TNA Impact Wrestling Hit List: The Bound For Glory Series begins, Samoa Joe vs. A.J. Styles, Jeff Hardy vs. Bobby Roode, Sting introduces the first member of his new Main Event Mafia. Brooke Hogan speech

By Jason Powell

TNA Impact Wrestling Hits

Bound For Glory Series: The annual series got off to a strong start with the opening segment setting the stage and good focus throughout the night with six BFG Series matches. I like the way Hulk Hogan introduced Bobby Roode and Jeff Hardy as past winners of the BFG Series who went on to win the TNA Championship. Here's hoping TNA will be consistent with the focus on the BFG Series going forward. How about showing the updated standings immediately following each match? I'd still rather see an annual tournament than a point series, but I was impressed by night one of the BFG Series.

Samoa Joe vs. A.J. Styles: A good time limit draw with a flat finish. I thought they would have been a little more creative with that with both men trading near falls or submissions down the stretch. That said, it's always entertaining when these two work a match together, and hopefully the draw here is something they play up when/if these two meet again in the semifinals or, better yet, the finals of the BFG Series. TNA should add a countdown clock for each BFG Series match. It was totally anticlimactic for Christy Hemme to chime in with a six-second countdown while nothing of consequence was happening during the match. I did enjoy the post match shot that Styles delivered.

Jeff Hardy and Bobby Roode: Another well wrestled BFG Series match. TNA needs to get Roode going so I was surprised to see him lose clean. I may have sat on this match for several weeks and taken the same draw approach we saw with Joe and Styles.

Austin Aries vs. Jay Bradley: The match quality gets the Hit, but I hope creative has some plan to make Bradley look like more than just a fall guy in the BFG Series. Aries gave him some offense, but the fans haven't been given much incentive to take Bradley seriously.

Christopher Daniels vs. Hernandez: I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome of this match. It's not that I dislike Hernandez. Rather, as much as I enjoy Daniels and Kazarian, they don't feel like real players in this BFG Series, so getting Daniels a win here should help change that perception for at least a week. Meanwhile, I don't think Hernandez should be in the final four, so I wouldn't mind seeing him lose early and make a big run late that comes up just shy of making the final four.

Magnus vs. Kazarian: This goes against what I just wrote about Daniels and Kazarian needing early wins, but I really liked the way Magnus jumped out to the BFG Series lead by getting the submission win. They are playing him up as a future star and one can only assume he is going to be taken care of in the tournament.

TNA Impact Wrestling Misses

State of the Knockouts: The best part of the segment was Eric Young's comedy antics. It's hard enough to take Brooke Hogan seriously as the division's authority figure when her only qualification is being Hulk Hogan's daughter, but it was felt obnoxious to hear her tell Velvet Sky how proud of her she was. I don't think it was intended to be anything more than a compliment, yet I couldn't shake the feeling of how silly it sounded for an unqualified authority figure to praise the former Knockouts Champion in a way that made it seem like that compliment actually packs a punch. Can we just get to the part where she rejoins Bully Ray and they take away her control of the division? Can she stop banging the podium when she talks? Are we really supposed to have any respect for Brooke when she obeys her father's demands like a 12 year-old?

Sting and Kurt Angle reform Main Event Mafia: Sting can't challenge for the TNA Title and I consider that a positive. However, he's still feuding with the TNA Champion. I just assumed he would feud with Matt Morgan since he beat him and they didn't include Morgan in the BFG Series, but now we're getting the return of the Main Event Mafia because no one came out to help Sting when TNA creative decided to book a shitty and unacceptable pay-per-view finish, er, Aces & 8's interfered in his title match at Slammiversary. So who is the first person to join Sting in the new Main Event Mafia? Kurt Angle, one of the guys who was backstage at Slammiversary and never bothered to help Sting at Slammiversary. I would hope they will at least take a moment to explain it away by saying Angle had already left the building for the second annual pub crawl or whatever the honoree does once his entry in the TNA Hall of Fame is announced at Slammiversary.

Mr. Anderson vs. Joseph Park: This was fine as far as killing some television time goes, but I am going to look at most of the BFG Series matches with these two as just that - time killers. Sure, they could turn Anderson babyface by having him win the Series and refuse to give up his TNA Title shot, but I don't see it happening. Creative obviously has a soft spot for the Park character, but even they have to know that Park winning this series and challenging for the TNA Title at their biggest show of the year is really pushing it. That said, I must admit that I have some mild curiosity to see what they do with Park is working against Jeff Hardy and the other babyface series entrants.