Tag: against all odds

Impact World Champion Josh Alexander will defend the title against Joe Doering in one of five title matches at Friday’s Against All Odds from Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia.

Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace will defend against Tasha Steelz while Knockouts Tag Team Champions Taya Valkyrie & Rosemary defend against Tenille Dashwood & Gisele Shaw.

X-Division Champion “Speedball” Mike Bailey will defend for the first time against former champion Trey Miguel, and Digital Media Champion Rich Swann rematches against Brian Myers in a Dot Combat match on the pre-show.

The Clockwork Orange House of Fun match returns for the first time in years as Moose takes on Sami Callihan with match creator Raven on hand to witness the events.

Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers, America’s Most Wanted & Heath battle five members of Honor No More.

Deonna Purrazzo & Chelsea Green take on Mickie James & Mia Yim while the Motor City Machine Guns face Ace Austin & Chris Bey.

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Pre-show:

– Black Taurus defeated Laredo Kid

– Brian Myers defeated Rich Swann to win the Impact Digital Media title in a Dot Combat match

Swann did a dive onto Myers early on. The rules to this make it a No-DW match, essentially. No count-outs, either. Winners must win inside the ring via pinfall or submission. 

Myers used hit Swann with a ring light, and later tied Swann to the ropes with the ring light cord and a surge protector. Swann broke free after biting his way out. He caught Myers with a loud enzuigiri kick. 

The crowd started chanting for Swann to use a computer monitor. He placed pieces of the computer (the monitor, the stand, the keyboard, etc.) in the corner of the ring, but Myers caught Swann with a DDT. Swann later caught Myers in a fireman’s carry, then spiked him on the computer parts with a Death Valley Bomb in the corner.

The crowd went wild when Swann started hitting Myers with the monitor. Swann placed the monitor in between the ropes in the corner, but Myers caught Swann while he wasn’t paying attention and Irish whipped him head-first into the monitor. The monitor shattered and the frame hung around Swann’s neck as Myers went for the pinfall. He only earned a two-count. 

In the end, Myers blasted Swann with a keyboard before sending him flying with the Roster Cut, a running lariat from the corner, for the win. Brian Myers is your new Digital Media Champion.

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Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) defeated Bullet Club (Chris Bey & Ace Austin)

This was fantastic. 

Austin only recently joined Bullet Club, so tonight saw him and Chris Bey teaming for the first time ever. 

Shelley and Bey had a quick exchange before Sabin and Austin were in the ring together. Sabin caught Austin with a big leg lariat. Austin answered with a legsweep and a modified la magistral pin for two. 

The Atlanta crowd sounded split between MCM and Bullet Club during this.

Shelley caught Austin with a diving double stomp for two. 

When Bey tried skinning the cat, Shelley caught him with a dropkick as he was on his way up.

Later, Austin showed off some fancy footwork on the apron, dodging a few attacks from Shelley by cartwheeling out of the way and hopping over him. Bey would then follow up with a big somersault senton onto the floor. 

Both Bey and Austin did some flashy backrakes to Shelley while he was in the corner. Announcer Tom Hannifan had a great line after this: “El Phantasmo is somewhere right now saying, ‘Cool, man.'”

Shelley was eventually able to suplex his way out of Bullet Club’s clutch, but when he went to tag out to Sabin, Bey took Sabin out, knocking him from the apron to the floor.

Sabin made it into the ring later. The fresh Sabin was able to take both Bey and Austin out with a body. press and double lariat before stacking Bullet Club in the corner and taking Austin and Bey out, one by one. 

Sabin earned a close nearfall after a beautiful rolling fisherman’s suplex. MCM later did a double Flatliner + missile dropkick to lay both Bullet Club members out. I don’t think I’ve seen that one before.

Austin took Sabin out with a headscissors stomp for two. When Shelley tagged back in, he hoisted Bey onto his shoulders and had Sabin knock Bey off of Shelley’s shoulders with another missile dropkick for a Doomsday Device-like effect. Sabin stuck the Cradle Shock on Bey for two. 

