He defeated Eric Young for the championship tonight at Bound for Glory. The finish had Swann escape from a tree of woe position in the corner, cutting off Young with a cutter. He followed with the lethal injection then finished off Young with the phoenix splash for the win.
This marks Swann’s first reign with the championship. Young held the title for 70 days, defeating Eddie Edwards on the August 15, 2020 edition of Impact Wrestling.
The feud started when Young was eliminated from a five way match for the World title at Slammiversary by Swann. That caused Young to viciously attack Swann’s leg, which had been previously injured. Swann intended to retire following an in-ring speech on Impact, but Young once again viciously attacked Swann’s leg. Swann soon resurfaced and attacked Young, setting up the Bound for Glory match.
Two other titles changed hands tonight: The North regained the Impact Tag Team titles, while Su Yung regained the Knockouts title.
The Impact Tag Team and Knockouts titles changed hands tonight at Bound for Glory.
Su Yung won the Knockouts championship for the second time from Deonna Purrazzo after hitting the panic switch in a back and forth match. The match was originally advertised as Kylie Rae vs. Purrazzo. Before the match, Purrazzo cut a promo saying that Rae had no showed and issued an open challenge, which Yung accepted. No one, including the announcers, discussed Rae’s status.
Purazzo held the title for 98 days, defeating Jordynne Grace at Slammiversary on July 18.
The North regained the Impact Tag Team titles, defeating the Motor City Machine Guns, Gallows & Anderson, and Ace Austin and Mad Man Fulton in a four way match.
As the Machine Guns made their entrance, The North jumped the team, with Josh Alexander laying out Alex Shelley with a piledriver on the entrance stage, taking him out of the match. Sabin opted to wrestle on his own.
The finish had Anderson rolling up Alexander, but Alexander kicked out, sending Anderson into the ropes. Page took one of the titles and smashed it into Anderson, allowing Alexander to cover for the win.
MCMG won the titles for the second time on the July 19, 2020 Impact tapings, defeating The North, who previously held them for 380 days.
On Saturday’s Bound For Glory, it was announced that Impact Wrestling is reviving the Knockouts Tag Team Titles with the first champions to be crowned at January’s Hard To Kill pay-per-view.
No amount of teams or other details were announced for the tournament which will play out on their weekly TV.
The female-held tag team gold was first established in 2009 in then-TNA. Sarita and Taylor Wilde defeated The Beautiful People (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) in the finals of an eight-team tournament.
The titles were held by nine different teams before being vacated in June 2013 with Eric Young and ODB as the final champions. It was deactivated a month later due to both interest and not having enough talent to contribute to the division.
The news was one of two noteworthy occurrences for the women’s division Saturday as Deonna Purrazzo lost her Knockouts Championship to Su Yung after original challenger Kylie Rae didn’t appear.
Impact’s biggest show of the year, Bound for Glory, takes place tonight.
All of Impact’s titles will be on the line. Eric Young will defend the Impact World title against Rich Swann. Their feud dates back to Slammiversary, when a returning Young was pinned by Swann during an elimination match for the World title. Since then, Young has relentlessly attacked Swann’s leg, nearly causing Swann to retire. Yet, Swann has managed to come back and looks to gain a measure of revenge tonight by winning the World title.
Deonna Purrazzo will defend the Impact Knockouts title against Kylie Rae. Purrazzo has also irked Rae’s friend Susie in recent weeks, who has shown signs of reverting back to her alter ego, Su Yung.
Other title matches include The Motor City Machine Guns defending the Impact World Tag Team titles in a fatal four way against The Good Brothers, The North, and Ace Austin & Madman Fulton. A six way intergender scramble match for the X Division title will also take place, which will include champion Rohit Raju, Chris Bey, Jordynne Grace, TJP, Trey Miguel, and Willie Mack.
The card rounds out with EC3 vs. Moose, Eddie Edwards vs. Ken Shamrock, and an intergender Call Your Shot gauntlet match where the winner will receive a championship match of their choice.
There will be a pre-show event starting at 7 pm Eastern called Countdown to Glory. The Rascalz vs. the Deaners has been set. The Impact Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Ken Shamrock will also take place.
Join us for live coverage starting tonight at 7 pm Eastern.
**********
Pre-show report by Bryan Rose:
Video messages from Bret Hart, Mick Foley, Chael Sonnen, Ariel Helwani, and Bas Rutten were shown, congratulating Shamrock on his Hall of Fame induction.
The Deaners (Cody Deaner and Cousin Jake defeated The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz)
The Deaners won following the T2G on Dez.
Ken Shamrock’s Impact Hall of Fame induction
The Rock said that he’s shared the ring with many people, but one man he owes debt and gratitude to is Ken Shamrock. At a time where he was cutting his teeth as a heel in WWE, he needed the best hero or badass, and that was Shamrock. He could have refused working with this kid, but he did. He called Ken a founding member of the UFC and the Attitude Era. He said he was extremely proud of Ken and thanked him for the memories.
Matt Striker then introduced Shamrock. He called this a journey and a lot of people got him here to this goal. He thanked Nelson Royal, who helped him get into professional wrestling. He thanked Vince McMahon for giving him the opportunity to enter the WWE at a time when wrestling was hot.
He thanked Bret Hart and The Rock for helping him build his character, and said he appreciated Rock’s speech. He then thanked his family and the fans all across the world. He finished the speech by thanking the fans as without them, athletes can’t do what they do.
**********
Don Callis and Josh Matthews on the commentary table.
X-Division Champion Rohit Raju defeated TJP, Willie Mack, Jordynne Grace, Chris Bey, and Trey Miguel in a scramble match
Contrary to the name of the match, this was one fall to the finish.
Early on, the story of the match was that everyone hates Raju and went after him, but in the pursuit, everyone ended up taking each other out, and meanwhile, Raju just dodged around and hid outside the ring.
TJP, Bey, and Miguel started with a fast pace sequence of counters and reversals, followed by one between Mack and Miguel. In that same vein, Grace and Mack had a powerhouse sequence with shoulder blocks.
