Bound For Glory, one of TNA Wrestling’s longest and most celebrated pay per views in it’s history (outside of Slammiversary) and at one point the company’s equivalent to WWE’s Wrestlemania.

For as long as this event has existed, Bound For Glory has given fans fanastic matches, surreal in-ring action and some of the best moments in all of professional wrestling…However there have been more than a few moments where TNA’s biggest PPV could’ve seen a match, the wrestlers or even the event itself come close to castophere.

Whilst BFG is known for some of the best TNA has to offer from an in-ring standpoint, the following entries prove that even the best of shows are no stranger to flirting with certain danger.

#10. The Compromised Rebel

From the Summer of 2020 until October of 2023, Heath Slater (or just Heath in IMPACT) was a fixture of TNA’s mid card and tag division along with tag partner and former Smackdown Tag Team Champion, Rhino with the pairing taking part in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet Match at BFG 2020.

The duo eliminated five other competitors, however things took a turn for the worse when at some point in the match, Heath suffered an injury and thus was eliminated; At first some believed the former Nexus member had suffered an knee and leg injury, but instead it was either a tear in his groin or abdomen according to PWInsider.

While it’s unclear at what point in the match the injury occurred, but what is clear is that it came at an unfortunate time as Heath was involved in a storyline where he if or Rhino won the Gauntlet then the former 3MB man would get a contract, but if they didn’t win, then Rhino would be fired.

Thankfully, Rhino was able to win thus saving his job and getting Heath a contract with the company…Sadly it wouldn’t be until September of 2021 when Heath returned to the ring from injury.

#9. All Rave, No Reward

The late Jimmy Rave might not never have won a World or X Division title during his runs with TNA in the 2000’s and 2010’s, but he his fondly remembered for his contributions as a wrestler for his work in TNA, Ring of Honor and the independent circuit.

In the opening contest for Bound For Glory 2008, Rave as well as a host of other X Division wrestlers competed in the first and only Steel Asylum match in BFG history which the goal of the match being to escape the structure from top.

During the melee, Rave took a move from fellow wrestler, Johnny Devine in what I can only describe as an inverted powerslam into and driver which legitimately messed up Jimmy’s neck and took him out for the rest of match.

Much like the previously mentioned entry about Heath and his injury, Rave would recover and in quick fashion as he would return to the ring a month later wrestling for TNA’s Turning Point PPV.

#8. The Hulkster’s Back

A lot can be said about Hulk Hogan’s time in TNA, much of which would take way too long to mention here but what is for certain is that Hogan’s three appearances at Bound For Glory, whether his helping to clean house of the Ace n’ Eights at BFG 2012 or his face turn following his surprisingly good match with Sting at BFG 2011 or this moment from Bound For Glory 2010, the night Jeff Hardy Turned Heel.

For those that don’t know: the main event of Bound For Glory 2010 saw Mr. Anderson, Jeff Hardy and Kurt Angle compete in a triple threat match for the vacant TNA World Heavyweight Championship with the finish seeing Eric Bischoff looking to get involved when the Hulkster arrived and looked poised to stop him until Jeff Hardy got involved and sudden swerved the fans by aligning himself with Hogan and Bischoff with all three turning heel on that night.

However this moment almost didn’t happen…or at least not the way it originally did, as Hogan was dealing with back problems in September of 2010 which required surgery; The causing of this injury for the Hulkster…Collecting seashells, No seriously I 100% mean that.

According to TMZ, Hogan was collecting shells on the beach with his then girlfriend when Hulk’s history of back problems and constant bending down resurfaced and was soon taken to hospital.

Fortunately Hogan (crutches and all) was able to make it for the show closing moment.

#7. No Smiley Kylie

Although her run in IMPACT from 2019 and again from March until October of 2020 was certainly brief, Kylie Rae looked set to become the next leading figure in the Knockouts Division until real life concerns to those plans to rest.

Going into Bound For Glory 2020, the semi main event was to see Deonna Purrazzo defend her Knockouts Championship against Kylie Rae in a highly anticipated match, unfortunately that didn’t happen as Kylie no showed the building and thus was unable to compete.

Rae would mention on her patron page not long after this whole ordeal that she was suffering from mental health problems and thus was not well enough to compete.

This led to the company, hastily bringing back Su Yung (friend to Kylie by way of her alter ago, Susie) to take on Purrazzo in a solid match and become the new Knockouts Champion.

Rae would no resurface in IMPACT again as her contract was bought out by the NWA and no wrestles mainly on the independent scene.

