TNA Bound for Glory PPV
October 12, 2008
Chicago, Ill.
Report by Sam Saunders of Chicago, Illinois, PWTorch.com reader

I had the absolute pleasure of attending the Bound For Glory pay-per-view Sunday night and was blessed with some pretty good seats right near the stage entrance (more on that in a minute).

Although the event was not sold out, the crowd was very loud and quite intense throughout the evening, but well behaved overall.

Beer Money sold out of t-shirts well prior to the start of the show and I think it's safe to say they're really over here in Chicago, as are The Beautiful People who looked stunning (especially Ms. Velvet Sky).

All of the early matches held the crowd's attention though some seemed disappointed at the outcome of the X-Division and Woman's Title bouts.

The energy level really started picking up by the time of the Monster's Ball Tag Team Championship. The incident with Abyss being chokeslammed through the burning table by Team 3D happened right in front of me.

I was just a couple feet away right up against the railing. In addition to Abyss taking a hard fall, the staff appeared to have some difficulty extinguishing him. Once the fire was out he rolled underneath the stage in obvious pain (right where 3D had thrown him from) and the staff called for extra assistance on their walkie talkies. It took a bit for the extra help to get there. Once there they rolled him out from under the stage and attended to him right there in full view of everybody in my section.

After a few minutes they got him on his feet and led him backstage. I was taking pictures throughout the evening including this incident and it's immediate aftermath. A security guard I talked to later seemed to think it was the bump Abyss took on the concrete that injured him rather than whatever burns he may have received. I suspect it may have been a combination of both. Hopefully he's okay.

I wasn't surprised to see A.J. Styles steal the show during his three-way dance with Booker and Christian. For he is truly phenomenal. Booker T received a lot of heat last night, though I still saw lots of people pop for the finish.

The crowd was really into the Jarrett-Angle match and fully behind Jarrett. Seeing Angle's moonsault attempt in person was poetry in motion and it brought what seemed like the entire arena to its feet.

Mick Foley received one of the loudest pops of the night when he busted out Mr. Socko. A bit predictable, perhaps, but all in good fun. At some point during this match, I was surprised to find Mr. Vince Russo himself standing right next to me on the other side of the railing. I thought he seemed quite pleased with the match and the crowd's reaction.

The Sting-Samoa Joe main event went over big time with the crowd pretty evenly split. I would say it was about 60-40 in favor of Sting. Brawling through the stands was a nice touch and, of course, Joe's dropkick down the stairs got a huge pop. That was pretty insane.

I thought The Stinger performed really well, especially given the fact that he hadn't wrestled in months. Having them perform each other's finishers complete with some scripted no-selling was a nice touch.

I really think TNA got this one right as everybody I saw at the end of the night left with huge smiles on their faces. I know some people feel having Sting win the gold for the third year in a row was more than a little predictable (I'm not one of them), but I'll tell you what, I didn't hear anybody complaining last night.

The undercard performed really well and I thought the main events lived up to the hype and then some. Job well done TNA! Check out my slideshow here

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