The crowd was heated up by this point, though still split in support of both teams. 

MCM would put Bullet Club away with a double-team suplex/power bomb combo for the win. 

Awesome match. Everyone looked really good in this. Did these four already steal the show?

– Backstage, Gia Miller interviewed the Good Brothers, Heath & America’s Most Wanted. Heath was fired up and told Honor No More to kiss his ass. Tonight marks the first time AMW have teamed in 15 years, also. During the promo, Chris Harris said he’s “got a little stuff left in the basement,” implying he’s still ready to wrestle. He said Honor No More was on trial tonight, and he and his cohorts found them guilty. 

Chelsea Green & Deonna Purrazzo defeated Mia Yim & Mickie James

It sounded like Impact created a mash-up version of both Mia Yim and Mickie James’ theme songs. When they appeared at the ring entrance, both were wearing cowgirl hats. They were firing finger pistols in the ring before the match. Yeehaw.

Green and Purrazzo attacked the cowgirls before the bell rang. Despite the match not officially being underway, Yim and James continued going after Green and Purrazzo, with Yim landing on both with a cannonball in the corner. They brawled onto the floor, too, and all before the bell rang.

The crowd actually started chanting “RING-THE-BELL!” before the referee signaled to start the match. Things got underway, officially, from here.

Purazzo and Green double-teamed their way back into the match, keeping Yim in their corner and switching in and out as they laid a beating on her. Purrazzo flipped James off at one point. 

Yim was able to finally tag out to a fresh Mickie James, who took Green out with a Thesz press. The crowd loved her. Purrazzo caught James with a pump kick. Yim reappeared and hit Green with a hurricanrana. Green curb stomped James. 

Purrazzo slowed the pace after a nearfall, wrenching on James’ chin with a facelock. Purrazzo is a good heel. She and Green kept on after James for another few minutes. 

The announce team did a good job putting over how close Purrazzo and Green are as a tag team, describing them as a tight-knit team who didn’t have to verbalize too much between each other. They just “knew.” 

James was able to dodge Purrazzo when “The Virtuosa” went for a spear in the corner. Purrazzo crashed into the ringpost and James tagged out to Yim, now recovered. She blasted Purrazzo with a dropkick, then Green with a modified DDT. James took Purrazzo out with a diving Thesz press from the top. 

When James and Yim went for a double-team attack off the top rope, Green and Purrazzo knocked them off. Green and Purrazzo then did a double-team spinebuster-neckbreaker finish, but it was botched somehow, and James landed right onto Green’s leg, not the mat. That was the finish. On the replay, it looked OK from a different angle. 

So the beginning and the finish were awkward, but overall, this was fine, with pretty fast action throughout.

– Backstage, we cut to Honor No More. It seemed like Eddie Edwards didn’t want PCO to be in tonight’s match with the group, but Vincent convinced Edwards that IMPACT was just trying to get in their head about PCO. So, Edwards changed his mind and PCO will still be in the match. 

Impact X-Division Champion “Speedball” Mike Bailey defeated Trey Miguel to retain

Fast, fast action in this match between the two. 

If you’re a fan of Dune, Miguel has blue Fremen eyes now, like his from Arrakis and has been ingesting way too much of the spice melange. 

Bailey offered a handshake but Miguel wasn’t interested. He knocked Bailey to the floor almost immediately and dove onto him only seconds after the bell.

Miguel took Bailey down back in the ring with a springboard headlock takeover. Bailey responded by catching Miguel with a beautiful dropkick before a triangle moonsault onto Miguel on the floor.

Bailey went for a standing double kneedrop moonsault, but Miguel put his knees up to block it, so they crashed into each other’s shins. I imagine whoever invented kickpads didn’t expect it’d be for a situation like this.

