DVD Reviews
DVD Review: TNA Bound For Glory 2005 featuring Liger vs. Joe, Ultimate X, Style vs. Daniels, Tito Ortiz, and More
By James Bullock
May 10, 2008 - 11:02 AM

Welcome to another DVD review. Today we look at TNA’s original version of the World Series, Super Bowl, and Wrestlemania, Bound For Glory 2005. As you know, my reviews focus on the most important thing any buyer is thinking about: is this DVD Worth My Money. Will TNA’s biggest show of 2005 be worth it?

We open up with an amazing video package, narrated by that James Earl Jones sounding dude in a dashiki, who goes over the biggest pay-per-view highlights up to this point. He proclaimed that tonight, every TNA competitor will have, “the night of their lives.”

Bound For Glory

10/23/2005

Orlando, FL

Samoa Joe vs. Jushin “Thunder” Liger

For the first time in his career, Joe shows us his dancing skills with his family, the fire dancers of Samoa. The fans give it a huge pop. Liger gets an even bigger pop, with the crowd giving him streamers galore. Definitely a big match feel as Simon Inoki, son of Antonio Inoki, is shown. Joe uses his power to keep the highflying Liger grounded. But even with that, Liger takes to the sky. Even after all the knee surgeries, and the wear and tear with age, Jushin’s moves are still some of the crispest in wrestling. Joe was able to hit all of his big moves, including that always-impressive snap powerslam. Liger made a nice comeback, stunning Joe with dropkicks and cross body blocks. Just as Liger headed to the top for another attack, Joe caught him with a modified enzuguri, putting Liger in prime position for the Muscle Buster. Joe followed up with the Kokina Clutch, choking out the Junior Heavyweight legend in short order.

The highlights of the TNA fan fest are shown. Tito Ortiz was a part of it, too. In a shocking moment, cameras show two guys who won a talent search for the next TNA wrestlers. One of the guys looked like TNA’s Dixie Carter. I’m serious, makeup and everything.

Backstage is Simon Diamond running down the Diamonds In The Rough of Elix Skipper and David Young. Simon wants them to prove why, “We are diamonds in the rough.” Being diamonds in the rough is great and all, but nobody wears the diamonds until they are roughed out.

Diamonds In The Rough vs. Sonny Siaki, Apolo, Shark Boy

Sonny looks like he just stepped out of one of those “You Just Got Served” movies. The Diamonds actually look dominant most of the match. Apolo becomes the house of fire after a tag, but it’s Sonny who succumbs to the Spine Buster of Young, giving the Diamonds a win on PPV. I believe that was their first and last.

We get highlights of Sonjay Dutt’s win on the preshow (which is an extra on this DVD). Next is Raven, who calls out Zbyszko, asking when will he get to NWA title rematch. Rhino uses this to get some momentum heading into Monster’s Ball, Goring Raven follower Cassidy O’ Riley after running down Raven.

Shane Douglas is with the NWA champ, J-E-Double F J-A-Double R-E-Double T. That’s Double J, Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett runs down his former opponent, Kevin Nash, who went to the hospital for heart troubles. The Champ runs down the list of possible replacements. Jeff Hardy? “Screw Jeff Hardy.” Rhino? “Screw Rhino.” Abyss? “Screw Abyss.” Sabu? “Screw you, Sabu.” Raven? “Screw you, Raven.” Before the screwing can continue, Monty Brown confronts the champ, waiting for Jeff to tell him to screw. Monty sniffs Jeff a couple of times before telling him that Jarrett, and Brown’s opponent for the evening (Lance Hoyt) will feel the POOOUUUNCE!...period. I miss Monty’s zaniness.

Monty Brown vs. Lance Hoyt

This was during the height of Hoytamania. Remember that? Yeah, nor do I. This was just a big man brawl, with no man getting a solid advantage. Then Hoyt decided to become a high flyer, using planchas, and a very nice moonsault. But Monty just stuck to his power game, using the Alpha Bomb (how in the world Brown got Hoyt up like that is just amazing) to set up Big Lance for, wait for it, wait for it…THE POOOOUUUUNCE, and the easy pin. The period at the end of the sentence counts for the “period.”

Footage of TNA in Bombay, India is shown to promote the travels of all the TNA fans to Bound For Glory. Wait, I thought you went to them, not the other way around.

The Franchise is backstage with the 3Live Kru. BG James does his little rap until Kip James interrupts, offering his services for the evening. The Truth and BG like the idea of Kip playing backup, but Konnan isn’t too fond of the Smoking Gun.