TJP had a spot where he locked 4 wrestlers in different submissions at one point, only for Raju to break it all up one by one, taking advantage that none could defend themselves. Raju dominated the ring for a couple of minutes afterwards. He worked the most on Grace until Mack jumped in and took him out, and they went back to all focusing on Raju, taking turns to strike him.
We got everyone taking turns to take each other out in the ring, and into a sequence with everyone hitting dives one at a time. The highlight being Bey dropping kicking Miguel, who was on TJP’s shoulders, and onto the crowd on the floor.
We got a tower of doom spot with Miguel on top, Bey and TJP in the middle, Grace pulling them all from a tree of woe position, only for Raju to jump in, hit a foot stomp on Grace for a two count.
Everyone took turns hitting their signature moves on the prior, ending with TJP coming close to submitting Miguel if not for Grace, that broke it up. Raju took the opportunity, took out Grace to the floor, allowed TJP to hit the Mamba splash, and right before the pin, Raju jumped in, hit a knee on TJP and stole the pin on Miguel. Good action all around, but considerably slower than the usual X-Division match.
– We got a skit from the Rosemary and Bravo wedding, deciding to get married in the ring. Jacobs interrupted them to tell them to get ready for the Call Your Shot Gauntlet. Rhino and Heath hyped each other out.
This is live and we got the Rhino and Heath spot stopped by the director and restarted.
We got a video package introducing the participants, stipulations, and storylines heading into the Call Your Shot Gauntlet.
Rhino pinned Sami Callihan to win the Call Your Shot Gauntlet
Winner of the match gets a shot at any championship they desire, but in addition, Rhino and Heath’s jobs are on the line if neither can win the gauntlet, but in return, if either does, Heath gets a contract with Impact Wrestling.
Opening spots went to Rhino, who lost the 5-way match this last Tuesday’s Impact, and the returning Daivari, who was ripped. 3rd spot went to Larry D from XXXL, who went straight for Rhino, teaming up with Daivari. Crazzy Steve came in as #4. At #5, the other half of XXXL, Acey Romero, came in and started dominating the ring as a team.
Tenille Dashwood came in as number 6, as soon as she noticed that it was all giants in the ring, she sent Kaleb with a K inside instead. Havok came in next, and she wasn’t afraid to mix it up, got in and had a couple of hoss spots with the men, eliminating Kaleb quickly. Tenille got in the ring either way.
Brian Myers entered at #8, eliminated Crazzy Steve with a judo toss over the ropes. Swoggle returned to Impact at #9, and along with Myers, eliminated Daivari. Myers betrayed Swoggle and eliminated him next. Tommy Dreamer came out with Road Warrior Animal face paint, haircut, weapons, and went straight for Myers, with whom he has been feuding with. Swoggle was eliminated, but still helped Dreamer with a mini Doomsday Device.
Alisha Edwads came in next at #11. Before she could do anything, Myers eliminated Dreamer and Edwards. Kiera Hogan entered at #12. While she wrestled Havok, Myers pretended to take a picture with Tenille and eliminated her instead. Lucky 13 was Taya Valkyrie, along with Rosemary and Bravo with her. Taya came in strong, chopped around D and Romero, hit the running hip knee attacks.
Fallah Bahh was next on #14. Havok eliminated Hogan, and Taya eliminated Havok, only to get eliminated by XXXL. During the elimination of Hogan, she was tossed on top of Tasha Steelz, who was out there as second, but Steelz’s head went straight to a garbage can that Dreamer had brought out. No clue if she legit hurt herself.
#15 was the big surprise of the returning James Storm. He took on both XXXL, eliminated D first. Adam Thornstowe was #16. Luster The Legend was #17. Heath came in at 18, eliminated Acey Romero and Brian Myers.
Sami Callihan entered at #19, and finally, as per last week’s stipulation, entered Hernandez at #20. Hernandez and Reno Scum have been a team for some weeks and went straight for Bahh, who stole Hernandez’s money. The spot here was that the money roll fell to the floor and Bahh would rather eliminate himself for the money than win the match. Likewise, Hernandez left the match in pursuit of Bahh.
Thornstowe and Luster were eliminated next, leaving Callihan, Heath, Rhino, and James Storm as the final four. Heath seems to be hurt. Callihan eliminated Storm and Heath. It’s down to Rhino vs Callihan in a one-on-one match.
Callihan hit a cactus special, but Rhino kicked out. Callihan went for a chair, but was taken away by the referee, and with the distraction, Rhino gored him and won the trophy. Ok match, nothing special other than the return of James Storm.
– Gia Miller interviewed The North about their upcoming match. Josh Alexander said that the odds are against them, but they work best under pressure and tonight they’re taking theit title back. Ethan Page said that they won’t only win the titles back, but will also hurt someone. Both fantastic promos, but Page is just on another level.
– We got a video package recapping the ECIII and Moose feud.
Moose vs. EC3 Cinematic Match
This was a cinematic fight and not an official match with a referee. Moose arrived at an underground ring where EC3 was beating up some geek while his disciples watched on the outside. Moose and EC3 got face to face before coming to blows.
EC3 dominated for a couple of minutes until Moose dropped him with a low blow, busting him open with the exposed turnbuckle. Moose beat him up until he seemed to lose his mind which somewhat helped him make a comeback. They brawled outside the ring with EC3 getting the better of Moose.
EC3 started cutting a promo about how the TNA title is for those who earn it like all the champions in the past, and so he pushed Moose to become one. As EC3 was about to hit his finishers, he had some flashbacks to his past that blocked him, allowing Moose to hit the lights out. Moose beat him up some more before EC3’s minions started chanting for him. Right as EC3 told him to ‘control his narrative’, Moose finished him off with a title belt shot.
This wasn’t particularly good and it was long, but if it all ends with Moose finally becoming the world champion, i’m all in.