They exchanged standing kicks before trading dragon screw legwhips. Bailey blasted Miguel with a PK before landing a crazy moonsault kneedrop into the small of Miguel’s back. Bailey switched positions for the move so that he was lined up vertically with Miguel’s body. This looked pretty insane.

Miguel went for Meteora but landed on his knees That was the story here, a battle of each wrestler trying to take the other’s legs out. 

Miguel did the Dragon Lee no-hands hurricanrana from the apron to the floor. He leaped over the top rope without assistance and caught Bailey with his legs, then flipped him down onto the floor. It was perfect, and the crowd lost it.

Later, still on the apron, Bailey used another Ultimo Weapon moonsault kneedrop to a vertical Miguel, lying face-up on the apron. Bailey landed right onto Miguel’s guts. 

In the ring, Bailey landed a spiral roundhouse kick in the corner. Miguel landed a running Meteora. Everyone in the crowd was on their feet  at this point.

When Miguel went for the finish on the top rope, Bailey was able to wrap Miguel into a cradle, then walked to the center of the ring and spiked him with the Flamingo Driver for the win. Bailey retains his X-Division Championship in a creative, high-impact (not a pun) match that had the Atlanta crowd jumping up and down in excitement.

Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champions Taya Valkyrie & Rosemary defeated Giselle Shaw & Tenille Dashwood (w/ Madison Rayne) to retain

The crowd loved Valkyrie and Rosemary. Valkyrie did the Taiji Ishimori sliding German suplex, where Valkyrie slides under the bottom rope out onto the floor. Rosemary abused Shaw. The crowd was strong in support of Rosemary. 

Shaw and Valkyrie exchanged hard, loud chops. Shaw caught Valkyrie with a running uppercut for two. Shaw seemed to relish her new heel role with Dashwood and Madison Rayne. Rayne, who was at ringside for the bout, wore a sparkly facemask to protect her broken nose.

A chant for Rosemary broke out midway through this. Rosemary then locked Dashwood in a hanging headscissors over the ropes. 

Dashwood landed a running cross body in the corner to lay out Rosemary. Shaw did a tornillo onto Rosemary but “didn’t get all of it,” as the saying goes in wrestling parlance. She landed on Rosemary’s knees instead of her torso area.

In the end, Valkyrie scored a sudden cradle pin to win the match. Rosemary and Valkyrie retain their tag titles. Madison Rayne appeared in the ring and, despite her broken nose, she went after the tag champions. Her, Dashwood and Shaw then beat on the champions before exiting the ring. 

When the mean girls group was on their way to the back, Masha Slamovich’s music sounded. Slamovich then appeared on the entrance. She handed Dashwood an envelope and walked away. When Dashwood opened the envelope, she found a picture of herself with a big red X on it, meant to imply that Dashwood is Slamovich’s next target.

– Backstage, “Speedball” Mike Bailey in an interview implied that he’d challenge anyone to his X-Division title starting this Thursday on AXS TV.

Impact Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers, America’s Most Wanted & Heath defeated Honor No More (Matt Taven, Kenny King, Mike Bennett, Eddie Edwards & PCO) (w/ Maria Kanellis) 

Anderson of the Good Bros. and Edwards were in first for their teams, but Good Brother Gallows was in next, pretty soon after Anderson. 

The Good Brothers double-teamed Taven next. Heath gave Taven ten punches in the corner. Taven responded later with a rolling neckbreaker before tagging out to Bennett. 

Later on, James Storm was able to spark a comeback against Honor No More. The crowd got loud when Storm was able to tag Chris Harris into the match. The two went through a number of double-team moves, taking each HNM member out one by one. The crowd was excited to chant “You still got it!” at Harris. He looked fine here.

PCO later tripped James Storm, then hip tossed him onto the floor. The crowd did a few “P-C-O!” chants while he was in the ring. They continued to tease PCO leaving HNM when Taven tagged PCO out of the match while PCO had his back turned, tagging himself into the match. 

