Top 10 Impact Wrestling Bound For Glory Events (So Far)

Intro: Bound For Glory season has come yet again. Although it's been overshadowed by Slammiversary in the last couple of years due to company's interest in promoting that show as the most must see PPV in the Impact's yearly calendar, Bound For Glory is still of the most iconic pay per views in TNA/Impact History. with another up-and-coming that promises to be another

But with over a decades worth of events bearing the BFG name, which one could be considered the best Bound For Glory up to this point?

Well with another up-and-coming BFG event that promises to be another rousing success, I'll be picking what I believe are the top 10 TNA/Impact Wrestling Bound For Glory Events...Up to this point.

10. Bound For Glory 2013

This event is best remembered as the final pay per view appearance for AJ Styles, whose issues with the company (in particular with Dixie Carter and the money he was offered) eventually led to the face of TNA jumping ship to NJPW and later the WWE.

But aside from that, this was an impressive show which saw Jessie Godderz and Robbie E of the BroMans pulling double duty by winning a number one contenders tag team gauntlet match on the BFG preshow before winning the tag team titles from James Storm and Gunner later on in the show.

Other highlights from this event include the sleeper hit of a match that was the Ultimate X match for the X Division championship, Kurt Angle defeating Bobby Roode in an almost twenty-one minute instant classic and of course the in-ring debut of Ethan Carter the Third aka EC3 was truly memorable even if his match with a glorified jobber named Norv Fernum wasn't.

In main event, the phenomenal one took on the president of Aces and Eights, Bully Ray in an No Disqualification match that was an absolute banger of a match for the TNA world Heavyweight Championship; Despite the match being way too overbooked, it was an impressive showing by both men

The biggest stinker about this event was the disappointing match between Magnus and Sting as it was clear that either Magnus was not ready to become a main eventer around this time or the company just mishandled his booking...I'm gonna say it's a combination of both.

Overall, this was an underrated show that's best remember for final pay per view match involving the original face that ran the place, AJ Styles.

9. Bound For Glory 2009

2009 was a year that had it's ups and it's down from storytelling aspect however while the storylines were either hit or miss, the matches themselves were some of the absolute best in North American Pro Wrestling and a small fracture of those matches happened at Bound For Glory 2009.

The event opened with an Ultimate X match with some of the most recognizable and talented names in the X Divisions history competing a contest that many call "The Match of the Year".

The show continued with its theme of amazing title matches from the criminally underrated Legends and Knockouts title bouts, to the full metal mayhem tag match with the TNA and IWGP tag team belts at stake.

The last two matches on the card saw "The Blueprint" Matt Morgan putting on a great match with one of the greatest wrestlers in the world, Kurt Angle and the main event which saw "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles defeated "The Icon" Sting and retain the TNA World Title in front of 2,400 cheering fans.

Aside from the Knockout tag team title match which went roughly three minutes, a Samoa Joe vs. Bobby Lashley match that had a sloppy if not confusing finish and the overbooked monster's ball, this event was solid effort put on by the company and the wrestlers who participated.

8. Bound For Glory 2018

By this point, the company really had its work cut out for themselves as the last two BFG events have been shrouded in controversy with the 2016 show completely in doubt due to the financial crisis the company was under at that time and 2017's Bound For Glory was an horrendous mess due to a fail merger and a larger number on controversies that plagued they entire year.

Luckily for Impact they delivered with a Bound For Glory was memorable for multiple reasons, not the least of which was the opening tag team match between Matt Sydal and Ethan Page vs. Rich Swann and a debuting Willie Mack.

Other matches on this night included including Taya Valkyrie vs. Tessa Blanchard for the Knockouts Title in their BFG debuts, OvE defeated Brian Cage and the Lucha Brothers in six man tag team action and LAX ended their feud the OGz with a violent conclusion in the "Concrete Jungle" match.

The show had a few stinkers like seeing Rosemary battling Su Yung in a cheesy cinematic match in the Undead Realm and the reveal that James PISSING Ellsworth was Eli Drakes final opponent in the Eli Drake Open Challenge enraged a lot of fans...at least until Eli Squashed him in a two minute match.

In the main event, Johnny Impact defeated Austin Aries in a ultracompetitive and very emotional match but most fans remember this match for controversial exit from the building and the company by Aries which blurred the lines of Kayfabe and reality so much that no one had a clue about what happened until Aries himself went public the story.

7. Bound For Glory 2006

The second Bound for Glory event was a nice follow up to the previous years event and saw all of TNA's tag team, main event and X division put on a hell of show that the 3,600 fans in Plymouth Michigan certainly appreciated.

From an X Division gauntlet battle royale which included a motley crew of x division stars like Austin Aries, Sonjay Dutt, Jay Lethal, Kazarian, Shark Boy, A-1, Zach Gowen, Norman Smiley, Alex Shelley, Elix Skipper, Johnny Devine and Petey Williams to an X division title match between Chris Sabin and Low Ki.

