This isn’t a “work rate” based countdown. This is a grand total of it’s importance. The match quality will matter, but so will the historical impact, the star power, the lead up to and the fall out from. It’s not being graded in a vacuum of physical execution but in storytelling as well.
Honorable Mentions:
Bound for Glory 2009
IMPACT World Heavyweight
Sting vs. AJ Styles (c)
Winner: AJ Styles
Rating: 4.0
– While the match was a landmark moment, Styles would never really claim the mantel that Sting so wanted to pass to him that night, thanks to the regime change to Hulk Hogan mere weeks later.
Bound for Glory 2007
IMPACT World Heavyweight Championship
Sting vs. Kurt Angle(c)
Winner: Sting
Rating: 3.75
– A botched ending did hurt this to a degree, but it gave a cool blood effect to Sting. That being said, Sting would lose the belt back to Angle just days later.
Bound for Glory 2011
IMPACT World Heavyweight
Bobby Roode vs. Kurt Angle(c)
Winner: Kurt Angle
Rating: 4.25
– A lot of people had a problem with the booking of this match but I didn’t; Angle had never retained a title at BFG and that’s just not acceptable. That being said, the fact that it went after Sting/Hogan was a problem.
Bound for Glory 2008
IMPACT World Heavyweight Championship
Sting vs. Samoa Joe (c)
Winner: Sting
Rating: 4.25
– This match actually was fairly perfect. The build up was good, the follow through was better. The issue isn’t against this match, but so much what Joe means against the company. Samoa Joe never felt like a TNA guy, and rarely ever delivered in big matches. This match didn’t have the same lasting impact as Sting against Angle or Styles.
10) Bound for Glory 2015
IMPACT Knockouts Championship
Awesome Kong vs. Gail Kim (c)
Winner: Gail Kim
Rating: 3.25
– While yes, it isn’t getting the best grade work-rate wise, it’s the best match that the women have ever delivered at the event. Now, there are better matches in the lore of Knockouts history, like at Slammiversary XI for instance, but none at Bound for Glory. If you factor in the historic rivalry of Gail Kim and Awesome Kong, and the fact that their feud essentially brought eyes to the then fledgling division and helped establish it; makes it all the more necessary to include it. The match itself was also brilliant, but not as great as their first encounter eight years prior. Kim retained the title, helping establish her legend. It may of been this match that finally put her over the top as the greatest women’s wrestler.
9) Bound for Glory 2011
Control of the Company
Hulk Hogan vs. Sting
Winner: Sting
Rating: 4.0
– The work rate for this match is highly over valued. And I know that. It wasn’t a great “work rate” match. Why did I grade it that way? Well, because the story telling was so amazing and the crowd was hotter for it than for any other match on the card. It was a spectacle. The Rock and Hulk Hogan wasn’t a great work rate match in 2002 but it was a spectacle. NJPW is doing one, with Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho. Spectacle matches have their place and hard to come by. And hot take? This was a better match than Sting vs. Hulk Hogan 14 years prior in 1997 at Starrcade. The match was built up around the ownership of the company; if Hogan wins he keeps the promotion, if Sting wins, it goes back to Dixie. In hindsight, there should of been a third alternative. The match was great, and saw Garrett Bischoff, then a referee, finally ring the bell as Hogan tapped out to Sting – despite Eric, Garrett’s father, demanding he not do.
8) Bound for Glory 2013
No D.Q. Match – IMPACT World Heavyweight Championship
AJ Styles vs. Bully Ray (c) (w/Brooke Tessmacher)
Winner: AJ Styles
Rating: 4.5
– If AJ Styles had stayed in the company past the three months after the event, then this may of been a lot higher. AJ Styles defeated Bully Ray, and started the quick burn that would engulf the Aces and Eights by taking the belt off of Bully. Styles and Bully had been the build up since the late-Spring, so it made sense that these two would eventually hook up. And when you remember the brutal Last Man Standing Match they had some 30 months prior at Slammiversary IX, you know that this feud and match had history upon history ushered upon it. Styles was (and still is at press time) the best in the world, and Bully was the best character wrestler at the time. So the two of them really knew how to get into it and rip into one another.