Team Canada w/Scott D’ Amore vs. 3Live Kru

Kru starts off the match, doing all their little comedy stuff. I must say one of the funniest things Konnan ever came up with was the shoe attack where he takes off a shoe, and just whips it at someone. The someone tonight was Eric Young, who flew over the top after being hit like he was shot. Kip James takes a spot on the entrance ramp to watch the festivities as BG and Killings do the Kid N’ Play dance before stomping on Bobby Roode. Team Canada had to steal the victory by way of a hockey stick a top the head of BG. BG’s head must be hard as a rock as it just snapped that stick with ease. Kip couldn’t watch as his friend got beat down, pulling BG to safety. With Konnan held hostage by Team Canada, Kip is given the chance to wrap a chair around Konnan’s head. Instead, Kip refuses to swerve his 3LK hopeful crew.

Douglas is in the office of Larry Zbyszko, trying to find out who will face Jeff Jarrett in main event. Larry has no idea, but promises to tell Shane first.

We get a hype video for the upcoming Ultimate X match between Chris Sabin, Petey Williams, and Matt Bentley. Sabin puts over his undefeated streak in Ultimate X matches as his lucky charm. Matt, on the other hand, has the most experience between the three, and says that will win out. Petey has one thing no one else has: the Canadian Destroyer.

Ultimate X match: Chris Sabin vs. Petey Williams w/Scott D’ Amore vs. Matt Bentley w/Traci Brooks

I forgot about how bad the Bentley Bounce was. Not as bad as the Alex Wright dance, but almost as bad. Hopefully this match isn’t as bad. The first few minutes of the match involved some feeling out moments before going for the giant red “X” hanging by the cables. In an attempt to help her man, Traci uses her breasts to distract Petey. And by using her breasts, I mean Petey gets his face pressed into him. Lucky sonamagun. Sabin, angry that his face is not imprinted in Ms. Brooks’ chest, pulls Matt down from the cables. This causes Matt to fall from the cables, dropping the big elbow on Petey. Sabin follows up by whipping Matt into the turnbuckles before Awesome bombing Petey into him. Matt comes back, using a combination DDT/stunner before going for the X. With Sabin on the top rope, Matt uses his legs, while hanging from the cables, to wrap around Sabin’s head in hopes of pushing Sabin away. This didn’t help Bentley as Sabin jumped off, power bombing Matt to the mat! Sabin looked to have a clear shot at the X when Matt speared Sabin off the cables. When the bodies hit the mat, the big red X actually falls from the cables, to the mat. Petey wanted to grab it, and call it a night, but the ref said the X must be re-hung. The fans really don’t like this at all. Chris, Matt, and Petey fight on the floor to give the ring crew time to put the X back up. When the action returned to the ring, Matt and Sabin do a leg joust while hanging from the cables. Petey pulled both men down after noticing the X is still hanging loosely. Petey just drops to his knees, allowing the X falls into his hands. Instead of going with rules of a man climbing up and grabbing the X, the referee declared Petey Williams the winner. Sabin and Matt storm from ringside in a huff. Petey has an “oh, man, this is gonna get ugly backstage,” look on his face as Bentley throws stuff around ringside. 

We get a recap of the shocking union of AMW and Jeff Jarrett to bring NWA gold into the fold of the TNA cornerstones.

NWA Tag Team title: AMW (champs) vs. The Naturals

The match starts off as a brawl. In an impressive spot, Chase Stevens missed a baseball slide on James Storm, who tries to skin the cat back into the ring. Before Storm can get all the way over, Andy Douglas catches Storm, pushing him back down, into the arms of Stevens, who powerbombed Storm into the guardrail. Gail Kim becomes the savior for AMW, helping Storm bust Douglas wide open. With Andy bloodied and battered, Stevens has to fight the match on his own. Chris Harris decided to go for that infamous bag of powder, only to get blinded himself, and lay out his partner on accident. The Naturals took this advantage, using AMW’s Death Sentence finisher on Harris. But “The Wildcat,” showing the ineffectiveness of his own finish, kicked out before the three count. Gail Kim interfered again, leading Douglas to get handcuffed to the guardrail. Stevens, as hard as he tried, couldn’t stop the numbers game, getting drilled with the beer bottle and the Death Sentence to keep the belts on AMW. With Stevens down, AMW execute Douglas with a chair. Now, that’s not nice.

Before we get to the next match, Shane Douglas gets a word from James Mitchell, representing Abyss. Mitchell talks about Abyss’ training for this match, which was just another version of a hermit’s life…just with a few more thumbtacks.

