2011 On the June 16, 2011, edition of
Impact Wrestling, TNA announced a twelve-man tournament to determine the number one contender for the
TNA World Heavyweight Championship at October's
Bound for Glory. The twelve men faced each other in matches on pay-per-view, television and at untelevised
house show events and were given points based on their performance, with a submission victory giving a wrestler 10 points, a pinfall victory 7, a countout victory 5, a disqualification victory 3 and a draw 2 points, while a disqualification loss will cost a wrestler 10 points. A special
ladder match on the July 21 edition of
Impact Wrestling also gave out 10 points for the winner. The top four wrestlers faced each other in the tournament finals at September's
No Surrender, where
Bully Ray defeated
James Storm via disqualification, while
Bobby Roode defeated
Gunner via submission, giving both 52 points and setting up a tiebreaker match between the two. In the tiebreaker match, Roode defeated Ray via pinfall to win the tournament.
Final standings : These wrestlers qualified for the final matches. : These wrestlers withdrew from the tournament. : Winner of the tournament. 1 Morgan was forced to pull out of the tournament on the July 28 edition of
Impact Wrestling, after tearing his pectoral muscle. 2 Devon, Dinero and Crimson pulled out of the tournament after suffering storyline injuries at the hands of Samoa Joe on the August 18 and 25 editions of
Impact Wrestling.
2012 On the June 14, 2012, episode of
Impact Wrestling, TNA started the second Bound for Glory Series to determine the number one contender for the
TNA World Heavyweight Championship at October's
Bound for Glory. Just like the previous year, the tournament included twelve men, who would be facing each other in matches on pay-per-view, television and at untelevised
house show events and would be given points based on their performance, with a submission victory giving a wrestler 10 points, a pinfall victory 7, a countout victory 5, a disqualification victory 3 and a draw 2 points, while a disqualification loss will cost a wrestler 10 points. An opening
gauntlet match on the June 14 episode of
Impact Wrestling gave out 20 points to the winner. Similarly, two four-way matches and a three-way match contested between the participants at
Hardcore Justice gave 20 points to the three winners, as well as a one off match for regular scoring between Robbie E,Rob Van Dam and AJ Styles as they were unable to wrestle Dinero due to his injury Originally, all matches in the tournament had a ten-minute time limit, but on June 28 the limit was raised to fifteen minutes. However, on the August 16 episode of
Impact Wrestling, the time limit was ignored without explanation for a match between
A.J. Styles and
Christopher Daniels, which lasted 16 minutes and 50 seconds. Unlike the previous year, in the 2012 tournament wrestlers faced each other only once in singles matches (not counting special multi-wrestler matches). As
Mr. Anderson challenged for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship instead of taking part in the opening gauntlet match, he finished the tournament with one match fewer than the other competitors.
Final standings : These wrestlers qualified for the final matches. : These wrestlers withdrew from the tournament. : Winner of the tournament. 1 Dinero was forced to pull out of the tournament on August 12, after suffering a shoulder injury.
2013 On the June 6, 2013, edition of
Impact Wrestling, TNA announced a twelve-man round-robin tournament to determine the number one contender for the
TNA World Heavyweight Championship at October's
Bound for Glory. The twelve men faced each other in matches on pay-per-view, television and at untelevised
house show events and were given points based on their performance, with a submission victory giving a wrestler 10 points, a pinfall victory 7, a countout victory 5, a disqualification victory 3 and a draw 2 points, while a disqualification loss will cost a wrestler 10 points. The time limit increased to 15 minutes. The top four in the standings advanced to a one night mini-tournament at
Impact Wrestling: No Surrender on September 12 in
St. Louis, Missouri that determined the ultimate winner.
Qualifying matches •
Slammiversary XI, June 2 •
Jay Bradley defeated
Sam Shaw in the Gut Check Tournament finals. • '''
Impact Wrestling, June 6 ''' •
Hernandez defeated
Chavo Guerrero •
Samoa Joe defeated
Robbie E • '''
Impact Wrestling, June 13 ''' •
Joseph Park defeated
Crimson •
Magnus defeated
Matt Morgan,
Rob Terry, and
Kenny King •
Bad Influence (
Christopher Daniels and
Kazarian) defeated
James Storm and
Gunner •
Austin Aries defeated
Eric Young •
Mr. Anderson won a
battle royal which also included
Devon,
D.O.C.,
Knux,
Wes Brisco, and
Garett Bischoff •
A.J. Styles defeated
Kurt Angle •
Bobby Roode and
Jeff Hardy received byes due to being past BFG Series winners On the July 11 episode of
Impact Wrestling (taped June 30), the 12 BFG Series competitors were entered in a series of "
Joker's Wild" tag team matches where the wrestlers were paired up at random. The winners of the tag team matches then advanced to a six-man
Gauntlet for the Gold match where the winner received 25 points. That match was won by Magnus. Both the tag team matches and gauntlet (for those who advanced) are included in the number of matches each competitor had. On August 15 as part of
Impact Wrestling: Hardcore Justice there were three special four-way matches - a ladder match, a table match, and a street fight - each worth 20 points (won by Kazarian, Bobby Roode, and Joseph Park respectively). The street fight was aired on the August 22 broadcast. On the August 29 episode of
Impact Wrestling TNA GM
Hulk Hogan announced that all 12 BFG Series participants would compete in a final
Gauntlet for the Gold match (which aired on September 5) for 20 points. The top point scorer then had his choice of opponent from the rest of the top four for the tournament semi-finals at
Impact Wrestling: No Surrender. The match was won by A.J. Styles. Styles then chose Austin Aries as his semifinal opponent, leaving Bobby Roode vs Magnus as the other semifinal match. On September 12, 2013 as part of
Impact Wrestling: No Surrender, A.J. Styles defeated Austin Aries in the first semi-final match, while Magnus defeated Bobby Roode in the other semi-final. In the main event of the broadcast, Styles defeated Magnus by pinfall after hitting him with the Spiral Tap to win the 2013 BFG Series.
Final standings : These wrestlers qualified for the final matches. : Winner of the tournament
2016 On July 8, TNA's announced that Impact Wrestling will begin airing at 8pm EST on Thursday nights on July 21, it was also revealed that July 21 episode will feature the start of the "Bound for Glory Playoff" to determine a new #1 contender to the
TNA World Heavyweight Championship at
Bound for Glory. ==Bound for Glory Series/Playoff winner's championship matches==