Impact Wrestling has announced the date for the Bound for Glory 2022 pay-per-view.
It was revealed during Sunday’s Slammiversary show that Bound for Glory will be held on Saturday, October 8. No city or venue have been announced for the event.
While lead play-by-play announcer Tom Hannifan said that the show will be held on October 8, the graphic shown for the pay-per-view did not list a specific date, just “October 2022.”
WWE Extreme Rules is currently set for October 8 as well, so it would not be surprising to see the Bound for Glory date shifted so as not to run head-to-head.
The next Impact Plus streaming special, Against All Odds, will air on Friday July 1 from Atlanta, one day before WWE Money in the Bank.
A video featuring a promo by WWE talent AJ Styles aired during Slammiversary, as Styles was voted the most Impactful X Division wrestler in the history of the company in a fan vote. Styles praised his time in Impact, and thanked WWE for allowing him to do the video, stating that the company understood that it was important to him.
Moose won the Impact World Championship at Bound for Glory, defeating new champion Josh Alexander in a matter of seconds.
Alexander submitted Christian Cage with an ankle lock to win the Impact World Championship for the first time. His family entered the ring and he started to celebrate when suddenly Moose arrived, holding the Call Your Shot trophy which he had won earlier in the show. Alexander hurriedly sent his family out of the ring as the bell rang, with Moose spearing Alexander immediately and pinning him to win the championship for the first time. Moose posed with the championship as the show closed.
Cage had held the Impact World Championship for 71 days, having defeated Kenny Omega for the title on the first episode of AEW Rampage that aired on August 13.
Moose won the Call Your Shot battle royal earlier in the show, pinning Matt Cardona. As a result, he was allowed to choose any kind of title match of his choosing at any time.
The Impact World title will be on the line as Christian Cage defends the gold for the third time when he takes on former X-Division champion Josh Alexander in the main event of Saturday’s Bound for Glory.
Alexander earned the shot by relinquishing his title and exercising Impact’s “Option C” which is the ability to do so and get a World title match. Cage has defended the gold twice since taking it from Kenny Omega on the debut of AEW Rampage in August.
The Knockouts title will be on the line as Deonna Purrazzo defends against former champion Mickie James who returned to an Impact ring for the first time since 2015 Thursday. This has been building since just prior to NWA Empower. Purrazzo is approaching her first full year as champion and is looking for the 16th defense of the gold.
Other title matches include Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers vs. FinJuice vs. Chris Bey & Hikuleo; Steve Maclin vs. Trey Miguel vs. El Phantasmo for the vacant X-Division title; Knockouts Tag Team Champions Decay vs. the former Iiconics and a six-way to crown the first-ever Digital Media champion.
The show will also see a 20-man Call Your Shot gauntlet match, Heath and Rhino vs. Violent by Design, and Awesome Kong entering the Hall of Fame, inducted by Gail Kim.
Our live coverage begins with the Countdown to Glory pre-show.
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Live broadcast from Las Vegas, NV started with Awesome Kong’s Hall of Fame Induction. They initially showed a video package covering Kong’s history on Impact Wrestling, with comments from the Impact Knockouts, talking about Kong’s importance to women’s wrestling.
Gail Kim inducted Awesome Kong, she talked about Kong’s debut and how they worked together to create magic. She talked about how Impact took the risk with two women of color and allowed them to go out and do their thing and how that ended up changing the business. Kim talked about the personal relationship she has with Kong before bringing her out.
Awesome Kong first of all thanked the crowd, for keeping Impact alive and for supporting the wrestlers that work for the company. She thanked God, she thanked Scott D’Amore and Dutch Mantel for working with the Knockouts throughout the years, she thanked her husband, she thanked SHIMMER, Lexi Faye, Dave Prazak, and closed the speech telling everyone to follow their dreams.
The Knockouts locker room, including Cheerleader Melissa, came out to congratulate and accompany Kong on the ramp to close the ceremony.
Jordynne Grace (with Rachael Ellering) defeated Chelsea Green, Fallah Bahh, Madison Rayne (with Kaleb), John Skylar, and Crazzy Steve (with Black Taurus) to become the Inaugural Digital Media Championship
Each participant in this match qualified through a series of matches that took place in the last couple of weeks on Impact’s digital media channels. Originally, Tenille Dashwood had qualified to the match, but after not being able to make it to the show, her tag team partner Madison Rayne took her place.
Match started with a couple of pair ups, but it was Bahh and Grace that paired up inside the ring first, with Grace taking down Bahh with a shoulder tackle, the running elbow, and a Vader bomb for the first near fall of the night. Skylar and Green came in next, with the latter getting rid of Skylar early on with a dropkick. Rayne later on took down Steve with a DDT.
The match continued with a couple more pair ups. Crazzy Steve at one point locked in a double Upside Down on both Rayne and Green.
At the end, Grace dropped Skylar with the Grace driver for the win. The match was really short and not great for the amount of people involved, but it was all about building and crowning Grace as the inaugural champion.
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Main show opened with a video package about Josh Alexander’s rise to become the Impact World Championship challenger in tonight’s main event. Great Package.
The IInspiration (Cassie Lee & Jessie McKay) defeated Knockouts Tag Team Champions Decay (Havok & Rosemary) to become the NEW Champions!
