On October 24, live on Premier Sports in the UK, Impact Wrestling will bring us their biggest event of the year – Bound For Glory.
The event, which their entire calendar is focused on, has, over the years, had some of the very best in professional wrestling compete at. Names such as Kurt Angle, Sting, Christian Cage, Gail Kim and Awesome Kong, have entered Impact’s show of shows.
Some have not only competed at Bound for Glory,but a lot of them have made their TNA/IMPACT debuts there, too.
Here are just a few of the incredibly talented superstars who made their debuts at Bound for Glory.
EC3 – Bound For Glory 2013:
The man who is now controlling his own narrative looked completely different and had a very different demeanor to one we see now, as back in 2013 the nephew of former TNA president finally made his debut at Bound for Glory after a series of vignettes would tease his arrival. Then known as Ethan Carter the third he made his way to the ring and told the world that he’s a Carter and the world needed him. His very first opponent was chose by his Aunt Dixie, Norv Fernum was his name and Carter made extremely light work of him by putting him away in minutes. EC3 would go on to have an undefeated run for a very long time, he would go onto be a two time world champion before getting fired, he made his return to the company at Slammiversary and is scheduled to face Moose in an undisclosed location at the upcoming Bound for Glory event.
Ethan Page – Bound for Glory 2018:
I’m sure many of you are aware that Page had been featured on IMPACT back in 2017 as Lawyer Chandler Park who is the cousin of Joseph Park. However All Ego Ethan Page made his official Impact Wrestling in ring debut at Bound For Glory 2018 when he opened his third eye and teamed with Matt Sydal against the team of Rich Swann and Willie Mack who was also making his official in ring debut for Impact. Page and Sydal would be on the losing end at Bound for Glory, but they would go on to team together up until the week before the Homecoming pay per view event. Page would go on to compete in an ultimate X for the vacant X Division championship, but of course he wouldn’t go on to win his first championship until the night before Slammiversary 2019 where he was joined by his partner Josh Alexander to form The North and become the longest reigning tag champions in history.
Kylie Rae – Bound For Glory 2019:
Smiley Kylie Rae would shock the world as she made her return to pro wrestling on Bound for Glory weekend competing at All Glory. But it would be an even bigger surprise to everyone when her name appeared on the titantron as a surprise entrant in the call your shot gauntlet at Bound for Glory in front of her home crowd in Chicago receiving one of the biggest reactions of the night. She would manage to secure a few eliminations before eventually being eliminated by Mahabali Shera, Rae wouldn’t be seen in an IMPACT ring again until March this year where she announced that she had signed a permanent contract with IMPACT Wrestling to the absolute delight of the IMPACT fans. At Slammiversary Rae became the number one contender for the Knockouts Championship by outlasting every other Knockout to win the Knockouts Gauntlet match. At Bound for Glory on October 24 Rae is scheduled to face Deonna Purrazzo for the Knockouts Championship.
Sami Callihan – Bound For Glory 2017:
Callihan was introduced to the world of Impact Wrestling at Bound for Glory 2017 after helping out the rest of OVE retain the Impact Wrestling World Tag Team championships against LAX. Sami has already had some of the best feuds that Impact Wrestling have seen in a very long time. He’s feuded with Don Callis, Pentagon Jr and Brian Cage. But arguably the feud that gave him the most attention was the brutal feud with Eddie Edwards in which Sami accidentally drove his baseball bat into the eye of Edwards. A moment that would rejuvenate both of their careers. Two years in a row Callihan has won the award for match of the year and feud of the year by the Impact fans, he is also a former World champion. Recently he’s managed to adapt and change his character into something new as the ICU hacker, and although he’s not scheduled for a match at Bound for Glory he will be in the corner of Ken Shamrock who he has once again turned into a machine as he goes up against Eddie Edwards.
Jushin Thunder Liger – Bound For Glory 2005:
In the very first match of the very first event under the Bound For Glory banner we were treated to an instant classic as a then undefeated Samoa Joe would face off against one of the most recognisable and legendary pro wrestlers there has ever been. Due to the working relationship between TNA and New Japan Pro Wrestling that was in place at the time Jushin Thunder Liger made his one and only appearance for TNA and was defeated by the undefeated Samoan Submission Machine. In 2006 Liger would be back in TNA as the captain for Team NJPW in 2006 World X Cup where he would pick up a win over Team Canada’s Petey Williams. Liger was eliminated in X Gauntlet later on that night which led to Team Canada picking up the win. We wouldn’t see Liger in Impact again and the working relationship with NJPW came to an end but he is still a big part of TNA history as one of the first competitors in the first live match at the first Bound For Glory.
This year’s BFG has big shoes to fill after the huge amount of success that Slammiversary had but with the card that has been announced there is absolutely no reason why this year’s show won’t deliver and raise the bar that has been left by the success of Slammiversary. The card this year will feature some of the biggest and best stars that Impact Wrestling has to offer, every single pay per view since the Anthem takeover in 2017 has been incredible and has left the fans with lots to talk about and I see no reason why this show won’t be the same.
So that was five BFG debuts, some of the biggest names in IMPACT today made their official in-ring debuts at Impact Wrestling’s biggest show of the year and have gone on to have huge success, anyone could be next.
You can watch Bound For Glory LIVE on Saturday, October 24 (1am) on Premier Sports in the UK.