The Final IV - Impact Wrestling's Bound for Glory
Welcome to the first edition of “The Final IV”. This will be a weekly series where we break down the Top 4 events, matches, wrestlers, promotions, and anything else in between, in relation to the crazy world of professional wrestling. This is intended to be a series written to be short, sweet and to the point on each topic. So, without any further ado, let’s get started!
This week we will cover the Top IV “Bound for Glory” pay-per-view events over the history of Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA). This past Sunday night, on October 14th, 2018 marked the 14th annual Bound for Glory pay-per-view extravaganza featuring the main event pitting Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion, Austin Aries defended his title against Johnny IMPACT. The match ended with Johnny IMPACT becoming the new Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion, as the even closed in controversial fashion with the events surrounding Austin Aries, Don Callis, and Impact Wrestling. Be that as it may, in honor of Impact Wrestling’s premiere wrestling event, it is now time to list the Top IV Bound for Glory pay-per-view events.
#4 Bound for Glory (2010)
Bound for Glory (2010) was the sixth annual Bound for Glory to take place in TNA/Impact Wrestling’s history. Bound for Glory (2010) took place at the Ocean Center in Dayton Beach, Florida on October 10th, 2010. The show drew in 3,500 fans. The big storyline for the show culminated around the date of the event: “10-10-10”. The date we would hear repeated at nauseum by “The Monster” Abyss for weeks and weeks leading into Bound for Glory. Abyss claimed on this night, “They” would reveal themselves to the wrestling world and that everything would change in TNA forever.
Outside of the big storyline, the matches at Bound for Glory (2010) weren’t too memorable, outside of the main three that were heavily promoted. We saw Jeff Jarrett “walk out” on his tag team partner, Samoa Joe, during their 3-on-2 Handicap Match against Sting, Kevin Nash and D’Angelo Dinero. This would tie in for what was to come later on in the evening. We also saw a brutal “Lethal Lockdown” match featuring EV 2.0 (Raven, Rhino, Sabu, Stevie Richards and Tommy Dreamer) versus Fortune (AJ Styles, “Cowboy” James Storm, Kazarian, Matt Morgan and Bobby Roode), as we saw the former “ECW Originals” get the big victory over Fortune, who were arguably the best young wrestling stars TNA/Impact Wrestling had to offer, collectively.
Then we get to our main event featuring Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson and Kurt Angle for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. As per stipulation, if Kurt Angle loses the match he would be forced to retire from professional wrestling. The big reveal for “10-10-10” came to fruition, as Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan made their respective heel turns. While the Hogan and Bischoff heel turn could be seen as predictable, the heel turn of fan favorite Jeff Hardy was the talk of the evening. Bischoff and Hogan gave one of Hogan’s crutches to “The Enigma” Jeff Hardy to use as a weapon to assist him in his title victory.
Jeff Hardy would smash the crutch over the back of Kurt Angle, then drop Mr. Anderson with the Twist of Fate to get the pin fall and the victory. Hardy celebrated his win with Bischoff and Hogan, laughing in the face of the audience, as TNA President Dixie Carter looked on in total disbelief at ringside. Then, we saw the rest of “They” come out to celebrate the big reveal and victory, as Abyss and Jeff Jarrett came down to embrace the trio. Rob Van Dam came out to get some answers from his “friend”, Jeff Hardy, only to be taken down with a shot to the head with the TNA World Heavyweight Title by Jeff Hardy. This would lead into the group forming “Immortal” the following week on TNA Impact. A storyline that would dominate TNA programming until the following year.