Aside from the dark atmosphere, it seemed the whole purpose of doing this match as a cinematic match was to make it really bloody and let Moose, who was wearing all white, walk out all full of blood.
– We got a recap of the Impact Hall of Fame induction of Ken Shamrock. They showed The Rock’s promo and some footage of the Shamrock ceremony.
Ken Shamrock (w/ Sami Callihan) defeated Eddie Edwards
They worked this as an MMA match. Shamrock early on caught Eddie with a knee out of nowhere, got his back and started beating him up, got a rear naked choke. Edwards reversed, got in Shamrock’s guard for a bit. All setting up the theme of the match.
Shamrock worked over Edwards for several minutes, switching between punching and kneeing the head, or kicking out Edwards’ injured leg. Edwards in return, would try to use his strong style strikes to make a comeback, but Shamrock would easily cut him off again.
Eventually, Edwards landed a desperation blue thunder bomb and started going after Shamrock’s legs. Edwards landed a dive and missile dropkick to finally turn things around, right before he started chasing the tiger bomb, but once he hit it, Shamrock reversed the pin for a triangle hold. Likewise, Shamrock reversed the backpack stunner pin with a rear naked.
Edwards hit the Boston knee party and locked in a single leg crab for the submission tease, but before he could, Callihan turned off the lights. When they were back, Callihan and Edwards both had weapons, allowing Edwards to take out Callihan, but the discretion was enough for Shamrock to lock in the ankle lock from behind and submit Edwards.
This was good for what it was. Shamrock gave us a good match, some of his strikes looked quite fake, but some looked way stiff.
The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) defeated Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin), Ace Austin & Madman Fulton, and The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) to become the new Impact Tag Team Champions
Match started with The North taking out Sabin and Shelley, the latter with a piledriver on the ramp. Teasing that he had a stinger and Sabin had to compete by himself or relinquish the titles. Sabin chose to fight.
Story of the match early on was that Sabin was legal and wouldn’t tag out or was kept away from the Good Brother’s corner while The North, Ace, and Fulton took turns to work over him.
Sabin stayed as babyface in peril for a good part of the match, both heel teams got a lengthy run working over him. It wasn’t until Sabin got a desperation DDT on Fulton that he was able to drag himself to the Good Brother’s corner to tag out.
Karl Anderson got the hot tag and ran wild over Austin. Gallows came in and for the assisted neckbreaker for a near fall, followed by the biggest hoss fight with Gallows taking out Fulton after a striking battle.
Gallows took out The North, but Sabin got the blind tag to run wild over them and Anderson who also got a blind tag a minute later. Sabin and Anderson had a good exchange of strikes until Austin got the blind tag. Sabin started taking everyone out around the ring, hit the cradle shock for a two count when Page broke it off.
Page and Alexander came in, but couldn’t put down Sabin with their finisher, but once again, Sabin had to rely on tagging Anderson and Gallows.
Finish saw Anderson rolled up Josh Alexander, but Alexander kicked out, sending Anderson right into Page who had the title belt at hand, hit Anderson with the belt, and left him open for Alexander to pin him for the win and regain the titles. Great match, no idea why Shelley was gone for the whole match, but the angle gives him and Sabin an argument for a return match.
– Backstage, Rosemary and Havok left to revive Father James Mitchell, but once left alone, John E. Bravo flipped out at Taya. Hints of a Taya betrayal later on.
– We got a great video package for Kylie Rae vs Deonna Purrazzo. Great promos by both.
Su Yung defeated Deonna Purrazzo (with Kimber Lee) to become the new Knockouts Champion
Deonna made her entrance first, but when Kylie Rae’s music came up, she didn’t walk out. Purrazzo cut a promo that Kylie Rae had no-showed and instead, called out anyone who wanted to wrestle. Out came Su Yung. This is a weird development that is going to annoy a lot of people.
Purrazzo pretended to be scared of Su Yung and commentary sold it as her not having prepared for a match with her, but rather for a technical match with Rae.
Su Yung dominated early on, at one point dropping Purrazzo with a backbreaker on the apron. Purrazzo would try taking down Yung with roll ups, but couldn’t keep her down. Yung in return, kept her offense with palm strikes from every corner.
Eventually, Purrazzo managed to block an arachrana and turn things around for her. As usual, she worked over Yung’s arm with quick snaps and submissions on it. In a tribute to SANADA, Purrazzo locked Yung with a nudo on the ropes for the dropkick. She followed with it a trifecta of German supleys, but before she could finish Yung, she got dropped with a DDT for the ten count tease.
Su Yung had a second wind over Purrazzo with palm strikes and a rolling senton from the apron to the floor, followed by a pedigree, but not even that was enough to keep Purrazzo down. Yung brought out her glove.
Amongst the chaos of Yung trying to lock in the mandible claw, the ref took a bump and thus he couldn’t count for Yung’s visible pin. Kimber Lee took out Yung with a chair and helped Purrazzo Pillmanize Yung, who managed to dodge.
Yung got the claw on Purrazzo, poison mist on Lee, but Purrazzo escaped. Su Yung hit a stunner and the Panic Switch and won the match, regaining the title. I can understand where they want to go with this, but ending Purrazzo’s reign and changing a match on the spot is not the right way to do it. Ok match overall, it got really good at the end.
– Matthews, Rayne, and Callis announced that Impact is bringing back the Knockout’s Tag Team Titles, first champions crowned at Hard To Kill 2021, on January 16, live on pay-per-view.
– We got the video package for Young vs Swann, good promos by both.
Rich Swann defeated Eric Young to become the new Impact World Champion
Early on, Young kept trying to go after Swann’s bad leg, but the challenger kept either dodging or reversing, until he got enough momentum to send Young off the ring. They brawled a bit outside the ring after Swann hit a dive, but it was here that Young tossed Swann into the apron, landing head first, teasing that Swann had injured his neck.
Young started going after the neck, he hit a top rope neckbreaker, clubbed at the neck, kicked him behind the head, but Swann kept fighting back. Fantastic selling by Swann after every kickout, and great comments by Callis on how a neck injury spreads through the nerves.