Harley Cameron sang the IInspiration’s theme for the debut. Prior to Decay’s entrance, McKay and Lee took microphones to tell Impact that they are there to inspire us all.
This is The IInspiration’s debut, therefore, these teams have not interacted since the announcement of the match, but they’ve had words for each other leading up to this match.
Match started with Decay in control, they easily overpowered Lee and McKay in their initial efforts. Some of the spots came off as comedy. Rosemary locked in an early Upside Down on McKay but it wasn’t until Rosemary distracted herself with Lee, that the IInspiration managed to cut off Rosemary for a bit.
It wasn’t long before Havok and Lee came in, with the former running wild over both McKay and Lee, but after some miscalculations, Havok ended up on the floor after crashing down. Back in the ring, The IInspiration once again worked over Rosemary, getting a couple of near falls.
Havok came back to the match and got a near fall on Lee after a spear from Rosemary.
Lee got rid of Rosemary, hit a spinning kick on Havok, and along with McKay, sent Havok into the ring post over and over again. Finish followed after a blind tag that Rosemary didn’t see, which allowed Lee to knee Rosemary, set up their finisher, and pin Rosemary to win the titles. Not the smoothest of matches, but there’s room to grow.
– Gia Miller interviewed Deonna Purrazzo about her defense tonight. Purrazzo complained that she is the victim because it’s been James that kept attacking her, but when she did it, they got punished while James got a title shot. Purrazzo said that James is not a legend to her and she will break James’ arms.
Trey Miguel defeated El Phantasmo and Steve Maclin to become the NEW X Division Champion.
After Josh Alexander relinquished the X Division title, a tournament to crown a new X Division championship started. All three men in this match won their qualifying 3-way matches, leading up to BFG.
Match started with all three men in the mix, trading control of the match. First off, Maclin took down Miguel, only to get taken out by ELP, who then got taken out by Miguel.
ELP and Maclin started to work together and take turns striking Miguel. ELP went for the titty twister on Maclin, but he didn’t sell it and instead took down ELP. Miguel came back with a submission on ELP, while he suplexed Maclin, but couldn’t keep them both down.
ELP and Maclin paired up with the former getting the upper hand, using his speed to hit a couple of moonsaults and walking the rope into a step-up-rana. ELP raked both men’s backs with theatrics.
Maclin and ELP once again started working together against Miguel, who took them down with a couple of running forearms, but was quickly cut off. Maclin hit a DDT and Flatliner combo on ELP and Miguel respectively, but couldn’t get a pin on either.
Maclin hit the running spear on ELP. Miguel went for a Lethal Injection, only to get caught with a spear to and into the floor. Maclin followed with a tope suicida on ELP and a flying hip attack on Miguel again. Maclin went for the top rope, but got cut off by ELP, who hit an Asai Moonsault, only to take a cutter on the floor by Miguel.
Miguel and Maclin traded near falls, until ELP cut them off. ELP powerbombed Maclin, hit a super rana, tossing Miguel into Maclin, followed with a plancha on Maclin for a big near fall. Maclin came back with a powerbomb on ELP for a near fall. Maclin blocked a Meteora, but took a couple of kicks by both Miguel and ELP.
ELP went for the low punch, but Miguel had a cup, followed by a couple of kicks and a deadlift brainbuster and Meteora for the win. Fantastic match.
– Miller interviewed Mickie James prior to her match. James acknowledged that Purrazzo may be her hardest challenge ever, but she made it personal by attacking her in her own home. James said that tonight, it will be more than the title, tonight she proves to herself that she can still be the champion.
Heath & Rhino defeated Violent By Design (Joe Doering & Deaner) (with Eric Young)
This story goes back to 2020, when Violent By Design attacked Heath and was sidelined, which would later be followed by Rhino joining Violent By Design and being brainwashed. VBD turned on Rhino a couple of weeks ago after he lost the tag team titles, but right as they were about to make an example out of Rhino, Heath made his comeback. Rhino is still not himself, but Heath believes he can convince Rhino to join him against VBD.
Rhino didn’t come out with Heath initially, so he started the match with the handicap. Deaner and Doering didn’t wait and jumped Heath.
Once the bell rang, Heath did get some offense on Deaner and Doering, but eventually the numbers game was too much and Deaner cut him off while Heath was distracted with Doering. VBD worked over Heath, who had a couple of comeback attempts, but Doering kept cutting him off.
Eventually, Rhino came out when Heath had managed to bring down Deaner. Heath tagged in Rhino, who ran wild over Deaner, hit a belly-to-belly on Deaner, hit Gore on Deaner, and picked up the win. Not much of a match, but perfect for the angle.
After the match, Rhino and Heath embraced and celebrated together.
– Gia Miller interviewed Jordynne Grace about winning the Digital Media title. Grace talked about becoming the first ever triple crown woman in the promotion. Ellering talked about going for the Call Your Shot Gauntlet, but was interrupted by Moose and Morrissey, who said they were going to win.
Moose won the Call Your Shot Gauntlet
Chris Sabin was the number one entrant, after losing to Morrissey a couple of weeks ago, when the #20 spot was on the line. Rocky Romero was entrant number 2. We got two full minutes of Sabin vs Romero chain wrestling, stand-offs, and Romero’s sneaky style.
