hundred fans draw a closer comparison to the pandemic era of wrestling than the alternatives IMPACT is competing against for attention. While some will look at IMPACT as the underdog against the big dogs, the fact is, they have a giant media company behind them and like Ring of Honor, it is hard to convey that underdog status.
Here is a preview of tonight’s show with a countdown show at 7:30 p.m. ET followed by the main show at 8 p.m., available on FITE TV for $29.99:
IMPACT Championship: Josh Alexander (champion) vs. Eddie Edwards – It should be a strong match even if the build-up has not connected in the way you want your big title of the match to feel. Edwards is a tough fit as a heel because of the way he’s been portrayed throughout his IMPACT tenure and has not assumed the promo skill of a top-end heel yet. The story is about Edwards accusing the audience of turning his back on him which led to his joining Honor No More and can now take the promotion’s prize. Alexander has been positioned as the franchise player in the role of technical wizard that is no-nonsense and can be viably promoted as the top wrestler in the company. There has been a backdrop of dissension between Alexander and Heath that could factor into the match with Rich Swann also attached to the babyface side against Honor No More.
Knockouts Championship: Jordynne Grace (champion) vs. Masha Slamovich – Its Title vs. Undefeated Streak as Slamovich has gone on a dominant run in the promotion and reaches the pinnacle with the championship shot. The long-term story is Mickie James working her way up for one more title match, so you can debate whether it’s more valuable to have Grace as the perennial ‘final boss’ for James or have the unbeaten Slamovich in that role and you can make arguments either way. Slamovich is a fresh face in IMPACT and they have done a really good job with her, and winning the title makes logical sense with all they have invested.
X Division Championship: Speedball Mike Bailey (champion) vs. Frankie Kazarian – The story is Speedball building up his title defenses since winning the title at Slammiversary and has nine so far (the record is thirteen by Christopher Daniels, Kazarian’s long-time partner). Kazarian nearly never misses a big performance and I expect this to be one of the strongest matches on the show. Bailey is having a career year and elevating the X Division title. Bailey should retain as they continue his title defense streak and it makes perfect sense to have Daniels be his opponent to break the streak.
IMPACT Tag Team Championships: Mike Bennett & Matt Taven vs. Motor City Machine Guns – Maria Kanellis recently stated on the Grapsody podcast that Bennett, Taven, and her own deals with IMPACT coming up soon and that could play a factor, although I feel it would make sense for all three to stay with the company unless they have greater offers elsewhere. Regardless of contract status, it feels like a good time to get the titles onto the Machine Guns. If so, it might be time to wrap up the Honor No More angle if Alexander and Machine Guns prevail in their matches and IMPACT get the “win”.
Mickie James vs. Mia Yim – They played off their history airing highlights of a 2010 match from Maryland Championship Wrestling early in Yim’s career where she lost to James. This is only the beginning of “The Last Rodeo”, so James needs to win and I’d imagine it’s a case of each showing respect to the other afterward and working this match as two babyfaces even though the audience should be backing James given her career is at stake in each match.
Knockouts Tag Team Championships: Deonna Purrazzo & Chelsea Green vs. Taya Valkyrie & Jessicka – I think Purrazzo and Green have a great act together and would keep the titles on them. Purrazzo is among the best pick-ups IMPACT had of the WWE releases over the past several years and has grown considerably as a performer in this company. The dynamic for the challengers is that Rosemary is not sold on Jessicka and could be telegraphing a turn while Taya is the role of playing peacemaker.
Digital Media Championship: Brian Myers (champion) vs. TBA
Call Your Shot Gauntlet – Announced: PCO, Rich Swann, Gisele Shaw, Heath, Bhupinder Gujjar, Bobby Fish, Steve Maclin, Moose, Sami Callihan, Johnny Swinger, Killer Kelly, Tasha Steelz, Savannah Evans, Joe Hendry, and Eric Young (there are five slots open)
The gauntlet is a Royal Rumble-style match where two people start and new entrants enter the match. The final two have a traditional match and the winner receives a future championship match of their choosing any time they want like the Money in the Bank and Casino Battle Royale chip.
POST Wrestling’s Bound for Glory POST Show with John Pollock & John Siino will be available late tonight for POST Wrestling Café subscribers.