When PCO was back in the match, he took out most of the opposite team with lariats, or by throwing them out of the ring. When PCO teased a dive onto the floor, Eddie Edwards tagged PCO’s back while he was bouncing off the ropes. The crowd booed that.

Storm connected with a Backstabber on Kenny King. The crowd had gotten very loud and was hungry for more Chris Harris, who decked King with a big lariat off the ropes before putting him down hard with a delayed vertical suplex. Bennett broke up Harris’ pinfall attempt.

Bennett, Anderson, King and Gallows all traded spinebusters, The match unfolded into a series of big power spots among most of the wrestlers. High spots galore.

King yelled at PCO to “get his ass on the ropes” for the PCO-sault, but instead, PCO dove onto everyone else on the floor. Unfortunately, it seems like PCO’s wires short-circuited, because PCO flopped into the ropes and onto the apron before making any contact with wrestlers on the floor.

Back in the ring, America’s Most Wanted hit the Death Sentence on King to pick up the win. It sounds like the fans got almost everything they wanted out of the match: Chris Harris and James Storm getting their greatest hits in before picking up the win. The only thing the fans didn’t get was a lot more PCO, because he sounded like the star by the end of this.

Raven appeared on stage with announcers Matt Rehwoldt and Tom Hannifan to do commentary with them for the Clockwork Orange House of Fun match.

Moose defeated Sami Callihan in a Clockwork Orange House of Fun match

Moose speared Callihan before the match started. He smashed a chair on him on the floor. Callihan later threw a chair at him, but Moose responded with a big pump kick to knock Callihan over.

Raven’s commentary tonight was . . . interesting.

“Barbarisms is some of my favorite things.” Quoth the Raven, nevermore.

Callihan dumped Moose out of the ring through a table onto the floor with a back body drop over the ropes.

We learned that some of Moose’s old NFL Atlanta Falcons teammates were in the front row cheering him on.

“Why do we care about Atlanta Falcons?” Raven asked.

When they pulled a door out and set it in the corner, the crowd began chanting “G-C-W!” Callihan responded and shouted something to the effect of “F— that place!” 

Callihan would later put Moose down with a Death Valley Bomb onto a panel of chain link fence. 

“You know, I don’t even think this match needs commentary!”

Moose bashed Callihan with an empty glass bottle. Callihan later dug into Moose’s head with broken glass. When Callihan went to the top rope for an attack, Moose choke bombed him off the top through a table.

Tom Hannifan: “This is pure carnage, Raven.”

Raven: “Yeah!”

Moose took out a stapler and eventually stapled Callihan in the head.  Callihan shoved him off and sent him through a door. He’d take the stapler and staple Moose down low.

“A staple to the dick!“

Moose found a box with a mystery item inside. Matt Rehwoldt channeled his inner Brad Pitt and did a made “What’s in the box?!” reference. The box was filled with LEGO. Callihan found a box, too, which was filled with broken glass. 

Callihan would drill Moose with two Cactus Drivers, first onto LEGO and then into broken glass. He only earned two-counts for both, but it wasn’t enough to keep Moose down.

Suddenly, someone in all black with a black mask appeared. “What’s the cameraman doin’ in the ring?” Raven asked. The masked figure gave Callihan a low blow and then bashed him with a barbed wire baseball bat before exiting. Moose then pinned Callihan for the win. Maclin was actually posing as a cameraman for the entire match until the end. 

– Heath was backstage and told Gia Miller and said he was going to take Honor No More out one by one. 

Impact Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace defeated Tasha Steelz (w/ Savannah Evans) to retain 

Steelz took Grace out before the bell, taking her leg out from behind. Grace would shake off the chop block throughout the match.

Grace recovered quickly and ragdolled Steelz around the ring. When Grace went to skin the cat back into the ring, she kicked Savannah Evans on the floor before flipping back in. 

Grace used a hard shoulderblock on Steelz and followed up with hard shots. Evans got involved in the match moments later and through the champion off her game plan, which allowed Steelz to take advantage. Steelz went after Grace’s knee from here. 