Monster’s Ball match: Rhino vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Sabu vs. Abyss

Anything goes in this match. Rhino brought a trash can full of instruments of destruction. Abyss had his chain, and a bag of thumbtacks. Sabu came to the ring with just a chair. Jeff Hardy entered the arena…covered in glow in the dark paint. Tell me who has the advantage in this one with those entrances. Sabu immediately leveled Abyss with a flying chair before taking to the sky on Rhino. Jeff followed Sabu’s thought, sailing over the top onto Abyss. The action spilled into the crowd, with Jeff diving off the high barricades. The crimson began to flow as Sabu and Rhino ripped each other’s heads apart. Jeff wanted to work with Sabu, asking him to do Poetry in Motion. Instead, Sabu used an Arabian face buster on the Charismatic Enigma. Just as Sabu got up, Rhino went crazy on everyone with a Singapore cane. Abyss and Jeff’s fight took them to the entrance, just below the top of it. On opposite sides of the arena, Abyss and Sabu set up tables. Sabu was able to leg drop Rhino through the table he set up, but Abyss couldn’t get Jeff onto his. Jeff knocked Abyss onto the tables with several chair shots to the noggin before using a ladder to climb up the entrance. Hardy, a good eighteen feet in the air, some twenty feet away from the tabled Abyss, jumps off the top of the entrance, driving Abyss through the tables with the Swanton Bomb, onto concrete! And you wonder why Jeff has to take drugs. Back in the ring, Sabu caused Rhino to Gore a chair in the corner before triple jump moonsaulting him. Somehow, Abyss made it back to the ring before Jeff did. Before Abyss could unleash the thumbtacks, Rhino Gored Abyss through another table. Rhino turned to Jeff Hardy, hitting the piledriver off the middle rope on the Rainbow Warrior to win this brutal match.

After a couple of replays of the Monster’s Ball moments, we shoot to the back with Larry Z and Shane Douglas, who announces tonight, it’ll be a Ten Man Gauntlet match to determine the #1 contender for Jeff Jarrett’s main event defense tonight. Double J don’t like this one bit. Jarrett complains that TNA management is out to get him…even though he runs the management. Oh, we’re not supposed to know about that. Um…yeah, Jeff is getting screwed!

The ending of that epic 30-minute Ironman match between AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels from Against All Odds back in February is shown before we move to tonight’s Ironman 2.

X Division title, 30-minute Ironman match: AJ Styles (champ) vs. Christopher Daniels

Instead of the usual feeling out process that you see in most Ironman matches, Daniels immediately jumps the champ. The action is fast and furious until it spills into the floor. After taking the challenger over the guardrail, AJ dropped Daniels with a springboard plancha. AJ, uncharacteristically, tried to slow the pace down, wearing out Daniels with side headlocks. Thinking that Daniels was down, AJ headed to the top for a big move. “The Fallen Angel” was ready, catching AJ before tossing him across the ring with the T-Bone suplex at the nineteen-minute mark. Daniels focused on he head and neck of AJ, locking in the Koji clutch, the same move that made the ending of the first Ironman match classic. Somehow, AJ powered out of the hold, but the damage had been done. Even when AJ made a comeback, he couldn’t follow up with a pin. By the halfway point, Styles had the momentum in his favor, trying to hit big move after big move to hold Daniels down for the first fall. But those big moves cost the champ as he fell into the Death Valley driver after attempting that springboard forearm. Daniels was able to hit the Best Moonsault Ever for a shocking two count. The shocked look on the challenger’s face told the story as he pulled AJ to his feet. We were over 2/3’s through the time limit when both men took to the air. Daniels’ tope didn’t hold AJ down long enough to capitalize, giving AJ the chance to drop the Fallen Angel with the suicide plancha. With less than three minutes remaining, both men went for broke, trying to roll their opponent up for three seconds. The fans in the Impact Zone were split in their cheers for both men in the last minute of the match. Somehow AJ was able to turn the Angel’s Wings finisher into the Styles Clash with ten seconds left on the clock. The referee’s hand hit the mat for the three count when the clock counted down to two seconds. The bell sounded, giving AJ the victory with the score 1-0. Excellent contest.

Ten Man #1 Contender Gauntlet match: Abyss, Rhino, Monty Brown, Lance Hoyt, AJ Styles, Ron Killings, Kip James, Samoa Joe, Sabu, and Jeff Hardy