Slowly, but surely, Young started to get cocky, and thus started distracting himself shouting at the camera and at Swann, who in return, started to get angrier and power up, until he exploded into a flurry of strikes and huge top rope takedown.
Swann hit a big diamongiri, jumping leg-scissors, and a frog splash combo for a near fall. Young hit a falling elbow on the neck, and right into a crossface, but Swann made the ropes.
Swann and Young exchanged strikes in the middle of the ring until EY got another neckbreaker on Swann. Young then took down Swann going for the injured ankle again. Swann escaped a piledriver attempt to take down Young with a kick combo and a standing phoenix splash for a two count. Young had Swann on the tree of woe, but Swann got ahold of Young’s neck for leverage and swung around for a cutter.
Finish Swann hit a lethal injection and a phoenix splash for the win. Fantastic match, great storytelling.
The babyface roster came out to celebrate with Swann as the show went off the air.
Impact Wrestling has signed another one of its champions to a new contract.
In an interview with PWInsider, X-Division Champion Rohit Raju revealed that he’s signed a new contract with Impact Wrestling. The contract is a multi-year deal.
Raju told PWInsider about re-signing with Impact:
Well obviously my contract was coming up, and the main thing for me is that I just finally started to break ground at Impact. I know I was really the low man on the totem pole for years, nothing seemed like it was going to be happening for me and finally the ball came into my court and I decided to run with it, and I think it’s been pretty good so far. I’m a different type of X-Division Champion — not all people are a fan of it, and that’s fine, you know I don’t really care either way, however I like to do something different, I like to be different, I like to have a different approach. I feel like I’m very entertaining as X-Division Champion and I can get under people’s skin, which is fantastic in my book. So I’m finally starting to build my brand and I want to continue to build my brand in a place where I have been very comfortable wrestling, plus I like a lot of people there, and dislike a lot of people there like the people coming after my X-Division title, but I think it was a good move for me, a smart move. Now it’s time to build a brand, make a name for myself in the world of professional wrestling and now it’s finally time to have eyes on me and people realize, ‘Hey, this guy can do stuff in the ring, but he can also work on the mic and he’s the complete package.’ So it’s my time to shine and I feel like Impact is the place to be for me right now.
Raju became X-Division Champion by defeating Chris Bey and TJP in a triple threat match this August. The X-Division title will be on the line at tonight’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view as Raju defends against Bey, TJP, Jordynne Grace, Trey Miguel, and Willie Mack in a six-way scramble match.
It was also announced earlier this week that Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo has signed a long-term contract with Impact Wrestling.
Tag team action is set for Saturday’s Bound for Glory pre-show.
Impact Wrestling has announced that The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) vs. The Deaners (Cody Deaner & Cousin Jake) will take place on Countdown to Glory this Saturday. Countdown to Glory is airing live on AXS TV and Impact Wrestling’s digital platforms starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
Countdown to Glory will also feature Ken Shamrock’s Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
AXS TV hyped Countdown to Glory when it was first announced: “Leading into the Bound For Glory pay-per-view broadcast on Saturday, Oct. 24, AXS TV presents the first-ever, hour-long pre-show Live Countdown to Glory at 7 p.m. ET. The excitement builds as expert panelists weigh-in on all the Bound For Glory championship matches, IMPACT stars walk the red carpet, and IMPACT kicks off the live action with the first match of the night, plus more surprises to be announced.”
The Bound for Glory main card will begin on PPV at 8 p.m. Eastern this Saturday. Here’s the updated lineup for the show:
Impact World Champion Eric Young defends against Rich Swann
Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defends against Kylie Rae
Impact Tag Team Champions The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) defend against The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows), The North (Josh Alexander & Ethan Page), and Ace Austin & Madman Fulton in a four-way match
X-Division Champion Rohit Raju defends against Jordynne Grace, Chris Bey, Trey Miguel, Willie Mack, and TJP in a six-way scramble match
EC3 vs. Moose in an undisclosed location
Eddie Edwards vs. Ken Shamrock
Call Your Shot gauntlet match
The Rascalz vs. The Deaners (Countdown to Glory)
Ken Shamrock Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame induction ceremony (Countdown to Glory)
Ahead of her title defense at this Saturday’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view, Impact Wrestling has revealed that Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo has signed a contract with them.
It was announced on today’s pre-Bound for Glory edition of Press Pass that Purrazzo has signed a long-term deal with Impact Wrestling. Josh Mathews said that Purrazzo will be with Impact for the long haul.
Purrazzo tweeted about signing with Impact: “I’ve been waiting to be able to talk about this publicly!!! I’m happy to confirm and so excited about what the future holds @IMPACTWRESTLING”
Purrazzo was released by WWE during their roster cuts this April. Purrazzo wrote at the time that she had been struggling with wanting to be released by WWE for the better part of the last year.
Impact Wrestling started hyping Purrazzo’s arrival in May. She debuted by confronting Jordynne Grace and putting her in a Fujiwara armbar. Purrazzo then defeated Grace at July’s Slammiversary PPV to win the Knockouts Championship.
Purrazzo is defending the Knockouts Championship against Kylie Rae at Bound for Glory this Saturday.
Impact Wrestling has revealed when Ken Shamrock’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be taking place.
It was announced today that Shamrock will be inducted into the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame on Countdown to Glory this Saturday. Countdown to Glory is the pre-show for Impact’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view. The pre-show will air live on AXS TV and Impact’s digital channels at 7 p.m. Eastern time, with Bound for Glory then beginning on PPV at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Shamrock being inducted into the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame over Bound for Glory weekend was first announced this March. Last month, Shamrock reached out to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on Twitter and asked him to film an introduction greeting for Shamrock’s Hall of Fame ceremony. Johnson responded by congratulating Shamrock and agreeing to film the video.