Entrant #3 was Madman Fulton, who easily overpowered both Sabin and Romero, who worked together to try to eliminate Fulton, with no avail.
#4 entrance was Rohit Raju, who came in and exchanged strikes with Sabin and Romero, and got a good amount of offense. Raju made an alliance with Fulton for the moment.
Tasha Steelz entered as number 5. Raju talked her into joining their little alliance. The numbers game was too much and Raju eliminated Romero.
Rachael Ellering was #6, she went immediately for Steelz, who she feuded with for months. Fulton tried to eliminate her, but she escaped and with the help of Sabin and Raju, eliminated Fulton.
Savannah Evans entered next as number 7 and joined her tag team partner. Steelz and Evans ganged up on Ellering, while Sabin and Raju paired up on the opposite corner. Ellering managed to eliminate Evans just as Johnny Swinger made his entrance as number 8.
We didn’t see Ellering’s elimination by Steelz since the camera focused on Swinger.
#9 entrant was Melina Perez. She went straight for Steelz, but was distracted by a hip-swinging Johnny Swinger. Entrant # 10 was The Demon, yes, WCW’s Demon! Johnny Swinger and I marked out. Swinger asked for an autograph, but instead got eliminated by the Demon. Swinger had been really popular with the crowd.
Brian Myers came out as #11, along with VSK and Zicky Dice as seconds. Myers paired up with The Demon, but couldn’t eliminate him.
#12 was Matt Cardona. The Learning Tree tried to attack him, but Cardona took them down and went straight for Myers in the ring. #13 entrant was Laredo Kid, who paired up with Raju. At this point, Melina eliminated Tasha Steelz, only to get eliminated by Myers.
Sam Beale came in as #14, he was fired from the Learning Tree on Thursday, but he still joined Myers to try and eliminate Cardona.
Rich Swann came in as #15. Swann and Myers have been feuding for some weeks, so he went straight for Beale and Myers, but in the distraction, Beale got the chance to eliminate Myers and took it.
Ace Austin made his entrance at number 16. He eliminated The Demon quickly. #17 entrant was Moose, who also came in strong, powerbombing Beale over the ropes over into Dice and VSK.
Entrant number 18 was Eddie Edwards, making his return after being sent to the hospital by Moose and Morrissey. Edwards tossed out Laredo Kid, who was used as a weapon by Moose, but afterwards, Edwards and Moose brawled to the floor, with Edwards hitting a tope through the middle rope. Moose hit an apron bomb. Alisha Edwards was #19, who brought out kendo sticks for Eddie and herself. They attacked Moose together, but #20 was previously set to be W. Morrissey.
Edwards and Alisha tried to gang up on Morrissey, but he overpowered them, and then military pressed Alisha to eliminate her. Morrissey and Moose joined up and eliminated Edwards fist.
Raju tried to make an alliance, but he was next to be eliminated.
Sabin eliminated Ace Austin, but Fulton came in and hit an End of Days on Sabin, leaving him ready for the elimination at the hands of Moose and Morrissey.
Final four were Cardona, Swann, Moose, and Morrissey. Morrissey was set to eliminate Swann, but Moose snuck up and eliminated both Swann and Morrissey.
Moose worked over Cardona for the final run, but Cardona made a comeback with a huge lariat. Cardona went for Radio Silence, but missed, only to take Moose’s Lights Out for the pin.
Moose has finally earned a singles shot for any title he chooses.
– Gia Miller interviewed Heath and Rhino. Heath talked about being sure that Rhino would end up coming out and backing him up.
Impact Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) defeated The Bullet Club (Chris Bey & Hikuleo) and FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) to retain their championships.
FinJuice and The Bullet Club have been feuding for months, but it was Anderson and Gallows’ idea to have them wrestle for a shot at the tag titles, as they felt that they had no competition left to wrestle. Both teams wrestled last Thursday, ending with a double pin that was later resolved by D’Amore by making this a 3-way match.
Finlay and Bey started the match with a fantastic sequence of counters and reversals. Robinson came in and continued working on Bey, but it wasn’t long before Gallows and Hikuleo tagged in for the big hoss clash.
Gallows and Hikuleo traded shoulder tackles and strikes, and it was the latter that managed to get the upper hand. Bey tagged in, but before he could take on Gallows, Finlay blind tagged himself against Anderson. The quick tags kept coming as Hikuleo tagged himself in and cut off Finlay. Bullet Club finally controlled the ring, keeping Finlay away from either corner. Eventually, Finlay got an opening to tag in Robinson, who ran wild against both opposing teams. Robinson got a great near fall after a big gut buster.
Match broke down as everyone came in and took turns to attack each other. Juice was the first up and cleared the ring for a superplex from Finlay, followed by Robinson’s plancha, but Anderson snuck in, threw Robinson out, and stole the pin. Good match, but a really underwhelming finish out of nowhere.
– Miller interviewed Christian Cage about his title defense tonight. Cage talked about the sacrifices he has made for Impact and that he’s not ready to pass the torch, nor is he ready to drop the title to Alexander.
