TNA Bound For Glory 2015

That TNA Bound For Glory even took place this year was a mildly triumphant achievement for a company that has found itself on the brink of collapse more than once in recent times. Earlier this year it was widely reported that Destination America were giving up on Impact Wrestling and that the show would be cancelled as of the end of September, after which months went by without TNA addressing those reports suggesting that their position on the network was precarious. Given that Bound For Glory, the company’s biggest show of the year was set to take place after TNA was reported to be going off the air, many predicted that the show wouldn’t even happen. Just a month ago however, Dixie Carter announced that the company would be staying on Destination America until the end of 2015 and that negotiations were ongoing with Discovery about a renewal (much in the same way as she’d had to do last year at the tail end of the Spike TV deal). But given how much last year’s Bound For Glory had been affected by the company’s preoccupation with sealing themselves a new TV deal, it was believed that even though this year’s event would take place, it would surely take on a similar air of distance from the ongoing television saga.

NXT Takeover: Respect

There was a sense of importance to the main event of NXT Takeover: Respect above and beyond the match itself and the journey of the two characters involved, expertly positioned as they had been by the superb NXT creative team. With the ‘Divas Revolution’ still failing to hit the right notes, 3 months since its inception, and the damage it has already done to the previously unscathed reputations of Charlotte and Becky Lynch, there was a feeling that the pressure was on Bayley and Sasha Banks here to deliver not just for themselves and the show, but almost for all of WWE’s current crop of main roster and aspiring future female stars. The pair had lit up Summer Slam weekend and stolen the entire 3 night sell out bonanza at the Barclays Center for themselves with their emotional and near-perfect collision at the previous NXT special, and now they had been cast in the main event of this one, and in an Iron Man match no less. When they had delivered so emphatically back in August, they did so just as WWE’s main roster seemed to be embracing the fine youthful talent that had made NXT’s women’s division such a joy over the previous year, only for us to find in the weeks that followed that WWE’s plans didn’t add up to a whole lot of anything.

WWE In Your House: Badd Blood

WWE In Your House: Badd Blood is a fascinating snapshot of WWE at a time when everything was about to change in ways that couldn’t have been imagined at the time, mainly due to the fact that things already seemed to be changing in ways nobody could have imagined just a few months before. Going on air a matter of hours after the death of Brian Pillman and with details of what had happened to him still filtering through, there is an atmosphere of shell-shock that grips this show through the disjointed commentary, unconvincing undercard action and underwhelming crowd noise that pervades most of the matches. While it would be churlish to suggest that Pillman’s death was not a massively significant moment (to his peers, his family and to the wrestling world at the time- it was devastating), there is a sense that history remembers the night more for the events that would take place in the ring near the end of the broadcast, than the untimely death of a trailblazer worthy of celebration.