Shamrock won the NWA World Championship on the first-ever TNA show in 2002. He returned to Impact last year and will be facing Eddie Edwards at Bound for Glory this Saturday.
AXS TV wrote about Countdown to Glory when the pre-show was first announced: “Leading into the Bound For Glory pay-per-view broadcast on Saturday, Oct. 24, AXS TV presents the first-ever, hour-long pre-show Live Countdown to Glory at 7 p.m. ET. The excitement builds as expert panelists weigh-in on all the Bound For Glory championship matches, IMPACT stars walk the red carpet, and IMPACT kicks off the live action with the first match of the night, plus more surprises to be announced.”
This was the go-home show for Saturday’s Bound For Glory.
The opening video recapped Rich Swann’s return to attack Eric Young as Young was about to break Scott D’Amore’s ankle, as well as the EC3 and Moose brawl that closed the show where Moose finally recovered the TNA World Championship.
Hernandez defeated Alisha Edwards, Rhino, Heath, & Cousin Jake to win the final spot of the Call Your Shot Gauntlet
Last week, these five wrestlers won their chance to face each other in a one fall, five-way match for the coveted #20 spot in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet at Bound For Glory. Whoever is pinned or submitted in this match must enter at no. 1.
The story of the match was that none of the men wanted to wrestle Edwards, yet she kept putting herself in between spots, interrupting, and pushing the men to fight her. Eventually, Hernandez didn’t mind taking her out and was about to hit the Border Toss on her, but was saved by Cousin Jake.
Hernandez took out Jake and was confronted by Edwards, but out of nowhere, Rhino went for the gore on Hernandez, who dodged and instead gored Edwards. Hernandez used the distraction to roll up Rhino and win the no. 20 spot, while Rhino must enter at no. 1.
This was a nothing match, lasting less than five minutes and the wrestling was basic. However, it did fulfill its purpose of setting up the first and last spot for the gauntlet match.
**********
– We got a recap video of the ongoing story between Moose and EC3, dating back to Moose proclaiming himself the TNA World Champion and EC3’s return at Slammiversary. Jimmy Jacobs held a sitdown interview with Moose. Jacobs asked if he was happy for reclaiming the TNA title. Moose wasn’t and was worried because he knew that ECI3 wouldn’t just stop there and would have to deal with him once more. Moose stormed off and EC3’s minions kidnapped Jacobs, took him to a truck, and drove off.
– John E. Bravo was preparing the wedding rehearsal, but instead, he berated everyone because nothing was ready, even lashing out at Taya Valkyrie. This was mostly bad comedy, but this is approaching its end next week.
– Deonna Purrazzo cut a great promo about what the Impact Knockouts division and championship meant to her and that at Bound For Glory, she would show that she was the greatest champion of them all. She compared herself with Kylie Rae, saying that Rae doesn’t react well to stress as she does.
**********
Rosemary defeated Havok
The stipulation was that if Rosemary could defeat Havok, the latter would help Rosemary bring Father James Mitchell back from the dead so he could officiate Rosemary and Bravo’s wedding.
The match saw Havok dominate Rosemary early on, but Rosemary made a comeback, and after some trouble, she won after two spears. This was a bad match, but it was short and we got to the obvious result quickly. Havok reluctantly now has to help Rosemary bring Mitchell back for the wedding.
**********
– There was a video package of the four-way feud for the Impact Tag Team titles featuring champions The Motor City Machine Guns, former champions The North, The Good Brothers, and the team of Ace Austin and Madman Fulton.
– We got a sneak peak of The Good Brothers Talk n’ Shop Full Keg show, debuting after Impact.
– Kylie Rae cut a promo saying that Purrazzo calls herself the best technical wrestler in the world, but that she had never faced Rae and until she did, we wouldn’t know who was the best. Rae said that breaking Susie’s arm had made this personal, but winning the title was her motivation, not revenge. Even after she wins the title, it won’t be enough to avenge Susie.
– We saw Jacobs get taken to EC3’s lair where he demanded an interview. Jacobs asked what was EC3’s narrative that he so much talked about. EC3 said he had finally found someone he wanted to fight in Moose, but that he would teach him who was the Moose that he needed to become. He said he wanted to burn his past and along with it, the TNA World title legacy. For that, he needed to defeat Moose. EC3 was good, but the whole atmosphere is kinda corny.
Sami Callihan defeated Eddie Edwards
It seems like this feud may never end. A couple of weeks ago, it was revealed that Callihan had been orchestrating Ken Shamrock’s attack on Edwards, and while Callihan claims this is not his war, he is clearly getting inside Shamrock’s head and exploiting his rage issues. Thus, Edwards and Shamrock will wrestle at Bound For Glory.
The match saw Callihan work over Edwards’ eyes frequently in addition to working the head. After a couple of minutes of Callihan being on top, Edwards made a comeback, getting a near fall with a Frankensteiner and Blue Thunder Bomb combo. They traded strikes and headbutts, and soon after, Edwards was headed towards a win with a Tiger Bomb and BKP combo, but out of nowhere, Callihan stopped Edwards and clicked his phone. He turned the lights off, so Shamrock could magically appear. With this distraction, Callihan rolled up Edwards for the win.
The match was decent until the dumb finish. After the match, Shamrock took out Edwards and locked in the ankle lock while Callihan mocked him. Both men ended up standing tall over Edwards.
**********
– There was a video package recapping how Rohit Raju came to win the X-Division championship, how he had been dodging losing the title so far, and how he found himself having to defend the title against Chris Bey, Willie Mack, TJP, Trey Miguel, and Jordynne Grace in a six-way scramble at BFG.
Trey Miguel, TJP, and Willie Mack defeated X-Division Champion Rohit Raju, Chris Bey and Jordynne Grace
The story of the match was that Raju was the weak link of his team, but because he is also the sneakiest, he tried to steal the pin from Bey which caused dissension between them.
