TNA Bound for Glory 2026: A Growing Pains Show

By David Crush | Wrestling | 6 min read

Editorial cartoon: under arena spotlights, a young wrestler holds a gold championship belt over his head in front of a cheering crowd. In the foreground, a grinning man in a navy suit waves into a TV camera, so the camera's screen shows him instead of the champion. In the corner, a hand holds a phone whose screen reads POST DELETED.

Bound for Glory is TNA’s biggest show of the year. This one was Sunday night at the Yuengling Center in Tampa. I wrote up Lockdown back in August, and that show set up this main event.

Overall, I thought it was an entertaining show. I enjoyed it. But it was a bit lacking in the big-show feel. It felt like a growing pains show. We all love youth movements. Some of us don’t always love the growing pains. I give it a 6.5/10. Here is the show as I saw it.

Match of the Night: The Order 4-Way

My favorite match of the night was the four-way for the TNA International Championship: Mustafa Ali defending against Jason Hotch, John Skyler, and Special Agent 0. TNA billed it as the Order 4-Way, after Ali’s stable. This was the best storytelling of the night. I was on the edge of my seat.

Ali hit a 450 through a table onto Special Agent 0 and Tasha Steelz. Hotch superplexed Ali off the steel steps. And then the ending: Ali hit one more 450 on Hotch, went for the cover, and Hotch rolled through it into a roll-up for the title. I loved it. Ali and Hotch were my match of the night at Lockdown too. They keep delivering.

Main Event: Leon Slater vs Nic Nemeth

At Lockdown, Leon Slater gave up the X-Division Championship to challenge Nic Nemeth for the world title here. I was a bit shocked by the ending. I did not expect Slater to win. He kicked out of the Danger Zone, hit the Swanton 450, and became the youngest TNA World Champion of all time.

It was a good match. Honestly, I did not think Slater was ready yet. I am glad he has been given this opportunity, but I think TNA needed to do more to set him up for it. He is young. He is not an established enough name yet. Casual fans likely have no idea who he is.

Still, it was a nice surprise. I am intrigued to see where TNA goes from here with Leon Slater at the helm.

X-Division Championship: Amazing Red Wins the Scramble

The seven-way scramble for the vacant X-Division title was the typical X-Division style match. Amazing Red beat BDE, Cedric Alexander, Fabian Aichner, KC Navarro, Rich Swann, and Ryan Nemeth, the same night he went into the TNA Hall of Fame.

It was fine for what it was. I actually liked seeing Red win. It was a lot of nostalgia for me. But it was the standard TNA X-Division spot fest that we have seen time and time before. For me it brought a feeling of peace and comfort. The X-Division is a big part of how TNA got me in the first place. If you were not around in the mid-2000s, though, this match may feel a bit foreign, or even dated. I enjoyed it.

Call Your Shot Gauntlet

The gauntlet was disappointing. I was expecting more. Frankie Kazarian won it for the third year in a row, last beating Trey Miguel with a roll-up. Kaz three-peating is interesting, but I was expecting more surprises or big spots.

The Matthew Rehwoldt spot was fun but short. It was his first TNA match since 2022. Avery Styles also had his first TNA match here, and it just was not enough of an attraction to carry a 21-person gauntlet. He was a good signing, and I still think so. But you have to build him up. The name will only take you so far. Same problem as Slater.

Max Caster

Now, in typical TNA fashion, some negativity hangs over the entire show.

Max Caster debuted by answering Moose’s open challenge, and I was a huge fan of it. Less than 24 hours later, he was fired over a line in his entrance rap: “I drop bombs, you don’t even have to fly to Riyadh.” That weekend, a missile strike on the airport in Riyadh had killed 12 people and injured more than 300. TNA’s statement said “Making light of violent attacks is wrong,” apologized, and said Caster would no longer be wrestling for the company.

I do not believe TNA’s outrage here. Not only did they do nothing when it happened live. No apology, no hard cut away from the rap. They also promoted it on their social media. Those posts came down Monday. Fightful reported that the line was not scripted or approved. Maybe so. But Max has a history of making these sorts of comments in his raps. AEW suspended him over one in 2021. It is literally what makes Max himself. You never know what he is going to say: the good, the bad, or the indifferent. TNA knew that when they put a microphone in his hand.

So I do not think they were truly offended and caught off guard. I think some people got offended, and TNA panicked and threw Max under the bus. I enjoyed his appearance, and I am quite put off by the way TNA handled this.

Carlos Silva Needs to Stay Off Camera

Which brings me to my next negative, which has only been doused with gasoline by the last one.

Carlos Silva is the president of TNA. He oversaw the Hall of Fame ceremony on camera, and he has made a habit of handing champions their belts after title changes. He has said, “I’m not playing a character. I am the President and these are the things that the President does.” He has also said, “I get flack about it.”

There is no reason for him to be injecting himself on camera like he is. I do not know him personally. I do not know if this is him hogging the spotlight, or if he genuinely wants his talent to feel respected. If it is the second one: pay them. This is not it. No one cares about you. They care about TNA wrestling and the talent who put their bodies on the line. The biggest thing you can do is go backstage and never come out in front of the camera again. Just do not do it. You pay much better people to do these things.

That Familiar TNA Feeling

Unfortunately, I am coming away from this show with that familiar TNA feeling. It was a decent enough show, quickly overshadowed by self-inflicted wounds that TNA cannot seem to avoid. I wrote about the TV-deal side of that back in August. For all the positive and good they do, it feels like they just cannot get out of their own way.

It is a shame, because I love TNA so much. It is my favorite promotion of all time. Too bad. The rap is gone from TNA’s social channels now. The posts promoting it went with it.

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