Mickie James defeated Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo to become the NEW Champion.
This feud started back when Mickie James invited Deonna Purrazzo to participate in NWA’s Empower show. Purrazzo considered James’ approach as disrespectful, and things only escalated from there. These two have been waiting to get physical after D’Amore proclaimed a ‘no touch’ clause after things had become personal.
James jumped Purrazzo during the championship belt presentation, and immediately took the brawl to the floor and into the ramp area. Purrazzo was able to turn things around and pull James back to the ring by hair.
The match officially started when both women got in the ring. Purrazzo was now in complete control of the match, doing some initial work on James’ back. James started making attempts at a comeback, but Purrazzo kept cutting her off, at one point blocking a rana and turning it into a powerbomb.
James eventually caught Purrazzo with a forearm, followed by a double crossbody that left both women laying. James and Purrazzo traded strikes when James finally got some offense and her first pin attempt. James landed a rana and a Flapjack to bring Purrazzo down, followed with top rope takedown, but couldn’t capitalize and allowed Purrazzo to cut her off again.
Purrazzo started to chase the Queen’s Gambit, but James dodged, hit the Mickie-DT for a huge near fall. Commentary sold it as a move that hadn’t been kicked out before.
Distracted, James fell to Purrazzo’s offense again, now going for the Fujiwara armbar. Purrazzo went for Venus de Milo, but James made the ropes. Purrazzo hit Queen’s Gambit, but James kicked out, and this move I can confirm had never been kicked out of.
Purrazzo went for a chair, but referee Tolle took it away from her before she could use it. They wrestled on the top rope, where James accidentally took out the referee, but she did manage to fend off Purrazzo’s attempt to use the chair. James only got a two count.
Purrazzo blocked another top rope attempt with an armbar, brought down James with an armdrag, but she got cocky and taunted James, allowing James to hit a tornado DDT for the pin. Really good match.
Mickie James ends Purrazzo’s title reign and once again captures the Knockouts Championship. Half of the crowd looked upset at the end of Purrazzo’s reign.
– Hard To Kill will take place on January 8th in Dallas, TX. Next Impact+ special is Final Resolution.
Josh Alexander defeated Impact World Champion Christian Cage to become the NEW Champion!
After one of the best X Division reigns of the last decade, Josh Alexander relinquished the title for a shot at Christian Cage’s Impact World Championship. While this rivalry had been friendly for the most part, things escalated in the last couple of weeks as these men kept making comments on each other.
Match started with a minute long lock up that ended with Cage messing around with Alexander’s headgear, immediately trying to get in Alexander’s head and provoke that anger problem that Cage claims Alexander has. The match quickly escalated to a strike exchange, which ended badly for Cage, who was pushed off the top rope to the floor.
Both men kept trading momentum, countering each other. Cage countered a C4 attempt and sent Alexander to the floor, he tried to follow with a baseball slide, only for Alexander to counter into an ankle lock, which Cage countered, sending Alexander head-first into the guardrail.
Back in the ring, Cage was now in control of the ring, he started working on Alexander’s midsection. Alexander kept chopping his way into a comeback, until he hit a scary release German into the turnbuckles.
Alexander turned things around with a series of running kicks, and after surviving the 20 corner punches, dropped Cage with a powerbomb on his knee.
Cage started to chase the Killswitch at the same time Alexander tried to find the ankle lock. Alexander hit a rolling plunge and a jumping knee, but only got a two count. Cage came back with a tornado DDT for a two count for himself. Alexander dodged a spear into another German.
Alexander finally locked in the ankle lock, but transitioned into a sharpshooter after Cage tried to escape it. Cage made the ropes.
Alexander backdropped Cage from the top rope, but missed the moonsault. Cage followed with a spear, but Alexander kicked out at two. Cag went for Killswitch, but after failing to hit it, Cage snapped Alexander’s neck on the ropes instead. Cage hit a top rope splash, but only got a two again.
Cage blocked a C4, but couldn’t follow up. Alexander locked in the ankle lock, and held on at every attempt from Cage to turn. He stepped on Cage’s left hand and Cage had to tap out. Fantastic match.
Josh Alexander has won the Impact World Championship. Christian Cage himself strapped Alexander before embracing in the middle of the ring. Alexander was joined by his family for the celebration.
Suddenly, Moose ran in the ring and cashed out his Call Your Shot chance!
Moose defeated Impact World Champion Josh Alexander to become the NEW Champion!
Moose immediately hit Lights Out as Alexander tried to protect his family, pinned Alexander, and finally won the title!
Bound For Glory closed with Moose standing tall with the title.
Tenille Dashwood is out of the upcoming Digital Media Championship match that will be on the Bound for Glory pre-show.
Impact announced on Twitter this morning that Dashwood is out and Madison Rayne will take her place. She will be one of six people competing for the new championship in a match that will also include John Skyler, Crazy Steve, Fallah Bahh, Jordynne Grace, and Chelsea Green.
“BREAKING: @TenilleDashwood will not be at #BoundForGlory and has requested that @MadisonRayne replace her in the Digital Media Championship Tournament final, which IMPACT management has granted,” Impact wrote on Twitter.