The show also had a monster's ball match involving Jake Roberts as the special guest referee, an 8 mile street fight between Christian Cage and Rhino, a steel cage tag team title match between Hernandez and Homicide vs. Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles and a main event that pitted Sting against Jeff Jarrett for the NWA World championship with Olympic gold medalist, Kurt Angle as special enforcer.

In short, the event was a star studded pay per view that provided some of the best wrestling in 2006.

6. Bound For Glory 2010

The first BFG event under the Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff regime, from that sentence and as well as their infamous run as on air and backstage authority figures bringing in aging and established names into the company you would imagine this event was a massive disappointment that began to show the decline of the company that was the alternative to the WWE.

However, the show ended being a much bigger success that many might remember; From championship matches like the Young Bucks vs. the Motor City Machine Guns for the tag team titles to Douglas Williams vs. Jay Lethal for the X division title to hardcore matches like the monster's ball with RVD and Abyss and the lethal lockdown match between the TNA and the ECW Originals this show had no shortage of extraordinary matches.

Of course the event is best remember for the shocking heel turn of "the Charismatic Enigma" Jeff Hardy in the main event for the vacant world heavyweight championship and the formation of the group known as Immortal which included figure heads Hogan and Bischoff, first disciple and messenger for the group, Abyss and also Jeff Jarrett joined the group because...reasons.

A great show, under a terrible regime.

5. Bound For Glory 2012

In front of a very energetic crowd at the Grand Canyon University Arena in Phoenix Arizona, Bound For Glory 2012 was an event that was filled with great action, surprising twists and large amount of memorable moments.

While not perfect, the show did have some low points like the knockouts title between Tara and Brooke Tessmacher wasn't all that good in spite of the story leading into this match; Plus, the crowd reaction upon the debut of former Big Brother star, Jessie Godderz as Tara's new boyfriend was as bad as you can possible imagine with fans chanting "Who are You?" to the future tag team champion.

Another stinker on this show was the one-on-one matchup between Joey Ryan and Al Snow, where if Ryan won he would get a contract and a spot on the Impact roster. The match itself was average at best with one of the more memorable moments being a returning Matt Morgan attacking Snow aligning himself with Ryan.

Now, let's talk about the positive stuff on this show; The semi main event between Bully Ray and Sting vs. Aces and Eights members D.O.C. (aka Luke Gallows) and Knux in a no DQ tag team match was great and the crowd was energetic throughout.

A triple threat tag team title match involving the Bad Influence, AJ Styles and Kurt Angle and the eventually winners Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Hernandez proved how impressive the tag team division in Impact Wrestling was amazing in the 2010's and a street fight between bitter rivals Bobby Roode and James Storm was emotional, bloody and violent in every sense of the word.

The main event saw Jeff Hardy take on Austin Aries for the world heavyweight championship, culminating in a title change that completed Hardy's road to redemption.

2012 was at least in my opinion the last good year in the company's history (until 2018 and onwards) and Bound For Glory 2012 perfect example of the good and the bad that would come to defined Impact Wrestling for the rest of the decade.

4. Bound For Glory 2011

A year before the previous entry, Bound For Glory 2011 signaled the beginning of something new for the company as this event would help to usher in or develop stars like Austin Aries, Bully Ray, Velvet Sky and Bobby Roode and in the process they who would go on to define the greatness of Impact Wrestling (and for some cases NXT) in the years to come.

The show started off with Austin Aries defending the X Division Champion against Brian Kendrick in a very impressive and competitive showing on both men's part which really got the crowd in Philadelphia Pennsylvania hype for the rest of the card.

Mr. Anderson defeated Bully Ray in a falls count anywhere Philadelphia street fight which included everything from signs that say " Welcome To Philly Asshole" to Bully Ray Piledriving Mr. Anderson onto the concrete in the backstage area to Anderson using everything except the kitchen sink to beat his rival.

Other matches include Velvet Sky winning the Knockouts Championship for the first time in here career, an unforgettable "I Quit" match between AJ Styles and Christopher Daniel and the Philadelphia fans witnessed RVD defeating Jerry Lynn in a Full Metal Mayhem match which must of reminded them of the good old days of the original ECW.

the Sting vs. Hulk Hogan match if you can believe it was actually enjoyable; Sure it featured two guys long past their prime wrestling a match that went close to 20 minutes, but it definitely was better than most of matches Hogan and Sting would have with each other in the mid to late 90's.

Plus the events that occurred after the match finished gave us one of the best babyface turns and Bound For Glory moments in company history.

While many expected to see Bobby Roode defeat Kurt Angle to become world champion in the main event, fans and critics alike were shocked to see Angle win. Despite the criticism over the decision to have Roode lose, what came out of this loss led to one of the memorable heel turns and historic championship reigns in Impact Wrestling.

