On Thursday March 14, TNA will officially start the “Impact on the Road” era. The first stop is the Sears Centre in Chicago. Actually the Sears Centre is in Hoffman Estates which is more than 30 minutes away from Chicago, but it’s close enough. Many of the fans will probably be from the Chicagoland area so I have no problem with TNA changing the city name of Hoffman Estates for one night. This is not the first time TNA cameras has comes to the Sears Centre. Bound for Glory IV was in the Sears Centre so I decided to review the main event from that Pay-Per-View.

The Facts:

  • Bound for Glory IV happened on October 12, 2008 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The Sears Centre is 28 minutes away by car from the Allstate Arena where WWE visits when they come to Chicago.
  • The attendance at Bound for Glory IV was 5,000 and it was the largest TNA attendance at the time.
  • Bound for Glory is TNA’s biggest Pay-Per-View of the year.
  • Samoa Joe’s TNA World Heavyweight Championship was on the line in this match.
  • Samoa Joe once competed in a match against Essa Rios on WWF Jakked. Sting has never been in the WWF or WWE.
  • Sting joined TNA in 2003. Samoa Joe joined TNA in 2005.
  • The announcers of this match were Mike Tenay & Don West.
  • The time length of the match was 16:54.

The Match:

Samoa Joe flips Sting out of the ring. Suicide dive by Joe onto Sting. Joe and Sting go into the crowd. They fight up the steps in one of the aisles. Joe jumps from a luxury box and drop kicks Sting on the steps. That spot was really good and something I have never seen before. It was very dangerous and they could have gotten seriously hurt. More fighting in the crowd. Finally, they are back to ringside. They were in the crowd for almost six minutes. Joe throws Sting into the ring. Sting fights back with a DDT and a frog splash off the tope rope. Joe regains control with a power bomb and he applies a submission hold. Sting gets to the ropes. Joe with the snap slam. Sting kicks out of a pin. Stinger Splash by Sting in the corner. Musclebuster by Sting and Joe gets up immediately. Scorpion Death Drop (inverted DDT) by Joe and Sting gets up immediately. These guys have forgotten to sell. Another Stinger Splash by Sting in the corner, but then Joe takes control of the match. Kevin Nash comes out and watches the match from ringside. Nash looks older than he does now. It’s a good thing WWE forces him to dye his hair whenever he is on WWE TV. Joe talks to the referee and Sting goes for his bat, but Nash takes it away from him. Clothesline by Joe. Pin attempt and Sting kicks out.  Joe runs into the ropes and Nash hits Joe with the bat! What?! I’m confused. Nash took away Sting’s bat so Sting couldn’t hit Joe and then Nash hit Joe with that same bat. That doesn’t make sense at all. Sting hits the Scorpion Death Drop and pins Joe. Sting is the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion.

Winner: Sting

Rating: **3/4

This match is not as good as I was expecting it to be. I can’t call it a good match because it was mostly boring. The fighting in the crowd stuff was good, but they were in the crowd for too long. The match was close to 17 minutes and the fighting in the crowd was close to six minutes so that means the time spent in the ring was only 11 minutes for a main event match. Something that bothered me was that I had no idea who was the face and who was the heel. I thought Sting was the heel and Joe was the face, but later I started thinking that Joe was the heel. The Chicago crowd didn’t help because they cheer for and boo at whoever they want. Then Nash comes out and he takes Sting’s bat away from him so I’m thinking Nash is Joe’s friend, but then later, Nash hits Joe with the bat. So is Nash a heel or is he a face? That stuff was too confusing and there weren’t many entertaining parts of the match. It wasn’t a horrible match, but I expected more from a main event match at TNA’s biggest PPV of the year. If you are interested in seeing what the Sears Centre looks like during a TNA event, click HERE to watch the match.

While I’m talking about TNA, I want to mention that I will be attending TNA’s first Impact show after saying goodbye to Orlando. I am planning to write a fan report of the event and that should be posted a few days after Impact airs.

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