Happy Wednesday Everyone!
This week we’re going back to the theme of booking an event that never actually happened in the form of Bound For Glory 2003. NWA-TNA at the time were trying to build to a big Autumn showdown between Jeff Jarrett and Hulk Hogan in what would be the company’s first ever 3 hour pay per view event. I believe the 30th of November was the planned date in question.
Sadly for NWA-TNA, Hogan ended up having surgery on his knee and the whole thing fell apart, with Bound for Glory not becoming a regular stop on the pay per view calendar until 2005. In this scenario however, The Hulkster doesn’t need to take time off and Bound For Glory 2003 can still go ahead, with Jarrett and Hogan closing out the event.
However, let’s see what I can come up with in order to put on a good show for 3 hours. NWA-TNA had some good wrestlers on the roster at the time and some strong storytellers in the form of Raven, so there’s a decent level of talent to work with.
Let’s book NWA-TNA Bound For Glory 2003!
Opening Match
X Division International Invitational Six Man Tag
Team Canada (Bobby Roode, Eric Young and Petey Williams) Vs Team UK (Doug Williams, Jack Xavier and James Tighe)
10 Minutes
The X Division is a good selling point for the company so we’ll open the show with an example of what you can get from it. Every team has the more grounded serious wrestler (Roode/D. Williams), the wacky character wrestler (Young/Xavier) and the exciting quick paced wrestler (P. Williams/Tighe) thus highlighting the whole “No Weight Limits, just No Limits” mentality the division was going for. We’ll put the UK over here because I’m writing this and I’m in a bad mood that England didn’t win the World Cup so I’m going to book something for me! Williams can pin Young with The Chaos Theory as it’s a cool looking move and it should illicit a pop.
Match Two
Guest Referee: Erik Watts
Joe E. Legend w/ Kevin Northcutt Vs D-Lo Brown
7 Minutes
Legend and Northcutt were a Heel tag team and had run afoul of D-Lo a few times, whilst Watts was the troubleshooting babyface authority figure at the time and had his run-in’s with the Heels as well. Thus, Watts is the referee here to keep the Heels in line, thus allowing D-Lo to fight on an even playing field and pick up the victory. Legend and Brown are both experienced workers so this should be a solid outing and Watts being the referee adds a bit of spice to proceedings.
Match Three
Sonny Siaki and Ekmo Fatu Vs BG James and Ron Killings w/ Konnan
8 Minutes
Siaki and Fatu were a solid mid-card Heel tag team whilst James, Killings and Konnan were a popular babyface act, so this should be a decent under-card bout. We’ll put the babyfaces over here in order to build to them getting a Tag Title shot.
Match Four
Abyss Vs AJ Styles
15 Minutes
Styles had recently been the NWA World Champion and had gone babyface once Jarrett won it back. Here we’ll have him against Abyss to work the Monster Vs High Flyer bout. These two usually had good chemistry as opponents and this match will be a good way to show any new viewers that Styles is capable of mixing it up with the bigger guys due to his high working ability. Abyss will eventually pick up the victory but Styles will push him super close and it will be presented as a dramatic nail-biting battle in the closing stages.
Match Five
Raven’s Rules
The New Church (Shane Douglas, Vampiro and Ulf Herman) w/ Father James Mitchell Vs The Gathering (Raven, CM Punk and Julio Dinero)
12 Minutes
Raven had been feuding with Mitchell and his cronies for a big chunk of 2003, so we finally bring that feud to an end here. Herman wasn’t a regular member of the Heel team but he was a physically imposing guy who had experience of working in hardcore matches and I think he’d fit the overall “feel” of the group as a hired goon, so I think he’d slot in here quite nicely. Raven and his guys get the win and then Mitchell gets destroyed as well in order to write him out for a bit and allow everyone to move onto new storylines and feuds.
