Bound for Glory 2007: Sting, Samoa Joe and Gail Kim Give TNA a True Showcase

The Motor City Machine Guns defeated Joey Matthews and Johnny Swinger at Bound for Glory 2007, but this match was a DARK BOUT before the live PPV began, not its first televised contest. Two October 14–15 eyewitness reports describe Matthews, formerly Joey Mercury, and Swinger appearing in matching outfits and trying their old Problem Solver tandem finish. The team of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin avoided the attempt and hit a sequence of kicks; Shelley pinned Matthews. There is no verified bell-to-bell length in the results ledger, and the archival score cannot be treated as an independently measured televised match.

The distinction changes the viewing guide. The Guns were already popular with the arena audience, and the nonbroadcast warm-up helped introduce Matthews and Swinger in their TNA appearance. A reader watching only the PPV will encounter the Ultimate X contest as the first match. The archive retains this legitimate dark-match result, all four participant links and the inherited C+ (6.6) assessment, but it must not inflate the televised main-card denominator. Skip in a main-show viewing plan because footage is not part of the standard broadcast.

The televised Bound for Glory 2007 PPV opened with LAX (Homicide and Hernandez) challenging Triple X (Elix Skipper and Senshi) in an Ultimate X match for a future World Tag Team Championship opportunity. The teams traded fast bursts at ground level and fought along the suspended cables for the central X. Senshi knocked Homicide off the wires, but Hernandez dragged Senshi down. Skipper climbed above the ring and launched a spectacular crossbody onto Hernandez, then used the cables to catch Homicide and deliver a neckbreaker from the elevated structure. The near captures gave each wrestler a distinct role in the stipulation.

Hernandez finally caught Skipper trying to strike him, lifted him for the Border Toss and threw him from the ring into Senshi. He climbed the cables and took the X to win after approximately 11:55. No pinfall or submission occurred: physically retrieving the suspended prize determined the result. The A- (8.6) reflects a genuinely memorable aerial match, its clear contender consequence and the risks that made the first broadcast contest feel like a major event opener. Watch for Skipper cable neckbreaker and Hernandez decisive power-to-climb sequence.

Eric Young won the Fight for the Right reverse battle royal, a tournament seeding match whose rules were considerably more involved than a normal over-the-top elimination. Sixteen wrestlers started outside the ring; the first eight who could fight their way inside advanced. Junior Fatu, Alex Shelley, Kaz, Robert Roode, Eric Young, Lance Hoyt, Chris Sabin and James Storm reached that phase. The surviving eight then participated in a standard battle royal, losing their places when thrown over the top rope. The confusion made it difficult to judge each wrestler’s performance as one uninterrupted contest, even though several eliminations were straightforward.

The battle royal finally reduced the field to Young and Roode, who had been feuding. Ordinary pinfall or submission rules applied only to that last two-man stage. Roode attempted his Payoff finisher, but Young countered and caught him with a small package for the three count. The victory awarded Young the No. 1 seed in the subsequent Fight for the Right tournament on Impact, not an immediate world-title match or the entire tournament championship. The C (6.0) fits a gimmick that produced an identifiable winner but needed a complicated three-part explanation to justify its placement.

A.J. Styles and Tomko challenged Team Pacman for the TNA World Tag Team Championship at Bound for Glory 2007. NFL cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones was at ringside but unable to wrestle because of his football contract, so Ron Killings had newly introduced Rasheed Lucius "Consequences" Creed as his partner. Styles and Creed opened with quick exchanges, Tomko used his size to drive the new challenger into the corner and Killings launched a dive over the ropes when the action spilled outside. Styles followed with a springboard shooting-star press to the floor, giving the brief title match an unusually athletic middle stretch.

Jones stepped onto the apron holding cash to distract the referee. When Styles grabbed the money and scattered it, Killings rolled him up for a potential pin, but referee Earl Hebner was busy gathering the bills and failed to count promptly. Tomko broke up the opportunity, and Styles and Tomko trapped Killings in an elevated double-team corkscrew neckbreaker to the mat; Tomko pinned RON KILLINGS to win the belts. Wrestling Inc, Wade Keller’s independent contemporaneous PWTorch coverage, Pro Wrestling History, Inside Pulse and later DVD reviews identify Killings as the pinned wrestler. James Caldwell’s separate PWTorch live account names Creed instead; the outlier is retained in research but does not outweigh the repeated first-hand identification of Killings. B- (7.2) credits the real tag-title change but notes that the cash distraction, rather than a sustained championship struggle, created the final opening.

Jay Lethal defended the TNA X Division Championship against Christopher Daniels with a direct contrast between his athletic counterwork and the challenger’s methodical offense. Daniels tried to control the exchanges before the pace accelerated into short sequences of rollups and near falls. He connected with the Best Moonsault Ever, yet Lethal survived. Lethal then went up top and missed his own flying elbow drop, a mistake Daniels hoped to exploit by taking the champion into the corner for another high-impact maneuver. The exchanges kept the championship in doubt without needing a ladder or additional wrestlers.

Daniels attempted an elevated STO, but Lethal countered at the top of the turnbuckle and landed the Lethal Combination, using the backbreaker-to-downward-spiral sequence to pin the challenger. The finish tied together the preceding counter exchanges and left the X Division belt with Lethal. The B+ (8.4) rewards a purposeful singles title bout and a decisive move rather than treating ten minutes as a substitute for real wrestling structure. The finish is worth watching, particularly how the champion counters a dangerous corner setup after the missed elbow.