7) Bound for Glory 2016
The Great War – IMPACT World Tag Team Championship
The Broken Hardy’s vs. The Decay (c)
Winner: The Broken Hardy’s
Rating: 4.25
– I know I’m not the biggest Matt Hardy fan, but again, this is about significant impact. This match, as wonky as it was, had everyone praising it and had a lot of eyes on the product for the first time in years. Watching the Hardy’s win tag team gold at IMPACT’s biggest event of the year, also added to the respectability of the brand and the event. If you have a major event and you don’t have major names associated with it over the years, then you’re really not showcasing a special event. The Hardy’s beating Decay, which featured the best character of 2017 – Rosemary, was a true highlight for all to watch, even if The Hardy’s bolted soon after.
6) Bound for Glory 2006
NWA World Heavyweight Championship – Special Guest Enforcer Kurt Angle
Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett (c)
Winner: Sting
Rating: 3.75
– Maybe this match is too low on the rating side of things, I’ve changed over the years how I view this match; but whether it’s at 3 or 5 stars it saw Sting win his first world title since 1999, and his first NWA title since 1990. It was one of his best matches ever, and featured a highly motivated Jeff Jarrett. The two of them had history dating back to WCW, and Sting returned to wrestling in 2003 because of his relationship with Jeff and Jerry Jarrett. The match was IMPACT’s first three hour pay per view live fro the road and featured Kurt Angle as the special guest enforcer. The two told a great story of Jarrett rivaling Sting’s momentum, and Sting’s digging deep to overcome Jarrett to win. With his career on the line, a Sting win for the belt was expected but sometimes what’s expected is the best call.
5) Bound for Glory 2006
Six Sides of Steel – NWA World Tag Team Championship
The LAX vs. AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels (c)
Winner: LAX
Rating: 4.25
– If there was a more violent match in BFG history, you’re lying. This match wasn’t the hardcore showcase that Monster’s Ball 2008 was, where Abyss was set on fire, nor was it the physical marathon that Rhino achieved in 2005; not this match. No, this is defined by the sheer jail-yard violence that went down within it. You had chokings, stabbings, leaps of faiths, blood, spit and I’m sure a few tears. The level of violence of this feud escalated in each and every encounter. Starting at the end of the summer, LAX used cheap tactics to win the NWA titles from the all time great X-Division stars, but then LAX lost the belts back to the legends in an Ultimate X match, where Daniels leapt to the center to retrieve the belts. However in the steel cage at BFG, LAX upped the violence quotient. Homicide stabbed Daniels, Hernandez leapt off the cage, Styles was thrown into said cage and crumpled up like an accordion. There was handcuff play if I remember correctly and pools of blood sprawled across the ring. This was what Sting and Jarrett had to go after.
4) Bound for Glory 2016
No Holds Barred – IMPACT World Heavyweight Championship
Ethan Carter III vs. Lashley (c)
Winner: Lashley
Rating: 4.5
– Lashley and EC3 were the cornerstones of the brand when it was in dyer straights. The two men were both top stars, and both stood out when in their respective fields. Lashley’s brutality made him an easy favorite to win, but EC3’s quips and insults made it seem like maybe, just maybe, Lashley would get too confident and EC3 would get the win. The two cornerstones entered into what may be if not their best, but one of their best matches of all time in not just IMPACT but in any promotion. EC3 looked better in a loss than he probably would of in a win, by making Lashley do more to put away EC3 than really anyone else prior. Watching these two slug it out to headline last year’s event is a treat, and I recommend everyone check it out.