The Digital Media Championship, which was introduced in September, is meant as a secondary title. Both men and women can compete for the championship.
The full card for this Saturday’s Bound for Glory event includes:
Christian Cage vs. Josh Alexander for the Impact World title
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Mickie James for the Impact Knockouts title
A 20-person Call Your Shot gauntlet match featuring Rich Swann, Brian Myers, W. Morrisey, and Chris Sabin
Trey Miguel vs. Steve Maclin vs. El Phantasmo for the X Division title
Decay (Rosemary and Havok) vs. The IInspiration (Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay) for the Impact Knockouts Tag Team titles
Heath and TBA vs. Violent by Design
The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows) vs. FinJuice (Juice Robinson and David Finlay) vs. Bullet Club (Chris Bey and Hikuleo) for the Impact Tag Team titles
(Pre-show) Madison Rayne vs. Jordynne Grace vs. Chelsea Green vs. Fallah Bahh vs. Crazzy Steve vs. John Skyler for the Impact Digital Media Championship
The former Braun Strowman has reportedly met with an Impact official.
PWInsider reported this afternoon that Adam Scherr (Strowman) met with Impact Wrestling executive vice president Scott D’Amore at the hotel bar for the Motor City Comic Con in Detroit, Michigan on October 16. PWInsider described the two as sitting for a long time, with Scherr arriving to meet a waiting D’Amore.
Additionally, PWInsider reported that Impact has been working on “several surprises” for Impact’s upcoming Bound for Glory event, which takes place at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas on October 23 on pay-per-view.
Strowman was released from WWE on June 2, with the company citing budget cuts as the reason for his release. His first match post-WWE involved him defeating EC3 for a Free The Narrative event that was released on October 1.
Bound For Glory is currently headlined by Christian Cage defending the Impact World Championship against Josh Alexander, who vacated the X-Division title to challenge for the World title.
In their Impact Wrestling debut, the former IIconics will challenge for the Knockouts Tag Team titles.
Impact Wrestling announced on Wednesday that The IInspiration (Cassie Lee & Jessica McKay) will challenge Decay (Havok & Rosemary) for the Knockouts Tag Team titles at Bound for Glory. The pay-per-view is taking place at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas on Saturday, October 23. It will begin at 10 p.m. Eastern time.
This will be The IInspiration’s first match since being released by WWE this April. During Impact Wrestling’s Knockouts Knockdown special last Saturday, it was announced that Lee & McKay would be debuting for Impact at Bound for Glory. PWInsider reported that Lee & McKay have signed with Impact Wrestling.
Lee & McKay are former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. They held the titles from April 2019 to August 2019.
Lee & McKay have also been announced for Impact’s post-Bound for Glory television tapings in Las Vegas on Sunday, October 24 and Monday, October 25.
Here’s the updated card for Bound for Glory:
Impact World Champion Christian Cage defends against Josh Alexander
Impact Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defends against Mickie James
Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champions Decay defend against The IInspiration
X-Division Championship match: Steve Maclin vs. Trey Miguel vs. TBD
Impact Digital Media Championship tournament finals: John Skyler vs. Crazzy Steve vs. Fallah Bahh vs. Jordynne Grace vs. TBD vs. TBD
20-person Call Your Shot gauntlet match (winner receives a future title shot of their choosing)
The former IIconics are coming to Impact Wrestling.
During Impact Wrestling’s Knockouts Knockdown special on Saturday night, a video aired announcing that The IInspiration (Cassie Lee & Jessica McKay) are coming to Bound for Glory. The pay-per-view is taking place at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas on Saturday, October 23. It will start at 10 p.m. Eastern time.
Lee was formerly known as Peyton Royce in WWE and McKay was formerly known as Billie Kay. They were released by WWE during a round of roster cuts this April.
Lee & McKay revealed “The IInspiration” as their new tag team name this August. They haven’t wrestled since being released by WWE. With them originally being from Australia, Lee & McKay had to settle their work visa situation before being able to wrestle in the United States again.
Lee & McKay were one-time Women’s Tag Team Champions in WWE, holding the titles from April 2019 to August 2019.
Bound for Glory will be headlined by Christian Cage vs. Josh Alexander for the Impact World Championship and Deonna Purrazzo vs. Mickie James for the Knockouts Championship.
Josh Alexander is set to challenge Impact World Champion Christian Cage at Bound for Glory next month.
At tonight’s Victory Road event, Christian Cage successfully retained the Impact World title, defeating Ace Austin. After the match, Alexander came down and told told Christian that he opted to exercise “option C”, which is when the X Division Champion vacates the title to earn a shot at Impact’s World Championship. The two then had a staredown to close out the show.
Alexander also was successful tonight at Victory Road, defeating Chris Sabin to retain the X Division title.
Cage, who is a AEW-contracted star, has been making appearances on Impact Wrestling since winning the Impact title from Kenny Omega on the first episode of AEW Rampage on August 13. Aside from tonight’s defense against Austin, he also defeated Brian Myers at Impact’s Emergence event, which aired on August 16.
Bound for Glory will take place at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 23.
Impact Wrestling is headed to Las Vegas for Bound for Glory 2021.
During Slammiversary tonight, a video aired revealing that this year’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The PPV will take place on Saturday, October 23.
