TNA Bound for Glory '05

1. Alex Shelley vs. Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries vs. Sonjay Dutt - 7
2. Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. Samoa Joe - 6
3. The Diamonds in the Rough vs. Apolo, Sonny Siaki, and Sharkboy - 4
4. Lance Hoyt vs. "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown - 5
5. Team Canada vs. 3 Live Kru - 3
6. Petey Williams vs. Matt Bentley vs. Chris Sabin - Ultimate X Match - 5
7. America's Most Wanted vs. The Naturals - 5
8. Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Rhino vs. Sabu - Monster's Ball 2 - 8
9. Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles - Ironman Match - 8
10. 10 Man Gauntlet Match - Sabu, Jeff Hardy, Abyss, Rhino, Kip James, Samoa Joe, Ron "The Truth" Killings, Lance Hoyt, AJ Styles, and Monty Brown - 5
11. Rhino vs. Jeff Jarrett - 5

Proclaimed to be T.N.A.’s equivalent to WrestleMania, by those standards, T.N.A. fell flat. Don’t get me wrong; there was a lot to like about this show, but it wasn’t their biggest pay-per-view, in fact, their last two pay-per-view outings were vastly superior overall.

The four-way dance, featuring three Ring of Honor mainstays, was exceptional. It was actually aired for free, on the pre-show, and they delivered a fantastic match, with a fast-pace and lots of phenomenal work. The actual show opened up with the international match of Liger versus Joe, unfortunately, not only did we have difficulty seeing the initial airing, but also we even completely missed the replay of the show due to cable difficulties. I only saw the last three minutes of the bout, but it looked uniformly solid, albeit, Liger looked a little slow in his old age. The six-man tag match was mostly forgettable, save the sequence where absolutely everybody did huge dives to the floor. Hoyt versus Brown was surprisingly entertaining, as the crowd was really into it, but it wasn’t anything too special.

The Ultimate X match… wow, what a freaking disaster! If you haven’t read, they had a big “X” hanging up, as opposed to a title belt, and to win the match you had to procure it. Well, the X dropped without anyone being near it, so they had the crew guys put it back up while the wrestlers just watched dumbfounded. Then, mere moments later, it fell again, and Williams nonchalantly caught it in the biggest televised botched ending in years. The wrestlers were visually very upset afterwards, which is understandable yet unprofessional, as it’s exposing the businesses.

A.M.W. and Naturals had a decent tag match that was mostly brawling; they’ve had so many better matches together, though, that it made it less forgivable. Monster’s Ball 2 stole the show, honestly. Yes, it was a hardcore match, so it wasn’t a masterpiece; but it was damn fun to watch. Sabu was nuts, and Hardy did perhaps the sickest swanton bomb he’s ever attempted in a breathtaking spot where he went off the set on the ramp (15+ foot) to the floor on Abyss through two tables. The crowd was exhausted, but Daniels and Styles still put together a brilliant match that’s comparable to their first T.N.A. Ironman match a couple months prior. Styles took a few nasty bumps that seemed to legit effect his work, and scored the only pin in the match at 29:58.

Since Kevin Nash didn’t show up for his main event match, they threw together a 10-man battle royal. It started off entertaining, but most of the guys were gassed, and it started to get pretty awful near the end. Rhino won, and then wrestled Jarrett, in a short match where Jarrett proceeded to beat Rhino up for 6 minutes, hit him with a guitar, but then get hit with a surprise gore (Rhino’s tackle) and lose the belt in an unexpected finale to a borderline-average show.