#6. Walking The Planks

Before aligning themselves with Chris Jericho in All Wrestling, Santana and Ortiz aka the new LAX teamed up with manager, Konnan to take on the original LAX aka Homicide and Hernandez and their manager, Eddie Kingston in a Concrete Jungle Death Match with all the ring canvas removed leaving the wooden boards completely exposed.

If this sounds dangerous and risky as all hell…That’s because it was; According to the Kris Levin (the referee for this match), the boards were moving around and could potentially lead to one or more of the wrestlers suffering a career threatening injury and as such he had to find a way to hold the boards in tact while also describing it as “The Most Challenging Bout of my career”.

The match somehow kept together with Santana and Ortiz picking up the win and unsurprisingly the company has never done another one of these matches ever again.

#5. The Dropkick Heard Around the World

We go from an injury that occurred in the opening contest of BFG 2008 to a potential injury that took place in the main event.

The final bout between Sting and Samoa Joe for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship is one of greatest main events in the history of the event, however the noteriaty could’ve turned in infamy has a moment go awry.

During the match, both men are brawling amongst the crowd when Samoa Joe heads to the top of the stairs and hit one of the biggest and risky dropkicks of all time.

This led to many people to believe that Samoa Joe hurt his tailbone and that it was an idiotic decision to do such a move from that position…Of course, this story was never disproven and thus the Internet Wrestling Community ran wild with this assumption for years.

It wasn’t until April of 2021 when the ‘Samoan Submission Machine’ revealed on Twitter/X that this whole idea of him getting injured from that move has been nothing but a myth that he wanted to see develop just for laughs.

While we are all lucky that Samoa Joe didn’t come close to a serious injury with this moment…The same can’t be said for some other entries still on this list.

#4. Show Me The Money

It’s no secret that the early to mid 2010’s were not a good time for TNA Wrestling’s image as a number of problems led the company to go from competition to the WWE to the laughing stock of the wrestling world to almost being bought out by Vince McMahon.

In 2016, the future of the company was in doubt as years of finanical woes began to really take it’s toll and reports surfaced that WWE were looking to buy the promotion and more specifically the tape library thus putting an end to TNA Wrestling as we know it at the time.

Fortunately, high ranking executives of Anthem Sports and Entertainment: Len Asper and Ed Nordholm came in a bought stock in promotion thus allowing that year’s Bound For Glory to go on without issue.

By January of 2017, Anthem would have majority ownership of the company and while may have taken sometime to get there, TNA would recover and experience the boom period it currently has today.

#3. The World’s Most Dangerous Dive

When the announcement was made that former UFC Fighter and pro wrestler, Ken Shamrock would be returning to TNA for first time since 2004 and competing at Bound For Glory, well the wrestling world was in complete shock.

Shamrock’s return to TNA would see him battle Moose in the semi main event of Bound For Glory 2019 and no less than a few minutes into that bout tragedy was miraculously avoided.

During the match Ken goes for a dive over the ropes and nearly paralyzes himself if hadn’t been for Moose catching Shamrock at the last possible second.

The rest of the match was alright and the former Intercontinental Champion would continue to be a presence in the company until 2021, but it things could’ve turned out much worse if Moose wasn’t in position to catch his opponent.

#2. Too Close to Danger

Christ, the 2019 BFG was a dangerous one as Ken Shamrock nearly injured himself off of a dive, but several minutes before that another disaster was inches away from happening.

During a five person ladder match for the X Division Championship, the recently signed super heavyweight Acey Romero was climbing the ladder when Tessa Blanchard pushed Romero and the ladder out of the ring.

While Acey would land onto the table set up outside, the ladder nearly went over the guardrail where it could’ve hit several fans in the front and led to some serious amount of lawsuits for the company.

No one was hurt (except maybe for Romero), but mercifully no damage occurred…Which sadly can’t be said with our final entry.

#1. A Fallen Angel

The Ultimate X match from Bound For Glory 2009 is perhaps the best opening contest in the show’s history but as spectular this match was it also nearly could’ve turned life threatening with one infamous spot.

At one point in the match, Daniels and the masked man of mystery, Suicide are on top of the ring ropes making the red X when Suicide attempts a move that take both him and Daniels down resulting in a horrific spot that had fans chants ‘Holy Shit’.

The story has that Suicide (played by Frankie Kazarian) was suppose to hit a move called a ‘Flatliner’ on Daniels off the ropes all the way down to the ring, but either due to not have enough space on the ropes or Daniels under rotating, the spot looked gnarly with it later coming out that Kazarian/Suicide had to use his own body to shield Daniels from suffering a broken neck or worse.

Daniels would end up slightly seperating his shoulder and suffering a bruise to his neck while Kaz also suffered injuries, but were undisclosed…Everyone remembers this match and the bump itself, but it almost could have been remembered for a completely different reason.

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