Impact didn’t announce which venue will host Bound for Glory.
The AEW, Lucha Libre AAA, and NJPW logos appeared in the Bound for Glory announcement video. In the main event of Slammiversary tonight, AEW’s Kenny Omega retained the Impact World Championship by defeating Sami Callihan in a no disqualification match. NJPW’s Jay White then appeared following the match.
Impact also revealed the date and theme for their next Impact Plus special tonight. “Homecoming” will air on Impact Plus on Saturday, July 31. The special will be built around a mixed tag team tournament to crown Impact Wrestling’s Homecoming King and Homecoming Queen.
Slammiversary took place at Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee tonight. With a limited number of fans in attendance, the PPV featured Impact Wrestling’s first live crowd since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Impact had been holding closed set tapings at Skyway Studios since the start of the pandemic era.
It’s the latest episode of Speak Now with Denise Salcedo!
In this special Halloween edition of Speak Now, Denise will cover Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite as well as the special Halloween Havoc edition of NXT.
Denise will also review Halloween Havoc matches of the past, including the Chamber of Horrors match, Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior, and Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant.
She also covers the finals of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Climax 30, plus she shares IMPACT Wrestling Bound For Glory predictons and so much more!
The show can be seen LIVE every Wednesday at 8 PM Pacific. Additionally, Denise will also be doing AEW PPV post-shows on our Twitch channel, going live shortly after the PPV wraps.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including a full recap and analysis of Hell in a Cell and where they go from here, Daniel Bryan wrapping it up, Impact injuries and a recap of their PPV, updates on Abbadon and Khabib and tons more. A packed show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Jim Valley update
9:48: WWE Hell in a Cell
40:15: Daniel Bryan on Talking Smack
49:00: Impact injury notes, thoughts on Bound for Glory
1:00:46: Update on Abadon, Marty Scurll, Khabib
1:04:36: Mailbag
Alex Shelley, one half of the now-former Impact Wrestling Tag Team Champions, was apparently injured on a piledriver spot at Impact Wrestling’s Bound For Glory Saturday.
Before the match started, Josh Alexander of The North gave Shelley a piledriver on the entrance ramp. He never made it into the four-way match, leaving partner Chris Sabin to go at it alone. The North eventually won the titles without pinning Sabin.
It wasn’t clear whether the spot was part of the story of the match or if Shelley was injured going into BFG and the move was a way to take him out of it. Black Label Pro announced Sunday morning that Shelley was injured and wouldn’t be appearing on their Sunday show as planned.
Shelley took to Twitter Sunday afternoon to explain what was happening:
Wrestling is a really dangerous sport and sometimes things don’t work out the way you want them to. I apologize to @BLabelPro and @SORBilly who was coming out of retirement as well as any independent companies I was negotiating with. Piledrivers are very dangerous. https://t.co/VzRCxTUlJq
So, the C6 nerve root controls your pointer finger and bicep and C5 can refer to your pectoralis. If you feel intense burning in either of these areas following trauma, please seek medical attention. I feel somewhat grateful to have the education to know what the red flags are.
We’ve got a G1 special on the Observer with the deepest look at the tournament anywhere. G1 MVP, G1 best match, G1 history notes, polls on the last three nights, the story behind Kota Ibushi’s win and much more in a new double issue of the Observer.
The business decline that was unavoidable, the difference in wrestling with fans who are not supposed to cheer and boo and who does the best with it, the ups and downs of the different wrestlers, who improved the most from last year, lots of G1 records, Power Struggle notes, a breakdown of every wrestler in the tournament and how they did in the ring this year as compared to last year, who were the best at carrying opponents, who had the best matches, how this year’s match quality compared to last year, just how great this year’s A block shows were, New Japan’s U.S. popularity and which wrestlers have had the best in-ring tournaments in recent years.
Also in this issue:
Harold Meij’s final day in charge of New Japan and key issues with his legacy, Tokyo Dome updates, and how the last days went down.
Things going on behind-the-scenes with President Trump that may be done that would help Vince McMahon and Dana White, Andrew Yang talks wrestlers as independent contractors and what he plans to do about it, Orange County Department of Health looking at COVID spreading in buildings that house WWE and MLW, and WWE’s statement.
What is and isn’t misleading and looking at WWE COVID numbers, we preview Hell in a Cell, note a mandatory conference all WWE talent has to attend this week, WWE getting an award looked at, WWE signing, why the plight of independent wrestlers is so different from before, WWE Network November theme, WWE star nominated for a movie award and new WWE Network deals.
Wrestling ratings compared to other sports, Canadian & U.K. ratings, Mike Bennett talks the problems in communication in WWE, Sami Zayn talks the ladder match, WWE market value and the most watched shows last week on the WWE Network.
Brian Ortega vs. The Korean Zombie with full coverage of Saturday’s UFC event,.
The surprising thing that matters far more than most gave it credit for when it comes to viewing wrestling shows.
Ratings breakdowns in every segment for Wednesdays and every category for other shows, looking at stats not available elsewhere to get the deepest read into how shows are doing, what categories are doing well and how shows compare with previous weeks and one year ago.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight to talk Hell in a Cell and a lot of more WWE news, including more on Daniel Bryan, more weekend news, more on Bound For Glory and you can send questions to the show to [email protected].
