Bound for Glory 2017 live results: Eli Drake vs. Johnny Impact

Preview by Joseph Currier

Impact Wrestling returns to pay-per-view with their biggest show of the year tonight as the Aberdeen Pavilion in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada hosts Bound for Glory 2017. The venue will also be home to five days of Impact television tapings this week.

Four title matches are set for the Bound for Glory card, topped by Eli Drake defending his Global Championship against Johnny Impact. Former champion Alberto El Patron is also expected to be on the show in some form.

In the night’s other title matches, Sienna will defend her Knockouts Championship against Gail Kim and Allie, the tag titles will be on the line in a 5150 street fight between OVE and LAX, and a six-way match for X Division gold has Trevor Lee defending against Matt Sydal, Dezmond Xavier, Sonjay Dutt, Garza Jr., and Petey Williams.

Moose’s feud with Bobby Lashley and American Top Team will continue as he & Stephan Bonnar face Lashley & King Mo in Six Sides of Steel, Abyss will take on Grado in a Monster’s Ball match, and Ethan Carter III, James Storm & Eddie Edwards team against El Hijo Del Fantasma, Pagano & Texano.

We’re looking for your thoughts on this show, as well as UFC 217 and New Japan Power Struggle for the weekend, so you can send a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

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The show opened with Alberto El Patron showing up and them asking what is he going to be doing here tonight. 

X-DIVISION CHAMPION TREVOR LEE VS. DEZMOND XAVIER VS. GARZA JR. VS. SONJAY DUTT VS. MATT SYDAL VS.  PETEY WILLIAMS   

They announced this as “Lucha style” meaning no tags but two people legal. However, it’s not an elimination match but the first pin or submission wins. Because they are in Canada, Williams got a huge reaction and came out to “O’ Canada” with the flag.

This was a good match with lots of high flying. Not everything was super crisp but it was a fun match that the crowd liked. Highlights included Xavier doing a Space Flying Tiger Drop, Williams doing a pescado into a huracanrana, and a triple tope spot. Sydal looked good. Garza’s shoulder is messed up from surgery and he clearly wasn’t ready to be back.

The finish saw Williams finally hit the Canadian Destroyer (which the match built to) on Xavier but Lee threw Williams out of the ring and stole the pin.

TYSON DUX VS. TAIJI ISHIMORI

They called Dux the hottest free agent in Canada. NOAH Chairman Masayuki Uchida came out with Ishimori. They pushed that the winner would be in line for a shot at Lee. This was a short match that was more like a TV enhancement match. Ishimori won ith a 450, so they are probably doing Lee vs. Ishimori at TV Monday or later in the week.

Grado saw Abyss, called him Joseph, and said we don’t need to do this. Abyss said, “There’s no Joseph here but you’re about to feel pain and suffering and carnage” and said he’s about to be exported. (Actually, deported). Grado stood up to him, said it’s a different Grado and called him Joseph again.

ALBERTO EL PATRON PROMO

Alberto el Patron is now out and wants to give us a history lesson. He got a good reaction but not overwhelming. He’s doing an anti-authority gimmick. He talked about what the company, the cowards, and the perros did to him. They screwed him and destroyed him because they have no cajones. He called them backstabbers. They believed all the lies instead of reading the reports because “as the reports will tell you, I didn’t do anything but they suspended me and stopped paying me.” The announcers are acting like it’s a shoot and talked about pulling the mic.

Alberto said they stripped him of the title, that the current champion is fake and he has to beat him to be the real champion. He said this place didn’t care about his family, his young children, and said there’s a loser who wanted to spread lies and stuff that never happened. He said after showing that he didn’t do anything, none of them called or texted him and nobody came to his house. He vowed to do something tonight and said the place was filled with losers, cowards and backstabbers.

He went to Jeremy Borash and said he thought they were friends and asked him where he was three months ago. He said JB never called or texted him. Fans wanted him to put Borash through a table. He told Borash to tell the people if he called. Borash said he never called, never texted, and apologized. He and Borash shook hands and Borash acted all nervous. Alberto said he was going to make a statement. JB said they should talk about this tonight, but then Alberto did nothing and said, “Maybe not”. He just said, “Tonight would be amazing” and then he left.

GRADO VS. ABYSS IN A MONSTER’S BALL MATCH WHERE GRADO’S VISA IS AT STAKE

This was a mess. They did the thumbtacks and barbed wire boards including Grado splashing on board with Abyss in the middle, making a barbed wire board sandwich. At one point, Van Ness interfered and gave Grado a low blow for not marrying her. Van Ness got Janice the nail board and then the lights went out. Rosemary came out and attacked Van Ness and saved Grado by blowing mist at Van Ness. Abyss was about to chokeslam Rosemary, but they were a team before and she stroked his forehead.  She went to blow mist at Grado who moved, and Abyss got the mist in the eyes.  Abyss was blinded and chokeslammed Rosemary on thumbtacks instead. Grado then schoolboyed Abyss for a three count and the bell rang.  Borash, who knew it wasn’t the right finish, said he kicked out at two and the timekeeper rang the bell early. Abyss won with a black hole slam on a barbed wire board right afterward.