3) Bound for Glory 2008
Mick Foley as Special Guest Referee
Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle
Winner: Jeff Jarrett
Rating: 4.75
– Mick Foley’s first IMPACT pay per view event saw him come around at the same time of Jeff Jarrett’s return to the promotion. Kurt Angle, the ace of the company at the time, essentially told Jarrett that he came in to replace Jarrett at Jarrett’s own behest. The former face and current face of the promotion engaged in what would become Jarrett’s and Angle’s most vicious feud in their careers. The two men would go on to feud with one another over the course of the next three years, both in the ring and out. Kurt’s then wife Karen would leave Kurt, and begin dating Jarrett, leading to Jarrett losing his position in IMPACT in real life. That lead to all the brutal intensity this real life blood feud would be able to muster. All the blood, sweat, and tears started with this one match. Plus it had Mick Foley in and around an IMPACT wrestling ring as history was about to unfold.
2) Bound for Glory 2005
30-Minute Iron Man Match – IMPACT X-Division Championship
Christopher Daniels vs. A.J. Styles (c)
Winner: Styles (1-0)
Rating: 4.75
– In terms of in ring action, this is the greatest IMPACT BFG match of all time. The pure bliss, the sheer execution, the utter mastery of work rate was on display here. While there’s one match that tops this match, this match was basically perfect. It was the rematch of an earlier Iron Man classic from Against All Odds 2005, which saw AJ Styles win 2-1 in Overtime after Dusty Rhodes ordered the extra period. The reason why this match is second is due to the fact this was at the beginning of Daniels and Styles’ run together. The two men would either feud or team up in 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012. They would trade X-Division titles, wrestle as tag team champions, and battle it out over the World Championship. These two defined the X-Division during it’s hey day and this was the culmination of that divisional run. If this match happened a few years later, with the history it established already, it’d be number one easily. But there’s one more with even more history.
1) Bound for Glory 2012
Street Fight – Special Guest Enforcer King Mo
Bobby Roode vs. James Storm
Winner: James Storm
Rating: 5.0
– While Styles and Daniels defined the X-Division in 2005, James Storm and Bobby Roode are more tied to one another than people will ever truly comprehend. Back in 2004-05 Team Canada’s Bobby Roode teamed with Eric Young against America’s Most Wanted, which was made up of Chris Harris and James Storm. Storm cost Roode his second NWA tag title run by pinning Young. The two would then form an alliance with one another when Team Canada and America’s Most Wanted joined up with Jeff Jarret to form Planet Jarrett. Around the same time in late 06-07, Storm broke up with Harris and Team Canada disbanded, leaving Roode to go out it on his own. Both men would face off with World Champions of the Monday Night War, with Roode and Booker T, and Storm and Rhino both feuding for several months. Throughout 2007 and early 2008, they would both get chances to showcase their singles run. At Destination X, Roode fought Booker in a strap match, while Storm faced Rhino in the Elevation X match. Roode won, while Storm lost. At Sacrifice both men would tag with a WCW legend (Roode with Booker), (Storm with Sting) and lose in the opening round of the Deuces Wild Tag Tournament.
This would be the last time these two men would be involved indirectly with one another; as at two months later Roode and Storm would unite as Beer Money for the first time ever against LAX. It would take two months but in August of 2008, they would unseat LAX to win their first world tag team titles and begin four years of tag dominance. In 2011, the duo would split for the first time, after Roode smashed Storm’s face in with a beer bottle and took his belt from him. After coming up short at Lockdown 2012, Storm and Roode would again face off at Bound for Glory 2012, in what was the end of their run together. The match perfectly encapsulated not just the feud the two were having, but their similar career trajectories and historic achievements with and against each other. The match saw King Mo serve as a ringside enforcer, which raised the profile of the match by having an MMA competitor needed to help enforce the law. The blood and violence reached a crescendo in this match that hadn’t been seen in years and wouldn’t be rivaled by any in the company for a few more to go. And as if to say that wrestling, like life is circular; the feud ends as it began, with a beer bottle. This time though it was James Storm crashing it into Bobby Roode’s head, getting the revenge he so rightly deserved.
Unfortunately, management decided to put the belt on Austin Aries, instead of keeping it on Bobby Roode for this match. Had Roode lost the belt in the main event to Storm, instead of watching Jeff Hardy complete his comeback with his last IMPACT World Championship, this may of been the greatest rivalry in IMPACT’s history.