Match Six
Ultimate X for the TNA World X Division Title
Champ: Michael Shane w/ Traci Brooks Vs Christopher Daniels w/ Veronica Stevens Vs PCO Vs Chris Vs Sonjay Dutt Vs Low-Ki
13 Minutes
For those who haven’t seen an Ultimate X match before, there are cables put across the far turnbuckles in order to create an X above the ring and the Title belt is then hung in the middle of the X. No ladders are allowed and you have to use the cables to claim the belt. PCO had actually been in NWA-TNA for a bit as the mysterious masked guy only known as “X”, but I don’t really see the point in that when PCO was already awesome just being PCO so why would you need the wacky gimmick? He’s perhaps the wildest inclusion here due to his size, but he also has a penchant for high spots and crazy bumps so I think he’d fit in pretty well. Brooks and Stevens can both get involved here as well as we make the match as anarchic and exciting as possible. Eventually Sabin will pick up the win to get his belt back after losing it to Shane in the original Ultimate X match.
Semi-Main
NWA World Tag Team Titles
Champs: Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger w/ Glenn Gilberti Vs America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm) w/ Terry Funk
20 Minutes
Gilberti had been the difference maker in some matches between the two teams over the course of their feud, so AMW will bring in Funk to offset the weasel manager of the Heels and eventually prevail to become the new Champions. On the big pay per view setting with the special guest manager for the evening I’m sure AMW can be depended upon for a great match, and hopefully Funk will get a good pop if he clobbers Gilberti in the closing stages.
Main Event
NWA World Title
Champ: Jeff Jarrett Vs Hulk Hogan
15 Minutes
I think we really only have one option here and that’s to put Hogan over, mostly because I don’t think he’ll agree to put Jarrett over his first night in and a DQ will see the belt change hands as NWA-TNA had that ruling in place. I think the match itself will hardly be a classic but Jarrett is a good old school bumping Memphis Heel and I’m sure he’d be able to find a way to work around any of Hogan’s lingering health issues in order to make the bout watchable. Hogan had a decent battle with Masahiro Chono at the Tokyo Dome not too long before this, so if his body could hold up enough here then he could probably produce something whilst working with Jarrett also. I’m thinking the crowd will be into the match at the very least due to it being Hogan’s in-ring debut, meaning any lack of quality when it comes to the wrestling itself could potentially be offset by the crowd reactions. Anyway, Hogan drops the Leg Drop of DOOM and then air guitars the heck out of the NWA Title to send us out.
In Conclusion
I think a good idea for NWA-TNA to do in 2004 would be to keep these Sunday 3 hour pay per views to maybe 5-6 dates a year so that they feel special. Obviously the weekly Wednesday pay per views are an absolute killer and they’d need to get themselves a proper TV deal. Hogan probably wouldn’t help loads with that but you never know I guess. It would certainly give them a better chance with Hogan at the top instead of Jarrett.
I think going on from here you need to rematch Jarrett and Hogan, possibly in something like February 2004, with Hogan likely going over again. If Hogan isn’t going over then you’ll need a darn good reason why if you’re going to subject the fan base to more Jeff Jarrett as NWA Champ. Someone like Abyss would need to cost Hogan, or maybe you turn Raven Heel and have him cost Hogan because Hogan is standing in the way of Raven’s “destiny” to win the Title?
Hogan Vs Abyss as the next feud for Hogan once the Jarrett one is over would seem to make sense, or maybe you really start pushing Ekmo hard and go with that, although Ekmo wasn’t the most gentle of workers so that one might not work for The Hulkster, Brother. I don’t think AJ Styles Vs Hulk Hogan is really going to work, so Styles is kind of boned on that one, but Styles reigniting the feud with Jarrett or possibly starting up his tag team with D-Lo Brown again might have potential until he can go after the belt again.
Abyss or Raven beating Hogan for the belt due to shenanigans of some kind leading to Styles then feuding over the belt with the new Champion whilst Hogan feuds with someone like Ekmo or Herman might not be the worst idea. Basically we want Hogan in there with good workers who can carry him or big monsters that he can work the usual Hogan Formula™ match with. AJ Styles is a very good worker, but if he’s wrestling a bigger guy then I think that bigger guy is going to need more mobility than Hogan in 03/04 was going to have and Hogan probably isn’t going to give a guy Styles’ size that much anyway, so I think it’s best to keep them apart.
Let me know what you think of this and perhaps suggest some ideas for your own as to what NWA-TNA would need to do if this show were to take place.
All the best to you and take care tell next time!