This is a Royal Rumble style match. The only difference is the final two survivors can win by pin fall, submission, or elimination via the top rope. Samoa Joe is the first entrant in this match, and the fans are hot for him. The Truth was entrant number two; leading to an interesting confrontation between TNA’s past and future. Also interesting because Killings decides to make fun of Joe’s dance from earlier. Joe don’t likey, nearly crushing Killings’ face with the face wash/running boot combo. Somehow, Killings flipped up to the top, blockbusting Joe. Truth, too busy talking with the fans, forgot he had to dump Joe over the top. Sabu was next in, with chair in hand. Sabu, still visibly hurt from Monster’s Ball, dominated until Lance Hoyt came out as entrant four. Samoa Joe was able to get Sabu down before hearing Abyss’ music to signal the big man as the next entrant. The fans started to buzz as Abyss and Joe got face to face for the first time. A knife-edge chop exchange ensued, ending with Abyss grabbing Joe by the throat. Instead of being chokeslammed, Joe choked Abyss back. Killings saw his moment, breaking up this little scuffle. Jeff Hardy made his way to the ring as we passed the halfway point. Jeff shouldn’t even been out there. The man could barely roll into the ring, let alone fight. Sabu was shown, bleeding in the corner. Monty Brown ran to the ring, Pouncing the death defying Sabu. When “The Alpha Male” turned around, Jeff went to take him over the top with a cross body block. In one of the most awkward eliminations ever, Brown accidentally dumps Hardy to the floor, into elimination. That wasn’t the awkward part. The messed up part was Monty then leaping over the top rope, eliminating himself. It looked like Monty was supposed to get eliminated in the cross body collision, forgot, then remembered, jumping over the top in the process. Rhino, bloodied and bruised, came out next as James Mitchell helped his pet monster hang on. Rhino immediately eliminated Hoyt. Kip James, with messed up hair cut and all, entered next, as Sabu tumbled to the floor, into elimination. To the shock of many, a half crippled AJ Styles was the last entrant. So that means either Joe, Killings, Abyss, Rhino, Kip, or AJ will take on Jeff Jarrett for the NWA title. Kip was the first of the six to be eliminated…by himself. Kip lost his balance, falling off the apron after Abyss tossed him over the top. Kip actually stayed around, trying to save The Truth. But Joe didn’t allow it, kicking Killings to the floor. As Joe and AJ tried to eliminate each other, Abyss snuck up on them, tossing both men over. The fans chanted, “Bulls***” over Joe not winning as they were behind him hard during this match. Abyss spun around, right into the Gore before being tossed over, giving Rhino the shot at the NWA title.

NWA title: Jeff Jarrett (champ) vs. Rhino w/special guest ref Tito Ortiz

Double J brings down a casket, promising to bury someone tonight before jumping Rhino as the bloodied Manbeast struggled to get up. This is Rhino’s third match tonight, and the fans realized he needed all the support he could get. The King of The Mountain stayed on top of Rhino, making sure he couldn’t get something going. Rhino used Jarrett’s cockiness against him, turning a flying clothesline into an inverted atomic drop. This brought out Gail Kim, who Tito psychically escorted from ringside. With Tito’s back to the ring, Jarrett crowned Rhino with the guitar. Jarrett couldn’t believe it when Rhino kicked out of his follow up pin. AMW ran to ringside, with Storm distracting Ortiz as Harris handed Jarrett another guitar. Before Jarrett could make the homerun swing, Rhino exploded off the mat, Goring Jarrett to become the new NWA champion.

The fans jumped to the feet, happy that someone finally ended the tyranny of Double J. But the celebration was quickly cut short as AMW jumped Rhino. 3Live Kru ran out to help Rhino, but they were cut off by Team Canada. Team Canada helped put Rhino in the casket, giving Jarrett the chance to pose with Rhino’s belt. Just as Jarrett stood a top the casket, Team 3D made a grand return, with Eric Young getting caught in 3D before getting thrown into the casket. The new World champ stood on the casket as Jarrett looked on in shock and horror.

Is It Worth Your Money: Well, TNA certainly lived up to their promise of making this show their equivalent to Wrestlemania. They had dream matches, incredible rematches, and the always nice babyface walking out with the gold to cap off the show. That’s not to say this show isn’t without its flaws. Joe vs. Liger was a little too short for the epic these two could’ve put on. Ultimate X, while good, pales in comparison to its predecessors. And a couple of the matches (both six man tags) could’ve been cut out for more time for the matches listed above. That’s not to say we didn’t see some memorable matches. Monster’s Ball was easily one of the best hardcore matches in TNA history. Everyone got a chance to shine, and for a mindless weapons encounter, it was thoroughly entertaining. The Ironman rematch for the X title was a marvelous effort. A lot of people down this one compared to the first. But if you watch both back to back, you can see the two different, while concurrent, stories being told. A must see for TNA fans, and wrestling fans in general. Rhino’s huge win was shocking, and the fans loved it. Wish they didn’t take the belt off of him so quickly, but for Bound For Glory, it was a perfect night for the Manbeast. The good certainly outweighs the bad (very little bad), and the great certainly outweighs the poor (outside of A-1 on my TV screen, there was no poor). Bound For Glory 2005 Is Worth Your Money.

To order this DVD, check out tnawrestling.com, or any major video retailers

If you have a show you’d like me to review, e-mail me at fasjab@aol.com , or look me up on the WWI forums under “jakeb”