The Steiner Brothers faced Team 3D in a two-out-of-three-falls tables match, which meant a team needed to put an opponent through a table twice rather than score ordinary pinfalls. The rivals brawled through the spectators before returning to the ring. Team 3D claimed the first fall by driving Rick Steiner through a table with their 3D finisher. Scott Steiner answered with a Frankensteiner that put Brother Ray through another table, tying the match at one fall apiece. The explicit one-all score makes the later interference and unusual table break easier to follow.

Team 3D placed Scott on a table that collapsed under his weight before an opponent could put him through it; officials ruled that did not count as a deciding fall. Motor City Machine Guns members Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley then appeared at ringside to distract Team 3D. Brother Devon accidentally struck Ray with a chair. Scott lifted Devon onto his shoulders and Rick Steiner delivered a top-rope bulldog that sent Devon through a replacement table for the winning second fall, 2-1. The B- (7.2) recognizes a vivid veteran grudge fight but also the interruption and uneven mechanics that complicated its result.

The inaugural TNA Women’s Knockout Championship was decided in a ten-woman Gauntlet for the Gold. Entrants entered at intervals while the ring filled with different styles, and eliminations in the opening portion occurred when a wrestler was thrown over the top rope. Awesome Kong dominated the early arrivals, eliminating several women and powerbombing Christy Hemme, until multiple opponents finally combined to push her out. Gail Kim entered later and survived the crowded final stages; Roxxi Laveaux was the last entrant, and those two were the final women left after Talia Madison and ODB departed.

The last stage was no longer a battle royal. Kim and Roxxi contested a singles fall, in which Kim attempted an octopus hold and Roxxi escaped to the ropes. After an exchange of near falls, Kim countered Roxxi’s attempted clothesline with a fallaway slam and pinned her to become the first Knockouts champion. This was a pin over Roxxi, not a victory achieved by simply throwing the final challenger over the rope. The B (7.8) credits the importance of launching the division’s championship and Kim’s decisive finish while recognizing the gauntlet’s short final singles phase.

Samoa Joe met Christian Cage with Christian’s unbeaten streak of avoiding a TNA pinfall or submission at stake, while Matt Morgan served as the special ringside enforcer. Joe opened with aggressive strikes, knocked Cage over the guardrail and followed with a dive from the ring to the floor. Cage used counterwrestling and a DDT on the arena floor to slow him down, then avoided a Muscle Buster and tried his Unprettier. Joe survived that signature move. The dynamic became more complicated when A.J. Styles and Tomko emerged, threatening to give Cage help that would undercut the competitive result.

Morgan intercepted the would-be helpers and chased them away, leaving the finish between Joe and Cage. Joe caught Christian with the Muscle Buster, then trapped him in a rear naked choke. Cage fought the hold but eventually submitted, ending his unpinned and unsubmitted TNA streak. The A (9.1) recognizes a genuinely physical feud payoff and a historic singles result with the enforcer serving a specific purpose. Joe won by submission, not by pinning Cage after the Muscle Buster; the final hold was the deciding fall-equivalent.

Abyss fought Raven, Rhino and Black Reign in Monster’s Ball, a four-way hardcore contest whose loose weapon rules encouraged the rivals to attack one another all around the arena. Rhino missed a Gore aimed at Abyss near the entrance and crashed through a wall. Raven and Black Reign battled into the stands, and Raven leapt from a balcony onto Abyss lying on a table below. Once the action returned closer to the ring, a shopping cart, a garbage can and other weapons were brought into play. The short running time packed several dangerous-looking spots together without much of a traditional control segment.

James Mitchell appeared with a bag that contained glass and thumbtacks, and Raven scattered the material across the canvas before trying to end the contest with his DDT. Abyss reversed the maneuver and hit the Black Hole Slam on Raven into the glass and tacks, covering Raven for the three count. Abyss was the recorded winner and Raven the wrestler pinned; the other two opponents were neither pinned nor required to submit. The B+ (8.2) recognizes the spectacle and clear hardcore outcome, while acknowledging that weapon spots and a brief duration limit the match’s competitive development.

Sting challenged Kurt Angle for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in the Bound for Glory 2007 main event, with their animosity intensified by Karen Angle and Kevin Nash’s involvement in the title picture. Sting controlled early with power strikes and Stinger Splashes, but Angle countered with German suplexes, the Olympic Slam and ankle-lock attempts. Both men survived several covers. Karen eventually emerged near ringside and Nash also interfered, creating opportunities for Angle while the officiating deteriorated. Sting escaped the ankle lock and sent Angle toward Nash during the confusion.

With the referee distracted and Nash active at ringside, Angle tried to use Sting’s baseball bat. Sting blocked the attempt and struck Angle and Nash with the bat before landing the Scorpion Death Drop on Angle. The referee returned to count the pin, giving Sting the TNA world title after approximately 18:26. That result was a pinfall, not a submission or a clean contest free of outside involvement. The A- (8.7) credits the championship change at the annual marquee show, Sting’s decisive finishing move and a strong live crowd response, but the guest interference diluted the purity of the match’s sporting conclusion.