Decided last minute to go to Bound for Glory and ended up pretty happy. It was my first live wrestling event and it's such a different experience than just watching it on tv.
Yesterday around noon was contemplating buying my tickets online and picking them up at will call. Cheapest seats were about $31 after fees and would have put me at stadium style seating on row 21 behind the floor seats. Knowing that TNA doesn't sell out their shows (and being a cheapskate) I decided to just buy them at the venue. When I asked for the cheapest seats the girl at the box office had a slight problem with my purchase. She referred to a co-worker and I overheard the co-worker saying they were instructed to sell seats in a certain area first. This quite didn't click with me until the doors actually opened.
Waiting in line, I noticed more WWE shirts than TNA. I don't know what conclusions can come from that but I just thought it was amusing. I also thought the lines were kind of small for the TNA equivalent of Wrestlemania. Once the doors opened security informed everyone that signs larger than 20 inches were prohibited. While I didn't have a sign, I didn't see anything about this on the TNA, Viejas Arena, or Ticketmaster website. This ended with people trashing their signs. There was already a massive crowd around the merchandise booth and while I would have liked to see what they were selling, I wouldn't have gotten anything.
Upon entering the arena, I then noticed the situation regarding my seating. Instead of paying $31 for a ticket in a row 21 stadium seat, I paid $24.25 for a row 4 stadium seat. I really couldn't believe how close I was considering I paid for the cheapest seat only 2 hours prior to the doors opening. I had to ask an usher if I really was correct on where my seat was. As you've probably already seen on the internet, the side with hard cameras was virtually empty. Everyone was either facing the cameras or facing the ramp leading to the ring head on. I think this is probably normal procedure for TNA and probably WWE as well. Regarding the seating, I'm 99% positive there were seat fillers around. The seat in front of me as well as the two seats to my right probably didn't sell. I saw what looked like college kids getting "kicked out" from their seats by paying patrons move in to those seats. It was during the pre-show or early in the PPV that a man and in a woman in more business attire sat in the seats next to me and the guy was asking people who were walking down the stairs if they wanted to take the empty seat about two or three rows in front of us. The pair later left to be replaced with other seat fillers. I did notice the guy in front of me had "free" stamped on his hand.
As far as the actual PPV, it's such a different experience live. We didn't get Tenay and Taz commentary and we only get one point of view. I don't have any other live wrestling events to compare to, but I didn't get the feeling that this was a celebration of TNA, as Daniels stated. From an aesthetic point of view, it just looked like an episode of Impact you'd catch on Spike. I consider myself a casual wrestling fan who doesn't watch every episode of WWE/TNA but I will read the dirtsheets. I don't get excited about matches on TV but I was shouting and chanting and cheering at times.
There isn't too much that I'll comment about the matches. A big WTF moment was when EGO were eliminated from the tag team gauntlet and when the Bro Mans won the titles. Abyss coming back was pretty awesome. Angle rejecting the HoF was another big WTF. Everyone was standing at the end of the Angle/Roode match because of the "injury." I didn't notice very many people leaving their seats during the Knockouts match as the internet led me to believe. The EC3 match got a boring chant, which it was. I noticed much louder impacts hitting the ring during the Styles/Bully Ray match. I don't know if there is some theater magic going on or they wanted to convey how much the two didn't like each other. After his win, Styles came down the aisle I was closest to and if he wasn't swarmed by a bunch of people I would have gotten a clear view of him.
Overall I was entertained by the event. I only paid $30.25 for a fantastic seat and parking. If TNA were ever to come to town again, I'd definitely go but that doesn't look like it'll happen anytime soon. I'm also more open now the next time WWE comes to San Diego. I'll get around to posting a few pictures whenever I'm not lazy about it.
ed.