TEAM IMPACT (ETHAN CARTER III & JAMES STORM & EDDIE EDWARDS)  VS. TEAM AAA (TEXANO & EL HIJO DEL FANTASMA & PAGANO)

Dorian Roldan was out with Team AAA. They mentioned Edwards was going to defend the GHC title on Impact Thursday night, so that’s being taped tomorrow.

This was a long match that was really sloppy a lot of the way. Pagano isn’t good at all and a lot of the other stuff looked mistimed, but they did a lot of big moves and the crowd was into the Impact vs. outsiders idea. Storm pinned Pagano with a superkick that didn’t land solid after ECIII used low blows on Pagano & Texano at the same time that led to a double One Percenter. Early on they teased that ECIII wouldn’t tag in but later he did, and at the end, he was all in on the team and celebrated with Storm. Edwards took a package tombstone from Fantasma and was taken out, although he was celebrating, to set up Storm’s win.  

TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS OVE VS. LAX FOR THE TAG TITLES IN A 5150 STREET FIGHT

The rules basically were that it’s a gang war so everyone can legally interfere. 

OVE retained the titles in a big brawl with all the weapons used again. The finish saw Sami Callihan throw powder in Konnan’s eyes and then throw Santana off the top rope onto a ladder bridge. He then gave Ortiz a piledriver off the apron through a table and both Crist Brothers pinned Ortiz to win. They buried LAX under a Mexican flag when it was over. 

Before the match, Callihan had supposedly hit someone with a pipe and the idea was that it was Homicide backstage buried under a Mexican flag and taken out. Most likely, it was just some extra. At one point, Santana did a New Jack dive on Dave off a light stand through a table after Ortiz had powerbomed Jake off the stage through a table. There was a chair shot to the head as well. These guys took a ton of punishment to get the match over. There was some sloppiness in the sense this wouldn’t be a good match on a major league show but it worked here and the crowd liked it.

KNOCKOUTS CHAMPION SIENNA VS. GAIL KIM VS. ALLIE

Anthony Carelli (Santino Marella) was shown at ringside. They called him Anthony Carelli and Josh Matthews said he’s known him so long he calls him Boris (his OVW name a long time ago).

The match was sloppy. The whole story was about Kim trying to win the title in her final Bound for Glory, which she did, pinning Sienna with the Eat Defeat off the middle rope. When the match was over, Borash said it was Gail’s final match and that was was retiring on top. I guess she’ll retire with the title on TV. The crowd like Kim so the story worked, but it’s not like they went crazy for it.    

Jimmy Jacobs showed up which is interesting that he was on both ROH and Impact. They said how Jacobs doesn’t work here. He said, “I don’t work here? That’s what you think.”

BOBBY LASHLEY & KING MO LAWAL VS. STEPHAN BONNAR & MOOSE

They showed UFC welterweight Colby Covington backstage with Dan Lambert and a couple of other guys as ATT. 

Lashley pinned Moose with a spear after Moose was distracted by Covington. It was a numbers game as there were four ATT guys who interfered and were in the cage so it was 6-on-2 at the end.  Moose and Lashley carried it and would break it up whenever Mo squared off with Bonnar.  When Mo and Bonnar finally went at it after several teases, they did basic MMA stuff and it was okay.  It was more a story match. I wouldn’t call it good or bad but it wasn’t as if the angle was super hot here. 

Moose and Mo ended up going out the door. Lambert then threw Mo in and all the ATT guys (including Lambert) got in the cage and Lambert locked the cage door with Moose out of the cage. Bonnar had a quick spot of cleaning house until he was beaten down. The big spot saw Moose climb the cage and do a crossbody off the top of the cage onto everyone. Moose also did a tree slam off the top rope on John Harnett, a smaller guy who is a manager at ATT who took a good bump.

GLOBAL CHAMPION ELI DRAKE VS. JOHNNY IMPACT

Chris Adonis is in Drake’s corner.  

They were having a good match, but it was nowhere near world title heat.  The finish was overbooked and turned out to be all about Alberto.  They did a ton of near falls. Impact had it won but Adonis interfered. Impact laid out Adonis with a belt shot that Adonis had brought in. Impact later hit Starship Pain and Alberto el Patron showed up and pulled the ref out of the ring. Impact went for a dive on Alberto, who moved, and Impact wiped out the ref. Alberto then nailed Drake with a belt shot, acting like he didn’t care who won. Then, he nailed Impact with a hard unprotected chair shot to the head.  Alberto then put Drake on top of Impact and the ref counted the pin with Drake retaining the title. 

This was a good match but the interference in so many matches earlier made this more annoying than heated by the time they got here.