3. Bound For Glory 2008

11 years before they returned to Illinois for Bound For Glory 2019, TNA (now Impact) aired their 2008 edition of Bound For Glory in Hoffman Estates Illinois at the Sears Centre in front of a ruckus crowd of 5,000 plus people who were looking to be entertained with some amazing wrestling on that night...sure enough that got it and then some.

The show started off strong with a #1 contender's steel asylum match for a shot at the X Division title which saw Eric Young, Sonjay Dutt, Johnny Devine, Petey Williams, Jimmy Rave, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelly, Shark Boy and Jay Lethal take part and demonstrated why the X division today is nothing but a shell of the divisions golden era of 2005-09.

The pace of the show began to fluctuate as a six person tag match that included the beautiful people, ODB, Rhino and Rhaka Khan only lasted six minutes and wasn't anything special.

Things started to pick up following a X division title match only to then have the pace get halted once again during a knockouts triple threat match involving Roxxi, Awesome Kong and Taylor Wilde which strangely lasted only five minutes (seriously?!).

Thankfully the pace was back on track for the rest of show as a monster's ball tag team title match featured the best tag teams in the company's history: Team 3D, Beer Money Inc. and LAX, the match also featured the makeshift pairing of Matt Morgan and Abyss with the latter being put through a flaming table by Brother Ray and Devon.

The three match between Christian Cage, AJ Styles and Booker T was underrated but great, Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett with Mick Foley as enforcer was impressive in first of the many PPV matches the duo would have and in the main event Samoa Joe defended his world title against Sting.

In a match that centered on Sting's belief that the young wrestlers in the locker room lacked a serious amount of respect for the legends combined with Joe's give no f###s attitude and dominance as champion up to this point and it's easy to see why there was a lot of anticipation for this match.

A contract was signed on the go home episode in which both men agreed that regardless of how the match ends up, there would be no rematch...pretty high stakes.

The most iconic moment of the match came when Samoa Joe delivered a flying dropkick on Sting straight out of the luxury box area in the crowd and if you haven't seen it I'll post link to the video down below.

The finish saw Kevin Nash, who was an ally of Joe's at the time come out and stop Sting from using the baseball bat as a weapon only to use it himself on Samoa Joe behind the referees back, thus leading to not only Sting's three and final world title main event win at Bound for Glory but also led to the formation of one of the greatest factions in the company's history: The Main Event Mafia.

2. Bound For Glory 2005

You know a PPV is going to be awesome when the opening contest sees Samoa Joe at the prime of his career and badassery take on Japanese wrestling legend Jushin "Thunder" Liger.

After the five star classic X division title match at Unbreakable 2005, the X division went on a hot streak that rolled into that year's BFG event.

From the four way preshow match that included Sonjay Dutt, Austin Aries, Alex Shelley and Roderick Strong to the aforementioned Joe vs. Liger match to a three way ultimate X match between Matt Bentley, Chris Sabin and Petey Williams for a shot a the X division title to an underrated 30 minute iron man X division title match between champion, AJ Styles and challenger, Christopher Daniels.

However, it wasn't just the X division who was busy on that night as former ECW wrestler Rhino wrestled in three matches.

The first was a monster's ball match saw the War Machine battling wrestlers like Abyss, Jeff Hardy and Sabu, his second match saw the man beast win a ten 10 gauntlet for a shot at the NWA world championship only for Jarrett to try and get the upper hand on his opponent shortly afterwards unfortunately for Double J, Rhino was defeat him to become the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion.

Bound for Glory 2005 set the standards all other BFG events are measured, however as great as this event is one more that's better...

Bound For Glory 2007

If WrestleMania X7 is considered the greatest WrestleMania of all time, then Bound for Glory 2007 would have to TNA's equivalent to that; This PPV from start to finish was filled with matches and moments that have since become iconic in the annals of TNA/Impact Wrestling history.

From the opening ultimate X match tag team match between LAX and the team of Elix Skipper and Senshi (Low Ki) to the reverse battle royal which gave Impact's mid card division the chance to shine, two tag team matches that AJ Styles and Tomko become tag champions and the Steiner brothers defeat Team 3D in a two out of three table matches.

The third act of the event saw Samoa Joe defeat archrival, Christian Cage and servable monster's ball match and a main event match which saw Sting defeat Kurt Angle and in the process... you guessed he became the world heavyweight champion.

Of course, you can't talk about this event without mentioning the gauntlet for the gold match which saw Gail Kim become Knockouts champion for the very first, cementing herself as a living legend and launching a women's division that runs strong till this very day.

From the nonstop action from the opening contest to the final match to the historic ramifications it's left on the company is why I say BFG 2007 is the best Bound for Glory (So Far).