By Ryan Kester

Aces and Eights

I've said this several times before, but Aces and Eights jumped the shark at Bound For Glory. It's only gotten worse sense then with the group routinely getting beat down or held off by just a few members of TNA's roster. They simply don't feel like the threat they once did.

I did enjoy the work that went into the Luke Gallows reveal tonight. TNA hyped that up well throughout the show, and I like the bookend storytelling of Park starting the show wanting a piece of the group to him being the man to make the reveal at the end of the show. I hope that more members will be revealed in the coming weeks to take the focus off of Devon and back onto the group as a whole.

If I had one complaint about the execution of the reveal, it would be the way the announcers handled it. I completely understand not being able to use the name gallows ran with in WWE, but they had to have been able to come up with a name before he was revealed. Tenay sounded ridiculous saying that everyone knows who Gallows is without actually coming up with a name to tell the viewing audience.

Austin Aries and Jeff Hardy

This feud just is not clicking with me. I enjoy the wrestling we have been getting, but between Hardy's aloof and odd character to Aries' complete abandoning of the character that got him over, I simply have little to be interested in. Am I looking forward to a ladder match between these two men? Certainly. Do I care about the story involved or this feud at all once a title is retrieved from atop a ladder? No.

I'm not sure where the fault lies in Aries' heel turn and character shift, but so much of his act nowadays screams "CM Punk Lite" that it takes me out of the show. Aries was so solid before his latest turn and his character felt entirely his own. Now he comes off as heavily scripted and I find myself unable to get into what he is doing because of that.

James Storm vs. Bobby Roode vs. AJ Styles

I like the idea of a triple threat number one contender match, but they tend to telegraph that TNA isn't going to move the belt in the championship match. If they were, then they would need to get the rematch out of the way before worrying about number-one contenders.

Beyond the need for a new challenger, this feels like the standard TNA holding pattern for their midcard talent with the twist being that the loser is likely going to be the man that wins next year's Bound For Glory Series. I really can't think of any other reason why one of these men would be forced to wait a year before being in the title picture, but it will be interesting to see where TNA goes with this idea.

Overall Show

Once again, TNA put on a fairly solid show that was let down by a frantic pace, a lack of focus on any particular angle, and a creative direction that, personally speaking, holds little appeal.

If you have any questions or comments or just wish to chat with a fellow wrestling fan about whatever, then feel free to email me at ryan.kester@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter at @TheRyanKester.

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