Bryan has a short interview with Jim Valley who has fought back from another legitimate near death experience once again up on the site.
Today is WWE Hell in a Cell, a show with only five matches announced as of this morning. On paper the show should be great because all three Hell in a Cell matches are strong on paper and the show will be built around them:
Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton for the WWE title in a cell match. You pretty much know this match will be very good to great. The outcome could go either way but McIntyre is a -230 favorite at 5Dimes.
Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso in an I Quit hell in a cell match for the Universal title. This match will have to be different than the last one. Lots of speculation regarding Jimmy Uso being involved in the finish, given he was involved in the television angle on Friday night. Nobody expects a title change and Reigns is a -2000 favorite.
Bayley vs. Sasha Banks for the Smackdown women’s title in a cell match. These two have had some of the best women’s matches in company history, notably their Brooklyn Takeover match. They will be put in a position to have a great match and both always work hard. Banks is a -230 favorite to take the title.
Otis vs. The Miz for the Money in the Bank briefcase. Otis is a -175 favorite to retain. This was put together Friday in a campy skit to say the least.
Jeff Hardy vs. Elias – Every Hardy match is likely to be good. We haven’t seen Elias in a match since his torn pec. Since it’s the beginning of the feud, Elias is a -160 favorite to win.
We will have live coverage on the site starting at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time. We are doing weekend polls on Hell in a Cell, UFC 254 and Impact Bound for Glory, thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match on both shows to [email protected]
Javier Mendez, Khabib Nurmagomedov’s trainer, told Yahoo Sports that this was the worst training camp he has ever had. He said in Abu Dhabi, the accommodations were the best and the hospitality was the best, but he had the mumps two weeks into camp, then broke a toe in camp as well. Mendez said Nurmagomedov told him, “Coach, my toe may be broken but my mind is not.”
Dana White believes Nurmagomedov’s retirement will stick.
For a few more notes from last night’s Bound for Glory show and to clarify some things talked about last night. Kylie Rae was injured two weeks ago but she was scheduled to appear on last night’s show against Deonna Purrazzo. As noted in an update earlier today, she was in Nashville and was in the hotel Friday. She never arrived at the building and nobody in the company knew anything. The company checked with everyone who knew her. Nobody really knows anything more other than she is apparently okay in the physical sense. At the time of the match they didn’t know anything past that she wasn’t there. It came off weird as they showed video features on the PPV building the match as scheduled, and then she wasn’t there and nothing was said as to why, because at the time they really didn’t know anything.
As best we can tell, Rich Swann & Su Yung both winning the major titles in Impact would be the first husband-and-wife ever to win major world titles on the same show. Notable is that this was not how things were scheduled to go down as Yung was a last minute replacement for Kylie Rae against Deonna Purrazzo.
WWE
Today is the 17th wedding anniversary of Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon Levesque.
The WWE Network has added a new show on cage matches from the indies airing matches from Evolve, ICW and wXw including Drew Galloway vs.; Roderick Strong, Trent Seven vs Wolfgang, Carnage vs. Alexander Wolfe, Piper Niven vs. Kay Lee Ray vs. Kasey and Alexander James vs. Jurn Simmons; A Best of Progress with Ilja Dragunov to build the Walter vs. Dragunov UK title match that airs this week with matches with Pete Dunne, Timothy Thatcher; ICW Fight Club 100 and wXw Shotgun with Bobby Gunns defending the wXw title against Emil Sitoci.
WWE announced William Shatner, Rey Mysterio, Shotzi Blackheart and Michelle McCool as guests on The Bump on Wednesday.
UFC
Yesterday’s UFC 254 did 2 million Google searches which was the most of anything so far this weekend, which is notable given all the news of the past weekend. So the interest was not anywhere close to the record-setting that Dana White was claiming earlier in the week. It was at the level of a normal bigger than usual PPV. That was the only thing combat sports related in the past week to trend on Google. Arnold Schwarzenegger did yesterday as related to having his aortic valve replaced in surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. It is Schwarzenegger’s third heart surgery, as he had pulmonary valve replacement surgeries in 1997 and 2018.
Jeremy Stephens pulled out of his 11/7 fight with Arnold Allen due to an undisclosed injury and hopes to be back in a few months.
Matt Schnell vs. Tyson Nam has been added to the 12/19 show.
MISCELLANEOUS
Volador Jr. suffered an apparent broken nose on Friday night in Arena Mexico doing a Frankensteiner off the top rope and somehow on the way down his face hit the turnbuckle. They went right to the finish of the match. They were about a half hour into a tag title match where Mistico & Caristico beat Volador Jr & Titan in a rematch from the prior Friday.
On today’s NFL Countdown show on ESPN, George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers was on. He’s a huge fan. There was a lot of AEW footage used since even though Kittle is a WWE fan, his favorite wrestler is Pentagon Jr., dating back to Lucha Underground, and they showed where Kittle took Pentagon’s Cero Miedo hand gesture.
CWE on Friday night in Red Deer, Alberta: AJ Sanchez won three-way over Travis Cole and Tyler Adams, Bobby Sharp b Danny Duggan, Mentallo b Shaun Martens-DQ, Lumberjack Larry b Kevin O’Doyle, Jude Dawkins b Johnny Devine.