We got some great sequences with Bey vs. TJP and Bey vs. Mack early on. Grace came off as a total powerhouse, even hitting a big spinebuster on Mack. It was also teased that Raju is an opportunistic champion that can at any point steal the win from anyone. This eventually provoked Bey to drop Raju with a springboard cutter, leaving him for Miguel to take the pin and win.
**********
– We got a full recap of the simultaneous paths of destruction and recovery that Eric Young and Rich Swann have respectively gone through in the last month, leading to last week’s big reveal of Swann’s full recovery as he faces Young Saturday at BFG.
– Gia Miller sat down with Young for an interview. Young said that he had been warning people not to get in his way, but they kept coming after him and he simply reacted to them. He said that he has taken control of his career and won’t allow those who get in the way to change his path. He knows what must be done to Swann to finally end him. At that point, Swann jumped him and the two brawled out into the streets.
**********
The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) vs The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) ended in a no contest
The two teams that hadn’t crossed paths in this feud finally collided for the first time in the ring after antagonizing each other for months.
The Good Brothers started dominant.y, working over Alexander with double team moves. Page aided Alexander to cut off Anderson from his corner and he became the babyface in peril as The North went for quick tags, double team moves, and a couple of near falls.
Anderson would try for comebacks, but would get cut off again fairly easily. Eventually, he got a desperation spinebuster for the hot tag. Gallows had a short run before they went for the Magic Killer and all hell then broke loose.
All four men brawled in the ring and the referee called it a no contest as he couldn’t regain control of the match. This was good by the book tag team action, but it was short and with no finish which brought it down a notch.
After the match, The North and Good Brothers kept brawling. Austin, Fulton, and the Machine Guns ran down to join the brawl, ending with the Good Brothers and the MCMGs clearing the ring. Anderson then turned on Shelley and dropped him with a Gun Stun. All teams eyed each other as the show went off the air.
Final thoughts:
While this wasn’t a great show inside the ring, it was a good go-home show, touching on all matches booked for Bound For Glory this Saturday.
Wrestling Inc. reported Tuesday that Daga has been released by Impact Wrestling per his request.
The 32-year-old had been with the company since February 2019. He had worked on and off for them while regularly wrestling around the world for MLW and other indie promotions.
The report said Daga (Miguel Angel Olivo) had asked for his release “some time ago” but that Impact held off as they wanted him to re-sign. Daga’s fiancee, former Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard, had her contract terminated in June as there was friction between the two sides leading up to her release. It’s unknown if he asked for his release when Blanchard was cut, or when his contract was up.
He has yet to confirm the news on social media, but did tweet Monday, “It’s just a matter of time…”
He is a former AAA Cruiserweight Champion and is also a Lucha Underground alumni where he was a Trios Champion.
With Bound For Glory scheduled for a week from this Saturday, next week’s edition of Impact Wrestling will feature four matches with implications for their biggest pay-per-view of the year — two of which are of the intergender variety.
X-Division Champion Rohit Raju will team with former X-Division Champion Chris Bey and former Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace to face TJP, Trey Miguel and Willie Mack in a six-person tag match. They will all face each other in a scramble match at Bound For Glory with Raju’s title on the line.
In a match to determine the first and final entrant in the Call Your Shot gauntlet match, Hernandez will face Cousin Jake, Rhino, Alisha, and Heath in a five-way. The winner gets the no. 20 spot in the gauntlet while the person who takes the loss has to enter no. 1. The winner of the gauntlet match at Bound For Glory gets a future title opportunity of their choice.
Eddie Edwards will take on Sami Callihan before he faces Callihan’s partner Ken Shamrock at the PPV.
In the other announced match, The North will take on the Good Brothers. Both teams will be involved in a four-way for the Impact Tag Team Titles at Bound for Glory.
Impact Wrestling returns from Nashville, TN for tonight’s episode.
Opening video focused on the attack on Rich Swann at the hands of Eric Young, with the question on whether Swann will be able to get cleared to wrestle for Bound For Glory. In addition, it recapped last week’s Motor City Machine Guns vs. Ace Austin and Madman Fulton main event that led to the interference of The North and The Good Brothers, setting up tonight’s Fulton vs Gallows match. Finally, they showed ECIII burying the TNA Championship belt for good.
Show opened with Moose complaining to Scott D’Amore that he hasn’t done anything to deal with the ECIII situation and that Moose is booked to wrestle at an undisclosed location. Moose is just asking for management to do things right.
ECIII cut a promo on Moose telling him that he is learning and coming closer to controlling his own narrative. Still a lot of ambiguity, but I’m still hopeful it ends with a Moose and ECIII tag team.
All three teams have been feuding in one way or another for months. Taya and Rosemary have defeated the other teams in tag team matches while the other team interfered, and thus now they are all involved in the same contest. One particular detail about this feud is that Rosemary needs Havok’s aid to bring back James Mitchell back to life so he can carry out her wedding with John E. Bravo.
Story of the match was that Steelz and Hogan avoided getting in the ring, allowing Havok and Nevaeh to cut off Taya, who became the babyface in peril. Steelz and Hogan only tagged in when Taya was at her weakest, but as soon as Taya made a comeback on them, things turned around, and now it was the teams of Taya/Rosemary and Havok/Nevaeh trading tags to work over the heels.
Eventually, chaos spilled out, with all women getting involved. Towards the end, Hogan hit a dive on Havok, followed by Taya with a plancha. But either due to timing or just missing their spot, neither properly caught Taya, who just went straight to the floor.
Finish saw Rosemary spear Steelz and hit the double underhook sitout bomb for the win.
This was pretty good given the teams. Hogan and Steelz have been good since they came together but Rosemary is the one that has shown the most improvement in the last month.
At this point, we know the Rosemary and Bravo wedding is in two weeks, but we don’t have a match for any of these teams for BFG; however, with this win, it seems that Rosemary and Taya can move on towards setting up the wedding episode.
– Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne ran down the card for tonight and Bound For Glory, updating with the new matches announced during the week, including Eddie Edwards vs. Ken Shamrock, Moose vs. ECIII, and the Call Your Shot Gauntlet.
