For the 14th time, IMPACT proudly presents Bound For Glory LIVE from New York City presented by COMDA.com this Sunday on PPV and FiteTV! Given the long and storied history of the event, we crunched the numbers to take a more analytical look at the history of IMPACT’s biggest event of the year.
Bound For Glory began in October of 2005 from Orlando, FL. Since then 13 events have aired from all over the US and the world. Including New York this Sunday, Bound For Glory has emanated from 3 countries and 13 different cities ranging from Detroit in 2006 to San Diego in 2013 to Ottawa in 2017 and as far afield as Tokyo, Japan as IMPACT partnered with Wrestle-1 to co-promote the event from the legendary Kōrakuen Hall in 2014. Orlando is the only city to host Bound For Glory twice – in 2005 and 2016.
There have been 109 matches in the history of the event featuring 168 different wrestlers. “The Monster” Abyss holds the record for most matches at a Bound For Glory event with 12 – making it all the more fitting that he is inducted into the IMPACT Hall of Fame over Bound For Glory weekend this year – Samoa Joe follows closely second with 11 matches in the history of the event, with Bobby Roode, James Storm, AJ Styles all on 10 matches on IMPACT’s biggest stage. While Abyss has made more overall appearances, Samoa Joe holds the record for most consecutive Bound For Glory matches – having competed on 10 straight events.
There is a six way tie for most victories between Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, AJ Styles, Abyss, Rhino and Gail Kim – all of whom hold 5 victories at Bound For Glory. Gail Kim however deserves special mention – she has never lost at Bound For Glory not to mention she captured the Knockouts Championship four times out of those five matches, successfully defending the title in the fifth match. “The Icon” Sting also had something of a Bound For Glory hot streak – he successfully won the World Championship three years in a row at the event from 2006 to 2008 – dethroning Jeff Jarrett, Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe.
Let’s dig deeper into championships. The World Championship has been defended 12 times at Bound For Glory. Of those 12 the champion has only retained the belt 3 times – 75% of the time the World Championship has changed hands at Bound For Glory. That is particularly notable for current defending champion Austin Aries, who is part of that 75% having lost the World Championship to Jeff Hardy in 2012. However, one of the only 3 successful BFG title defenses saw Johnny IMPACT on the losing end – having been defeated last year by Eli Drake in controversial fashion. How will it play out tomorrow at Bound For Glory?
The X-Division Championship tells a very different story as of the 13 championship matches at Bound For Glory the championship has only changed hands 3 times – or 23% of the time. This Sunday will be the first time the X-Division Championship hasn’t been defended at the event – Brian Cage is busy trying to take out oVe in Six Man Tag Team warfare.
Odds are even on the tag team title side of things – 12 title defenses: 6 successful, 6 instances of championships changing hands. Since the Knockouts Championship was introduced in 2007 it has changed hands 7 times in 11 Championship matches – or more simply the champion has lost 64% of the time. Does that mean history favors Taya Valkyrie on Sunday?
Through the years Bound For Glory has featured 21 hours, 59 minutes and 3 seconds of wrestling. The longest match was the AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels 30 Minute Iron Man match in 2005, the shortest being Sarita and Taylor Wilde defeating Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky in only 2:58 in 2009. From Sonjay Dutt winning the first match in 2005 to Eli Drake winning the main event in 2017, there have been countless classic Bound For Glory matches.
This year King, Sami Callihan, Brian Cage, Fenix, Pentagon Jr, Ethan Page, Rich Swann, Willie Mack, Tessa Blanchard, Taya Valkyrie, and Su Yung will all be making their first in-ring appearance at Bound For Glory. Records are made to be broken, history and statistics fade away in the moment – only one thing matters: who is better on the biggest stage of the year?
New records will be made, stars will be born, legacies defined – memories to last a lifetime. Don’t miss Bound For Glory this Sunday!
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