CWE on Saturday night in St. Albert, Alberta: Jude Dawkins b William Saint, Lumberjack Larry b Shaun Martens-DQ, Kat Von Heez b Alix Zwicker, AJ Sanchez & Kevin O’Doyle b Danny Duggan & Mentallo, Rich King b Nite, Travis Cole b Jules, Bobby Sharp b Johnny Devine. Next show is tomorrow night in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
IWA Productions from last night in Mt. Vernon, IL for a women’s tournament: Joseline Navarro b Megan Myers, Kenzie Paige b Abby Beck, Raven Black b Mz. Hyde, Mickie Knuckles b Katie Dream, Kenzie Paige b Abby Veck, Raven Back b Mz. Hyde, Mickie Knuckles b Katie Dream, Kenzie Paige b Joseline Navarro, Mickie Knuckles b Raven Black, Mickie Knuckles b Kenzie Paige to win tournament (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
Total Kaos Wrestling from last night in Taylor, MI: Dread King Loan b Shane Douglas, Ken Kash won eight-way over Geo Bronco, Ace Evans, Ric Caurdiea, Tanner Nix, Dizakeo, Mikey Baker and Mo Atlas, LJ Lawrence b Chase Burnett, Hannah Henderson b Jeremiah Goldmain, Mysterious Movado b Mollock, Jack Price & Money Green b Tommy Vendetta & Sinn, Joseph Schwartz b Isaiah Frazier, TJ Meyer b El Ridiculoso, Kevin Kalloway & Sean Tyler & Justin Pilgrim b Freedom Ramsey & Atlas Hytower & Daniel Wolf, Chuck Stein won three-way over Leatherface and Sean Lawhorn in a barbed wire match (thanks to Leonard Brand)
There were a few things that didn’t go as planned for Impact Wrestling on Saturday’s Bound For Glory pay-per-view in Nashville, TN.
As reported last night, Kylie Rae missed her scheduled Knockouts women’s title match with champion Deonna Purrazzo with no announcement made on the show as to why. This left a lot of fans unhappy with people noting that if she was injured or ill, they should have announced it and everyone would have understood.
The story that went around was she was injured, but we were later told that was not the case. We have confirmed that no announcement was made because the company did not know the situation at the time and there was no communication. It is possible she was injured, but it’s unknown what the situation is. Right now all that is known is that she was in Nashville ready to work on Friday and did not come to the building on Saturday.
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As noted earlier today, Heath (Miller/Slater) was scheduled to win the Call Your Shot gauntlet match, but suffered a hernia during the match and was taken to the hospital. Due to the stipulation that if either Heath or Rhino lost the match, both would be out of Impact, the only option they had on the fly was to have Rhino gore Sami Callihan and pin him when they were the last two in the match.
The good news from a storyline perspective is that everything fit with the new ending. The bad news is that Heath is likely to need surgery which would put him on the shelf temporarily. He was taken to the hospital and diagnosed, but was back at the hotel late last night. Miller was injured very early in the match, and he believed it was a groin tear at the time.
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There was also an issue in many parts of the country with Comcast/Xfinity not airing the PPV due to a snafu on the cable side although it appears the broadcast was fine everywhere else. People who contacted us being unable to order generally did order it off FITE.tv when their PPV orders couldn’t be processed.
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Bound for Glory was supposed to be available in French through FITE.tv with Marc Blondin and Sylvain Grenier on the call, the duo who did Impact every week on RDS in Quebec between 2004 and 2015. Due to technical issues, they had to cancel it at the last minute.
They ran a test Friday night and everything was working with the platform they were asked to use. But, no test was done with actual live footage from the venue. Impact asked the duo to be ready for 7:25 pm on Saturday. They were all set up and when they tested it with the live footage, there were audio issues.
Blondin and Grenier could hear themselves and could see the video, but their audio wasn’t going out to where it needed to get to. They asked Blondin and Grenier to fix the problem and they were not able to since the night before everything was working and they had not changed anything since that point. Given the short timeframe from when the issues started to when the broadcast was starting, they had to cancel it.
Heath Miller suffered a hernia injury at Saturday’s Call Your Shot gauntlet battle royal at Bound For Glory which resulted in Impact Wrestling having to call an in-match audible.
PWInsider first reported that Miller, the former Heath Slater in WWE, was supposed to earn an Impact contract and a title shot of his choosing after eliminating Sami Callihan, but due to the hernia injury, Rhino won instead. Going into the match, the storyline was that if Rhino or Miller didn’t win, both would be fired.
Just before Callihan entered as number 19, Miller was kicked in the gut by Brian Myers. After eliminating him, he got hit in the midsection by other wrestlers and started showing signs of being hurt, touching his lower left abdomen and laying on the mat while talking to referees. None of the offense he took looked stiff or out of sorts.
He eventually made his way to his feet after several minutes but was fairly immobile. Clearly moving slowly and in pain, he did take a few punches and superkick from James Storm before being eliminated by Callihan.
Miller signed with Impact this summer after being released as part of the April WWE pandemic cuts.