– Backstage, John E. Bravo berated his wedding crew for going over budget on the wedding preparations. Fallah Bahh, his best man, arrived and confirmed he had not secured any money. As we know from last week, Bahh did indeed steal money from Hernandez, and Crazzy Steve figured it out, and thus called him out on it. Defensive, Bahh challenged Steve to a match tonight. No reason why Bahh suddenly wants to keep the money.
– Rosemary approached Havok about getting her help to bring back Father James Mitchell. Havok told her that it had taken a lot to kill Mitchell and that she had done it for a reason, to which Rosemary said that jeopardizing her wedding could break the time continuum for some reason. Havok offered Rosemary a match next week, in which if Rosemary wins, Havok helps her bring back Mitchell. A literal life or death stipulation.
Crazzy Steve defeated Fallah Bahh
Bahh came out tightly gripping the money roll like if it was a forbidden treasure. His whole demeanor screamed Gollum and the one ring. Steve came out and tried to get the referee to find it and for Bahh to lose the t-shirt, but failed.
This wasn’t much of a match. Steve kept trying to grab Bahh’s money and Bahh responded by using his strength to toss him away and save himself. Steve tried to choke out Bahh, but was unsuccessful.
In the end, Steve managed to tear off Bahh’s t-shirt, revealing the money roll, and as Bahh went to cover it, Steve rolled him up for the win. Not particularly good, but at least it was short.
With the reveal, we should expect Hernandez to come after Bahh and potentially the whole wedding crew.
– Rhino met with Heath in the locker room. Rhino told Heath that he felt sorry for what happened to him last week, so he had gone around and pulled some strings to get Heath a spot at the Call Your Shot Gauntlet, and if either Rhino or Heath wins, Heath can get a contract with Impact. Rhino told Heath to get ready since they have a match later tonight.
D’Amore entered and told Rhino that he was a good friend, and brought up that Rhino agreed that if neither wins, Heath is gone, and Rhino will give up his own contract.
This stank of a heel turn by Rhino, but that last detail from D’Amore really clears it off and somewhat telegraphs the finish to the CYSG at Bound For Glory.
Kaleb with a K came out to introduce Tenille Dashwood, announcing that she will be entering the Call Your Shot Gauntlet, as will all the participants of the following match.
Hernandez, Cousin Jake, Alisha Edwards, Rhino, and Heath defeated Tommy Dreamer, Brian Myers, Tenille Dashwood, Johnny Swinger, & Cody Deaner
Matthews confirmed that the participant order was picked at random and thus we now have Myers and Dreamer in the same team, who have been feuding for the last couple of weeks.
Stipulation of this match is that the winning team will have a five way match next week, where the winner will earn the #20 spot at the Call Your Shot Gauntlet at BFG.
This was chaotic, a lot of comedy and really quick spots to try and get everyone in for a short time. Most of the in-ring action came from Hernandez beating up Dreamer, but thankfully, Heath and Myers had a good short run at the end that led to Swinger blind tagging himself in, only to get the Wake Up Call from Heath for the win.
– Backstage, Callihan teased Eddie Edwards, distracting him from Ken Shamrock, who attacked him from behind, and once again went after Edwards’ ankle.
– Jimmy Jacobs interviewed Eric Young about his attack on Swann. EY said that his match at Bound For Glory was unconfirmed at this point and asked Jacobs why Impact thought that it was smart to have Swann miraculously recover and put him back in the ring with the man that caused all the damage to begin with.
Kylie Rae defeated Kimber Lee (with Deonna Purrazzo)
After the attack on Susie by Purrazzo and Lee at Victory Road, Kylie Rae is out to get some revenge for her friend. In the same vein, commentary sold it as Purrazzo using this match to get Kimber Lee to weaken or completely take out Rae before their BFG match.
Rae was super fired up for this match; she wasn’t smiling as usual. She controlled the first half of the match, going for submission attempts and strikes on Kimber Lee, but it wasn’t until she went for a rana from the apron that Lee blocked her and with an apron bomb, turned the match around.
Lee worked over Rae’s head for a while, at one point dropping her with a delayed vertical suplex for a near fall. Rae eventually made a comeback, hitting the Kylie Special for a two count. Lee got another good near fall with a sitdown powerbomb, but at the end, Rae locked in the smile to the finish to make Lee submit. Really good match, great action and the correct amount of heat headed towards BFG.
After the match, Kylie Rae didn’t release the STTF, allowing Purrazzo to attack her from behind. They brawled a bit until Rae nailed Purrazzo with a superkick and cleared the ring.
Prior to the next match, Anderson and Gallows cut a promo saying that at first, they came to Impact for the money, but they’ve realized that they like it, and that they’re the best, but to be the best, they have to hold the Tag Team championships. They promised that they would walk out of BFG the new champions.
Doc Gallows (with Karl Anderson) vs. Madman Fulton (with Ace Austin) ended in a double countout
This was a scary hoss fight, it was more of a brawl than anything else. Within a minute Fulton hit snake eyes on Gallows and they spilled out to the floor for a brawl. They punched and kicked each other around and up the ramp and neither cared when they were counted out.
After the commercial break, we got confirmed that Impact management have restarted the match under No DQs rules.
Doc Gallows (with Karl Anderson) defeated Madman Fulton (with Ace Austin) in a No DQ match
We picked up the match as Fulton and Gallows brawled around the ring, Fulton found a led pipe, while Gallows carried a chair. They then proceeded to hit each other with everything they could find, chairs, metal signs, golf clubs, and whatnot.
Fulton was in control for most of the match, destroying Gallows, but it wasn’t until Fulton tried to con-chair-to Gallows against a chair locked between the turnbuckles that Gallows dodged, sent Fulton head first into the chair, hit a double handed chokeslam on a bed of chairs and picked up the win.