Grace powered back and threw more hard shots. She put Steelz in a torture rack. She used a few stiff standing lariats on Steelz before missing on the double knees in the corner when Steelz moved out of the way. 

Steelz earned a close two after a slingshot bulldog. When Grace finally landed the Muscle Buster, Savannah Evans jumped onto the apron to distract the ref. When the referee was back, Steelz kicked out and was able to land a big cutter for two,

Steelz went to the top rope, but Grace caught her with a jumping palm strike before sticking an impressive delayed superplex into the center of the ring.

Evans was back on the apron, but this time Grace shoved Steelz into Evans, knocking Evans to the floor. Grace would then drill Steelz with a brutal Grace Driver to put Steelz away for the win. Good match that probably should be run back one more time this year. 

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IMPACT announced they’ll be live in Chicago on August 12 at Cicero Stadium for IMPACT: Emergence.

Impact World Champion Josh Alexander defeated Joe Doering (w/ Cody Deaner) to retain

They made it a point to let us know that Doering is a big deal whether you buy it or not. They put over his time as AJPW Triple Crown champion, and they built up his two-year undefeated streak in IMPACT.

Doering got the better of Doering early on. He threw Alexander to the floor, but Alexander got back into the ring when Doering went after him. 

Doering went for a running cross body block, but Alexander ducked and Doering rolled to the apron. Alexander dashed at a downed Doering and took him out with a low running cross body block of his own. Doering was up immediately and took Alexander down with a lariat on the floor.

Later, back in the ring, Doering laid Alexander out with a single chop. He next bounced himself off the ropes, then fell back onto the champion with a falling elbowdrop.

Deaner was good at instigating on the floor. Hannifan referred to him as a “jackal,” which was accurate. He’d later grab Alexander’s ankle in the corner, behind the ref’s back, which allowed for Doering to drop another elbow on Alexander.

Alexander was able to turn the tides when he came off the second rope and dropped a knee on the back of Doering’s neck. He later launched Doering over his head with a slingshot German suplex, then a Northern Lights suplex for two. 

Alexander was able to take Doering down with a big superplex. He then took Cody Deaner out with another low cross body through the bottom rope. Doering used the opportunity to take Alexander out with a big choke bomb, but it wasn’t enough to keep the champ down. Alexander would then use three rolling German suplexes on the larger Doering, who seemed to not feel them, because he immediately responded with a clubbing wrist-clutch lariat to the back of Alexander’s head.

Doering finally connected with the running cross body block for two before decapitating Alexander with a running lariat. Doering may have waited too long to make the pinfall, though, and Alexander was able to kick out. 

When Doering went for the Revolution Bomb, Alexander was able to slip out of it and lock Doering in a standing ankle lock. Alexander then grapevined the leg on the ground. Doering muscled out by standing up in the hold. He shook Alexander off and blasted him with another big lariat. Some fans began chanting “JOE!” over and over after this. 

Doering used two more lariats on Alexander. Fans chanted “one more time!” He started clubbing Alexander in the corner with Vader-esque forearms. Alexander ducked through, muscled his way out, and then, somehow, hoisted Doering up into a huge C4 Spike for the win. 

This was great. It was likely Doering’s best showing in IMPACT to date, as this was the quality of a match he’d have had in AJPW during Champion Carnival. Alexander also got a chance to play underdog babyface despite usually being as big or bigger than many of his opponents. Doering did a good job of living up to IMPACT’s hype, and it felt at times that Doering might even win the match. 

Final thoughts:

This was a solid show with a good amount of variety throughout the card. Not everything on the show was perfect, but nothing was close to what I’d call bad. The opener and main event may have been the two best matches, but I think a lot of people will saw “Speedball” and Trey Miguel stole the show. 

Against All Odds 2022 did a good job at offering a wide mix of styles, from high octane X-Division action to wild, demented brawling between Moose and Sami Callihan, with a little bit of nostalgia mixed in (Chris Harris; Raven).