This was great for what it was. Weapons matches are not the best in empty arenas, but this was so brutal that I completely forgot the lack of fans. No sight of the Motor City Machine Guns or The North, but it’s been weeks of all eight men being involved in the same ring, so it was a nice chance of pace to allow two men to fight each other.
– Matthews and Rayne ran down next weeks’ card, including the Call Your Shot Gauntlet #20 spot match, Callihan vs Eddie Edwards, Rohit Raju, Chris Bey, & Jordynne Grace vs Willie Mack, Trey Miguel, & TJP, all competitors in the BFG X-Division Scramble match for the title, and finally The North vs The Good Brothers.
– Eric Young came down to the ring to demand answers on the status of his Bound For Glory match. He hijacked the rest of the show until someone confirmed that Swann had given up.
We saw D’Amore finish the call with either Swann or Dr. Foreman then headed to the ring to deal with Young.
Out in the ring, Young demanded that D’Amore confirm the cancellation of the World title match at Bound For Glory. D’Amore said that Young had done additional and substantial damage to Swann’s leg. After a lot of trash talk by Young, D’Amore told EY that the match is still on because as per medical assessment, Rich Swann’s recovery is ahead of schedule and would be cleared for Bound For Glory.
Irate, Eric Young jumped Scott D’Amore and proceeded to break his ankle. Rich Swann then appeared and laid out Young with a cutter. Young retreated as Swann held up the Impact World title.
This was the perfect execution of the cocky heel getting swerved by the clearance of the valiant babyface, but they couldn’t hold off on Swann’s return and thus ended up spoiling any questions on Swann’s status and making us wonder why Swann didn’t confront Young earlier.
– Before the show ended, we saw Moose finally find ECIII, who told Moose that he was a fraud, whose personality was just a combination of all his idols.
ECIII and Moose started brawling on a bridge, but it ended with ECIII knocking down Moose and laughing at what Moose had become, someone who could be easily beaten.
Moose recovered and attacked ECIII with his fists, leaving him all bloodied up. He walked away with the TNA title as ECIII laughed in the background. This was a bit of the payoff we’ve waited weeks for, but being so close to BFG now, I don’t know what else we can expect for the pay-per-view.
Final thoughts —
Overall a good show building up heat for Bound For Glory.
PWInsider first reported Tuesday that Ryan (Joe Meehan) filed a $10 million lawsuit against Impact Wrestling’s parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment in mid-September, alleging breach of contract for firing him due to allegations of both sexual abuse and assault.
Anthem has until Saturday, October 24th to respond to the suit that was filed in Nashville, TN. We have reached out for comment to both Impact and Anthem but haven’t not received a response.
Ryan’s contract ran through August 2021 and Impact released him on June 22nd. Based on language in the contract regarding warning and reprimands, he claims they needed to inform of him of any issue in writing along with a “5 day cure period” as it states in the contract.
According to the contract language, if nothing could be worked out by the wrestler in five days, he and Impact would then have 30 days to resolve any issues. At that point, Impact could have terminated the deal another 30 days after that if there was still unresolvable issues.
The $10 million sought is in addition to legal fees and other “relief” that a court may find in his favor.
This comes after Ryan filed multi-million lawsuits against several accusers that emerged during the #SpeakingOut movement earlier this year. PWInsider noted he has filed six lawsuits.
The second annual Call Your Shot gauntlet match will be part of the lineup for Bound for Glory 2020.
Impact Wrestling announced today that the Call Your Shot gauntlet match is returning for this year’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view. The winner of the gauntlet will receive a future title shot at the Impact championship of their choosing.
The full rules for the gauntlet match are:
Two competitors start the match. After a time interval, another will enter the fray. Eliminations occur by throwing your opponent over the top rope. This process will continue until there are only two competitors remaining. The final two will compete in a singles match to be won by pinfall or submission. Whoever scores the victory will earn a future title opportunity of their choosing. If last year’s Call Your Shot Gauntlet taught us anything, it’s that you never know who may show up for this high-stakes contest!
Impact hasn’t revealed any of the participants for the match yet.
The first Call Your Shot gauntlet match took place at last year’s Bound for Glory and was won by Eddie Edwards. The match featured wrestlers from both the men’s division and women’s division.
Bound for Glory is taking place on Saturday, October 24. Here’s the updated card for the PPV:
Impact World Champion Eric Young defends against Rich Swann
Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defends against Kylie Rae
Impact Tag Team Champions The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) defend against The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows), The North (Josh Alexander & Ethan Page), and Ace Austin & Madman Fulton in a four-way match
X-Division Champion Rohit Raju defends against Jordynne Grace, Trey Miguel, Chris Bey, TJP, and Willie Mack in a six-way scramble
Ken Shamrock vs. Eddie Edwards has been made official for Bound for Glory.
A storyline has been unfolding on Impact in recent weeks where Shamrock has been listening to Sami Callihan, who is looking to exert control over Shamrock. Callihan’s goal is to unlock the same uncontrollable Shamrock from earlier days in Shamrock’s career.
The match was made after Callihan issued a challenge on Twitter, writing: “I love when a plan comes together. Since @TheEddieEdwards lost his rematch to @TheEricYoung , which I knew he would. It looks like he’s free at #BoundForGlory. HERE’S MY CHALLENGE. Eddie Vs. @ShamrockKen at BFG. BOOK IT!”
This past week, Shamrock felt bad about attacking Edwards the previous week. Callihan hyped him up, saying that the attack was ‘trending’ and that eventually he’ll revert to the old Ken Shamrock. Callihan got Shamrock worked up enough that Shamrock ended up attacking a passerby.
Other matches announced for Bound for Glory include:
Eric Young vs. Rich Swann for the Impact World title
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Kylie Rae for the Impact Knockouts title
The Motor City Machine Guns vs. The Good Brothers vs. The North vs. Ace Austin and Madman Fulton in a four way tag team match for the Impact World Tag Team titles
Rohit Raju vs. Chris Bey vs. Jordynne Grace vs. Trey vs. TJP vs. Willie Mack in a six-way scramble match for the X-Division title
